PC World .... just goes to show .....

[Saracen]

I recently need an extension cable for the 4/8 pin CPU power cable from PSU to motherboard. I wanted to route cables out of the way and the standard length on my Enermax PSU wasn't long enough. In fact, even without routing it out of the way, it'd get in the way of plug-in cards in this PC case, as the PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case and the connector is on the other side of the mobo.

So, I thought .... where to get it? Well, Maplins is only a couple of miles from me and they do loads of that type of thing. But do they do one? Well, according to the guy in the store, after several minutes with their online catalog, nope.

Weeeell. as it happens, PC World is just up the road from Maplin. So I thought I'd pop in and have a wander round, seeing as I was right there anyway, but it was a forlorn hope that PC World wouldn't stock that kind of thing, right? Wrong.

So there am I, mid-build, needing a cable. Maplins don't do it, so I'm expecting to have to hunt one down on the web, mail-order and wait for a courier .... with a half-built system waiting for a silly cable in the meantime.

And then, .... what's that? Exactly the cable I need, and an Akasa one to boot. In PC World.

Result. I can go home and finish the build.

Cost? £3.99. Now sure, Scan do one and it's about 50p cheaper, but it's a Sunday and no way will I get it from Scan 'til sometime Tuesday, and it's way under the £20 limit for free delivery so I've either got to buy other stuff I don't need or pay more for delivery than for the cable ..... and still wait.


So for all those out there that moan about PC World, the fact that they're there, and have stuff on the shelves locally, and in this case at least, not at that much of a price premium (and taking shipping into account, a hell of a lot less) is blooming useful on occasions.

[Colossous]

Could'nt agree more - for certain things they're quite cheap too - just watch the prices on other basics - a lot of things like dvi/hdmi cables and the like are crazy expensive but some things are very reasonable

[Saracen]

Oh they're ludicrous on some things. Some years ago, I wanted a 2GB Jaz cartridge. PC World wanted £50, and a small shop about a mile down the road charged under £20. Yeah, you have to be careful. But they have their uses.

[JimmyBoy]

definatly handy to have around! unfortunatly the nearest pc world is in readingwhich is a bit awquard to get to but its nice to go and have a look from time to time.

I went in there looking for a HDD once and all they had were brown boxes put into size order (by size i mean gb, not size of box ) for me thats no good as i like to know exactly what im getting and do my homework before purchasing but for your average person i guess its ok..

[PeterStoba]

Maplin do do them though, that's the strange thing, I got one from there.

PC world baffle me though, why are they so expensive and smaller shops are cheaper? With their buying power it should be the other way around..

[TheAnimus]

Quite a few years ago the plymouth store had some new products that day, my dad and I just happened to be visiting.

Belkin branded UPS, what was odd was the 425/525/625VA where priced the same. the 425 was expensive, the 625 was a bargin, apparently it wasn't a miss price eiher!

so my dad and I got good UPSs for a bargin price! PCWorld sometimes are good.

[roorooroo]

Yeah that was a good find on a Sunday...

I always give those 'Tech Guys' an ironic smile when i walk past them though..the prices they (PCWorld) charge for installing/testing are ridiculous.

Luckily i don't need them.

[Saracen]

Maplin do do them though, that's the strange thing, I got one from there.

PC world baffle me though, why are they so expensive and smaller shops are cheaper? With their buying power it should be the other way around..

I was surprised tha they didn't do them .... or said they didn't. But the guy in thew shop did the hunting in the catalog and he knew exactly what I was looking for.

As for pricing, smaller shops don't have a lot of the overheads that PC World have, such as the bills for aquiring and running large retail premises, or the staffing levels, or the warehousing and back-end costs.

[TooNice]

It's more an exception than the norm, but they do have the odd bargains too. I got my Logitech Revolution VX for £25 last year when most places sold them at nearly twice that. Even now Scan is selling them at £32.

[Jay]

for some things they are pretty good, same goes for PCWB. They are terrible if you don't know anythying about IT, there advice etc it poo.

[MadduckUK]

As for pricing, smaller shops don't have a lot of the overheads that PC World have, such as the bills for aquiring and running large retail premises, or the staffing levels, or the warehousing and back-end costs.

never hurt tesco

[Mblaster]

So for all those out there that moan about PC World, the fact that they're there, and have stuff on the shelves locally, and in this case at least, not at that much of a price premium (and taking shipping into account, a hell of a lot less) is blooming useful on occasions.

PC World is good if you're someone who knows exactly what you want and how much you should be paying for it, I'd happily shop there myself, but I would never send anyone that doesn't know much about computers there to buy something. My dad did that a while back and the guy ended up spending £20 on a USB cable.

[MaddAussie]

My 36Gb Raptors came from PCW, saw them while having a browse one day priced at 99.99 quid (most other places at the time where selling them for 80ish quid. Happened to pop in 2 weeks later and they had reduced them to 48.99 so I promptly bought two of them. been going strong ever since

[Hicks12]

Yeh they are normally good on specials etc, got a logitech 2.1 x4 for £44 and everywhere else wanted atleast £55!

[Georgy291]

right here you go my fav example or shopping from pc world

PC world http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...&category_oid=

scan http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

novatec http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?SAP-4870

case closed

[lodore]

my lecurer was telling me about a little pc world trick.
the pc world web prices are cheaper. your meant to go online and collect in store to get at that price. if you ask the right person they will create a "fake" web order for you and you get at web prices in store.

I guess pc world can be useful at times.
when one of my clients went in pc world they tryed to sell her a all in one printer for around £400 lol and all she wanted to do was print the odd email.