Eugene's observations

For years I have been advising people buying a new computer to shun all off-the-shelf outlets in favour of specialist online only retailers.  See 
http://www.1computercare.co.uk/pitfalls.php

I am comforted to read support for this position in this month's edition of PC Pro magazine issue 263.  They sent 'blind buy' shoppers in to PC World and John Lewes branches and were left with the following conclusions

• They were not subjected to pressurised upselling although suggestions for additional purchases were made
• The assistants' degree of knowledge was very variable at best and considerable bluffing was apparent. My favourite quote is "GeForce was equivalent to an AMD" and a GTX was the best choice instead.  [GeForce is a brand of Nvidia, AMD are chip manufacturers, and GTX is a type of motor car]  OMG.
• the cost of hardware was more than equivalent computers bought at online specialists

Their conclusion is that "computing remains an immensely complicated world" ... "Stick to the specialists". "In all you get much less for your money [with a branded product]".