PB Computers experiences

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973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1094887 24-Jul-2014 12:31

When buying gear I use the following in order of preference (depending on who's got it in stock at the right price):

1) Computer Lounge
2) Ascent
3) Playtech
4) Paradigm PC

The staff at Computer Lounge are top notch - always helpful, know their stuff and are excellent when it comes to warranty.

MikeB4

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#1094918 24-Jul-2014 13:18

I think I am going to have crack at building one myself again. If the old war wounds get in my way one of my sons can help. Damn this condition.

NZtechfreak

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#1094980 24-Jul-2014 14:10

+1 for Computer Lounge. Nobody better that I have found.

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Dynamic

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#1094997 24-Jul-2014 14:34

I have not purchased anything from PlayTech for a couple of years, but a company I used to work for bought from them regularly and generally had an excellent experience.

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nigelj

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Ultimate Geek

#1095023 24-Jul-2014 15:40

I've started 'going off' PB Tech as I've started to get the feeling that their service & stock levels are slipping. (Try buying a set of decent compatible Motherboard, PSU, RAM & CPU from North Shore or Henderson at times)

Playtech on the other hand seem to be beating (or competing) with PB on price, better/nicer store and reasonable stock and have some friendly/decent staff.

End of day, I'd buy from either, but starting to prefer Playtech.

mattwnz

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#1095031 24-Jul-2014 15:45

I have ordered parts from playtech and found them good. I believe they also may build PCs for other computer companies.

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1095035 24-Jul-2014 15:50

mattwnz: I have ordered parts from playtech and found them good. I believe they also may build PCs for other computer companies.

Yeah, one of the guys there stated to me that they have a significant PC build operation. Obviously no way to verify the claim easily, but it does seem to be frequently repeated.

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MikeB4

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#1095037 24-Jul-2014 15:53

I take it that the Computer Lounge custom builds come assembled yes?

DravidDavid

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Uber Geek

#1095061 24-Jul-2014 16:51

KiwiNZ: I take it that the Computer Lounge custom builds come assembled yes?

If you pay for the custom build option, yes.

I would only use PlayTech if I was buy components and assembling myself. I had one pre-built for a customer as I had no time and there were all sorts of issues with it. Mainly that it didn't boot unless it was plugged in to a power source for 30 minutes first. They took their time repairing it, but put it on a 2 hour courier when I kicked up a stink about it.

I've just finished putting through a $2,200 dollar order with Computer Lounge. I think I've parted with at least $15,000 dollars with them on computer equipment for personal use over the years and have never had a single problem. They always seem to get to the problem before it happens. They told me a DVD drive and SSD were out of stock, provided alternatives that I could select and processed the order all within an hour. Awesome stuff!

PBTech has to be the worst out of all of them. It's great too, because I get a lot of their customers come to me. The most recent one had a laptop repaired by PB Technologies.

When the ex-customer of theirs picked up the laptop to give it to me, the case came away from itself and a metal hinge cracked the body because the tech forgot to put the screws back in after repairing it. The funny part is, he said it has happened to him before with another laptop! I wonder how many other people are missing the screws from their laptops that have had their machine repaired by PB Tech.

Long story short, if you know how and you want to put the effort in, build it yourself. It's more fun working towards a final product and you know you have a machine that hasn't been screwed up for you by somebody else.

jlittle

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#1095065 24-Jul-2014 16:59

MurrayM: I've generally had good experience with PB. My only bad experience was with an HP laptop that was bought from them.

My experience exactly. I've bought about 10 systems from them through the years, their prices are always keen. Let me test a motherboard on their site once (machine wouldn't boot, I suspected motherboard, having replaced power supply previously, so brought the machine to the shop, swapped the motherboard there, moving CPU and RAM to it; still running 4 years later). The HP pavillion dv6 they sold me was that bad they shouldn't have sold it, IMO, but that was HP's fault, they got sued over them in the US.

Their website is good, too; if you're in the shop, the sales staff use it to answer questions. I get consumables and parts through it.

blakamin

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#1095222 24-Jul-2014 20:43

Paradigm PCs are who I'd use. Awesome service and support.

Kapiti based.

MurrayM

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#1095411 25-Jul-2014 09:38

jlittle: Their website is good, too; if you're in the shop, the sales staff use it to answer questions. I get consumables and parts through it.

Yeah their North Shore branch is pretty close to where I live and I use them for consumables and cheap stuff. I don't think I'd use them again for complete systems.

homebrand

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#1099467 31-Jul-2014 16:53

I custom built my PB computer and it is great! Great service and all, they even wanted me to build it at their stations and take whatever parts i wanted. It was because the manager of that branch wanted to see my PC skills cause he wanted to hire me but it still runs great. Overclocked it to 5.4 Ghz CPU and runs as smooth as ever. I would 100% vouch for PB. Even got 3 years free mechanical warranty

bonkas

314 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1100110 1-Aug-2014 15:45

I find if you go into a PB Tech store knowing what you are after, collect the item, take it to the checkout you are OK.

If you need to speak to anybody about anything about anything more complicated than how do I plug this in then your going to have a bad time.

I bought a hard drive that I installed into my NAS and the NAS started to smoke and never worked again.. on a hunch I connected it to my second PC and BANG! power supply blew. I went back to PB Tech with the drive the very same day and explained what had happened and if there was a change of getting a new power supply also. They said no and started having a go at me for connecting the drive wrong and it is all my fault so no replacement. Long story short.. I didnt even walk out with a refund or a replacement drive, power supply or nas.

Another time I had 3 different items and the including GST amount did not add up.. was about 10% more on a $100 and $200 item. When I hit them up about it they just told me "no this is correct, look what our computer says, see!" and the calculation I performed on my phone were wrong. I just walked out.

This is the PB Tech in Frankton, Hamilton.

I have bought items online from the auckland store without issue.

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#1100115 1-Aug-2014 15:55

nigelj:
mattwnz: I have ordered parts from playtech and found them good. I believe they also may build PCs for other computer companies.

Yeah, one of the guys there stated to me that they have a significant PC build operation. Obviously no way to verify the claim easily, but it does seem to be frequently repeated.

Yeah they do have a bit going on for other suppliers, they were supplying PP.co.nz with pre-built systems.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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