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Re. the comments on Farnell vs Digikey pricing - I'm increasingly finding Farnell to be significantly cheaper for a lot of stuff - Mouser are also often cheaper then DK, comparable to Farnell. Seems to depend a lot of manufacturer, and in some cases the difference can be many tens of percent at 100x qtys.
Unfortunately DK tend to carry significantly more stock, so on several occasions I've cleared out Farnell's stock and made up the balance from DK.
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#1 Reply
Posted by
EEVblog
on 31 Jul, 2010 02:36
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Yeah, it's just pot really with which one will have the best prices. Newark/Farnell/Digikey/Mouser. That's where the likes of findchips.com and octopart.co0m come in.
All things considered, Digikey does seem to have the biggest overall range.
Dave.
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#2 Reply
Posted by
saturation
on 31 Jul, 2010 11:05
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I read of Futurlec, any comments? There are some posts on the net quite bad, and many good.
http://www.futurlec.com/AboutUs.shtmlany "good" electronics store nearby asia? i believe both farnell and digikey will charge substantial shipping cost to asian.
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#3 Reply
Posted by
EEVblog
on 31 Jul, 2010 12:56
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I read of Futurlec, any comments? There are some posts on the net quite bad, and many good.
http://www.futurlec.com/AboutUs.shtml
Only if you are a hobbyist. No professional organisation would touch them, as they aren't an official supplier for anyone. Most likely all gray market parts.
Dave.
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#4 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 31 Jul, 2010 17:52
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in the UK digikey is so horribly expensive I'd not touch them, in fact do not have an account yet, unless they have that exotic part nobody else has, RS are just a bunch of wankers these days so I tend to use farnell mostly
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#5 Reply
Posted by
logictom
on 31 Jul, 2010 20:20
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I think I would use Farnell a lot more if there wasn't the £20 minimum spend, I always want smaller orders and usually buy elsewhere rather than wait for a full cart.
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#6 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 31 Jul, 2010 20:25
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yea i use RS for emergencies or just go ebay or other small suppliers, usually if I need a few bits I can cook up and order for £20 with some imagination
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#7 Reply
Posted by
allanw
on 31 Jul, 2010 21:20
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I read of Futurlec, any comments? There are some posts on the net quite bad, and many good.
http://www.futurlec.com/AboutUs.shtml
any "good" electronics store nearby asia? i believe both farnell and digikey will charge substantial shipping cost to asian.
Takes over 2-3 weeks to get packages to the US. I buy mechanical parts and random LED/LCD modules from them. Also their value pack kits come in handy.
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in the UK digikey is so horribly expensive I'd not touch them, in fact do not have an account yet, unless they have that exotic part nobody else has, RS are just a bunch of wankers these days so I tend to use farnell mostly
It is always worth checking both - DK are significantly cheaper on some items, but much less less so than back when the pound was stronger against the dollar.
Mouser are also well worth checking since they matched DKs free shipping on £50 orders.
DK's parametric search also pisses all over Farnell's, and worth using to find parts that you then buy from Farnell..!
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#9 Reply
Posted by
EEVblog
on 01 Aug, 2010 03:26
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I think I would use Farnell a lot more if there wasn't the £20 minimum spend, I always want smaller orders and usually buy elsewhere rather than wait for a full cart.
That used to be a problem here, but now Farnell and RS Australia have no minimum order, and free delivery.
Awesome service!
Dave.
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#10 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 01 Aug, 2010 07:27
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In the UK they used to have no mim order, guess I ordered too many small packs
, I think there is no minimum for business customers but us poor sods of the general public are as always in the UK screwed. well £20 is not too much to ask for a min order and with free delivery I don't mind, I could buy stuff anyday for that
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#11 Reply
Posted by
orbiter
on 01 Aug, 2010 11:08
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I don't think the delivery is free from Farnell's, it's in with the minimum order price probably
I don't use digikey at all either.
Slightly OT here but... Is it just me or does anyone else find Mouser a pain in the butt? I've got an account with them but everything I seem to want doesn't have a price next to it and it's soooooo frustrating.
I tend to use Farnells mostly, especially for larger orders, but for things like LED's, transistors etc, as a hobbyist ebay is a godsend.
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#12 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 01 Aug, 2010 11:31
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yea I grabbed some 2N7000 off ebay at £2, I could not make such and order from farnell, I myself sell parts on ebay as buying bulk is much much cheaper
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I just did a big production order totalling about GBP3K with 25 or so lines.
For equivalent items, the pricing lowest to highest was fairly consistently Mouser, Farnell, Digikey, with the biggest gap usually between Digikey and Farnell. Mouser were generally only slightly below Farnell, but Mouser seem to be less prone to scrunching up paper SMD tapes...
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#14 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 05 Aug, 2010 11:55
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Well I've been looking at mouser and to be honest for the sort of stuff I get they seem to be no cheaper, i expect they concentrate on SMD prices so as to compete for manufacturers, I just buy a few through hole parts now and then for prototyping
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#15 Reply
Posted by
slburris
on 05 Aug, 2010 13:53
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I read of Futurlec, any comments? There are some posts on the net quite bad, and many good.
http://www.futurlec.com/AboutUs.shtml
I tried them once from here in the US. Good prices, but it took 2 months for my order to
show up. While I'm just a hobbyist, that's too long even for me. If I order from
DK or Mouser, I know I'll have parts in less than a week even with the slowest
shipping options.
Scott
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#16 Reply
Posted by
saturation
on 05 Aug, 2010 14:19
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Thanks for the replies on Futurlec, I am very skeptical about their offerings.
I don't mind waiting for low cost parts I need to stock, but the supply distribution chain issue bothers me more, that is getting counterfeit or substandard parts. Unless the parts follow the specs sheets we design from, it won't matter what costs are saved when the design goes hay wire because the parts won't work or simply fail after a few hours of operation.
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#17 Reply
Posted by
johnboxall
on 13 Sep, 2010 15:57
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Futurlec are OK, just stick with the simple stuff and you'll be fine. I use them for veroboard, hardware (spacers, etc) and 8x8 RGB LED matrix modules (cheapest I can find). As soon as you place an order with them, send them an email asking them to check the stock level and tell them what you want to do if out of stock. Otherwise your whole order will sit in limbo even if one item is on back-order.
For components, got to love au.farnell.com, they make my life much easier. Free overnight delivery, and if you order something that comes from another warehouse, they cop the extra freight charge. I can't drive, and living in BNE the availability of anything is severely limited, so they win for me. Anything else, I try little bird electronics - they now resell the Jaycar range plus a lot of other suppliers such as sparkfun and freetronics. 11/10 for customer service.
Digikey will beat local Farnell on prices sometimes, and they sent me a hooded sweater and some swag via UPS for winning a Twitter competition, so I like them as well.
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#18 Reply
Posted by
Alex
on 09 Dec, 2010 22:22
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Hi all,
I can confirm that Farnell UK still has a £20 minimum order + VAT, but no shipping costs. I have recently added ebay to my list of suppliers only for projects at home.
My general advice would be to shop around. If price is the only criterion, the more expensive the item the more time you should spend looking for alternative suppliers. I got my solder station from Germany directly (using an online translator) and I saved £200 compared to Farnell UK. Dont waste your time finding the cheapest 5mm LED though.
Alex
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#19 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 16 Dec, 2010 21:40
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from the UK perspective farnell is the best, yes if your an individual you have to make a £20 order, hey they have to make a living and ordering 50p worth of parts that then costs 63p to deliver is going to put them out of business unless your a large company and make orders like that now and then for urgent testing but are also ordering thousands of pounds of stuff.
RS sometimes are cheaper if your after large quantities but seem to stock much less than farnell and will charge you just under £5 for delivery which is fair play if the prices are better and it's a large order, their new "parametric search thing" is a joke at best
Digikey in the UK are just taking the piss, prices are ridicolous so no go for me.
I've got the odd part straight from china and ebay can come in handy, maplins are ok for cable and stuff but really they are not to be taken seriously these days. rapid online can have the odd thing farnell don't stock and have decent prices but do charge £5 shipping
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#20 Reply
Posted by
tyblu
on 16 Dec, 2010 22:59
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This question is highly subjective and geographically limited. My opinion doesn't really matter unless I'm from your area, as both companies have comparable international front ends but likely different geographic pricing, availability and shipping.
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#21 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 17 Dec, 2010 07:58
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precisely which is why I specified in the UK, I'm sure that in the US Digikey is probably a better deal
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#22 Reply
Posted by
Psi
on 18 Dec, 2010 00:16
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In NZ RS have free shipping anywhere in NZ no matter what your order value is, which is quite nice.
Dunno if they do it in other countries too.
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#23 Reply
Posted by
ArticCynda
on 11 Dec, 2017 01:49
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It should be noted that Farnell's new website makes it so much harder to find what you're looking for than it used to be. DK may be a bit more expensive, but its parametric search engine makes it in my opinion superior, particularly if you're looking for parts through a supplier (like connectors, passives etc.) rather than looking for part numbers obtained elsewhere.
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#24 Reply
Posted by
Simon
on 11 Dec, 2017 20:06
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Farnells new website is slow and buggy, despite using CS sold by them many of my part numbers are from RS but strangely RS parts don't show up in supplier links searches, I can't possibly think why that is......