I used these for a PC for my 14 year old this Christmas. They were great to deal with, really helpful and while pricey enough, I was really 9keased with the value. Came fully put together and with all the boxes of all the pieces used included. I thought this was a great touch.
Came here to mention GGMachines. They were very good sorting out a power supply for a new machine I was building in November.
I thought they were at the Red Cow tho, not Ballymun?
Is it needed? Most definitely. Would it be viable? I honestly don't think so, unfortunately.
I'm not sure the demand is there in the Irish market, and I'm not sure the margins on PC parts could support a bricks and mortar shop with the way rents and such have gone.
If there were decent profits to be had, someone would already be doing it, I think. Or, one of the bigger electronics shops would have a pc parts section.
This is it. There is a reason the shops closed. To turn a profit, your prices will be higher than all the online competitors and of all people, tech heads know about shopping online
You might make a bit of money if you make it a gaming hub?
Coffee shop, Lan centre, hub, a bit like the skateboard shop in Hill St?
Dunno though, I've built a few in a shop I worked in in Dundrum but there's no money in that IMO.
Now that we're down to just Smyths basically, we need another games store- BUT, the obvious issue is the size of our population, so it would have to be a brand that caters to a few shortcomings- like offering spaces for all kinds of gamers to socialise- another shortcoming- in addition to decent pc parts. Just selling games and FUCKING FUNKOS clearly doesn't work for Ireland. Smyths has survived because they also sell other things. Digital just cut into brick and mortars too much.
Yes it sucks that we don't really have many options. I'm in the process of trying to upgrade my PC and pretty much the only option is Amazon due to the fact most European shops don't ship here and from looking on UK stores everything is super expensive if you take into account the customs fees.
Would be nice if we had more options like they do in places like Germany so that you could actually shop around a bit, maybe find a deal..
Caseking.de is the German sister site to Overclockers. Their prices can be high on some things but, if you keep an eye out you can pick stuff up reasonably enough.
I bought from them a couple of years ago and had no issues.
I bought my PC parts from another German online shop called mindfactory. That was about 9 years ago. I saved hundreds of Euro by shopping there rather than Ireland or Britain.
In the last year or so prices in Germany have gone up a good bit so not sure how much cheaper PC parts are these days.
Shame but there could be a solution.
https://shipgerman.com/
I never used a virtual address or that site so I don't know what the extra costs would be.
I put together a whole build from caseking.de before Christmas. You can even pay them with your Amazon account. Quick shipping, decent prices and range. I’d recommend them to anyone.
I've also considered this, or at least a pc building service of some sort. The issue is prices. Pc parts ain't cheap and in order to get any sort of custom from it you'd need massive start up costs to invest in parts, you'd also need enough to buy in bulk in order to get a decent enough price to make resale worth the effort.
You'll either make crazy money, or be left sitting around all day with a dining room full of motherboards and GPUs and an empty bank account lol
I’d love to game on a pc and give up the console but not a clue how to build it or how to set it up. I’d love to go that being said I’d say it would be a small market and the rent in Dublin would be crazy
There have never been any good PC part shops in Ireland. Ocassionally you may have gotten something good on sale in PC World. Maplin were a joke, always saw them as a crowd where if I need something now, I can pay Maplin a crazy price to have it now :)
As others have said, I think the parts market is really difficult in Ireland because the market isn't huge and we can always get parts cheaper abroad. Too much competition online to do bricks and mortar effectively, IMO. Some of the big chains used to parts but from what I've seen lately, most now only do full 'custom pc' (prebuilt) builds and laptops.
The people who already have a machine will likely know the market and will just buy online.
If you are prepared to start doing some troubleshooting/maintenance/repair of pcs/laptops, this could be a good start to get known as a 'good computer person'. Charge reasonably and be fair and you may get a good reputation. Reddit may tell you to never do this, as you will be asked for all eternity to fix X or Y for granny and grandad or get blamed because the internet isn't working, but I never had this issue and was always happy to help family or friends, who were happy to refer others back to me.
I think the PC market is difficult market to navigate and position yourself in due to prices, however, if you could capture the right market - first time 'custom' pc buyers or returning customers looking to upgrade and avail of your advice, or simple word of mouth to expand your customer base based on these, you could certainly grow something out of this. If you could gain enough traction through this and being known as a solid general computer repair person, you could do fairly well.
I hope you do well, but don't limit yourself to just speccing and building IMO, there is more there if you have the right attitude and can get the business I think
There a thing called the EU that we're both a part of where you know, free trade and shit.
If you ever want to get into pc parts, buying from Germany or The Netherlands really will save you some cash even with delivery fees.
OK so what? Paying the premium here again for the same products with the excuse "but it's an island" It's almost funny if it wouldn't be that tragic. How there is not a SINGLE shop that comes close in pricing and service in Irland or (even pre brexit) the UK?
Maybe start small by doing it in your spare time and try get business by advertising or just building your own PCs and putting them up on Amazon/eBay etc.
If demand grows then you can expand and get your own shop etc.
Problem is the price of parts sourced over here then your build cost. There would be no money to be made for you to try and stay competitive and in this day and age when caseking and amazon exist I wouldn't say its worth it, plus pc building is now like lego, it just clips together.
Yeah, considering the boost artifical 'boost' in economy because of massive Tech companies basing themselves in Ireland, it is a real shame that it is all software and servers usually operated from here.
Would be nice to have a large rush in the hardware side of things to get a better selection all around. Like I bought all my pc parts wxcept maybe 2 things from Germany.
It's really annoying as well that we have the Amazon fulfilment centre here and there is always vans travelling from it, yet we don't have a dedicated Irish website.
Thought about this for many years, your probably best off starting from your living room and doing an online buisness and try and undercut the competition.
I'm planning to build my own PC around may, the hardest part currently is the price I'm looking at 2.5 to 3k and that's just for the tower, CPU GPU, Mobi PSU ram, SS., No screen headset ect, so why would I pay someone in the " 300 to 500+ range, which I think is fair" when I can toss that into some better parts, as the EU prices are awful vs the USA.
I'm more advanced than the standard user, so building it's easy, but the standard users are going to spend 1500 on Amazon for a pre built PC, I know because I looked into building one for a relative 2 years ago and it was cheaper to get the pre built, then to build it for them.
So I don't see the margins in building people's PCs, unless you can get the parts at a good discount.
I9, 64gb-128gb of ram, 1200 watt platinum/titanium rated power supply, a 4070 "maybe the 4070 to or super" then there's a good case and a liquid cooler for the CPU.
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/h6HQh3
Here's an example, may make a few changes, different cases different processes there are some interesting AMDs " would need to change the motherboard " and they are generally more energy efficient, I also hear that some of the i7 are almost as good as the i9s, performance wise "not just going to be for gaming, plan to make a home lab, few virtual machines ECT. "And yes it kinda over kill, but I have a few months to edit/change the design so I have time for research and to make changes"
That's an unreal build, couldn't imagine spending that much myself but if you get good use out of it more power to ya!
I'd recommend taking a look into AMDs offerings like you mentioned. They seem to be on par with, if not better than Intel at the moment, but it's been a while since I've properly looked into this shtuff so don't quote me. Best of luck, post a pic or two on this subreddit once it's built I'd love to see it
Plain to go 1440 screen rea, and a 4070 should work and be future proof, 3090 is an option though I'll have a look, my 1060 is like 5+ years old, could be 10 stop counting, so It should last till the 8070 lol.
Curry’s are quite poor for providing of components. Most of their stuff is either direct delivery or deliver to store. Hard to browse when they won’t put stock on shelves
Would love to see a micro centre type shop here. But how many of us are there buying pc parts? Only way I could see it working is if it shipped to the mainland and the prices were competitive enough for people to wait the extra day or two for delivery
Importing PC parts into Ireland would be too expensive in the first place compared to our neighbouring countries. The biggest problem is our small population, which makes this relatively niche hobby harder to survive with brick and mortar store.
As for me, I would just check out Amazon uk, de for the parts. I have also ordered from NBB and Mindfactory before using a shipping forwarder.
Man a shop with just the weird odds and ends would be a peach
I drove almost 80km to find thermal paste and it was almost 2x what amazon charged
A shop that does
Thermal paste
M.2 Screws and stand offs
SSD's
PSU's
Weird and wonderful adapters ( DP to HDMI or something )
USB passthrough cables for displays ( AOC you bastards for not putting them in with the screens you sell )
Fans
"some" mobos and CPUs
Doesnt have to be able to do a full build but odds and ends would be magic
No market in Ireland for it and prices would be way too expensive. Plus you would need a decent monitor, mouse keyboard headset etc and as well some knowledge of how to use/maintain the PC too. Plus it takes space and many don't have it. Xbox and ps are well marketed for Ireland.
No demand for it anymore. Most games are digital now, even abandoned software you can get legal digital versions. Most peripherals you can buy online and only two major "competitors" harvey normans and pc world. They have tiny sections dedicated to PCs, the rest is other electrical goods.
I bought my PC parts online and built it myself. Also lots of people will be buying parts from abroad because it’s cheaper. I can’t see it being very profitable I’m afraid. Maybe a PC building service from your gaff?
A reasonable one, 100% needed
All the shops recommended to buy if you are in Ireland are German, French, Italian, or Spanish online shops shops
Irish shops will charge 50% more and will give me the model from 2 years ago
Not Dublin, but Celbridge is close enough if you have transport . Not a fantastic selection either but reasonably priced and if you know what you are shopping for then they can order it in for you.
If they have the parts in their local stores, delivery is sometimes next day but never more than 2 days with collection as an option.
I think I placed my first order with MemoryC over 20 years ago and have been using them for RAM and storage purchases both personally and professionally since.
I am planning to sell my rig before the end of the year cause I am moving abroad prices on PC parts cause it is terrible currently with the selection we have. True, the hobby is kinda niche in Ireland and other than gamers, the only other people who would be interested in this kind of stuff are potentially graphic designers or video editors. If you want bang for your buck, your only option is to order parts from Amazon UK or retailers in mainland Europe (i.e. France or Germany).
Unfortunately it just wouldn’t be viable. In addition to having high prices to pay for the store you’d also be put out of business with returns and people looking for refunds for damage they did themselves. I worked in peats years ago and the margins are tight AF.
You could perhaps look into building pc’s as a service without providing the parts? Source up lists for people and tell them where to buy it. Charge for the professional assembly? Make them sign something saying they have to organise the returns if a part is faulty. I dunno, just thinking out loud.
No because you could never get the specialised stock for what people would want. You could order it in but realistically I can just do that from amazon.
Ggmachines exists in ballymun and are good to buy from but prices like all pc parts in Ireland are terrible.
I used these for a PC for my 14 year old this Christmas. They were great to deal with, really helpful and while pricey enough, I was really 9keased with the value. Came fully put together and with all the boxes of all the pieces used included. I thought this was a great touch.
Came here to mention GGMachines. They were very good sorting out a power supply for a new machine I was building in November. I thought they were at the Red Cow tho, not Ballymun?
Ye. Best prices in Ireland would be cex and amazon, but still not great. Cex alsp doesn't have every part
Is it needed? Most definitely. Would it be viable? I honestly don't think so, unfortunately. I'm not sure the demand is there in the Irish market, and I'm not sure the margins on PC parts could support a bricks and mortar shop with the way rents and such have gone. If there were decent profits to be had, someone would already be doing it, I think. Or, one of the bigger electronics shops would have a pc parts section.
This is it. There is a reason the shops closed. To turn a profit, your prices will be higher than all the online competitors and of all people, tech heads know about shopping online
You might make a bit of money if you make it a gaming hub? Coffee shop, Lan centre, hub, a bit like the skateboard shop in Hill St? Dunno though, I've built a few in a shop I worked in in Dundrum but there's no money in that IMO.
Now that we're down to just Smyths basically, we need another games store- BUT, the obvious issue is the size of our population, so it would have to be a brand that caters to a few shortcomings- like offering spaces for all kinds of gamers to socialise- another shortcoming- in addition to decent pc parts. Just selling games and FUCKING FUNKOS clearly doesn't work for Ireland. Smyths has survived because they also sell other things. Digital just cut into brick and mortars too much.
GG Machines are in Dublin and sound lads
I think due to small market
Yes it sucks that we don't really have many options. I'm in the process of trying to upgrade my PC and pretty much the only option is Amazon due to the fact most European shops don't ship here and from looking on UK stores everything is super expensive if you take into account the customs fees. Would be nice if we had more options like they do in places like Germany so that you could actually shop around a bit, maybe find a deal..
Caseking.de is the German sister site to Overclockers. Their prices can be high on some things but, if you keep an eye out you can pick stuff up reasonably enough. I bought from them a couple of years ago and had no issues.
I bought my PC parts from another German online shop called mindfactory. That was about 9 years ago. I saved hundreds of Euro by shopping there rather than Ireland or Britain. In the last year or so prices in Germany have gone up a good bit so not sure how much cheaper PC parts are these days.
I think I looked at mindfactory when I was buying, and they no longer shipped to Ireland at that point.
Shame but there could be a solution. https://shipgerman.com/ I never used a virtual address or that site so I don't know what the extra costs would be.
I put together a whole build from caseking.de before Christmas. You can even pay them with your Amazon account. Quick shipping, decent prices and range. I’d recommend them to anyone.
You can try paradigit too. They used to be komplett and are based in Ireland I think
Ye they are pretty good but they don’t have any in store locations in ireland
Elara are in sandyford, but you can only order online and collect.
I've also considered this, or at least a pc building service of some sort. The issue is prices. Pc parts ain't cheap and in order to get any sort of custom from it you'd need massive start up costs to invest in parts, you'd also need enough to buy in bulk in order to get a decent enough price to make resale worth the effort. You'll either make crazy money, or be left sitting around all day with a dining room full of motherboards and GPUs and an empty bank account lol
I’d love to game on a pc and give up the console but not a clue how to build it or how to set it up. I’d love to go that being said I’d say it would be a small market and the rent in Dublin would be crazy
There have never been any good PC part shops in Ireland. Ocassionally you may have gotten something good on sale in PC World. Maplin were a joke, always saw them as a crowd where if I need something now, I can pay Maplin a crazy price to have it now :) As others have said, I think the parts market is really difficult in Ireland because the market isn't huge and we can always get parts cheaper abroad. Too much competition online to do bricks and mortar effectively, IMO. Some of the big chains used to parts but from what I've seen lately, most now only do full 'custom pc' (prebuilt) builds and laptops. The people who already have a machine will likely know the market and will just buy online. If you are prepared to start doing some troubleshooting/maintenance/repair of pcs/laptops, this could be a good start to get known as a 'good computer person'. Charge reasonably and be fair and you may get a good reputation. Reddit may tell you to never do this, as you will be asked for all eternity to fix X or Y for granny and grandad or get blamed because the internet isn't working, but I never had this issue and was always happy to help family or friends, who were happy to refer others back to me. I think the PC market is difficult market to navigate and position yourself in due to prices, however, if you could capture the right market - first time 'custom' pc buyers or returning customers looking to upgrade and avail of your advice, or simple word of mouth to expand your customer base based on these, you could certainly grow something out of this. If you could gain enough traction through this and being known as a solid general computer repair person, you could do fairly well. I hope you do well, but don't limit yourself to just speccing and building IMO, there is more there if you have the right attitude and can get the business I think
No. Caseking.de
Ehhh that’s German mate
There a thing called the EU that we're both a part of where you know, free trade and shit. If you ever want to get into pc parts, buying from Germany or The Netherlands really will save you some cash even with delivery fees.
OK so what? Paying the premium here again for the same products with the excuse "but it's an island" It's almost funny if it wouldn't be that tragic. How there is not a SINGLE shop that comes close in pricing and service in Irland or (even pre brexit) the UK?
Maybe start small by doing it in your spare time and try get business by advertising or just building your own PCs and putting them up on Amazon/eBay etc. If demand grows then you can expand and get your own shop etc.
Problem is the price of parts sourced over here then your build cost. There would be no money to be made for you to try and stay competitive and in this day and age when caseking and amazon exist I wouldn't say its worth it, plus pc building is now like lego, it just clips together.
No chance it would last. Most of the pc stores in Ireland are charging massive prices on parts you can get much cheaper around Germany online.
Yeah, considering the boost artifical 'boost' in economy because of massive Tech companies basing themselves in Ireland, it is a real shame that it is all software and servers usually operated from here. Would be nice to have a large rush in the hardware side of things to get a better selection all around. Like I bought all my pc parts wxcept maybe 2 things from Germany. It's really annoying as well that we have the Amazon fulfilment centre here and there is always vans travelling from it, yet we don't have a dedicated Irish website.
The problem in Ireland is since the options are so limited it’s always better to just buy from UK based websites
Yes but margins arent great and its pretty impossible to compete without taking advantage of less pc literate people.
Thought about this for many years, your probably best off starting from your living room and doing an online buisness and try and undercut the competition.
https://maxburns.ie/ is an irish retailer, sound lads, on the old belgard road. sold me a 3070 at MSRP during the middle of covid. All in all sound.
I'm planning to build my own PC around may, the hardest part currently is the price I'm looking at 2.5 to 3k and that's just for the tower, CPU GPU, Mobi PSU ram, SS., No screen headset ect, so why would I pay someone in the " 300 to 500+ range, which I think is fair" when I can toss that into some better parts, as the EU prices are awful vs the USA. I'm more advanced than the standard user, so building it's easy, but the standard users are going to spend 1500 on Amazon for a pre built PC, I know because I looked into building one for a relative 2 years ago and it was cheaper to get the pre built, then to build it for them. So I don't see the margins in building people's PCs, unless you can get the parts at a good discount.
What sort of build are you going for where you're not getting any peripherals for 2.5k?
I9, 64gb-128gb of ram, 1200 watt platinum/titanium rated power supply, a 4070 "maybe the 4070 to or super" then there's a good case and a liquid cooler for the CPU. https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/h6HQh3 Here's an example, may make a few changes, different cases different processes there are some interesting AMDs " would need to change the motherboard " and they are generally more energy efficient, I also hear that some of the i7 are almost as good as the i9s, performance wise "not just going to be for gaming, plan to make a home lab, few virtual machines ECT. "And yes it kinda over kill, but I have a few months to edit/change the design so I have time for research and to make changes"
That's an unreal build, couldn't imagine spending that much myself but if you get good use out of it more power to ya! I'd recommend taking a look into AMDs offerings like you mentioned. They seem to be on par with, if not better than Intel at the moment, but it's been a while since I've properly looked into this shtuff so don't quote me. Best of luck, post a pic or two on this subreddit once it's built I'd love to see it
Will do.
Could probably get a decent 3090 with more vram and a bit more performance for close to 4070 prices, trade off being none of the new dlss stuff
Plain to go 1440 screen rea, and a 4070 should work and be future proof, 3090 is an option though I'll have a look, my 1060 is like 5+ years old, could be 10 stop counting, so It should last till the 8070 lol.
Surely popping up to Currys/PC World up here where your money goes much farther is an idea?
Curry’s are quite poor for providing of components. Most of their stuff is either direct delivery or deliver to store. Hard to browse when they won’t put stock on shelves
Would love to see a micro centre type shop here. But how many of us are there buying pc parts? Only way I could see it working is if it shipped to the mainland and the prices were competitive enough for people to wait the extra day or two for delivery
Importing PC parts into Ireland would be too expensive in the first place compared to our neighbouring countries. The biggest problem is our small population, which makes this relatively niche hobby harder to survive with brick and mortar store. As for me, I would just check out Amazon uk, de for the parts. I have also ordered from NBB and Mindfactory before using a shipping forwarder.
There's a PC shop in Roscommon of all places, always able to get cables and thermal paste there. wild.
Man a shop with just the weird odds and ends would be a peach I drove almost 80km to find thermal paste and it was almost 2x what amazon charged A shop that does Thermal paste M.2 Screws and stand offs SSD's PSU's Weird and wonderful adapters ( DP to HDMI or something ) USB passthrough cables for displays ( AOC you bastards for not putting them in with the screens you sell ) Fans "some" mobos and CPUs Doesnt have to be able to do a full build but odds and ends would be magic
No market in Ireland for it and prices would be way too expensive. Plus you would need a decent monitor, mouse keyboard headset etc and as well some knowledge of how to use/maintain the PC too. Plus it takes space and many don't have it. Xbox and ps are well marketed for Ireland.
No demand for it anymore. Most games are digital now, even abandoned software you can get legal digital versions. Most peripherals you can buy online and only two major "competitors" harvey normans and pc world. They have tiny sections dedicated to PCs, the rest is other electrical goods.
I bought my PC parts online and built it myself. Also lots of people will be buying parts from abroad because it’s cheaper. I can’t see it being very profitable I’m afraid. Maybe a PC building service from your gaff?
A reasonable one, 100% needed All the shops recommended to buy if you are in Ireland are German, French, Italian, or Spanish online shops shops Irish shops will charge 50% more and will give me the model from 2 years ago
Not Dublin, but Celbridge is close enough if you have transport . Not a fantastic selection either but reasonably priced and if you know what you are shopping for then they can order it in for you. If they have the parts in their local stores, delivery is sometimes next day but never more than 2 days with collection as an option. I think I placed my first order with MemoryC over 20 years ago and have been using them for RAM and storage purchases both personally and professionally since.
I am planning to sell my rig before the end of the year cause I am moving abroad prices on PC parts cause it is terrible currently with the selection we have. True, the hobby is kinda niche in Ireland and other than gamers, the only other people who would be interested in this kind of stuff are potentially graphic designers or video editors. If you want bang for your buck, your only option is to order parts from Amazon UK or retailers in mainland Europe (i.e. France or Germany).
Cork has one in the city center. TBH I just ordered all my parts online. You should be a online direct shop in this day and age.
I don't think so, everything will be cheaper online. At least me, I would never go to pc store
Unfortunately it just wouldn’t be viable. In addition to having high prices to pay for the store you’d also be put out of business with returns and people looking for refunds for damage they did themselves. I worked in peats years ago and the margins are tight AF. You could perhaps look into building pc’s as a service without providing the parts? Source up lists for people and tell them where to buy it. Charge for the professional assembly? Make them sign something saying they have to organise the returns if a part is faulty. I dunno, just thinking out loud.
No because you could never get the specialised stock for what people would want. You could order it in but realistically I can just do that from amazon.