The price is right

Posted on 21 Jan 2009 at 10:42

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If you need a new computer but you're strapped for cash, there's plenty you can do to find a bargain. Jim Martin shares the secrets of cutting the cost of a new PC.

PCs and laptops are dirt cheap these days, but you can still save a lot of money if you buy carefully. Whether you're shopping for a laptop for Johnny to take to university or looking for a PC to replace an ageing relic, there's no need to spend many hundreds of pounds. This should be obvious from the reviews in this issue of Shopper. However, the inexpensive netbooks and the power-efficient PCs are not for everyone. They may be cheap, but the netbooks have small screens and keyboards, while the power-efficient desktop PCs lack the power for demanding tasks. Here we'll show you how to buy a powerful PC for less than you thought possible.

Instead of buying a computer from a high-street retailer or even an online shop, you can save a wedge of cash by taking your money elsewhere. Over the next few pages you'll learn how to buy refurbished stock and second-hand goods, scour the newspaper deals and use online configuration tools to get the computer you need at a price you can afford.

One disadvantage of buying a PC this way rather than choosing a system from a review in Computer Shopper is that it can be difficult to find out if you'll get a good-quality monitor, keyboard and mouse. It may also be tricky to determine whether the computer's colour or design suits your taste, especially if there's only a small photo of it on the web. However, all is not lost. You might be able to find a review of an older computer by searching our reviews database at http://www.computershopper.co.uk/reviews/latest/. Similarly, if you can find out the model number of the monitor, you probably won't have to search hard to find a review of it online.

For newer computers you may simply be able to walk into a high-street store and try it out before buying it cheaper elsewhere. This is particularly important for laptops, as you can't replace the screen or keyboard if those components of the laptop you've bought turn out to be awful.

Refurbished computers Save £200

You'd be surprised at how many brand- new computers are returned to the manufacturer or retailer. In the UK, the purchase of goods and services over the internet, by phone or by mail order is subject to the Distance Selling Regulations. These give consumers a cooling-off period of seven working days, during which they have the right to cancel. You can cancel an order for any reason, even if it's simply that you don't like the colour of the laptop or the layout of the keyboard.

Once the deal has been cancelled, the customer returns the goods to the manufacturer or the retailer and gets a full refund. Sometimes, the packages are never delivered to the customer and the boxes haven't even been opened. Ex-demonstration models might also end up back in a warehouse. Retailers can't sell these units at full price so, luckily for buyers, there are often hundreds of perfectly good computers that need to be shifted fast and sold at vastly reduced prices.

If the returned computer has been unpacked and the software opened, it's not easy for the retailer to resell it to another customer as new. Instead, the computer will either be returned to the manufacturer or sent to a refurbishing company. Whichever route it takes, the hardware will be thoroughly checked and reboxed before it is resold.