importing pc from USA

sionnach

im planning on getting a nice new pc, one which cost nearly half as much in the USA as it does over here. Does anyone know how much I'd have to pay in customs or vat, if i bought a pc while on holiday in the states and brought it back here?I tried emailing the department of customs n things like that but i got no reply. the pc costs $945, thats around €820 i think..... has ne1 here tried it before?

GristlyEnd

To answer your question about taxes, duty is 0% on computers & VAT is 21%.

Creamy Goodness

dunno if this applies to computers but when i was in the states on holiday i bought a Gibson SG guitar and what i did to pass customs was stick a few stickers on it and made the strings rusty to say that i had brought it over with me and that i had bought it in ireland


maybe try something like that?

stereo_steve

Don't forget you have to add the price of a new power supply unit to the price.

A lot of people look at the power supplies over here and see that you can switch from 220 to 110 and back. But it doesn't work that way with the american power supplies, they don't have the switch.

Our supplies have to convert from 220 down, so converting only half that is easy to implement.

However if the whole country is 110, adding extra components to change down from 220 is just pointless.

BattleBoar

A new power supply (around 300W) shouldn't cost you more than 30 Euro though. Good plan, incidentally. I'm pretty surprised more people don't do it, particularly with laptops that only need a different plug rather than an entirely different power supply.

sionnach

k thx for the info, 21% vat on 820 euro is just under 900 i think, this is the machine im getting, if some1 tinks i can get it in ireland cheaper, plz reply!

athlon XP 2500+
512mb DDR 400
80 gig hard drive
SB audigy 5.1 platinum
8x agp nforce2 motherboard
seperate dvd and cd/rw drives
really cool atx tower with a see thru panel and neon light
it also includes a 5.1 surround sound system with subwoofer but i dunno if i should get that as well, might be a bit bulky

-i gots my own graphics card already, a 128mb Geforce 3 ti450 for the bargain price of 100 euro, also from america and ill get the monitor in ireland, but all in all i think that its a bloody bargain, compared to the prices i see Dell and HP charge for absolute rubbish N1 bout the guitar cr3m0, but i dunno how to make a brand new pc look "rusty"

sionnach

oops, just under €1000 i mean

Captain Trips

Just out of curiosity (because I didn't think the US offered as big a price diff anymore) (but the new dollar/euro rate might change things), I checked Komplett (who are more reputable but by no means the cheapest). Here is what they gave:
AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz 333 MHz bus
- Socket A (Barton) processor, 512kb BOXED In stock: 1 154,22 154,22
114948 Corsair XMS3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB PC2700
- 32Meg x 8, CAS 2-3-3-6-T1, 400MHz, 6ns In stock: 10-19 140,44 140,44
117213 Abit NF7-S V2.0 mainboard Socket A S-ATA
- nForce2-SPP/MCP-T, ATX,1394, SATA KIT In stock: 500+ 132,50 132,50
113647 Maxtor IDE ATA-133 80GB 7200RPM
- DiamondMax Plus 9 In stock: 500+ 104,60 104,60
116168 Creative Soundblas. Audigy 2 Platinum Ex
- PCI w/1394,THX, DD EX6.1, Retail In stock:
100+ 239,67 239,67
113280 Plextor CD recorder IDE 48x/24x/48x
- Internal Retail Plexwriter. BLACK In stock:
100+ 93,87 93,87
113448 LG DVD drive IDE 16x/48x (GDR-8161B)
- Retail, inc. Power DVD software In stock: 20-49 49,62 49,62
113110 Chieftec Dragon Aluminium, Tower
- Case w/300W power P4/AMD, Silver, (UK) In stock: 20-49 114,58 114,58
Surcharges: 0,00
Total: 1 029,50

All in all not bad. We are not being ripped off for tech components obviously. That said, you'd have to put it all together yourself.

The case is not an issue - I got an Antec full tower with the transparent side for 100 euros from IT Direct. A neon strip or fan cover is about 10 or 20 quid.

Couple of questions on the spec: the hard drive is a little small for these days. Around an extra 40 or 50 would double that, or at least get you a much more future proof (or MP3 proof) 120GB. And that soundcard - that's the one with the front panel breakout box? Ver cool card, but take 120 off if you go for the one with 5.1, firewire, etc., but no breakout drive/live! drive or whatever they call it.

You won't do better though, but VAT might make the price level.

sionnach

hmmm, im impressed, but ud hafta add on another 100 for windows XP, forgot to include that in spec, and im fairly happy wit the 80 gig hard drive, im not big into storing mp3's. i think ill still go with the usa option tho

davelerave

it's safer to buy her for tech support and returns etc.,less hassle if there's a prob with pc

marauder

I have bought 2 PSU in the US and both have the 110/220 switches on the back so you should not have a problem there....

no tech support is worth thinking about especially if your not into tinkering with a broken PC.
I did once buy a Hard disk in the US and brought it back to Ireland . It was DOA so I sent it to Quantum (in Dundalk) at the time and they fixed it under warranty so you may not be completely without support...

If you have a heavy Heatsink on the processor, take it off before flying (Thermaltake recommend this in the manual)

Where are you going to buy it in the US? If you are near Oregon there is no sales tax (VAT) in Oregon so it might be worth a visit

elexes

in otherwords get a world wide warrienty

Snowbat

Originally posted by sionnach
it also includes a 5.1 surround sound system with subwoofer but i dunno if i should get that as well, might be a bit bulky

And probably comes with a non-switchable 110V transformer so watch out for that!

50Cent

A lot of people look at the power supplies over here and see that you can switch from 220 to 110 and back. But it doesn't work that way with the american power supplies, they don't have the switch.

Rubbish. It does.

But your better off buying here especially for the spec your after...its not that good a spec to buy from the US. But if you change your mind and go for one of those overclocked beasts that cost 4 grand over there, youll be savin a lot of cash compared to getting it here.