damole

I just helped a Thai friend of mine buy an MSI Wind U100 from J.I.B. They are going for 9500+VAT which is significantly cheaper than most others. probably because it's an older model. It has a 6 cell 5200 mAH battery and an LED backlit screen so I guess battery life should be decent. It only has a VGA D-SUB connector for connection to an external display so really meant for attaching a regular PC monitor but will connect to a newer LCD TV with a PC input.

Most netbooks we looked at only had this type of connector although some do have HDMI, though even this doesn't mean you can play HD video because most machines are not powerful enough to render the larger video images.

When I was buying my LG 37" HD ready LCD a couple of years ago I read this article, at that time the price differential was huge so the decision to go with the lower res was easier. I live in Chiang Mai and have WETV also which to be honest looks better on my friends 29" CRT TV. I use it to game and it's makes an excellent monitor and I don't really think 1080p would add that much to my overall gaming experience.

I think the only way to know for sure, assuming you care enough, would be to download some film trailers in 720p and 1080p, find a laptop with hdmi out, take it along and actually see for yourself with your own eyes.

hi

I'm about to order an Xtreamer and eTRAYz, anybody have any idea of how much I might get charged duty at the post office, I live in Chiang Mai. I bought a Wharfdale damond 9.0 centre speaker recently from Neo Entertainment in Chiang Mai and the owner told me there is a 25% import duty on foreign HiFi.

I already have a WDTV so I'm not desperate for it and therefore I could have it shipped to someone at home (UK) and have them bring it but I might have to wait until Christmas or New Year.

I have a Logitech Squeezebox Duet and after seeing they are working on getting Squeezebox Server to run on the eTRAYz, it already supports bittorrent that was the clincher as I've been looking at NAS and had been considering turning my netbook an NAS/torrent/music server etc.

--damole

Cheaper in the US, more expensive in the UK.

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...ord=core+i5+750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115215

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-Core-...1156-CPU-Retail

I find that list prices (RRP) outside of Thailand are often more expensive but with the heavy discounts online retailers offer then US prices usually beat Thai ones and UK ones are more expensive but that it partly due to the weak pound at the moment.

The average price for the Core i% 750 on Bizrate US is about 220 USD which is pretty much the same price as in Thailand.

I agree with you that the US is still the best place to be for buying any kind of electronic goods on price and availability but that Thailand is not so far behind for computer components at least.

Here are prices for the WD Scorpio Blue 500GB notebook drive.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=506

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...roducts_id=5390

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136314

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7523847/West...ve/Product.html

At current exchange rates the drive in Thailand is the same price as the US and cheaper than the UK.

Similarly, I'm planning to but an ATI Radeon HD 5850 which has only just been released and these are also cheaper than the UK which is 'home' for me but more expensive than the US.

I have a WDTV that I bought in Chiang Mai a few month ago for 4800Bt. It's not a bad machine with a basic interface and controls. I have a problem with lip sync on many file which play fine on my laptop although it seems very much down to how they were encoded. The interface is somewhat under featured which is not always a bad thing, better to get right what you've done than put out something with lots of bugs. No hard disk means no internal fan and therefore quiet. The new model WDTV Live has ethernet support but I don't think it's wireless. There are already custom firmwares that add new features which is something I always like to see. WD seem quite slow and putting out new firmware updates but they've had new models coming out so maybe they had switched resources whilst this was happening.

http://wdtvforum.com is a good source of info.

http://wdtv.uservoice.com is also interesting.

On balance I'm happy except for the lip sync problems and happy that it has a Thai warranty. Usually I just plug in a hard disk or flash drive and choose a file and press play so all the extra features would be a bonus rather than reasons not to buy again. Wireless streaming of HD video has it's own attendant problems so for the slight inconvenience of having to copy a file to a flash drive I don't think it's a big issue. I have a Logitech Squeezebox Duet for my music so it really is just a videoplayer for me. Still I'm looking at replacing it with a an Xtreamer if it doesn't get some of the features being requested in the website above pretty soon as I'd like to get rid of my dvd player and for that I need it to play dvds ripped to my hard disk with menu support which it doesn't have yet.

Thanks guys (or gals) for all your replies at least I know it's not just me.

Hi

Two websites that used to work for me no longer do. I'm trying this on computer that I've just clean installed XP on so I know it's not the machine, they don't work on my other machines either.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/

http://forums.msiwind.net/

If somebody could just check and report back that would be helpful.

I'm on MAXNet Indy 3Mbps and other than the occasional web site needing a refresh to load my connection is very reliable.

cheers

damole

What CPU are you planning to use? I've just read lots of great reviews of the new Core i5 750 as being the best value of the mid range/higher end CPUs right now. It's certainly just added itself to my shopping list for my gaming rig.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc...0-633100/review

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19979&page=12

Thanni.com are showing them, I added one to my cart logged in and it was asking for payment details, they don't have an explicit 'in stock' label but from memory I think they may have an 'out of stock' so I'm assuming they have them.

Personally I think I'll have to wait a while for a price drop or the pound to get a bit stronger before I order a replacement for my 4850. I upgraded my PSU this year with the intention of overclocking my E6750 which should give me a few more fps from my current setup although I haven't got round to it yet.

There's a place called Acoustic on Thung Hotel Road Soi 2, they have cellos and other string instruments. I rode past there yesterday afternoon and popped in, there was a man there fixing a violin. The number is 053-300456, I forgot to ask if anybody spoke English.

In case you need directions, take Kaew Narawat Road from the river, this is the road that leads to Arcade Bus Station, turn right on to Thung Hotel Road at the traffic lights before the bus station, it's on your right side. Alternatively if you are coming from Thapae Road, you turn left off Charoen Muang just after the railway station and it's at the other end of Thung Hotel Road on the left. I'm sure somebody else can help give you better directions or provide a map if you're not sure.

--damole

well for me i have had xbox 360 ps3? i always go back to my pc ? but with consoles they do have more games then the pc but depends what games your into at the end of the day yes some pc games are better then the ps3 and xbox but also depend on your system ?

But is it possible to reach the speed of a game console with a PC?

Here in this Street Fighter IV review in paragraph 6 you can see an example of how a PC version of a game can deliver higher quality graphics although in this case he's not talking about speed. I have a PC I built for gaming it's based around an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz CPU and an overclocked ATI HD4850 GPU with add-on cooler, not high high end but it will still outperform my friend's XBOX360 playing Race Driver Grid at 1360x768, the res. of my 37" LCD TV, on top of which the pc performance improves year after year whereas consoles have a minimum 5 year life cycle and so there is no way to upgrade. Now this is just some anecdotal evidence and the PC vs console gaming argument is really a matter of personal choice and about the kind of games you play and how you play them, 1 player, 2 player online etc etc. The perfect solution being unlimited funds and one of each.

Thanks for the replies.

I found this on Motor Cycle News, nevertheless I decided to buy a new one, I visited Chiang Mai Bike Shop on Mahidol Road, 1700Bt for a Michelin 100/80-17, I think he said Sport but I wouldn't swear to it. I went to P Dang on Chiang Moi road, the road that leads to Warorot Market, 1050Bt for IRC 100/80-17 and 1100Bt for IRC 110/80-17. The tyre that was on the bike when I bought it was a 110 so I went with that.

The decision for me was safety first of course followed by carbon footprint, the IRCs are made here in Thailand, the Michelin imported from Europe so as I probably don't need the extra performance it made sense to buy locally made.

I bought a 2nd hand CBR150 two years ago and the previous owner had put a bigger tyre on the back and gave me the original tyre as a spare. Now it's time to replace the back tyre I'm wondering whether I should just buy a new one or whether the old one which has been sitting on my balcony out of the sun would still be ok?

--damole

These prices compare favourably with the UK which as a Brit is where I price compare. I have the 7 and like it for it's small size and the fact that it plays flac. All my music is in flac and with my Alessandro MS-1s, a pair of modified Grado phones it sounds great.

Here is one option in order to get a cowon S9 http://www.music2home.com/brand.aspx?bid=55

But it looks like they add 3k baht to the "street" price found on E-bay. If you were to bother to take the time you can also find them being sold on Alibaba, but I do not know how many units you would have to buy etc.

I just got back to Chiang Mai after 4 1/2 months abroad. I went to my local MAXNet office in Chiang Mai to check my bill payents were up to date and ask about the new contract which I duly signed. I was told that it's only that the company has been renamed Triple T from TT&T, I was told nothing else has changed.

For what it's worth my Indy 3Mbps is more or less as it was when I left, browsing is so so but perfectly workable, a good torrent will download at almost the rated speed 295KB/s. I'm sure BBC streaming video and Youtube will be poor to unworkable. Maybe I'm just lucky that I got here now considering the headaches most users have been experiencing lately but so far things seems relatively normal.

Anybody seen one yet?

This link is very helpful, even has an image of the original brown paper map/guide to veggie restaurants in CM.

http://www.geocities.com/chiangmaivegetari.../vegcityeng.htm

Thanks for the advice. I am a UK citizen with British passport. I arrived on the 12th Feb and my return ticket (to India) is on the 12th March so exactly 28 days and at present I have no plan to stay longer but Chiang Mai can have a strange effects on a person travel plans ;-). I will go to immigration and get it checked anyway because I wouldn't want to have trouble applying for my next non-immigrant O when I am back in the UK this summer.

I just returned to Thailand last week without a visa as this was an un-expected trip of one month and my non-immigrant-o had run out at the end of December. At the immigration desk in Suvarnbhumi the immigration official kept looking at my old visa and asking me questions like was I working here or were my parents Thai ( I am part Indian but born in London) and I kept replying that I am just a tourist. Eventually he said OK and stamped my passport and I noticed that he stamped it for 90 days and not the expected 30 days. Does this mean I could stay here 90 days? Or does the fact that it's a mistake mean if I stayed longer then on exit it would be queried?

I got some pads for my Koss Portpro in Amorn in Chiang Mai next to Computer Plaza for about 40Bt, not sure if there is one in Bangkok. They sell all kinds of electronic components and equipment plus cables, tools and everything you need electronic wise. I also bought some at the little stalls at the front of Panthip (BKK) and the specialist headphone shop, more of a booth really towards the back of Panthip (BKK) on the ground floor, the place that sells, Grado, Sennheiser and Skully Candy etc.

Where would I find Plantronics or another high quality headsets in Bangkok?

Systems 2000 is the official retailer. I've never used them but I have a Pulsar 590a (UK) that needs repair that I'm planning to send to them.

I was in Panthip a few days ago and saw this game in Zest and was told that all in game menus are in Thai and cannot be changed during install. I see this is an EA game but published by Criterion Games , maybe they've found a way to stop English readers buying the non-English versions of their games.

Anybody managed to get it working in English?

I just bought an Sapphire ATI HD4850 which is currently considered the best value performance card. I picked mine up for 6000Bt in Panthip a couple of months ago. I added an aftermarket cooler because this card is know to get hot idling around 79 degs, with my Thermaltake DuOrb it now idles around 42 degs and now I've overlocked it significantly. I've seen now there are newer versions with better cooling such as the HIS Radeon HD 4850 ICEQ4 TurboX favourably reviewed here. I'm not sure of the prices of the models you mentioned anymore so maybe this is over budget but I thought you'd might be interested. I spent many hours researching and reading reviews before I chose it and I'm very happy with the results.

--damole

Yes. You can't miss it right now because there's a big yellow banner sign offering Thai for 80 Bt / hr outside.