Computer shows

Any recommendations on whether or not to buy from a computer show? Able to tell whether a machine is new or refurbished? THere is a show in our area now for PCs, and they advertise 90% off retail. Planning to go, cause at the very least you can actually see and test out various laptops offered on-line.

Worry that prices may appear "irrestible" and lead to impulse buying.

Does anyone have any experience in buying from these type of shows?

THanks!

 

I'd avoid it. You don't get a warranty and even if they do give you some type of coverage I know it would be next to impossible to get these carnival like setups to honor the coverage. Usually they'll advertise them as being refurbished/reclaimed units and like new. A lot can go wrong with laptops unfortunately, I think a purchase from a reputable retail outlet or direct from a company with a solid 1 to 2-year warranty is a safer route.

DigitalCameraReview.com | BargainPDA.com | TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

Outside of systems, abaxter, how about accessories like DVD burners, CD burners, USB drives.

Dell Inspiron 6000
1.6 GHZ Centrino (Sonoma)
WUXGA 15.4" WS
512 MB RAM
60 GB HD
Wireless B/G
DVD/CD-RW
9 Cell Battery x 2
Mozilla Firefox Browser
Targus TL Deluxe Notebook Case
Targus Gravity Notebook Backpack
---
Palmone Tungsten C/WIFI

 

Hold on, Andrew - you may be overstating some old prejudices out there.

For the record, most of my purchases for all system hardware, sotftware and consumables are via PC shows/fairs. I know there are a lot of reputable dealers out there looking to sell quality merchandise at deep discounts. Anyone wanting to buy a laptop spcifically at these shows needs to shop with their thinking cap on - obviously, get any and all warranty info in writing at the time of purchase on the sales slip, check aroud for references/BBB/computer show sponsor to see if anyone's complained about the company in question. The best way to spot a deal is to ask all the right questions up front.

Of course anything can go wrong with a machine you buy at one of these shows, but I purchased my HP zv5430us from CircuitCity in January, and in February it went out for a dead backlight tube. It's safe to say that hardware will malfunction almost anytime, it's just a coin toss as to when it will happen. But if one prepares ahead of time there's no reason you couldn't find a good deal on almost anything.

As to Titanium's query, yeah, I've bought countless drives, media, add-ons and even software at these shows - there's nothing wrong with that. Most of the things you want to buy you will definitely want to do some up-front investigation yourself, and Lord knows the internet is chock full of all the info for these products.

My last 5 purchases at these types of shows have been:

NEC 3520A DVD Dual Layer burner
USB/FireWire external drive enclosure
WinFast TV2000 Expert TV Tuner card
Western Digital 250MB hard drive
Gigabyte K8N Pro system board with AMD Athlon 64 3400+ CPU & 2GB's RAM

Bottom Line - just as you'd purchase any big-ticket item, do the research, verify the condition of the item(s) you want, and ask a ton of questions (be as specific as you need before spending your cash) and window shop extensively to determine if you are getting a bargain or not.

Happy Shopping everyone!

Angel