I’ve always wanted to really fast PC. Not just quick but something that snaps to attention when you start clicking. One of the advantages of living here in China is that most everyone knows how to build a PC. The Chinese are very resourceful. And as salaries are modest for most graduates, they tend to build their own PCs rather than buy DELL or Lenovo’s.
To do this, I went to XuiJaiHui, in downtown Shanghai.
Unless you lived in a developing country, like China, India or maybe South America, it’s hard to grasp how intense this place really is. Think of xmas eve in your own town, multiple it by 10, and translate it into Chinese. Well, that’s just the start.
This place is three super-malls all dedicated to electronic and computer goods. Some of the stores are no larger than a kitchen. Others are just booths. But there are hundreds of them! All the major brands are represented here, like Sony, Canon, DELL, Nikon and so on.
But it’s the stalls that you want to go to. These guys and girls are really smart. They changed the battery in my DELL laptop to 3GB for 5 USD. It took less than 2 minutes. Now it really races along.
I got a new headpiece and speakers for 20 USD. All with a 3 month warranty.
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I couldn’t get them to install so I brought them back with the laptop; they installed another and threw in a 4GB flash disk.
It was to these guys (girls, actually) that I went back to make my PC.
So, I told them I had a budget of 100 USD and wanted to know what they make for that amount.
This is where it got interesting. I should add that I went to three others to get estimates and had a good idea of what to expect. What they came back with was interesting but also caused some issues for me. I have made things a bit difficult without really meaning to and here’s why.
For the 100 usd, they gave me the specs I wanted, more or less. But, they had to cut corners to make the limit I had imposed.
For example, the motherboard wasn’t the greatest, but would do. It had an integrated unit so it would be tricky to upgrade later if I wanted.
The casing was primitive and a bit difficult to open. It kept the price low but made the pc cheap looking. Maybe upgrade a bit…
New Specs
- Motherboard ASUS – M3A78 AMD 770 515
- CPU AMD ATHLON64 x2 4400 300
- Monitor LG 20 inch 50000: 1 940
- Hard Disk 3GB Western Digital 310
The monitor was around 60 usd but only 18 inches. I wanted 20.
Ok. I needed to get real and stop being so tight. I gave them the specs of a very high powered pc from the DELL site and asked three shops what it would cost.
I also looked on www.taobao.com, the largest Chinese website for shopping. This is huge. Some of the links my Chinese friends gave me helped get a balanced idea of what to expect.
Now that I knew what the going rate was for monitors, hardware, speakers, I could begin to bargain and also know what would be a fair price. I printed out all the pages from taobao and took them with me downtown.
I have a few false starts and in the end went back to the people I started with. To get what I really wanted would cost closer to 200 usd but I’d get something that was really sharp.
We agreed on the specs after about 45 min. we looked at several motherboards and different monitors. In the end I got an AZUS motherboard and an LG monitor.
The 20 inch lets me split the screen, which really helps when making videos and other types of presentations. Here a quick shot of the pc. I should add that the speakers really crank out the music, much than I expected. We wrapped things up by installing the software and OS – XP not Vista – and then some graphic software.
They also divided the hard drive into 4, so I can separate my work, installations, backups and other files. I hadn’t thought of that and it really helps. I also got 8Gb flash drive for 15 usd and have backed up everything on this.
How long did it take to make?
Just over an hour. I went to the movies and when I came back it was ready!
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