Pikom PC Fair 2008

Yes, it is the time again. It is time for some serious price crunch! PC fair is here again! I have been to many PC fairs but this time is quite different. Usually, PC fairs should be held in PWTC but now days it is in KL Convention Centre, KLCC. Not that I don't like to go but it is the first time that I have heard of having such an event in KLCC. I think that it is a good thing because KLCC is easily accessible.

I was blown away by what Acer, Asus, Sony and Lenovo have to offer. Even the accessories are much cheaper than many shops in town but not cheaper than shops in Lowyat. One thing good is that if you were to buy pcs or notebooks at PC fairs, you will receive special discounts which you will never be able to get it if you were to buy them from Lowyat. It is a good thing though.

I went to Sony booth and they are offering CZ laptop range at the price of RM3,988 with freebies worth RM900 which includes original Microsoft Office 2007, bluetooth headset, laptop bag, bluetooth mouse and mouse pad, 2GB thumb drive and many more. The Microsoft Office 2007 could be yours for only RM99! That is marvellous, right?

I was also very interested in Lenovo's offer. Although their pcs and laptops are not of the top specifications, their build quality have not changed - Solid! I like the name Lenovo too! Too bad as I could not afford a Lenovo laptop.

Acer does have many things to offer particularly their laptops and desktops. They are all reasonably priced with good specifications. I am impressed with their offerings. What I was really surprised was Dell! Dell had a booth and they are selling at the PC fair! That is strange considering that they don't have shops around. Most of the time they would require people to buy online. That is not so though. You can find Dell shop at Mid Valley for a start. Brand names like Techdos, MTEC and MyPC are very familier particularly if you often hang around Lowyat.

Latest Intel cpu, the Core i7 at 920, 940 and 965 are widely available to purchase. The good thing is that if you buy an i7 pc from shops other than big brands like Sony, Acer, HP and Dell, you are on for a bargain! For less than RM5,000, you will be treated with Intel's X58 motherboard couple with 3GB of DDR3-1066 memory and ATI's HD 4850. It comes with a 17" LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse including a pair of good speakers. That is if you are looking at 920. If you are thinking about 965, it will be around RM8,000. The price can go beyong RM10,000 depending on the specifications of the desktop.

As for me, I think it is best to wait for a while before buying the Core i7. Stick with Core 2 duo cpu. They are much better in terms of price/performance.

I was quite impressed with Asus Eee PC desktop edition. The tower itself is so slim and it only cost RM1,099. It runs on the Intel Atom N270, 1GB DDR2 memory and integrated graphics card, namely the GMA x3100 or later. Hard drive space is quite minimal at 80GB but I think that is upgradeable. I don't think it is possible to upgrade the memory for more than 2GB as there is only one slot of DIMM memory available. I am thinking about fixing one piece of 4GB DDR2-800 stick in it. Well, I might want to get one for myself in the near future but I would rather stick to my good old Core 2 Quad Q6600. Besides, I have refurbished my good old seven years old laptop, I would not want to buy a new pc now anyway.

PC fair at KL Convention Centre is finishing today. There will be another PC fair in Johor Bahru next week. If you have missed the PC fair at KL Convention Centre, go to the next PC fair in Johor Bahru. Good luck!!!