Firefoxx

The Wii's graphics and processing units are much worse than the PS3/360, so it's obvious that if there are any cross-platform games, the Wii will lose every time in terms of graphics. It could win in terms of control, but cross platform games are generally not designed to use a single console's strengths to its fullest. The games that were actually developed with the Wii in mind are generally very good.

The Wii is, like the DS, something that is very accessible to everyone. I mean *everyone*. A 2 year old could probably enjoy many of the games on it, as well as your grandpa.

If you want a console for teens up to middle age guys, the PS3/360 are perfect.

Going on a question by question basis:

1. Do want seperate Sound and Video cards?

Video yes, sound... the on-board HD audio of quality main boards is *really* good, and unless you're *really* into audio and can appreciate it, you don't need anything better.

2. Firewire, USB2, Dual monitor, Vista

Quality mainboards and VGA cards already come with these features. Any modern component will have Vista drivers (sometimes, it's vista-only).

3. Quiet and cool.

Depends on your case, VGA, and CPU cooling options.

4. DVD-RW, HD-DVD RW

A DVD-RW drive costs around 1000+ baht. A HD-DVD writer costs at least ten times that.

5. What would you buy if You were building this computer?

Lemme see:

A big tower case, since I need/want a lot of expansion, and good cooling.

A quad core CPU, since they're cheap now, and a big/quiet cooler for it.

2 GB of RAM (2x1GB)

A P35-based mainboard, but not too expensive.

A middling VGA card, around 8-12k baht. Less if you're not into gaming at all (and I stress "at all").

Two dvd writers. I often use two at a time, and they're cheap.

Lots of HDD space.

A quality PSU, a good mouse, and a LCD screen that's 22"+.

All in all, should fit easily in your budget.

I wouldn't buy Lian Li. They're pretty and they used to be the only deal in town, but now there are a lot of alternatives that work just as well or better for cheaper.

A quad core would certainly help in the multi-tasking deparment.

It used to be that the best "gb for the baht" hard drives were 250-320GB, but now there are 500GB drives that go for about the same (roughly 100 baht/GB). So if you want space, you can go for those.

Even saying that, hard drives are cheap. You can buy a couple of 500GB drives, and mirro them using the mainboard's RAID controller, and have continuous backup.

If you want your case to be cool yet quiet, it should use big (120mm) fans, which run at low RPM. Big fans running at low RPM will give the same airflow as smaller fans running at high RPM, but with less noise. Same goes for the CPU cooler. There are VGA cards that have completely passive (no fan) cooling, but they cost a bit more than the fan ones. However, if you're buying mid-range VGA cards, they normally aren't that loud... it's the high-end ones that scream.

I really don't understand how it could do that, since the physical pixels of the monitor are 1680x1050. Working at 1800x1200 would mean that you'd have to do screen scrolling.

Before someone misunderstands, the resolution of the Syncmaster 226BW is 1680x1050. A 24" monitor would be 1920x1200.

The problem with bricking the Wii is caused by playing a game from a different system (either PAL or NTSC) from your Wii, and the game has a firmware that is newer than your own. If that is the case, the game will try to update your firmware with its own, and therefore you'll have a firmware for the wrong TV system, which bricks the Wii.

It will not be a problem if:

1. The game you're playing doesn't have any firmware on it

2. Your Wii's firmware is up to date (just connect it to the net via your router)

3. The game is from the same TV system as your Wii

The Database writer really has a narrow view of the Wii. He could just as easily buy a non-modded Wii and buy original games, which is what he should be doing when writing for a newspaper article. In that scenario, there is really no problem.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a USA Wii in Thailand, since the premium is way too much. I'll be asking a friend to bring it over and save around 4,000 baht, even when modded.

It is a bit ridiculous that a 22" Samsung LCD would cost 12,000 baht, while a 24" Samsung monitor would typically cost around 40,000, but in the US cost 15,000 baht. Same thing goes for the other brands, like Benq. But that's the way the market works in Thailand... anything that's not imported in very large quantities (tens of thousands) tends to be extremely expensive. The only recourse would be to bring one in from the US, but that's not really an option for most, since 24" LCDs aren't exactly small and a ticket to the US isn't cheap.

But the trend is towards bigger monitors. Anything above 19" here would have been very expensive only a couple of years ago, but it's gotten to the point where 22" are now affordable. So, wait a year or so, and 24" will (finally) be sold at a realistic price. By then, we'll be lusting after 30" LCDs.

I have the same models as Crushdepth, and I like both.

There are things that will be much cheaper in the US, but mainstream LCDs is not one of those things. Anything that is sold in high volume here will be roughly the same price here as in the US (unless you go to a big discount store, get a rebate, etc. etc). For example the mainstream monitors and mainstream CPUs are very close in price. But more exotic things, like multifunction color lasers, can be much cheaper in the US. I saw a HP MFC laser being sold by HP USA for around half of what it was being sold for here (37,000 baht here). Another example is really big LCDs (24" and above)... they can be sold for around twice or three times as much here.

If you want to print only documents, get a laser (and not a very cheap one). Inkjets look cheap, but once you start printing regularly, they will cost you in ink. Lasers (the more expensive ones) will be very cheap on a per page basis. The main reason that printers (both lasers and inkjets) can be sold for so cheap is that the manufacturers are getting their profits from the consumables (ink/toner). Any printer that costs less than around 5,000 baht (and some that cost more) normally falls into this category.

Be careful about getting ink refills. If you don't use the printer regularly (as in every few days), the different composition of the ink refills will usually lead to a clogged head, which usually means a time for a new printer, since fixing that costs about the same as a new printer.

Gary, I might have hit a nerve. Really, I was just illustrating the fact that different people have different priorities. My priorities are for a notebook that can do almost everything my desktop can do, and nearly as fast, and yet not break the bank. The IBM Thinkpad would be, for me, marginal, but for you, absolutely perfect. Neither of us is wrong, it's what we want.

OSX don't have viruses, period? This is really why I hate it when the fanatics get involved in a discussion. Things that are just not true are tossed around like there is no tomorrow. Do a simple google on OSX virus, and you'll find that OSX is not as bullet proof as you think. The OS is also only one component of a system... you really can't work squat with just an OS. If the software being used is vulnerable, you're going to get infected even if the OS itself is secure.

As Gary's comments suggest, it's all a matter of *very* personal preference. Me, I'd think that IBM Thinkpads were fairly rugged, but not very well spec'ed and not indestructible. Although Gary considers the specs of the T43p to have all the bells and whistles, I consider them to be quite marginal. I personally would never consider buying a Thinkpad, since they're too expensive, they lack a lot of features, and they lag behind in technology.

Now, OTOH, Gary would probably look at my notebook purchases and shake his head in pity, since he would probably consider them to be bad purchases. I, however, would be very happy with my purchases, since I have a whole different set of criteria for what makes a good notebook.

Not to bash you or anything Gary, just making a point, that different people have vastly different ideas about what makes a good product.

I was looking for a server, and actually considered Dell. Thing is, Dell in Thailand REQUIRES a phone call to even get prices on their very limited product range, and that, IMHO, is fricking ridiculous for a company that's supposed to sell direct over the web, with basically no other choice to actually buy their products. Never again. Dell US? Absolutely. Dell Asia? No fricking way.

Ended up going to Shop4Thai, since it's fairly easy to do comparison shopping there (and they don't have Dell, yay!). They have a very good selection of products, from the mundane to the exotic, which is very nice. However, their web is a bit basic, and their prices can be higher than the norm for many items (but not by much).

There is no best notebook. Never was. It all depends on the individual. Asking for advice from another individual for a personal purchase will usually only bring you grief, unless you share interests, needs, lifestyle, etc. It's not that you shouldn't ask, but if you do ask, you should provide information on yourself, what you need, how you intend to use it, what you really want, what you really don't want, etc, or the responses will be as wild and misleading as all of the above.

Benq doesn't belong to Acer, but it used to be the manufacturing arm of Acer. It's currently it's own company (was spun off in 2000, and adopted the Benq name in 2002).

I'm pretty happy with the S41, except for the fact that like most other new notebooks, it doesn't come with XP drivers, only Vista. And yes, it comes with Linux, no other OS. It's very stylish, and has all the bells and whistles that I would need.

HDDs running at 4200rpm used to be the norm for notebooks. Now 5400rpm is the norm, with very very few running at 7200rpm. 7200rpm is the norm for desktops. Yes, you can tell the difference. You can buy a replacement 7200rpm drive if you want, but their size is limited. It's one of the things that's easily user-replaceable/upgradeable (RAM, HDD, software) and really shouldn't be factored into the buying decision.

BenQs can be pretty good price vs performance wise, although perhaps not as good as Acer. However, they're more stylish than Acer.

The one that you're looking at is an older model. It has a Core Duo CPU, while the current CPU is the Core 2 Duo (with a newer chipset, too). If you're not looking to do much with it, and can get a good deal on it (like less than 30k) then it's probably OK. You should get more ram (at least 1GB more) and perhaps consider the extended warranty.

I personally got a BenQ S41, which has the Core2 Duo, 2GB of ram (added), a Nvidia 8600M graphics core (for gaming), and HDMI output. It can outperform most mid-range desktops here, while costing only around 40k.

My first DVD writer was a 8X Plextor ($$$$). It created more DVD coasters than good discs, nearly 100 DVD coasters in fact, and would only write properly to 3-4 specific types of media (other than CDRs, which it wrote to perfectly). The software wasn't at fault, the hardware was. Since then I've had a NEC (very cheap) and a Benq (also, very cheap) that have been pretty much a dream to work with, and only one or two coasters in hundreds of writes.

Notebook drives have to be thin, so they sacrifice a lot. First thing is speed... a 8X notebook drive will take around 50% more time to write the same amount of information at the same speed as a desktop drive. Second thing is reliability... all the small, frail parts aren't going to be as strong as a big desktop drive.

Seems to be solved now. Getting the usual speeds of True.

Hmm, even Thaivisa is very slow for me. Took several minutes to load this thread, while the norm is to load in a few seconds. International sites all take several minutes. Local sites of course load instantly. The network status page seems to be pretty much useless, as it shows all the links are up and operational, even though in reality it doesn't seem to be that way.

If you want to know the prices for consoles in Thailand, go to www.gcorners.com or www.super-rich.com.

The main problem you'll find with brining consoles here is the electricty, since Thailand is 220V and the US is 110V. Video systems are usually not a problem, since most modern TVs can accept both NTSC (US) and PAL (Thai). Thai TVs have similar inputs to US TVs, it's just that the video system is different. You probably won't be harassed by customs for bringing a console in, as long as you don't bring in ten. Put it in your suitcase, since it seems that consoles get the notebook treatment now.

Modded PS2's are the norm here, so yes, if you bring your games you can play them here. You don't even need to bring the games, just buy the copied equivalent here and throw them away when you leave.

You just need to get another module of equal or faster spec. Any size will be fine. It doesn't have to match the first module. I've done it before, so it does work.

For desktops, in order to use memory in dual-channel configuration, you need to use install memory modules in pairs, or else performance will suffer. In modern notebooks, the individual SODIMMs already are dual-channeled, so you only need to install one at a time.

The high responsiveness of laser mice is only really noticeable if you do a lot of serious gaming. Otherwise a good optical mouse will be good enough. I'm talking about the name brands of Logitech and Microsoft, not the Chinese knockoffs like A4tech the the like, which are quirky from the start and tend to break within a year.

You can do a google on "separate" and S-video and come up with a host of sites that say that S-video is indeed "separate video". Go ahead, try it. There are plenty of sites relating to the video industry that say that S-video is "separate" video. It's rather logical that the s in s-video would stand for separate, since it's the step up from composite, which is combined. It's also logical that it would stand for "super", since it was developed to be used with S-VHS machines. Here, an example:

http://www.webvideozone.com/public/141.cfm

"S-Video is an analog video signal.

It carries video data as two separate signals: brightness and colour. S-Video stands for "separate video," and is also known as Y/C (or erroneously, S-VHS and "super video")."

So in this case, from a web that pretty much "in" the industry, the Super Video definition is wrong (erroneous, to be exact).

Again, I know that RGB and component are different things. I said it's just also known as, not "the same thing as". There are plenty of things that people refer to wrongly, because of misunderstanding, or because of popular culture. It might not be right, but once it's out in the wild, it sticks. Just like the S-video thing. There seem to be two very different definitions on it, and each party thinks theirs is right. I did give a explanation of YCbCr, so I think I covered my bases with regard to confusion on the term.

Terms like these can be tossed around like a salad, mixed and matched, and pretty much butchered to an inch of its life. Thing is, if the term can convey the meaning, it's good enough. We could get really really anal and start bringing in experts and pundits with 5,000 pages of supporting evidence, but if you really want to go down that path, please count me out. The only reason I replied was because I don't really like people thinking that I'm spitting out drivel instead of the facts. I spent a lot of time writing up that explanation, and being jumped on for technical gray areas is really annoying, to say the least. I don't have the time to dot all my i's or cross all my t's, if I did, I wouldn't have to live my own life, I'd just be constantly checking my facts, and adding addenums like "1a this is also referred to in the industry as etc etc etc 1b refer to source xflkm".

Yeah, I'm not happy.

Ben:

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/S-Video

"S-VIDEO Separated Video (same as Y/C, Luminance and Chrominance)"

The Super video you refer to is probably from the VHS days, when there was actually something known as "super-VHS" or S-VHS. It's not the same thing, although S-VHS machines usually had a S-video connector.

As for component and RGB, people often refer to component as RGB, although, yes, they are different. The reason it's referred to as RGB by a lot of people is because of the color of the cables (red, green, and blue).

An AV-in PCI card (video and audio) will cost less than 1000 baht. Combine that with a computer that has a DVD writer and you have your solution. There are plenty of software solutions that will do the conversion.

There is a warning in the latest firmware update, but so far there have been no reports of the firmware actually doing anything to chippsed Wiis. So, either it's just a bluff or a warning of things to come. Who knows.