In the process of finishing off my home theatre setup. Was initially planning on order one of the new LED backlit 52" Samsung LCDs, although Ive managed to borrow a 46" 1080p Samsung LCD, so Im going to wait until the January sales before I order mine.

In the meantime I want to beef up my HTPC. Heres what Im planning on getting:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 4x2.4GHz 8Mb
4x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2-6400
Samsung 1Tb 7200 SATA2 NCQ 32Mb (3x 334Gb platters!!)

And for my laptop:

2x 1Gb Corsair DDR2-4200 SO-DIMM
Samsung 160Gb 5400

The only part I havent decided on yet is the graphics card - the Nvidia 8800GTs look great, although I think I might wait and see what the ATI HD 3850/3870 look like on 19th Nov. Im very happy with the onboard sound on my motherboard as it outputs everything encoded using Dolby Digital Live.


Thing is, I had a quick look on a few European sites and started to wonder why I should even order from the UK.

For example:

Intel C2Q Q6600
UK - £158 inc VAT
EU - £148 inc VAT (€211)

Samsung 1Tb (HD103UJ)
UK - £217 inc VAT
EU - £171 inc VAT (€244)

2z Corsair TwinX 2Gb DDR2-6400
UK - 2x £41 inc VAT
EU - 2x £38 inc VAT (€55)

EVGA 8800GT Superclocked
UK - £187 inc VAT
EU - £171 inc VAT (€245)


Total
UK - £644 + shpping (£5-10?)
EU - £566 + shipping (€20)


OK so thats using currency rates from XE, but even if youre more conservative with the exchange rate I doubt it make it much less attractive considering the gulf of the difference!


Now I just need to wait for that Samsung drive to launch and ATI to showcase their new lineup to see if I should go for the 8800GT.

do you have a 64Bit OS?  4Gb is a waste of time if not.  

Quote from: Beakerdo you have a 64Bit OS?  4Gb is a waste of time if not.  

Im currently using XP Media Centre although I plan to switch to Vista 64.

The only downsides are shipping costs and if you have to return anything.

Most online vendors order from overseas anyway. We used to get Corsair from France along with Zalman kit.

Quote from: Clockd 0NeThe only downsides are shipping costs and if you have to return anything.

Most online vendors order from overseas anyway. We used to get Corsair from France along with Zalman kit.

Do you mind sharing who you used to order from in France, or was it a disti/wholesaler?

ive ordered a few general things from germany & had no problems. Shipping was more than reasonable as well. Never paid more than £15 & the items have arrived within a week - usually via DHL.

Quote from: Eggtasticoive ordered a few general things from germany & had no problems. Shipping was more than reasonable as well. Never paid more than £15 & the items have arrived within a week - usually via DHL.

Who did you use?

Ive been looking at Hardware Versand, who seem to have great prices and 20 euro shipping to UK.

not computer equipment. Satellite stuff.. but I have ordered blank dvdr from germany though.

Quote from: Kunal

Quote from: Clockd 0NeThe only downsides are shipping costs and if you have to return anything.

Most online vendors order from overseas anyway. We used to get Corsair from France along with Zalman kit.

Do you mind sharing who you used to order from in France, or was it a disti/wholesaler?

Disti/wholesaler I believe. It would be wrong of me to start naming all the suppliers anyway