Quebec Dopers: Computer Stores?

Factual Questions
1

Hey all, I’m asking this question for my brother, who’s currently taking some courses up in Rigaud, QC. He’s going to need to purchase a cheap laptop with a DVD-ROM drive for some instructional materials and, since he only has email access, he’s asked me to do some online research for him.

Does anybody know of any cheap, reputable outlets in Rigaud or surrounding areas that sell laptops? Price is an issue so used or refurbished would be preferable. Also, he’d be willing to make runs to Ottawa or Montreal if anybody had any recommendations for those 2 cities.

2

Bumping this once to catch any daytime dopers who missed the original post. Also, if any mods feel this would be more appropriate for IMHO, please feel free to move it.

3

Why is he set to buy locally? Unless he just wants to support a local store for some reason (understandable), why buy a laptop locally?

Depending on what he is needing, I would do a couple of things:

  1. look online from major laptop manufacturers to get price quotes (surely most will ship to quebec), like Dell, Gateway, Mpc, Apple.

  2. Look at what newegg.com has - they might have a great deal on clearance or something, and their customer service is the best around. I have bought over $5k from them in the last year or two and have been satisfied every single time.

  3. Have him check out the local classified ads. Often people ignore these, and one can sometimes find a good deal on a used laptop.

  4. Check eBay. Use sense, and shop on eBay. I picked up a nice iBook for a great deal on eBay. Be smart, check out the seller, use an escrow fund if necessary.

After doing all these, pick what you think the best deal is. Buying a laptop is probably a major chunk of change to him, so take a week or two to research everything, because he will have to live with it for a while.

If you are looking for recommendations, I would personally buy an Apple iBook or PowerBook because they are very good for students, small, have good battery life, competetive price, very nice LCDs, and have wireless and dvd capabilities built in.

Scott

4

I’m waiting to hear from my Bro-in-law who might have some suggestions.

I know there’s an outft in Hull on St-Joseph called Laptops Inc. I’ve never done business with them though so I can’t comment on that.

In Ottawa itself there’s Computer Recyclers and Refurb computers.

Personally, if I wanted a system and needed to limit the cash outlay, I’d go for a desktop system rather than a notebook.

You can pick up a reasnably recent system at either of those places for under $300.00 CDN.

At Computer Recyclers (I have bought deveral there) the systems are rebuilt and fully tested and warranteed for 45 days.

I’ve bought about 6 from them so far with no problems.

5

Hodge,

Feel free to have your brother contact me via email if he would like details on the vendors I mentioned in my last post.

I also got a reply from my brother in law and although he does have some excellent resources for computer equipment on the West Island (Vaudreuil) at very reasonable prices, it’s new equipment.

Again, if it’s not absolutely a requirement that it be a notebook PC, he’ll get a lot more bang for his buck if he goes for a desktop.