Computer nerds, where do you shop?

Posted by autobulb@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 45 comments

I'll be moving to the UK soon and will be bringing with me as much of my computer hardware as I can. But I will have to sell or get rid of a lot of stuff and buy it again in the UK at some point in the future once settled. What are some good stores or online shops for computer hardware? The last time I was there I found Amazon.co.uk to be fine if you know a specific item you want and are not shopping around. But are there any comparison sites, or sites with very good search and filter options to see what kind of different devices are available on the market? Are physical shops ever any good? I've only been to second hand shops, and once to a Curry's and found most of their stuff to be outdated or overpriced or both. Deal sites are also welcome! I only know hotukdeals.com/ Thanks in advance.

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45 Comments

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T_raltixx@reddit

PCSpecialist co.uk

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_OverlordActual_@reddit

SCAN. I find the prices competitive but they also have a physical location in Bolton which is an hour drive for me.

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blainy-o@reddit

Go onto uk.pcpartpicker.com and you'll get a list of different online stores you can buy from, with prices listed.

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Spadders87@reddit

HUKD is probably the only thing you need really, if its not being put on there, its probably not a good deal. You can set up notifications really well on it and its not very often things get missed or overlooked. The caveat being youll end up spending a load of money on stuff you never knew you wanted. I still buzz off the 1tb sandisk harddrive i got for £10 about 3 years ago via HUKD. Doesnt even matter that its been completely unused.

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cgknight1@reddit

You will struggle for physical shops - few and far between.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Yeah that's fine. I am okay with purely online purchases because I do a lot of research online and make my decisions based on that. Though it is nice sometimes to go into a physical store and see an item that you want to see in person, such as a laptop, to check the build quality and speaker sound for yourself, etc. In the US, Microcenter is a physical PC hardware store that is actually good. Their prices rival or even beat online shops and they have an extensive range of products on display. But alas they are usually in very remote locations, and I don't live in the US anymore. Where I live now, I use the big box stores just for their displays so I can touch them and test them out, but it's almost always cheaper to just get it online.

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cgknight1@reddit

OK so something to note if you are moving from the USA. The reason many of us buy expensive parts online is that your legal rights are much stronger. Broadly speaking unless something is bespoke, you have automatic right to reject and return goods.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Not coming from the US, but that's good to know! Though where I live, the rights are similar to the US I think. 1 year manufacturer warranty is legally required. Most retail shops let you exchange or return products if they have arrived defective within a certain time period. The period depends on the shop though, can be as little as a week, 2 weeks, or a month or more. Generally you cannot return a product simply because you were not satisfied with it and cannot prove it was defective in some way. Would you be willing to compare that with the UK standards?

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cgknight1@reddit

>Generally you cannot return a product simply because you were not satisfied with it and cannot prove it was defective in some way. You have an unqualified right to reject (and are not required to give a reason) for up to 14 days and then another 14 days to return from that period.

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

In the Northwest, for those of us living near Bolton, we can at least go to the Scan.co.uk shop in Middlebrook. It's great

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cgknight1@reddit

Well well I do live (nearish) Bolton and didn't know this existed 😂

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

Enjoy it! Love being able to order online and go pick my items up within half an hour

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Da_Tute@reddit

Currys/PC World are overpriced and have poor after sales service. I would only use them for small purchases I must have immediately. Otherwise leave well alone.

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Possiblyreef@reddit

They're good in an emergency like "I need a hard drive today". But very limited stock outside of common components and very expensive and staff are a total coinflip

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cgknight1@reddit

I do not think I have been in one for over a decade. When building PCs, I always buy online for additional legal protection.

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SuboptimalOutcome@reddit

For PC parts scan.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk are the sites I use most, along with Amazon.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Wow, great, thank you. The filter and search options are very similar to what I use now. How about price comparison shopping though? It seems like both those sites are the retailers and you are buying directly from them. Do you price compare yourself manually or are there any sites that compare the prices on different retailers for you?

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blackskies4646@reddit

Pcpartpicker. Allows you to make a build **AND** it shops for the lowest price. Make sure you set it to the UK though.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Oh, heck yea! That site has been useful but it is not available where I live now.

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Old_Man_Benny@reddit

remember cheapest is not always best, my son order a 4070 oc last week and is having a lot of problems getting it delivered

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Yea, I like when price comparison shopping sites let users review not only the products themselves but the online sellers. I was hoping the UK would have a site with those functions as well.

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No_Technology3293@reddit

Cclonline.com and awd-it.co.uk are others to check out. Between these and the overclockers, ebuyer, scan and Amazon you will find the right bits and best price

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SuboptimalOutcome@reddit

I generally just use the Google shopping tab for price comparison. I’ve been shopping at Scan though for nearly 30 years and get trade prices so they’re generally the cheapest and only a 15 minute drive away.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Do you trust any online retailer that pops up on Google? The one thing I really like about the price comparison site we have here is that not only are the filters very good and fine tuned, all the sites that pop up with different prices are generally very reliable. And for the ones that look new or sketchy, you can read user reviews on their shopping experience.

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alex20002@reddit

For the bigger tech items (CPU/ GPU) Skinflint is good. Camelcamelcamel can be used to check Amazon price history. Otherwise, Google is good.

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GamerHumphrey@reddit

add on ebuyer to that list too

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blackskies4646@reddit

Pcpartpicker Allows you to make a build *AND* it shops for the lowest price.

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Extra-Fig-7425@reddit

Overclockers.co.uk

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

Scan is great, and the shop's only 10 minutes away from me which is super handy.

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LeanDonkey@reddit

Not seen it mentioned here so I'll give it a shout-out. My past few purchases (essestially ampunting to a whole pc) have been through [awd-it.co.uk](http://awd-it.co.uk). They seem to have a few bundles and sales going on at any one time and I've had no faults with them

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Cool, thanks for adding to the list. Their filters don't seem to be too detailed though. While searching for desktop memory I could only select DDR4 or 5, but no filter to choose speed/MTs. Still, it can be another point of price comparison, thanks.

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InformationMaster793@reddit

Scan, overclockers, CCL, novatech, ebuyer. I wouldn't buy PC components on amazon.

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

Any reason why you don't like Amazon? I find their filters and search to be pretty mediocre, but if there is a specific item you know you want it's worth checking on there if the price is good. Their shipping and return service is pretty good.

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InformationMaster793@reddit

Their relaxed attitude to counterfeits.

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Dr-Moth@reddit

I would reserve Amazon for smaller parts that are unlikely to be broken in shipping. SSDs and memory for example. They're also good for random small drive bays or cable extensions, although the quality is poor. They're also the only shop I know stocking all the Noctua bits. I go to Scan for the bigger items.

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Standard_Whereas4070@reddit

Amazon. tried overclockers and they were fucking awful for the delivery time, customer service etc.

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bigmanting84@reddit

Just to hijack this, I have recently been made redundant so I now need to go and get my own laptop. It will be used for running office and perhaps running some project management software. Would anyone be able to assist in speccing up a laptop or some pointers as to what to look out for? I have no idea what cpu, ram is required. I don’t want to spend too much given the circumstances. Thank you!

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autobulb@reddit (OP)

/r/SuggestALaptop/ will give you a lot of well informed answers.

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treeplayz@reddit

Hotukdeals has a lot of good computing deals from most of the uk shops

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MelancholyMarmoset@reddit

Scan, Ebuyer and Overclockers.

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Additional-Yard6325@reddit

Scan

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Jlaw118@reddit

[CCL Computers](https://www.cclonline.com/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAA9gr57_8YUd6CopSBkHLA4GI9Ce07&gclid=CjwKCAjwqf20BhBwEiwAt7dtdQcG0BO8fQKhXe2LM_tKmKW0Z-bvBVcGD15qS73k7Jze3uPKnS3Y8xoCs6gQAvD_BwE) has always been a reputable local company near myself. They used to have an open store but it is just online only now. But they only use reliable delivery companies too

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cankennykencan@reddit

Scan Overclockers Amazon The big three will see you good

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blackskies4646@reddit

Pcpartpicker. Allows you to make a build **AND** it shops for the lowest price. Make sure you set it to the UK though.

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