another 'where to find ### in the uk...' thread

[dsc]

Hi guys,

I was curious if anyone can point me to an online/normal computer parts store that sells parts quite cheaply in the UK. I'm looking for a new hard disk and a new DVD rom as the current one is making strange clicking noises and crashes my PC.

I was googling to find some good stores in the UK, but failed to find anything other than PCWorld or Maplin. Am I weird to think that's a bit strange? In Poland we have loads of good quality online retailers than have their branches all over the country and have competitive prices. In the UK it's mostly big chains or nothing at all (or ebay).

Regards,
dsc.

[crphillips]

CCL Computers.....loads of stock and cheapest in the UK. Won Best Online Retailer several times. My Lenovo ThinkPad just arrived from CCL today!

Also www.ebuyer.com but they're not as cheap.

[Jules]

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

I occasionally use the google.co.uk 'shopping' section to search for good offers (found some Mackie speakers which were waay cheaper than retail; might have been an error but they had to honour the price) Also you may be lucky enough to find what you need for much cheaper on amazon.co.uk.

[dsc]

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for the links!

Do you perhaps know if they take extra care when packing hard drives for delivery? I ask because those are rather delicate and I wouldn't like to get a broken one only because the courier decided to drop the box from 10ft.

Regards,
dsc.

[darrensandford]

http://www.dabs.com as well, although I use them less than ebuyer and overclockers.

I have bought a HD from ebuyer before and it certainly seemed well packed then.

[HughF]

I have been using Scan for a few years and we do at work also. They are nice people, very helpful but not always the cheapest.
Dabs.com are sometimes cheaper and have a wider range. However, Dabs' arguing over returning a duff £1K Ultrium tape drive drove one of our guys crazy so I tend to avoid them for anything which might need to go back.

Cheers,

Hugh

[CakeBoy]

Most of them pack drives reasonably well dsc. We mainly use ebuyer because although there have been one or two poor parts over the years, they have always sorted things out. We got a decent 500 Gig Seagate HDD for a 32GB cache for a friend this week for £42! They currently have some decent 500 GB Buffalo external drives with auto on/off power (works when computer goes on and off) for under £50


Edit: The typo monster strikes again

[EspressoSquirrel]

hard drives arn't delicate, (unless they are powered up) most come in a foam box and i would drop it from 10 feet no problems, all the above i have used, dabs isn't as cheap as it used to be, and ebuyer have terrible customer service but have great prices, i usually get components from overclockers

clicking noises means your hard drive is dead or mostly dead, also if your hard drive has failed completely and you need some data off, i can explain a good method for temporarily revive it one last time, but it does involve freezing the drive.

[shuurajou]

www.novatech.co.uk is a not a well known supplier, but they're happy for you to drop by one of there warehouses if you'd prefer that to shipping, which works really well for me

[crphillips]

When you buy a drive from CCL they usually either come in a cardboard box with foam around or in a box with the air bag type packaging.......both perfectly adequate for shipping around.
I've got to agree with one of the above posts about the fact that ebyer.com never quibble about a return. They're very easy going on returns.

[EspressoSquirrel]

actually i said i have had terrible service from ebuyer, its like dealing with a computer, they wouldn't ship any item i had purchased until they were all in stock, but they wouldn't hold on to any item i had ordered, so each item went out of stock as others came in, there was no way to tell either as the stock indicators are a work of fiction.

but this is their system and you cant get in contact with them in any way but there awful ticket system, and the alleged humans cant do anything about this, in the end i couldn't they wouldn't cancel the order, there is no way to reason with them. When it finally arrived over a month later i had to reject the delivery and accept the £30 postage fee

having said that i will buy from them, but only in cases where i am sure i wont need to return and one item at a time.


It is a pity that all the high street shops are so much more expensive in the UK and a lot of them have worse customer support, I won't shop on Tottenham court road anymore after being ripped off, and scammed, and even sworn at for trying to haggle.

[GreenBean]

Strange how we can have such differing experiences. I have placed over 50 orders with ebuyer and never had a problem. They are my first choice for computer parts.

[dsc]

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for all info and advice.

espressoSquirrel I always thought that HDD's are quite delicate and especially sensitive to shock, but I might be wrong. As for the clicking noises, it's the DVD that's making them, not the hard drive, so I will simply buy a new DVD writer and see if it helps.

The reason I want to buy a new hard disk is mostly to back up data from my g/f's laptop hard disk which needs to be formated. Also it won't hurt to back up the data from my existing HDD.

I think I will go with 2 SATA disks, but a bit smaller (500GB is waaaay to much for me and a bit dangerous anyway to be honest, especially if it fails as you can lose a looot of data) and create a RAID matrix with them.

Regards,
dsc.

[Gouezeri]

Hey Tom.
Situations like these, I always buy a new big main harddrive, copy everything over (oh the joy and simplicity of dd under linux!) to the new one, and swap all the others, so they all roll over till one falls out.... and that one then gets shoved in an external casing (esata is very cool for that). I do kind of need the space though as a basic scan for me is a 1gig file size. You'll soon start filling hdds with your new d90 though!

[dsc]

Hi Dom,

in the end I went with a single SATA drive and a plan to buy a second one in the near future. I got a 640GB WD which should be more than enough to backup data.

Regards,
dsc.