Leaving for Taiwan in a while, will probably be there for a couple months, unfortunately my laptop is too slow to run a few games I’d like to play, so are there any places that sell some good desktop PCs? I’ve googled around and read that NOVA is good but they mostly sell components? Do they sell already made desktop PCs as well?
Yes, you can buy complete systems at Nova and Guanghua. I bought my notebook at Nova and my Desktop at Guanghua. But, if you are in the US, they are cheaper there than here.
Don’t buy pre-built, go to somewhere and have a custom system made. It might be wise comparing some prices and bring the more expensive components from the US, as you could save a bit of cash, especially now with the lousy exchange rate price.oc.com.tw/
Cool, thanks guys. They would have no trouble putting the operating system(Windows 7) in English correct?
How would I be able to bring more expensive components to Taiwan? Shipping it myself before coming?
Asus and Acer aren’t that cheap in Taiwan? Sorry for asking so many questions, lol
English OS should be fine.
What I meant was you should bring things like the CPU and maybe an SSD with you, as they tend to be cheaper in the US, although RAM is cheaper here, but if you want something out of the ordinary, then the selection here isn’t as good, especially when it comes to really high-end RAM. Graphics cards are also cheaper in the states, by a really big margin on the high-end cards.
Just have a look at the link above and click on a few of the links, they’re to scanned copies of various shop prices here.
For complete systems have a look here buy.yahoo.com.tw/?sub=215&hpp=navibar but most system here that are pre-built are pretty crap imho.
I just put together a system at Nova, and I noticed the biggest price difference between here and the US was the power supply. US$100 units were over $5000NT here.
What I have learned is that a pre-assembled system from Acer is guarantee of you getting it fixed fast, if there’s an issue.
My missus who is an IT major, bought a system from guanghua, and well, it was built by the shop, the motherboard went on the blink, and no computer for a week.
For her gaming - I do not care what she gets. She got it for the company, and well, I blew several fuses over that poor judgement.
So brand names with top notch support is my advice.
Especially a SSD. Stores in Chiayi are asking $12,500 for a 120GB Vertex 3 drive. :roflmao:
Acer and good service… yeah right… someone I know had to wait six weeks to have his Acer notebook “repaired” got it back and it went on the fritz pretty much straight away.
I highly doubt there’s such a thing as good service anywhere these days unless you pay for same day on site service, but even that doesn’t guarantee that it’ll get fixed there and then.
This is also why I build and fix my own systems… (of course not notebooks though, but hey, fingers crossed, so far mine has been just fine).
I had to wait 20 m inutes for them to replace the keyboard on mine, 2 hrs for the motherboard.
Not too bad, honestly.
Even overnight would be OK.
So it seems like computers aren’t as cheap in Taiwan as I thought…
I don’t need anything too high end I guess, just reliable
Something like a decent dual core with 4 gb ram and a solid video card should be okay.
Are wireless network adapters expensive there too?
Checking the yahoo.com.tw link, it’s pretty hard to navigate considering I dont know much Chinese… even translating the page is still confusing.
Seems like pre-made desktops are quite expensive… wondering if I should just ship my computer instead
As I said, bring the expensive components, buy a case, PSU, motherboard, hard drive here and have someone put it together for you if you don’t know how.
Just make sure it’s recent hardware, as for example Intel’s Core 2 Duo/Quad processors are now too old to be able to get a good new motherboard for, so you’d have to bring that.
It really comes down to what you want to use the computer for I guess.
Wireless network adapters as in a USB dongle that goes into your PC? No, they’re not expensive here $20 or so for the cheaper models shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=stor … _NO=DRAF50
Also keep in mind that online prices are usually slightly more expensive than prices in at least the computer market in Taipei.
There is English service available too; talk to Nam at Nationwide. He can custom build you any system you want, and can provide English-only software too.
nah I feel those USB wireless adapters are pretty terrible, something more like this
shopping.pchome.com.tw/?mod=item … 0&ROWNO=21
and this
newegg.com/Product/Product.a … -_-Product
I may talk to Nam at Nationwide
Uhm, it really doesn’t matter much, besides there are barely any PCI cards sold and even the new PCI Express standard never became all that popular for Wi-Fi cards. The USB dongles are just fine, just make sure you get a slightly better one than the cheapest models. Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that from next year, very few motherboards will have PCI slots at all.
For some reason PSU’s are pretty expensive here, you pay a massive premium if you want a half decent SeaSonic/Corsair unit here in Taiwan.