Lamington Road... "Andar ki khabar" :-)

Me and my friend visited Lamington road today, a place for all technology freaks; or rather, a place where all computer hardware lovers would love to spend a lot of time...

So, try and remember whether this has happened to you, when you were at a PC peripheral shop? You go to the shop/ retailer, ask him for something, say an LCD monitor or DDR RAM... the retailer quickly picks up his phone and makes 2 phone calls, one for the LCD and 1 for the RAM. Now, some expenses conscious users like me and my friend thought, how the hell can he afford to sell this stuff at such a low price, make these contingent phone calls and even make profit and run his shop...

The answer to this is, he does not make any normal outbound calls. The entire Lamington Road is actually connected on an Inter Com. The phone call he makes rings at the brand distributors warehouse directly, who by the ways is in some remote unknown place... some khufiya jagah. E.g. If you wish to purchase an LG LCD Monitor, the retailer makes a call to the LG Distributor, who by the way is just 1, in the market. There is 1 unique distributor, for almost all products. The Transcend guy, the ViewSonic guy, all are sitting at such remote places, which we ain't aware about, and that's where all the intercom calls are routed!

The price difference you notice is because the retailers define their profit margins. Off late, these guys don't really have a big profit margin. He might be selling an LCD monitor for a profit of INR 100, or might be selling RAM modules for a profit of INR 50.

Just make sure, you bargain! The best way to negotiate and bargain is to do shop hopping! Yes, do that. Visit every shop you can, which you find looks nice & is crowded. The more the crowded it is, the best & the lowest price is what you'll pay.

Me & my friend visited a couple of shops today... Terabyte, Hardtrac Computers (We got our stuff from here), PC Guide (Is actually, perhaps the biggest & most easily recognizable shop @ Lamington, Perfect Electronics... to name a few...

Anyway, happy shopping at Lamington :-)

By the wayz, I got two 1 GB, 800 FSB Transcend RAM for INR 1500 each. i.e. INR 3000 total. I was first quoted a price of INR 1650 each. You see, after hopping around 7 shops, I finally got it for INR 1500! My friend was quoted INR 9450 for a ViewSonic 19" wide screen monitor. We finally got that price down to INR 9150. Of course, he eventually purchase an LG Wide screen monitor for INR 10K, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how well you can negotiate!

Hi. Just so all my readers know, this is my very first blog and I am writing this, after one of my very good friend Abhishek suggested on me writing one! Without wasting much time of my precious readers I’ll just brief you about the idea of this blog…

Around 2 weeks back, I decided to purchase a new PC for my house. Ideally, I wanted to buy it after Windows Vista was launched for the consumer market. Unfortunately my old system’s hard drive was too old and tired to work more for me, and started showing it’s anger by making mechanical sounds! (It was a Seagate 60 GB IDE 5400 RPM drive)

My machine hunt started by checking prices of individual components, which one would require to make a powerful PC. I visited many sites, forums and even ebay which listed the peripheral prices. The listings on ebay are too pricey and you have to be really lucky to get a good deal! I also saw that not many forums have listed Mumbai prices… This is one reason that has made me write this blog for you people! Hope it is a little useful!

I have not listed any specific shops here because you’d end up buying from one who gives you the best deal and also, I am not here to advertise for any vendor! All the peripherals carry their nice individual warranties of which, only the warranties by Hard Disk excite us! 5 Years! Wow!

~ Who should read this? People from the beautiful Mumbai City who have heard about ‘Lamington Road’ and those cheap prices that they get the PC components at! Also, for readers who’d want to assemble their own PC someday!

~ Who should NOT read this? People wanting to run after branded PC’s… Dell, HP’s, Zenith (Ahem…) this really isn’t for you guys!

I have mentioned my PC configuration here... All prices in INR (Indian Rupees):

Genuine Intel 965 RY (also know RYCK at Lamington!) Motherboard - 6600

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Processor - 9000

LG GSN-H20 Dual Layer DVD Writer - 1950

Sony DVD – ROM Combo Drive (Don’t ask why I got one more!) - 1650

1 GB Transcend RAM (Single Module) - 5100

160 GB Samsung (Yucks!) SATA HDD 7200 RPM - 3150

19” ViewSonic Wide screen Monitor - 14000

1.44 Sony FDD - 350

Plain Keyboard and Optical Mouse - 500

Creative Decoder DDTS-100 (Explained later) - 7500

Creative Inspire T6060 (5.1 Speakers) - 4800

Delta 350 Watts Power Supply & Intex Cabinet (Monalisa) – 7 HDD Bay’s - 3250

Well as you see, this is my new PC! Yeps, I spend almost 58 Grand’s but you guys or girls who understand what I’ve purchased, you’d be like… “Whoooaaa” by now!

Warranty information:
The processor and motherboard carry 2 years warranty, the LCD monitor 3 years, RAM carry’s a lifetime warranty and rest all others carry 1 year warranty.

Also note that, as of today, prices have dropped further and the prices mentioned above are a little higher! (Well, I got the machine delivered at my house in Bandra and if you guys are good at bargaining then you can get a better deal than this)

If you have seen, I have not purchased a Video Card yet and this is because that is only thing I’ll purchase only after Vista debuts in India. All you people who want to buy a new PC, hang on to it and buy one after Vista releases! Ofcourse this advice is useless for people who are more than happy with Windows XP (I am happy too, just that newer OS’s excite me). Well, I’ve seen many forums and site’s mentioning about Vista’s powerful UI which is completely driven by a video card… an OS first of it’s kind from Microsoft (It always is, huh!). So if all you Operating System crazy people are awaiting Vista’s release like I am… think and buy a graphics card perhaps sometime later! Also, ideally purchase a 17” or 19” widescreen display… the typical 4:3 screens are a little out of style now!

Some components explained:

I’ll only explain why I got a Delta 350 Watts power supply and what’s with this Creative Decoder mentioned above, in my blog that I'll post later in a day or two! The reason: I still have to install my speakers and will try posting a review rather than just posting what it is!

Some extra information…

Where exactly is Lamington Road and where are all these peripheral shops?

Lamington Road, Grant Road Station - You get down at grant road and move towards the east (Grant Road East that is). The moment you get down out of the station you see a fly-over on your right. Move in the direction of the fly-over and follow the road, which goes left and is now parallel to the fly-over. At the foot of the fly-over you are near a signal crossing. Take a right here (cross the road) and this is a dream lane for any guy/ girl who wants to assemble his/ her own PC! Walk into any of the peripheral shops which are predominantly dominated by our good ol’ traditional Baniya’s! and list them your dream PC configuration

About me:

I am Ameya Bhakay. I completed my Graduation in Commerce from Chinai College, Andheri and then completed my Masters in Computer Application (MCA), Mumbai University. I am currently working as a Software Engineer at SmartStream Technologies (P.) Ltd.