This is going to sound like a stupid question, given Taiwan is the computer hardware capital of the world. Anyway, I’m going to Taiwan in February for five years, and am trying to decide whether to buy a PC here in the U.S. and bring it over or buy one in Taiwan. My question is, can I buy a souped up (latest processor, video card, memory, etc.) computer in Taiwan that has a BIOS in English like buying one in the U.S. from Dell or Gateway? I’ve been looking at Dell’s website, and they have some great deals and I know everything will be in English. If I wait until I get to Taiwan to buy a computer, will I have a problem communicating I want such and such components, given I’m not fluent in Mandarin, and definitely not fluent in tech talk? Also, if I wait, will I have a problem installing the included software because it will be in Chinese, or does the often included software there (e.g., printer software, BIOS, drivers, etc.) usually come with an English option?
The general consenus of most who have posted in this forum is that you are better off waiting to buy your system when you get to Taiwan, unless you buy a laptop that has international service warranties and service centers (for example, IBM and Apple):
There is so much to choose from here.
Dealers who speak English are plentiful.
Better to return it to the local retailer when you have problems.
I would think all the BIOSs are in English, at least those purchased locally which we use in our company are.
PCs and accessories are quite cheap here and up-to-date, so you are definetely advised to buy here, as well language isn’t a problem - I don’t speak Mandarin either and manage (incl. buying computer stuff).
You will find a wealth of tower casings here, including disco lights if you fancy that.
Normally the OS comes as a recovery version in Chinese but you can also get English versions (say Windows XP and Office XP). It also allows for Chinese text input when you specify that during installation which might come handy one day.
A typical Pentium4 @ 2.4GHz with 256MByte, 60GByte HDD, 64MByte Video-Card, DVD ROM, LAN, Keyboard, Mouse, Modem etc. will cost you only around NT$20,000 without OS, WinXP (original) is around NT$3,2000 and a nice Samsung 17" LCD is now on sale for less than NT$20,000.
i don’t think computer bios can qualify as being in english. if you want to screw around in the bios, you WILL have to look up what all the acronyms mean anyway. i don’t think it’s any harder for taiwanese people to look up acronyms than it is for americans.
let’s not even think about the hassle of getting your computer here without anything breaking. just on base cost alone, with the money you spend on ANY system from dell or gateway, etc., you will be able to buy a preassembled computer here that will run laps around it. if you want to build your own comp, there is no better place in the world to assemble a computer than taiwan. in my experience, people who sell computer parts here(at nova and the place under the overpass) know a ton more about what they’re selling than any computer salesman in the states and can speak much better english(at least in regards to computers) than the general population.
sure, the name “asus” will be in chinese, but the name of the product(like the a7v333) will be the same, so buying parts here is not a problem.
I’ve bought and put together many computers since being in Taiwan, the language has never been a problem, don’t worry about it. You’ll save oodels of money also.
