THE PC Show robbed the Suntec City Convention Centre of what would have been a Vesak Day calm yesterday, as record crowds descended upon it.

Bargain hunters and window shoppers had expected traffic jams and huge crowds in the area on the public holiday. But it did not deter them from turning up at the opening day of the last major consumer electronics fair ahead of next month's two-percentage-point hike in the goods and services tax.

Ms Gao Pei Pei, 21, a Nanyang Polytechnic nursing student from China, said: 'I wanted a better discount, so I came to buy my laptop even though I knew it would be crowded.'

Her two schoolmates, who also bought laptops yesterday, said they had waited several months for this fair, just to get a good deal.

Before the exhibition hall threw open its doors at noon, hundreds of people had gathered outside the sixth-floor foyer.

By 6pm, more than 150,000 people had passed through the doors and blown a total of $2 million.

Both numbers were 'the highest in the history of the show for a first day', said organisers Lines Exposition & Management Services. And there are still three more days to go before the show ends on Sunday.

Ms Catherine Loh, 50, who was there with her brother and his family to buy an LCD TV set, said: 'I saw the crowd and I got scared!'

Products flew off the shelves from the get-go.

At the Le-mon booth in Hall 602, 50 laptops offered at a promotional price of $999 were sold out in less than half an hour.

Mr Alan Hong, who was in charge of the booth, said he has never seen the exhibition this crowded, and he has participated in it for seven or eight years.

Such throngs are more common on the last day of these shows, when exhibitors would slash prices and throw in more freebies.

Some of yesterday's visitors were single-minded about beating those last-day crowds.

Mr Evan Gwee, taking the advice of a friend who was a veteran of such exhibitions, said: 'We're not here to enjoy. We came with a purpose.

'We went in, got the brochures, got out and now I'm comparing prices,' said the 36-year-old who is going overseas for a graduate degree.

Many of yesterday's early birds had the same strategy.

A Filipina maid, who was standing guard over a 37-inch LCD TV set near the taxi stand, said her employer had taken only minutes to buy the TV set and a DVD player. She was waiting for him to bring the car around to pick up his 'loot'.

Mr Roberto Espanol, 37, a computer programmer, had known it would be crowded, but still took his two daughters, wife and maid along. He quipped: 'Part of the fun is to fight the crowds.'