Computer Fairs UK

[wilamu]

Hi all,

 

Looking for computer fairs in the UK, could anyone point me to a website that lists them or even just share any they know of?

 

Or post any here that you know of.

 

Hard to find any, is the computer fair dying out??

 

Cheers!

[yathis]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer+fairs+in+the+UK&t=ffab&atb=v34-7__&ia=web

 

http://www.computerfairs.co.uk/

 

[wilamu]

1 minute ago, yathis said:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=computer+fairs+in+the+UK&t=ffab&atb=v34-7__&ia=web

 

http://www.computerfairs.co.uk/

 

 

Thanks, dude, I had a look on Google already. Did you actually check out any of the results?

 

computerfairs.co.uk has absolutely nothing on it apart from a Croyden event and the rest of googles results seem to lead to a similar dead end.

 

Looking for actual information on events people know of.

[yathis]

http://www.unitedkingdomdirectory.com/index.php?t=sub_pages&cat=6428

[wilamu]

This is where most of those lead too, like I said, I did take a look. Just the information you find on Google is pretty rubbish. See below.....

 

[Mug]

Why do you want to go to a computer fair? What kind of thing are you expecting?

[porina]

http://www.ukcomputerfairs.com/

 

They're seemingly active and recently held one in Swindon, which I missed checking out due to work travels. Lists others around country also.

[wilamu]

6 minutes ago, Mug said:

Why do you want to go to a computer fair? What kind of thing are you expecting?

Boredom lol and to take a look at some used equipment for something I want to build.

3 minutes ago, porina said:

http://www.ukcomputerfairs.com/

 

They're seemingly active and recently held one in Swindon, which I missed checking out due to work travels. Lists others around country also.

Thanks!

[Mug]

Just now, wilamu said:

Boredom lol and to take a look at some used equipment for something I want to build.

Fair enough

I'd say that Ebay will have a better selection of stuff for your project. I remember going to a computer fair years ago and it really wasn't that good. This was like ~2008.

[wilamu]

1 minute ago, Mug said:

Fair enough

I'd say that Ebay will have a better selection of stuff for your project. I remember going to a computer fair years ago and it really wasn't that good. This was like ~2008.

Yea I kinda was thinking eBay will be the best bet, or even just buy new cheap parts. I don't need anything powerful hence not wanting to spend a fortune. Might even grab an old enterprise desktop or something.

 

The computer fair thing is I mostly haven't been to one for over 10 years and just fancied an eye ball at it. haha. Might give it a miss if it was that disappointing! Plus....there will be too many people hahaha.

[porina]

I don't know if they're the same company or a different one, but there used to be other fairs in Swindon many years ago. Not much of interest to be honest. That series died off one particularly wet weekend when hardly any exhibitors bothered to turn up. That was held closer to where I live so I just walked there.

[Mug]

4 minutes ago, wilamu said:

Yea I kinda was thinking eBay will be the best bet, or even just buy new cheap parts. I don't need anything powerful hence not wanting to spend a fortune. Might even grab an old enterprise desktop or something.

The enterprise desktop is a great idea, many companies/government departments are selling off computers ridiculously cheap with perfectly serviceable specifications. You just have to be in the know about where to get them.

 

I remember my mate who works in an IT department at a local NHS trust was telling me they waste so much money buying new computers when they're throwing away Sandy/Ivy Bridge era computers. There's so much waste from the corporate and public sectors it's unreal.

[wilamu]

1 minute ago, porina said:

I don't know if they're the same company or a different one, but there used to be other fairs in Swindon many years ago. Not much of interest to be honest. That series died off one particularly wet weekend when hardly any exhibitors bothered to turn up. That was held closer to where I live so I just walked there.

I'd heard in the past it was a kind of dying thing nowadays. Bit of a shame! I'm in Bedfordshire so Swindon is farther than I'd like to travel lol

 

Just now, Mug said:

The enterprise desktop is a great idea, many companies/government departments are selling off computers ridiculously cheap with perfectly serviceable specifications.

 

I remember my mate who works in an IT department at a local NHS trust and he was telling me they waste so much money buying new computers when they're throwing away Sandy/Ivy Bridge era computers. There's so much waste from the corporate and public sectors it's unreal.

A place I used to work at (in IT) used to throw away so much good stuff to WEEE disposal. Was such a shame.

 

Have known people to work at NHS too, it's not just there IT department that THROWS money away, pretty disgusting really.

[porina]

48 minutes ago, Mug said:

I remember my mate who works in an IT department at a local NHS trust was telling me they waste so much money buying new computers when they're throwing away Sandy/Ivy Bridge era computers. There's so much waste from the corporate and public sectors it's unreal.

Where I work they had a policy of replacing desktops every 4 or 5 years regardless, since they would become unsupported. I knew several SB machines in my care were that age so I asked about the replacement plan, hoping to acquire the systems when they replace it. Turns out the recently financial situation has made them wake up and they're gonna keep them going indefinitely, offering me a SSD upgrade from HD which obviously I took them up on. So no practically free SB machines for me. I had previously scored Core 2 era systems and turned away P4s!

46 minutes ago, wilamu said:

I'd heard in the past it was a kind of dying thing nowadays. Bit of a shame! I'm in Bedfordshire so Swindon is farther than I'd like to travel lol

I'm in Swindon and I'm not sure it is worth going to Swindon  They appear to do one in Luton so much closer to you. Maybe keep an eye open for the next one.

[wilamu]

16 minutes ago, porina said:

I'm in Swindon and I'm not sure it is worth going to Swindon  They appear to do one in Luton so much closer to you. Maybe keep an eye open for the next one.

 

I like to try and avoid Luton if I'm honest! Not a particularly nice place. No offence to any Lutonians!

 

A place I used to work at would replace hardware at 3 years!! I think a lot of big enterprises do but they started to try and reuse 3+-year-old hardware with the recession/budget cuts etc.  They didn't let us IT staff have anything that they were throwing away, though. It had to go to WEEE disposal which sucked!!

[porina]

29 minutes ago, wilamu said:

They didn't let us IT staff have anything that they were throwing away, though. It had to go to WEEE disposal which sucked!!

While they don't exactly encourage us to do so, I believe they get charged for WEEE disposal so any reduction in what goes out can save them a little cash. There is a system here which is still going, which is individual assigned laptops are still on the 4 or 5 year replacement cycle, and for a donation to charity you get to keep the old one. They said they did it to help encourage people to take better care of it during its working life.

 

I was hoping they did similar on their servers, but it appears not. After getting permission (as the server disposal pile was separate from the general WEEE pile) I rummaged through it and everything was just a little too old to be worth bothering with. DDR2 era.