From last Friday to Sunday, PIKOM PC Fair came to town. On Saturday, I decided to check out the wares on sale. It wasn’t a case of casual booth-hopping. I was actually looking for a specific equipment; a fan and heatsink combo for my aging (but still useful) Athlon Thunderbird processor. The processor may be old, but it runs on the still pretty common Socket A architecture.
So there I was, just in time to see the doors open for the 100 or so early birds (not really that early since the fair starts at 11:00 am). Surely I can find the heatsink of my dreams, right?
Well, sadly that was not the case. There were probably over a hundred readily built PCs on sale. There were probably just as many notebook computers as well. However, it was never my intention to buy any of those products.
I then saw booths from a couple of famous PC component vendors and decided to check them out. They have everything from processors, RAM, video cards, casings, portable hard drives and the ever present USB thumb drives. Hell, you can see hundreds of USB thumb drives wherever you’re looking during PC Fair. So prevalent were USB thumb drives, they probably should use it as a mascot!
As I went booth-hopping, it dawned on me that the odds for me to find a vendor who has a heatsink for sale was as much a me being struck by an 8GB USB thumb drive.
I then took a step back and looked around me. I noticed that the prices for hardware that remotely interested me was about the same as retail. I found it hard to find any component that was priced below market rate anyway. Motherboards, RAM modules, VGA cards, hard disks… all sold at retail prices!
So were there no deals at PC Fair? Sure they were; for mice, keyboards, headphones, combo card readers, printers… basically items that techies like me couldn’t give a hoot about. I concluded that PIKOM PC Fairs are not targeted at people like me. These PC fairs are probably used more as a way to offload excess peripherals (especially USB thumb drives).
Perhaps it’s better to rename this event to PIKOM Peripheral Fair… and use a USB thumb drive as the mascot!
As for my heatsink? I got one from Landmark IT Mall just across the road. Bleh!
April 10th, 2008 at 12:24 am
I agree. PC Fair is like a group of PC shops trying to outsell each other only.
The real tech fellas mostly will not find what they are selling (with offer) interesting. Maybe there just to get a few cheap pendrive or to bum with chicks.
But the objective of PC Fair is not for techies in the first place. It’s just there to encourage more regular people to get into the IT world.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:54 am
PC fair is the best place to buy laptops or PC. They give you cheapo mp3s, thumb drive, free laptop bag etc.
PC fair should emphasis on technologies and latest innovations of the PC world. Not primarily selling stuff.
I would really love to see an Internet Savvy Conference one day in Malaysia.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Yeah, prices are same as retail. When asked why, they just say they need to cover the costs of setting up the booth, rent etc. at the pc fair. It also helps that most buyers haven’t a clue that the prices are just about the same as retail. My tip, always find a computer hardware store that looks really cluttered. Chances are, they’re run by geeks, and better chances for you to find the stuff you want and get a good deal while at it!
April 10th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Same thing in Kuching. You can buy laptop, mouse, keyboard, thumb drive, etc for a bargain price. but if u wanna hunt for stuff like processor or motherboard, it kinda hard. I would normally hunt in lowyat forum.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:22 am
n305er: Well, if getting people into the IT world is the objective of PC Fair, then what events are targeted at those who are already in?
NoktahHitam: An Internet Savvy Conference? Now that’s an idea
Azlan: “Cluttered” describes the joints at Landmark IT Mall pretty well
willchua: I usually use online resources to compare prices. I haven’t actually bought any hardware online.
Thanks for your comments everyone. I appreciate them very much!
April 10th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I know is Aussie there are PC fairs for the public and there are other ones which are targeted at IT Professionals who do the ‘buying’ for their organisations. [I used to get into those back in Sydney]. Only the ones aimed at getting corporations into buying stuff seemed to have bargains, and I’d say half of them were slightly dubious as well. [Though I do enjoy some of the Linux stands, as they DO give away freeware for free sometimes ... and other times they ask for $5 for the CD full of freeware] lol
April 11th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hello…i’m just wondering, are you my ex classmate from class of 93-94?
April 12th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Hello Nabil. If your dad has a street named after him, then I most likely am
April 12th, 2008 at 3:11 am
haha..it’s true then ^_^
Your rebonding entry sort of gave it away coz I remembered your lion-like hair ^_^
April 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
What to do. I got myself a Maxis Broadband which is not even 3.6MBps at my home which is boasted to have 3G connection. Slow and always fail me during rain.
You should write about this bro
And I bought a new Dell laptop which is apparently cheaper than the one they have at PC Fair, must have been because of the 3rd party hand.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I mean, I bought the Dell laptop ONLINE