pc shops dying out?

Skatedude

I live in dublin and tried to find somewhere that sold socket 2011 motherboards for an upgrade. tried peats and they never even heard of socket 2011.

Pc world/dixons no longer sell pc parts, Not a single motherboard or cpu in the shop, just laptops and home entertainment.

maplins had a single amd motherboard that was 4 years old

tried the few shops around dublin city and not one even had a clue what socket 2011 was.

is there any where that still sells pc parts?

uncle_sam_ie

They can't compete with online shops so, they don't bother with hardware any more.

BostonB

Are they not like really expensive for parts? Why would you not just get it off the net.

Vicxas

PC shops find it very hard to compete with online, the majority of repair shops sell parts but they're really expensive.

If you're looking to upgrade go here;

www.komplett.ie
www.hardwareverdand.de
www.scan.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk

deceit

In fairness in this country there where never many pc shops.
When i'm in germany i'm amazed that little small corner shops do sell high end motherboards, cpu's etc for within 10 euro of online stores such as hardwareversand.
When i7 920's where first out I got them in one of these stores for cheaper than anywhere online and some ram also.
Whenever i'm over there I always come back minus a few hundred euro .
I always prefer to go into a store and pick something up there and then.

glynf

deceit wrote: »

In fairness in this country there where never many pc shops.
When i'm in germany i'm amazed that little small corner shops do sell high end motherboards, cpu's etc for within 10 euro of online stores such as hardwareversand.
When i7 920's where first out I got them in one of these stores for cheaper than anywhere online and some ram also.
Whenever i'm over there I always come back minus a few hundred euro .
I always prefer to go into a store and pick something up there and then.

That reminds me of a shop in Berlin, cross between a best buy & PC world place.. They had every thing from the latest GPU's to full photovoltaic solar systems. Amazing shop, would be in there every day if I lived near it:D

Monotype

PC shops have never been good here.

Peats and maplin have only ever had a few spares and PC world had some out of date, overpriced items in their biggest shops - if they have none at all now, it's not a huge loss.

It's not competition with online prices that is the main worry, it's the sheer speed in depreciation of parts. If they stocked their shelves, they'd be worthless in no time. Even the online sellers know this and they won't keep any slow selling items - they buy when they need to, to offer the latest market price.

You need a big population and following to make it worthwhile.

deceit

glynf wrote: »

That reminds me of a shop in Berlin, cross between a best buy & PC world place.. They had every thing from the latest GPU's to full photovoltaic solar systems. Amazing shop, would be in there every day if I lived near it:D

Where you talking about mediaMarkt? That store is all over germany and is really good. Another would be saturn. I prefer germanys little small specialist stores though.

glynf

deceit wrote: »

Where you talking about mediaMarkt? That store is all over germany and is really good. Another would be saturn. I prefer germanys little small specialist stores though.

Don't think it was Media Markt or Saturn, the shop colours were a light blue & yellow & it was not far from the Kurfürstendamm if I remember.

deceit

glynf wrote: »

Don't think it was Media Markt or Saturn, the shop colours were a light blue & yellow & it was not far from the Kurfürstendamm if I remember.

Media markt is the only shop that I can think of near the Kurfürstendamm just accross the road and up a bit to the right if I remember correct (been a while since been to berlin, mostly go to hamburg). I know a store with blue and yellow. They also have a catalogue you can order from a bit like maplin. I cant think of the name of them though.

glynf

Defo blue & yellow shop, but can't be sure how far from the kurfurstendamm it was-great shop though. Sometimes it's just nicer to paw the shiny, shiny things of the internets in person:)

ShadowHearth

+1 on those German shops.

My misses went to Austria ( not Germany I know ) to her sister. I asked her too check gpu for me. It was last summer.

So she got me in a shop 6870 for 179eu. I asked in maplins and the offered me one for 580eu...
Brick and mortar shops in Ireland are horrible, they charged me 10eu for a sata cable, like wtf?!
On the other hand Germany would be more advanced I guess. When I was on holidays in Vienna, i was in one of those huge electronic shops. Those are freaking amazing!

BostonB

Population of 80 million vs 4 million. Not really surprising is it.

uncle_sam_ie

ShadowHearth wrote: »

+1 on those German shops.

My misses went to Austria ( not Germany I know ) to her sister. I asked her too check gpu for me. It was last summer.

So she got me in a shop 6870 for 179eu. I asked in maplins and the offered me one for 580eu...
Brick and mortar shops in Ireland are horrible, they charged me 10eu for a sata cable, like wtf?!
On the other hand Germany would be more advanced I guess. When I was on holidays in Vienna, i was in one of those huge electronic shops. Those are freaking amazing!

The mark up is crazy. I was in the soundstore in cork years ago looking for a long HDMI cable. They had a 4 meter one there for 118 euro's. I ask, why so much. " because it's oxygen free with gold connectors for a cleaner signal" Lol, it's digital the signal will either get there or it wont. I ended up finding a 6 meter one on e-bay for less then 20 euro. It's still working grand 7 years on.

Nothingbetter2d

Skatedude wrote: »

I live in dublin and tried to find somewhere that sold socket 2011 motherboards for an upgrade. tried peats and they never even heard of socket 2011.

Pc world/dixons no longer sell pc parts, Not a single motherboard or cpu in the shop, just laptops and home entertainment.

maplins had a single amd motherboard that was 4 years old

tried the few shops around dublin city and not one even had a clue what socket 2011 was.

is there any where that still sells pc parts?

you can order from www.elara.ie or komplett.ie and collect it

Elara is based in Parkwest ind est
Komplett is over in ballycoolin ind est near blanch

Serephucus

Try Singapore. (a particular shopping centre there)

Five levels, six hundred (ish) shops, all electronics and hardware.

I spent eight hours there. :P

glynf

Serephucus wrote: »

Try Singapore. (a particular shopping centre there)

Five levels, six hundred (ish) shops, all electronics and hardware.

I spent eight hours there. :P

Sounds like heaven, I'd prob. be walking around with a lazy one

I was in one similar in Bankok called Pantip Plaza years back, picked up a top of the range HP laptop for nearly half what they were here, no where as near as big as the Singapore one.. years ago I worked in Hong Kong for 6 weeks or so, now that place was the dogs cogs for anything techy.

deejer

Serephucus wrote: »

Try Singapore. (a particular shopping centre there)

Five levels, six hundred (ish) shops, all electronics and hardware.

I spent eight hours there. :P

That city is just one big shopping centre. Spent a full day walking from one to the next (stopping in O'Briens for a sandwich ) I missed that one though :mad:

the_syco

ITDirect used to be decent many MANY years ago, and another one near the south-east corner of the St Stephens Green shopping centre was sometimes half decent (I think it had "2000" in it's name?), but I think ITDirect has seen that having long term business contracts were better than having once off shop sales. Pity though, as I have bought stuff there in the past (before internet shops became "trustable").

Saganist

the_syco wrote: »

ITDirect used to be decent many MANY years ago, and another one near the south-east corner of the St Stephens Green shopping centre was sometimes half decent (I think it had "2000" in it's name?), but I think ITDirect has seen that having long term business contracts were better than having once off shop sales. Pity though, as I have bought stuff there in the past (before internet shops became "trustable").

Beyond 2000. I've used that store a few times...

deceit

the_syco wrote: »

ITDirect used to be decent many MANY years ago, and another one near the south-east corner of the St Stephens Green shopping centre was sometimes half decent (I think it had "2000" in it's name?), but I think ITDirect has seen that having long term business contracts were better than having once off shop sales. Pity though, as I have bought stuff there in the past (before internet shops became "trustable").

IT direct is only handy if you dont have a means to pay for something online. They just order from a distributor like most online stores so you will always have to wait a few days on items to come in.
I've used them once or twice where i'm not paid until friday and order the part on the wednesday, then pay when it arrives in store.
Is beyond 2000 still open? If so what are they like now?

Markd250

That shopping centre in Singapore is incredible, I bought a DSLR there (not often you make an impulse buy like that!)

Fluffy88

Is it time to organise a boards.ie trip to Singapore ?? :P

Serephucus

Hell yes!

I can't remember what its launch price was, but when I was there, I got my GTX 280 for €410.

Edit: Looks like it was around the €500 mark. Right, time to start saving lads. We'll send one person out there with one mother of a shopping list.

deejer

Serephucus wrote: »

Hell yes!

I can't remember what its launch price was, but when I was there, I got my GTX 280 for €410.

Edit: Looks like it was around the €500 mark. Right, time to start saving lads. We'll send one person out there with one mother of a shopping list.

Ok ok ok I'll go

Id actually love to go to CES in Las Vegas. Or actually there is a big one in Taiwan that also would be worth a look.

Serephucus

There's a few - CES, E3, CeBIT, PAX, etc.

I've only ever been to CeBIT myself, but it was great. Two whole days there, and I didn't get to see everything. Got to try the GTX 480 and the Rocket Sled demo before anyone else though! :P

Nirnias

Never buy hardware from as shop in ireland, especially places like Peats, PC World and harvey Normans... They rip you off so much its not even funny..

The other day i went to buy some thermal paste and cleaner for new build and i noticed an old DDR2 mobo they were selling for 750 euro... was appearently reduced down from 1200... I found it hard not to laugh at the audacity and get annoyed and the cheek of them

Serephucus

Nirnias wrote: »

i noticed an old DDR2 mobo they were selling for 750 euro... was appearently reduced down from 1200

Pics or GTFO. :P

Nirnias

Im not gunna walk into the shop and take a pic of it. Its in Peats Electronics on Parnell street right next to Pennies.

Walk in take a right and there is a glass cabinet.Second or third one in. Centerfold big mobo with a price tag of 750 euro reduced down from 1200 or around that... I work next door to it. If i can get away with it ill take a pic tommorrow haha

deceit

Nirnias wrote: »

Im not gunna walk into the shop and take a pic of it. Its in Peats Electronics on Parnell street right next to Pennies.

Walk in take a right and there is a glass cabinet.Second or third one in. Centerfold big mobo with a price tag of 750 euro reduced down from 1200 or around that... I work next door to it. If i can get away with it ill take a pic tommorrow haha

I seen that in there about a month or two ago when I was in myself. If I remember correctly it was an old dual opteron motherboard?

Nirnias

I think so, i dont remember the details to be honest