Quality Goods at Reasonable Prices! *U* (novatech.co.uk)

Member Name: ia_young

Product:	novatech.co.uk
Date:	10/04/01 (375 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The staff at Novatech know what they are doing.

Disadvantages: none

Novatech is one of the many UK based PC manufacturers come peripheral and parts retailers. The main office is based just outside of Portsmouth and acts both as a mail order, web order and normal shop in which people can come in and purchase direct from the catalogue.

** The Web Site **
The Novatech website is very well styled and set-up. The style that it is created in, which seems to be the norm for websites like this has links down the left-hand side of the web page to the different categories of products. Along the top of the web page are links to places such as ordering, basket, help and information on the website and company. On the rest of the page the displayed the main deals that the company are offering at the moment. At the bottom of the web page there is a list of manufacturers logos, if you click on one of these you can shop by manufacturer.

The categories on the left-hand side of the web page are; Computers, Notebooks, Cameras, Cases, CD-ROM & DVD, Consumables, Graphics Cards, Hard Drives, Memory, Modems, Monitors, motherboards, Networking, Printers, Processors, Scanners, Sound Cards, Software and Speakers. When you click on any of these categories you can search in the following way, by all manufacturers or by individual manufacturer. You can refine the search in the following ways; enter a keyword or stock number, enter a price range and only show items in stock.

The website is basically just an electronic version of the catalogue, which you can purchase the products from. For most of the products on the website there is additional information about the specifications of the item. This is good as it expands the information that the catalogue gives. The web site has been well designed as it is reasonably fast, it is also kept right up-to-date with the latest stock information, and this is updated every hour.

** Build you own PC **
Through the BluePrint system on the Novatech website you can build up your
own PC. This is a very useful service and work like this; there is a list of components that your PC can have and to the left of this are links to these items. Certain items are required, such as Case, Motherboard, RAM, Hard Drive, and Graphics Card. These items are shown to tell you which required items you don't yet have. This is a very good system and once you have selected the base items that are required the price of you system gets updated as you add an item. Also when you select certain items they required specific items to go with them, the BluePrint system helps you choose these (for example I chose a Pentium 4 CPU and automatically a Pentium 4 Motherboard was displayed).

** Purchasing **
Before you can purchase anything from the Novatech website you first have to register. You have to give the normal details such as name, address, credit card details etc… This is all done in a secure manner and afterwards you have access to your details, which you can change through the website. When you purchase anything from the website you don't have to pay any packaging or postage, which is very good. But to get the item quicker you can optionally pay, good if you want to item in a hurry. The delivery is quite quick, with the item appearing within four days if you don't pay for quicker postage. While the item is in transit to you, you can track the progress of the order online.

** Service **
One time I bought an item, a keyboard, from Novatech and this didn't work. The contacts on the keyboard connection were a bit dodgy and the keyboard wouldn't work. I took this into the customer service department and they took it away to test it. About five minutes later they came back with a new keyboard for me no other questions.

** The Catalogue **
When an item is purchased from Novatech, either from their shop or from their website you automatically get their catalogue sent to you every month. This is quite goo
d as it tells you about all of the latest offers and about all of the latest products that are offered by Novatech.

** Competition **
Noatech also run a competition in which you can either win a PC (up to £2000), a Laptop (worth £2000) or gift vouchers (worth £1500). All you have to do is sign up to their mailing list and each month go back to re-enter the competition. Although I haven't won anything, some people have and they must be pleased with Novatech. This sceme certainly keeps attracting me back to the website.

** Overall **
Novatech are a very good company, which sell their goods at reasonable prices. The customer service seems to be very good and the people helping you know what they are going on about. The website is very good and easy to use and the product information is very informative. I would recommend to the use of Novatech to anyone wanting to purchase any sort of computer related item. The BluePrint system is one of the highlights of the website, try it out, build your own PC (it is very cool!).

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