A New Computer in China

The New Computer
originally posted May 27, 2009

I've been in computer purgatory since Sunday. It always happens. Whenever I upgrade my system, I have to spend days and days getting all my programs reinstalled and working. So far I'm doing pretty well, but there are still issues. I may have to upgrade to Vista to get my Adobe Premier to run properly, so that I can do video editing on the new PC, and that was the whole point of buying it.
I blew up the old Mac G4 last week. My voltage converter had blown a fuse. I looked at the back of the Mac and it seemed to say that it would run on 230V current. But when I plugged it in, I got a loud bang. There is a tiny switch I had neglected to flip for the Chinese current. So the old Mac is now in for an estimate of repairs.

Jin Bo and Wang Xu select components for my new computer. Wuxi, China. Always looks like a lot of empty space to me. But that new motherboard is impressive, with it's copper cooling fins. Inside the box at a computer store, Wuxi, China. Top right hand corner is our driver, sleeping through the excitement.

That was a good excuse to go to Meng ZhiDao (Dream Island), the big computer store downtown, with my friend Jin Bo and my new best friend Wang Xu, who works in the IT department of this university. Wang Xu took over selecting components for my new system, and spending almost exactly one month of my salary.

Cost of a hot new computer in China:

Motherboard 915 RMB = $149.42 Canadian.
CPU 980 RMB plus 125 RMB tax = 1,105 RMB = $180.62 Canadian
2Gigs of RAM were 165 RMB = $27 Canadian
500 Gig hard drive 390 RMB = $64 Canadian
22 inch flatscreen monitor 1,100 RMB = $180 Canadian
wireless keyboard and mouse 450 RMB = $73.75 Canadian

I'm not sure what the extra cooling fan and fancy box cost, but the grand total came to 5,200 RMB or $850 Canadian. Not a bad price for a hot machine with a big monitor. I have no idea how this compares to what can be assembled in Canada.

For Geeks Only:

Here's a link to a review of the motherboard, an ASUS P5Q.

Frankly I don't speak much geek, but it sounds impressive.

Many thanks to Jin Bo and Wang Xu for spending their whole Sunday on this, right into the evening. I

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