Hamilton Computer Stores

mic67 · #1 Posted **Jan 9, 2009, 9:28 PM**

Alright I thought it might be useful to list some computer stores that I have been to and shopped at in Hamilton considering that I am relatively new to this city.

http://www.wintroniccomputers.com/wintronics/index.jspa

Actually I was there today - got 1 gig of DDR1 ram $35 and a P4 1.8GhZ compaq with 512ram 40gig HD, CD for $89 comes with COA License for win xp pro and loading with. (all instore prices)

http://www.canadacomputers.com/

Have bought 4gig SD cards for about $10.99 each, got a samsung 22inch LCD HDTV/computer montior for about $250.

http://www.factorydirect.ca/

Flash drives, etc

http://www.tradeinpost.ca/about_us

Havent bought anything yet but they were recommended by Canada Computers for used machines and Jonathan the owner is a really nice guy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Contribute your computer store and review or comments.

Mic67

astroblaster · #2 Posted **Jan 9, 2009, 10:25 PM**

i agree. this is pretty much my go to list as well.

i used to go to wintronic when i lived on that side of the city, now im on the other side and buy my stuff at canada computers.

ive dealt with factory direct and trade in post as well, and had good experiences with them as well.

mic67 · #3 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 3:46 AM**

I would like to say on a positive note that all the stores I listed were knowledgeable and had a decent attitude (BS was detector working), and I am sure there are more in Ham.

Seems that Wintronics is doing rather brisk business in general, when I have been there - a few times recently, particularly with the reburb. desktops (they have laptops too). They usually have a fairly wide selection and they come with COA license and preloaded XP - which adds sig. value to the machine. Few like or want Vista and XP is hard (and expensive) to find.

When I was recently in Toronto I made a quick visit to
http://www.computation.to/

Note: the in store prices seems to be (much?) less than what is posted on line, they also frequently post on craigslist toronto - that is how I found them.

And got some Nvidia AGP cards (2x) and 2x lucent chip modems, for $5 per. Actually before I moved from Toronto to Ham. I went there and bought 3 x P3 800mhz 256 ram 20 gig hd compaq sff machines for $25 each, as I didnt think such could be sourced in Ham.

Canada Computers and Factorydirect are in TO and I did shop there as well but I also bought plenty from the Salvation Army and Goodwill Thrift stores, such as dsl modems, scanners, computers, printers, routers, etc., that was always fun.

There are some other places - in Ham. - like Walmart, they had an AMD aspire single core 1 gig ram Vista basic for $299, and have good sale prices on laptops from time to time. There is also a pretty good place west of Kenilworth on the south side (computer store), I cant recall the name of at the moment...Summit Direct?? And then another computer store across from Centre Mall on the South side between Ottawa and Kenilworth, they had a few refurb's.

I am sure there are more in and around Ham. that I havent been to yet.

Also finding Internet Cafe's in Hamilton.

There are at least 3 on John St.
-all on the east side
-one south of Main 1st block
-2 north of King st. 1st block one of them is a few terminals inside a computer store
- then this is iclick on King St on the North side a few blocks west of James st. but they do throttling of bandwith there

As I recall finding computer stores and internet cafe's via the net wasnt as productive as being on the ground.

BTW I have never bought a new computer.

Mic67

IronWarrior · #4 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 7:03 AM**

I have also heard good things about 'Canada Computers', has anyone checked out 'Alliance Computers' downtown on King Street? my recent computer I bought at MDG and will never deal with them again! live and learn...

MsMe · #5 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 7:30 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronWarrior

I have also heard good things about 'Canada Computers', has anyone checked out 'Alliance Computers' downtown on King Street? my recent computer I bought at MDG and will never deal with them again! live and learn...

I have never dealt with MDG but heard a lot of bad about them.

I wouldn't deal with Summit anymore either.

omro · #6 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 10:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronWarrior

I have also heard good things about 'Canada Computers', has anyone checked out 'Alliance Computers' downtown on King Street? my recent computer I bought at MDG and will never deal with them again! live and learn...

I went to Alliance Computers three or four times during my visit, they were very friendly. Not always the cheapest, but not always the most expensive either. Varied by product/part.

mic67 · #7 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 5:45 PM**

Ok I will extend this topic a little -all things computer - to what form of internet access you have and use in Hamilton.

Currently I am on dialup with Rogers, for $19.95 per month

I will probably migrate over to Teksavvy for both phone service and net

http://www.teksavvy.com/en/nhomephone2.asp?ID=7&mID=1
Home Phone starting from $21.48/mo.
Unlimited 56k $16.99/mo.
Unlimited 512k/512k Unlimited $24.95/mo.
There are other options, follow the links.

This is a link I followed from The Spec. newspaper
http://www.speccall.com/

For net and phone service
......................................

mic67

IronWarrior · #8 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 8:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsMe

I have never dealt with MDG but heard a lot of bad about them.

I wouldn't deal with Summit anymore either.

I just had a very bad customer service experience with MDG, I bought a extended warranty and when I needed it serviced they tried to tell me I never purchased a ext.warranty...lol I then went to the location where I bought my computer and showed them they then told me extended warrantys were never offered on the system I bought and somebody must have made a error... I then contacted there head office and got a refund for the warranty and cut ties with them, I also did'nt like Summit Direct as well....I never bought anything from them but I found the some of the sales people to be arrogant know it alls! just rubbed me the wrong way.

MsMe · #9 Posted **Jan 10, 2009, 8:55 PM**

I bought one system from Summit. When the monitor was about 14 months old it took up smoking. I called the store to see what warranty was on it. They told me there was only one year on it. So I took their word for it. So I put the monitor aside and hooked up an old smaller monitor I had around since I couldn't afford to get another at the time. Then when I was cleaning around I finally found the receipts for the monitor and apparently it had a 3 year warranty on it. And of course I found the receipt on it after the 3 yrs were up. GRRRR

matt602 · #10 Posted **Jan 11, 2009, 1:14 AM**

Wintronic and CC for computer parts. Teksavvy for internet.

Done. Scummit has a crappy selection and average prices, the trade-in post is crap and Alliance just has a crappy selection. Starspark (on King E. near Mary) is great on prices, crappy on selection.

hammergirl · #11 Posted **Jan 12, 2009, 6:49 PM**

All our work computers are from Wintronics - they know my boss by name there LOL. Our printers are from Staples.

My home computer is from Wintronics too with the internet from Mountain Cablevision.

flar · #12 Posted **Jan 12, 2009, 7:07 PM**

I'll second Teksavvy for internet.

I used to go to hole-in-the-wall independent stores all the time, but it's hard to beat CanadaComputers for price and selection. I used to buy parts regularly, but in the last year and a half or so I've felt no need to upgrade. The machines these days are overkill for what most people do, and I don't use Vista so I don't need crazy specs just to run the operating system.

adam · #13 Posted **Jan 12, 2009, 10:33 PM**

LOL! Vista is being dropped by Windows anyway. They've given up on it. XP or Ubuntu are the way to go.

MsMe · #14 Posted **Jan 12, 2009, 10:38 PM**

I heard vista probably wouldn't be around for long. And it does suck.

matt602 · #15 Posted **Jan 12, 2009, 11:43 PM**

The Windows 7 beta is available now. I'm installing it this week. Apparently it's leaps and bounds more stable than Vista, and much less of a resource hog.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

Also for those considering online purchasing, Newegg.com launched Canadian operations last year. They are a popular online retailer for computer hardware, one of, if not THE best ones out there. Definitely want to check them out: www.newegg.ca

Millstone · #16 Posted **Jan 13, 2009, 12:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam

LOL! Vista is being dropped by Windows anyway. They've given up on it. XP or Ubuntu are the way to go.

Vista is not 'made by Windows', it is Windows, and it's not being dropped, it's being replaced by the next version of Windows, just like every version before it. Learn how to work.

flar · #17 Posted **Jan 13, 2009, 1:26 AM**

Windows 7 is just Vista Service Pack 2. I'm sure it will be improved, but Microsoft is really just anxious to get past the negative perception of the Vista brand.

omro · #18 Posted **Jan 13, 2009, 8:00 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flar

Windows 7 is just Vista Service Pack 2. I'm sure it will be improved, but Microsoft is really just anxious to get past the negative perception of the Vista brand.

Agreed, considering how long it took for Vista to come out after XP, there is no way Windows 7 can be anything more than a point release.

It's all about marketing and public perception. Think of Windows 2000.

They wanted to build on the popularity of the Windows 95/98 naming convention with home users and hide the fact that Win2K was really Windows NT5. They knew no one would initially buy NT5 for home use, since NT4 was purely business oriented.

That one marketing ploy allowed them to sell to home users right from launch and kill off having to support two OS codebases.

I have my lil Netbook, as my course software is all Windows, so that uses XP, but my next computer will be another Mac...... once I've sold my kidney to pay for it.

They so pretty.

sofasurfer · #19 Posted **Jan 13, 2009, 6:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt602

Also for those considering online purchasing, Newegg.com launched Canadian operations last year. They are a popular online retailer for computer hardware, one of, if not THE best ones out there. Definitely want to check them out: www.newegg.ca

I found them to be very good value and a great online retailer - bought a printer/scanner and wireless router from them in my first few weeks in Canada.

Canada Computers was disappointing because after checking online if they had something in stock, I got there only to be told they hadn't, and they they never trusted their online stock indicator - SO WHY HAVE ONE?!

In contrast, the last couple of times I've had to score cable (USB and ethernet respectively), Ive found small random stores have been the best bet by far - a tiny store on Centennial was miles cheaper than anywhere else!

sofasurfer · #20 Posted **Jan 13, 2009, 6:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by omro

It's all about marketing and public perception.

Which they've managed to royally screw up this time around - can't really go in to much detail, but I saw this at first-hand a couple of jobs ago when working in the UK...

BTW Omro - if you know someone who works in the education sector in the UK, get them to buy the Mac for you. It's perfectly legit (I've done it myself) and all warranties are valid.

Speaking of which, you really ought to get AppleCare at the same time - it's under 50 quid if they get it at an Apple store, instead of the usual edu discount if done online. This really is a no-brainer for 3 years' global replacement warranty (I've had to use mine, one issue was down to a pure accident on my part and they replaced the part without batting an eyelid).

It's worth mentioning that AppleCare is attached to the machine, not the individual, so it'll all be perfectly legit and you won't have any problems. I have been both a giver and receiver in the above sense in the last 2 years, and have no affiliation with Apple apart from as a very satisfied customer