Recommended Products
Items I regularly recommend - all tried and tested by myself.
I never accept referral fees or any other inducements.
Many of these links point to Amazon UK. A few things worth knowing.
If a ‘shipped by Amazon’ item arrives later than the date on the confirmation email and you have a Prime subscription you are entitled to a £5 credit. If you don’t have a Prime subscription they will credit the delivery fee. Call them on 0800 279 72345 - open until midnight. Some of their customer service reps don’t know this, ask them to check with a supervisor.
The one month ‘return window’ does not apply to faulty or ‘not as described’ items. You can return items at Amazon’s expense that were ‘shipped by Amazon’. For faulty items, up to two years later. Call them on 0800 279 72345 - until midnight. They can message third party ‘Amazon marketplace sellers’ on your behalf which often achieves results than you doing it.
When calling them on 0800 279 72345 you’ll need to navigate an awful automated system first. Make non understable ‘wooowoo’ noises in response to its questions to force it to transfer you to a helpful human.
If you don’t need an item urgently use camelcamelcamel to see a graph of the price over time, and when it reaches your chosen amount have them send you an email. Some Amazon prices fluctuate wildly. Copy and paste the products page’s web address into the ‘Find Amazon products’ box at the top of the page.
Keyboards and pointing devices.
A lovely mechanical PC Keyboard - Cherry KC200 brown MX2 switches - Amazon UK. Often cheaper. / Cherry. Select the UK version.
Brown does not refer to a visible external colour, just the type of switch.
A decent, basic, wired mouse - Tecknet USB Wired Mouse.
A better (non gaming ) mouse - Logitech M500 Wired USB Mouse.
Trackball – an alternative to a mouse, that’s particularly useful to those with RSI - Elecom Huge trackball.
Computer speakers and webcams.
Excellent for the money, computer speakers - Creative Peble V.3 - Amazon UK / Argos.
Better (mid-range) computer speakers - JBL 1 Series 104 - beware - often listed for as much as double the £80 you should pay for it on Amazon.
Better but larger mid-range speakers - PreSonus Eris 3.5 Gen 2
A decent quality good value webcam with microphone - Yimona.
High end 4K webcam with a microphone - Obsbot Meet 2 Ultra HD 4K.
Plug-in storage.
2TB Hard drive for backups - Toshiba Canvio 2TB - Amazon UK / Argos.
When buying from Amazon Make sure it is shown as both sold and shipped by Amazon. There are fakes out there.
USB Sticks (64 to 256GB) - Kingston DataTraveler SE9 Gen 3
2.5 Inch Hard Drive Enclosure - Ugreen. Converts a 2.5” drive installed inside a PC into an external USB plugin drive.
Plugin USB optical (CD and DVD) drive Hitachi-LG GP60
Misc
Unpowered USB 3.0 hub - Noovoo
USB 3.0 SD Card adapter Beikell
2 x USB C to A adapters - Syntech
USB 3 to Ethernet adaptor (for laptops lacking a wired network socket) - Ugreen
Mouse Mat - Hsurbtra
HDMI Monitor cable (assorted lengths) - Southlight
65W 2 port GaN USB C charger - Ugreen
2 x 100W USB C Cables. ideal for the above charger - Iniu
Books
A beginners guide for Windows PC owners - Boost Your Skills In Computer Basics and Windows 11 by Gary P Marshall II.
A beginners guide for Apple Mac owners - Macs All-in-One For Dummies by Paul McFedries.
Another good Apple Mac beginners guide - Teach Yourself Visually iMac by Guy Hart-Davies (applies to other Macs; such as MacBooks and Mac Mini’s too).
Password Book - Clever Fox - like an adress book, but for passwords.
Windows PCs
For PCs, Macs and printers contact me for advice, as prices and availability frequently change and will depend on your needs,
These though are the PCs I currently often recommend:
Desktops
Compact desktop PC - ASUS ExpertCenter D5 SFF
Asus all-in-one PC (a PC combined with it’s screen webcam and speakers in one unit) - Asus A3402.
Laptops
A decent mid-range 15.6” screen laptop - ASUS Vivobook Intel i5 15 X1504VA (Amazon) / ASUS Vivobook 15 Ryzen 7 16GB 512GB (Argos).
Good value higher spec 15.6” OLED screen laptop ASUS Vivobook 15 X1505ZA (Amazon) / ASUS Vivobook 15.6 OLED R5 (Argos).
Excellent lightweight 14” OLED screen laptop - Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UM3402YA (Amazon) / ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED 14in Ryzen 7 16GB (Argos).
I love Framework’s modular, easily repairable and upgradeable laptops but there’s a considerable cost overhead - more than twice the price of the above devices.
High end desktop PCs for gaming, video editing etc
I recommend CCLOnline. For help choosing one or configuring a custom build Contact me.
An excellent portable folding Bluetooth (wireless) keyboard kit for mobiles and tablets.
1. Arteck folding Bluetooth keyboard.
2. Attach these ‘rubber’ feet to the four corners of the keyboard’s underside to prevent it wobbling as you type.
4. Case for the above; stand, keyboard and charging cables - Digicharge slim hard carry case For TomTom Go Classic.
It could do with the addition of a foam spacer – I used double side tape to stick three bits of black foam from some electronics packaging:
