LETTERS
6 JULY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE
Letters
Thelockdownisputtingahugestrainonthe broadbandnetwork,and forthose
withoutafibreconnectionthe situationisevenworse
[email protected]
Star letter
Exchangerates
Pleasespareathoughtforthoseof
usstillstuckonexchange-onlylines.
WithtalkofGigabitconnectionsand
fibre-to-the-home,wearestillunableto
getfibre-to-the-cabinet.Theproblemhas
onlygotworseduetoself-isolationand
theneedtoworkfromhome;the
demandsonthealreadyslowADSL
connectionhavegotworse.
Aftercheckingonline,BTOpenreach
alwayshasthesamemessageinits
postcodechecker:“Wedon’thaveplans
to upgradeyourareayet.Butwe’re
workingwithgovernmentandindustry
to changethat.”
Giventhattherestofthevillagewas
fibre-enabledovertwoyearsago,this
seemslikeanemptypromise.
Reverend Anthony William Mitchell
We’re sure there will be many
others like you facing worse internet
speeds than usual during the
lockdown. According to the most
recent worldwide broadband speed
league from Cable.co.uk, the UK
remains behind countries such as Madagascar
and two-thirds of other EU countries.
Wecan’tdomuchto
speed up your internet
connection or force BT’s
hand to upgrade your area
during the lockdown, but we
can send you anew SSD as
the winner of our Star Letterprize,soatleast
your computer might run abit faster.
Write in and win
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applications?Thanks to Crucial,you can achieve your dream of a
faster PC or laptop with a500GB MX500SSD.The writer of our
Star Letterwill be awarded one of these solid-statedevices, which
can be installed in adesktop PC or alaptop.
This SSD is 45 times moreenergy-efficient than atypical hard
drive,and has sequential read and writespeeds up to 560/510MB/s
and random reads/writes up to 95K/90K IOPS, making it the
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Profitofdoom
Ireadwithinterestthe
reviewofhomeofficePCs
(Shopper 38 7).Onthelookoutfor
anewPC,Icheckedoutsomeof
thewebsitesgiven.Asof
mid-April,Palicomphaskeptthe
priceat£600,Wired2fireisnow
at£603butChillblasthas
increasedtheFusionDauntless
FamilyPCtoawhopping£760.
Thatisanincreaseofover25%
onthepriceinthearticle.The
specificationappearstobethe
samebutthepricehasincreased
sincethearticlewaspublishedwhenthe
Chillblastwebsiteshowedthepriceas£600.
Isthisprofiteering?Ifailtoseehowsuch
anincreasecouldoccurinsuchashorttime
andthoughtIshouldbringittoyourattention.
CMcPherson
PC component prices can fluctuaterapidly,
which has aknock-on effect on PC prices, but
as you notethat’s quiteahike.Wecontacted
Chillblast and received the following response:
“We’ve seen significant price rises on
components across the board, due to the
vast FX (foreign exchange) rate
changes we’ve seen since the
coronavirus epidemic, and the fact
that many components went into
shortage when China was in
shutdown, and therefore had to be
brought in by airfreight at
significant cost uplifts.
“The Ryzen 72700X –which, if
you recall from the review,was our
‘crown jewel’ component –has
also gone up by some £45, mostly
because the stock that got flushed
intothe channel at adiscount
dried up uncharacteristically
quickly when there were major shortages on
other high-end hardware.
“Wealways do our best to maintain prices
at alevel consistent with reviews; however,ina
situation where the global supply chain and
component prices are adversely affected by a
totally unpredictableforce majeureevent, we
obviously cannot sustain selling products at a
loss and remain aviable business.
“Whilst Iamsure this will be disappointing
to Mr McPherson,and he might feel the
changes are unreasonable,theyare as aresult
of factors beyond our control.”
Case dismissed
Ienjoyedyour‘BuildYourPerfectPC’
articleinShopper388.MyfamilyandI
haveonlyeverboughtonefinishedPCin
19 95;sincethenIhavebuiltthemall.
ThereisjustoneissueIwouldliketo
bringup:indiscussingcomputercases,there
wasnomentionofexternal5.5indrivebays.
Ithinkthisisworthdiscussing.
Fordonkeys’years,oneortwoexternal
5.5indrivebayshasbeenstandardin
computercases,forCD/DVD/Blu-raydiscs.
AlloursoftwarecameonCD/DVD,many
gamesrequiredtheCDinthedrivetowork,
anddatacouldbebackeduponCD/DVD.
Whereaswithfasterbroadbandalotof
thishasmovedintothedownload/upload
world,Iamsurethatvirtuallyeveryoneother
thanacompletenewbietocomputerswill
havetheneedtoaccessopticaldiscs.
Perusingtheonlineretailsector,Ihave
beenawarethatthe5.5inexternaldrivebay
hasbeendisappearingfromnewcomputer
cases,andindeedinyourdatatablenot
oneofthecasesyourecommendedhasone.
Ifsomeonebuysacaseandonlythenfinds
outthattheycannotfita5.5inDVD-type
drive,itisabitofadisaster.drive,itisa
⬆PCpricesare in a
stateofflux
