[ILUG] Good for hardware?

[Gavin McCullagh]

On Sat, 05 Jan 2002, Paul Linehan wrote:

> Where is the best place to do this in the Dublin
> area (I've already had a recommendation for
> Jaguar - anybody any good/bad experiences?).

A friend and I recently built a few PCs.  The way we ended up going was:

Small components from microdirect www.microdirect.co.uk ie
HD,cpu,fan,mobo,etc.  they generally have consistently good prices unlike
Scan's "This price is good TODAY ONLY!" and they communicate if necessary
after the sale which I have found Scan quite unwilling to do.  In
particular the staf will give you their email address so you don't spend a
fortune trying to ring them from Ireland.

Big Components from ireland IT Boutique  www.itbdirect.com in Kildare and Marx
computers www.marx-computers.com on North Circular Road.

> I know a bit about PCs, but am a bit nervous
> about building one (it's my first time...) so
> somewhere with helpful staff would be nice 
> too.

As the others have said, it's great fun and very interesting (well, the
first few times anyway) but this gear is expensive so be careful.

* Anti-Static straps are available from maplins for about a fiver.  Make your
own if you want, but it's a nice precaution for very little money or
effort. Just a cable hooked from you to the Earth.

* don't skimp on cooling, particularly with AMDs or you may find your
machine is very unstable

* lhd.datapower.com the Linux Hardware Database, check it all works with
linux before buying it. I assume you're using linux ;)

Good Luck,

Gavin