computer store

trixter

does anyone know of a computer store in the city centre?

I specifically am looking for a wifi card (usb or pci) so any suggestions of stores should include only those that carry that (unless you don't know).

I am about to wander around again, I might stop in some net cafes, at the very least they should know where they got their systems

thanks

PowerHouseDan

Honestly if your looking for a usb wifi go to Argus....

Tree

you can get em in 3g in merchants quay too, they start about forty squid

Fysh

Soundstore on Plunkett St or Argos would be my suggestions, I'd avoid Belkin as a brand as I've had numerous bad experiences with their USB wifi dongles in the past.

trixter

i just moved here yesterday, so i request that when responding please include as much info about finding places as possible, cause i really dont know any store names. at least i can google map plunkett

rymus

yes... avoid belkin.. they're poop.

Fysh

Soundstore is on Oliver Plunket Street, which is parallel to Patrick Street in the city centre. Argos is on Grand Parade at the west end of Patrick Street.

trixter

PowerHouseDan wrote:

Honestly if your looking for a usb wifi go to Argus....

I randomly found em today, they are about 2 blocks from where I am living. the battery on my mobile was dead so I couldn't verify hardware compatibility, and didn't really stay, but is that a cash ans carry or do you order and pickup later?

I am interested more in cash and carry so I could have it today. my mobile is great for wifi when I am out but kinda blows when I am home and have a real system

I will look at the other store mentioned later today.

trixter

rymus wrote:

yes... avoid belkin.. they're poop.

belkin uses some of the same chips that dlink uses (the ralink 2500 for example).

with that said, thanks for everyone who gave me stores to try. I didnt see any wifi anything at the 3g store in merchants quay, and it was really hard for me to locate plunkett street via my mobile phone (which has wifi and runs windows mobile, but opera was being a pain and not loading the images from google maps and pocket ie doesnt do that well, although google tries, its either too little or doesnt display zoom/pan buttons).

At any rate, I now have a usb wifi device (I really would have prefered a pci card that lets me connect my own antenna for better range and coverage and can more easily type and do other stuff. Plus if I shut this off after about 5 minutes I can use my mobile while I walk around

smarttelecom.ie is whom I am using, and I get fairly good performance (I can see the antenna across the river from me, so maybe that is why) it works in most places I have gone (not the garda station when I went to apply for residency, nor in argus - but a block away it works the buildings shield the signal there).

I did notice that if I use 'g' I get really really bad performance, but going to 'b' only my transfer speeds went way up (which doesnt make sense on a technical level, but meh I never expected to get multi megabit speeds anyway).

Tree

tip for 3g shoppers, you gots to ask for stuff, most of the wireless doodads live happilly on the stock room shelves.

hurrah for wi-fi'ing your way round town

Hells_Belle

Digi on Washington Street is around the corner from Argos and a bit up the road. They have a good amount of kit, and it's nice to support an independent retailer instead of Yet Another Bloody Chain Store.

Jack B. Badd

Wouldn't be gone on Digi myself, everytime I go in there looking for something they're sold out of it and when I went in there looking for a wireless card for my laptop the guy looked at me like I had seven heads...seriously didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Hells_Belle

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Wouldn't be gone on Digi myself, everytime I go in there looking for something they're sold out of it and when I went in there looking for a wireless card for my laptop the guy looked at me like I had seven heads...seriously didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Really? They've always been excellent for 90% of our 'puter needs - and we have a full scale WiFi network in our house. For the other 10%, DH hoofs it to Maplins in the retail park at Blackpool.

Anyway, they're usually worth a bell -

Digilog Electronics Ltd
32 Washington Street
(021)4274861

Jack B. Badd

Maybe he was new. Or an idiot. Either way, I've been steering clear of Digi ever since. They rarely have what I'm looking for but Maplins ftw!

deRanged

I've had some bad experiences in Digilog - enough to put me off ever going in there again.

You can't beat the internet (komplett.ie) unless you're in a real hurry.

Fysh

I've had the same thing with digi when it comes to wireless. Much as I'd like to support local retailers, I'm not buying networking kit from someone who doesn't know what 802.11b is when I ask for a wireless card.

Jack B. Badd

Fysh wrote:

someone who doesn't know what 802.11b is when I ask for a wireless card.

Hmmm...I can't decide whether or not that's worse than not knowing what pcmcia is :rolleyes:

rymus

same story all over really, not just hardware. Bloody clueless shop people

Jack B. Badd

I'd expect that from people in a large chain tbh but it's not really good enough in a small store where chances are the person you're talking to is the one doing the ordering of stock! It's not totally impossible to keep up to date on these things in all fairness...

pro_gnostic_8

Found a little computer parts shop this morning where I bought meself a scroll mouse for 8 euro.
They have 54Mbps 802.11 cards reduced from 45euro to 34.99.

Shop is called CartridgeKiosk ....... on Castle Street (on the corner with Nt Main St.).
And the guy behind the counter knows what's what too!

trixter

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Hmmm...I can't decide whether or not that's worse than not knowing what pcmcia is :rolleyes:

or not knowing the difference between pccard, cardbus and pcmcia. Most people just say pcmcia to refer to devices that are either pccard or cardbus though.

for those that dont know. pcmcia is memory, and only memory. pccard is 16 bit other than memory (ie wifi cards and other things) and cardbus is 32 bit cards like wifi cards and all. They all look basically the same but there is a difference in the way it talks

Fysh

trixter wrote:

or not knowing the difference between pccard, cardbus and pcmcia. Most people just say pcmcia to refer to devices that are either pccard or cardbus though.

Well, yeah, but in fairness now you can do a lot of tinkering with PCMCIA devices without having to know or care whether your particular toy is a type 1, 2, or 3 PCMCIA device.

A shopkeeper being mystified by requests for hardware that uses a well-known standardised interface is generally not a good sign in an IT stockist, and certainly shouldn't be a common experience across a significant chunk of the customer base.

trixter

double post doh!

trixter

Fysh wrote:

Well, yeah, but in fairness now you can do a lot of tinkering with PCMCIA devices without having to know or care whether your particular toy is a type 1, 2, or 3 PCMCIA device.

its more than type 1,2,3 (pccard is the generic term according to specs) which refers to size and some other characteristics, but that is ok, most people dont know or care. Just remember cardbus is a 32bit bus and if you get a cardbus card over a 16 bit card odds are you will get better performance

Fysh wrote:

A shopkeeper being mystified by requests for hardware that uses a well-known standardised interface is generally not a good sign in an IT stockist, and certainly shouldn't be a common experience across a significant chunk of the customer base.

I agree with that. Unless they have a good sales manager on the other end of the ordering process, which isnt likely. Then again they could have their kid do the ordering and still be clueless about what they are selling

If they dont know what they have they *might* not know its intrinsic value and might sell something cheaper than they otherwise would (localized shortages for example on a hot new item).

Jack B. Badd

CartridgeKiosk I would definitely recommend. I went in there looking for a harddrive not so long ago and the guy I talked to definitely knew his stuff!