Vendor rating is a problematic exercise at best; experience varies from customer to customer, often for no apparent reason. There is one vendor we recommend unreservedly: Small Dog Electronics. They do not stock everything (more Mac than PC), and do not always have the absolute lowest price, but they do have the best customer service we have found in computer sales. We always check them first.

There are two price search sites we find very useful, Deal-Mac and shopper.com. Shopper is more extensive, though Deal-Mac does a better job on Macs. If you use these or similar services you should be aware that low prices are often accompanied by restrictions on returns, restocking fees, high shipping charges, white-box merchandise, or other potentially problematic trade-offs. Ethical and inexpensive do sometimes go together, but caveat emptor.