Who do you buy your computer components from?

Work - Mainly Misco. If they don't stock a particular item, we do shop around. We have bought things from various places, but they're our main supplier.

Personal - Novatech. I've used Novatech for going on 3 years, can't fault them. I've built and upgraded my home PC with components from Novatech, on some items their prices are fantastic, on some items they're a little overpriced but I can't fault their customer service or speed of delivery. I recently fitted an aftermarket cooler to my graphics card. The graphics card worked then died. I can't personally find a fault caused on my behalf, but something has gone wrong somewhere. Normally people won't touch components after the end user has modified them, but they are allowing me to send it back to them, who will send it back to ASUS on my behalf. Should avoid a lot of calls/e-mails to ASUS tech support while they test where and why the card failed. Two thumbs up.

eBuyer all the way, cannot fault them and their prices seem to beat anywhere else.

At work I tend to use CPLTD, Westwood, Misco(not so much anymore), ebuyer and on occasion Printworks Direct... also have Proband and Bechtle circling for orders

For personal stuff(not that I'm allowed to spend as much as I used to due to the ball n chain) I always used OCuk, Dabs but would probably give the above a go now also

I've no particular allegiance, but the last 2 times I've bought batches of components for home I've found Scan to be the cheapest.

Original manufacturer (eg Stone) or Probrand are the usual ports of call (as well as Misco etc). Also any suppliers that have made my short list that look as though they may be of use.

CCL and Insight for most stuff, Misco occasionally as well as BT Business. I have managed to twist some arms in the Finance dept. sometimes to get them to buy from ebay but its a real trauma even when we might be saving 50% on price. Maplins I have found to be massively overpriced usually.

Insight and CPLTD, mostly

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Originally Posted by nikaso

I have managed to twist some arms in the Finance dept. sometimes to get them to buy from ebay but its a real trauma even when we might be saving 50% on price.

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That's the thing with ebay - sometimes you can pick up cracking bargains and still have a perfect guarantee. Just got a BT phone from the bt outlet on ebay (A-grade refurb, although likely an unused customer return); full 12 month warranty and half the price from BT Business direct themselves for a "brand" new one.

Typically though, it's between BT Business (dabs) and Misco. Probrand however are 99% of the time the cheapest anywhere that we can find and if it wasn't for their non-negotiable £10 carriage fee we'd probably get alot more smaller bits from them. However, we also get alot of B-grade/open box stuff which is why we go with BT business and Misco, and we may just get a few other bits too at the same time.

I've found RM to be very competitive on some things though like cables, and stupidly cheap on some cables where even the value/cheapest lines from some can't compete.

CCL :cool:

Upgrade Options for replacement parts, Misco for mice, keyboards etc, also used a firm called TJL Limited for replacement parts, they aim to under cut anyone

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Originally Posted by nephilim

Personal Orders tends to be either CPltd or A2Z. Work is the same.

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thanks mate :) dont forget me......

eBuyer for little bits (RAM, spare HDDs, the odd cable etc.) and Insight for anything bigger/less consumery, such as switches, laser printers and so on. eBuyer I just buy on credit card, had thought about setting up the business account but if it's as much faff as it sounds I'll pass... Insight are just the easiest people in the world to order from, fire off a quick email, get random £1-£2 discount off everything for being a school, items arrive next day. For free. Brilliant. Also firing off all sorts of random requests to CPLTD who go out of their way to meet my awkward demands, which saves me the effort!

Last computers for the school were bought from Novatech though, and they're looking pretty damned good indeed, almost looking forward to teachers coming back so they can tell me how brilliant it all looks. Almost.

Personal stuff I tend towards eBuyer, but built my last PC from Scan's one-day-only offer page, they get some cracking stuff on there on a Friday :D

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Originally Posted by FN-GM

We dont buy them. All our machines are under warranty so we get them from Dell. Anything out of warranty is tossed out.

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I wish I had the luxury of that sort of machine replacement schedule!

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Originally Posted by nephilim

Personal Orders tends to be either CPltd or A2Z. Work is the same.

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Thanks for the mention there nephilim! we use various sources, some mentioned already...Computer 2000 are ok but sometimes have a problem with stock....we have other arrangements which lets us describe ourselves as "value added re-sellers" (we pass on our rebates to our clients)

Ciao

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Originally Posted by dgsmith

Probrand however are 99% of the time the cheapest anywhere that we can find and if it wasn't for their non-negotiable £10 carriage fee we'd probably get alot more smaller bits from them.

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Really? Our carriage charge is only £5.

The vast majority of stuff is bought from Probrand with a few things coming from Insight and eBay. We have accounts with Misco, BT Business Direct and eBuyer but hardly buy from them anymore - maybe once a year for each.

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Originally Posted by 36Degrees

Really? Our carriage charge is only £5.

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Hmm, unless they have changed it recently. I'm sure I asked for something small a few months back and they said they couldn't budge on the £10 carriage fee. I guess if it's come down to £5 on some orders we could start looking at them again.