Recommended online PC component shops

ormus

aria and ebuyer for me. komplett is very good also.
its very hard to beat ebuyers prices though.

dabs is a waste of time.
scan used to be good.
microdirect blows hot and cold too.

streather

ebuyer and overclockers are about the best websites i've used for pc componants.

PeteHerts

Slighty off topic as your asking about online shops but i've always found computer fairs very reasonable.
I remember my first build. I needed a case, PSU, motherboard, memory, fan and processor and scavenged the rest from my old PC. I bought it all from the same stall because it was a large stall, there were plenty of people buying from it and their prices were reasonable so i felt confident.
The seller knew i was a newbie so he put everything together for me there and then which was a good education to start with and when i got home i used the rest of scavenged bits, put it all together and it run great.
Having a good start gave me the confidence to carry on buying from the fairs ever since and being able to talk to someone face to face means alot as well in my opinion.

TediousPhoenix

Thank you all for your recommendations - very helpful.

PeteHerts wrote: »

Slighty off topic as your asking about online shops but i've always found computer fairs very reasonable.
I remember my first build. I needed a case, PSU, motherboard, memory, fan and processor and scavenged the rest from my old PC. I bought it all from the same stall because it was a large stall, there were plenty of people buying from it and their prices were reasonable so i felt confident.
The seller knew i was a newbie so he put everything together for me there and then which was a good education to start with and when i got home i used the rest of scavenged bits, put it all together and it run great.
Having a good start gave me the confidence to carry on buying from the fairs ever since and being able to talk to someone face to face means alot as well in my opinion.

My boyfriend is in IT as has built a few PCs in his time. Before I met him apparently he used to go to loads of computer fairs. He always saying he should take me to one someday.

I'll see if there are any computer fairs in my area.

I'm looking forward to building my first PC. I don't want my boyfriend to interfere so I'm tempted to send him away for a bit! But I suppose it would be handy to have him on hand - he was there showing me how to rebuild me PC for the first time a year or so ago... and now I seem to be taking it apart all the time.

A good start is important and I'm glad you got that. Hopefully nothing will go wrong and this will be the first of several builds for me.

skr00ge

Quiet PC Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone.

ormus

in my experience, computer fairs are a waste of time. can hardly ever compete with eg ebuyer on prices, and any warranty given is probably just pie in the sky.

CHR15

I agree with Ormus about the Prices at Computer fairs, there aren't many good deals to be had these days.

It is good to have a poke about though and actually SEE the components, cases etc before buying though.

ormus

ps.
i take great exception to being made to pay an entrance fee to a market!
i stopped going to bowlers in manchesters trafford park, many yrs ago. waste of time.

rdpro

If you know what you want in advance, use a shop comparison site like Kelkoo - they list most of the online component shops so you can find who's currently offering the best deal. Some little-known sites can offer big discounts that you wouldn't find otherwise.

Oh, and forget fairs - the money they charge to get in usually outweighs any savings!

superscaper

rdpro wrote: »

If you know what you want in advance, use a shop comparison site like Kelkoo - they list most of the online component shops so you can find who's currently offering the best deal. Some little-known sites can offer big discounts that you wouldn't find otherwise.

Actually I've found kelkoo to be pretty useless with pc components and not searching enough stores. I've found searching with froogle much better. Just tried now looking for a specific motherboard, kelkoo gave one useful result from ebay (£50). Froogle have given about twenty useful results (cheapest £38) including many of the sites mentioned on this thread.