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Just out of curiosity, has anyone here been to the Bowlers Computer fair in Manchester, UK Recently? It use to be the largest computer fair in Europe, but i don't know if its worth going there again as apparently they charge something like £5 entry now, It use to be very cheep in there, but i havn't been for a fair few years.

While on the subject of computer fairs/markets, the popularity of them here seems to be slowly but surely dying. Perhaps it's a global trend ?

Bowlers is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

(ok, yeah it's a top place, but full of some of the dodgiest software and bits of kit you could ever possibly imagine).

I remember all the questionable software stores there, i remember buying a copy of windows there once, i don't think it was an origional copy, but it only cost me about £10

but i want to change my tower to a htpc to avoid buying a new monitor, so a need a case and some bits, but i dont know if its still any good for that kind of thing anymore, even with the questionable software stalls, it use to be a good place to get cheep hardware but last time i went i think was 2005, if not then i'd profer not to waste £5 entry fee.

Forget it MSon, you won't find anything for your PC that you won't find just as cheap online. Have a look at eBuyer.com, and then you won't have to wade through all that junk with the smelly people. I mean surely if your a geek, going out in public, there's at least a little desire to have a freakin shower!.

Sorry, the last time I went to one of those I just about lost my breakfast, queuing behind this guy with a boil the size of an old mouse ball on his neck.

I'm not against these things, as a family we'd actually go to computer fairs and stuff, looking for obscure ST games. It's great fun, but something we should be relishing, not cheapening. I remember going and buying lots of cool games from fairs, games I'd never seen before - usually not many for the ST, but that was half the fun, looking for the damn things. Before the internet, fairs were pretty damn vital, nowadays I don't see a real need for them, unless you really desperately need a massive stack of low quality CDR's. Its the same with computer shops - they used to be dark, damp, and smell of 2nd hand smoke - but you'd always find something worth buying. These days I'm sure any PC store that is not owned by PC World or Apple, well these are money laundering fronts I'm sure of it - if one of them stays open for 12 months, then it's a front.

I've not been to bowlers for years, but been thinking about going there recently. If you decide to go, drop me an MSN and i'll waltz along.