Help! This Is New Territory For Me

[meme]

Hello all,

I was hoping you could help me.

I about to start a grad degree online and I need to buy a computer.

I am really ignorant about computers..I admit it!

I own one now (in Korea) but I basically just took it over from the person who lived in the apt before me, and have sold it as I am leaving in two weeks.

I am moving back to Thailand to the South in a small town.

I have no idea what I should look for in a new computer. I know that I need the internet, basic programs and I currently use Azurus to download media and would like to do that as well.

With the computer I have now I find that when my Azurus is running It slows everything else down on my computer and now my computer is too slow to run media, so I would like to prevent that from happening.

Now as for internet could someone explain my options of how to have internet at my home.

I would really appreciate any advise.

Meme

[Mid]

keep the current rig and get rid of Azurus ,

try utorrent .

[meme]

keep the current rig and get rid of Azurus ,

try utorrent .

Thanks Mid I will try utorrent once I get a new computer, but I have sold the computer I have now.

[DamianMavis]

Not exactly great advice.... the program meme uses to download torrents isnt the problem, the problem is an old out of date computer. I use Azureus on a moderate speed computer and have no slow downs.

Ok, the first thing you need to look into before moving to a "small town" is if they have internet at all! Most definately dial up... but high speed of any sort? Yeesh.... ya try to find out if they offer some sort of high speed internet or you wont have much luck with downloading torrents (its slow as hel_l and you pay per minute so leaving your computer on all day and night to download is not an option since your card will run out and you'll be constantly buying new ones). Dial up is simple, you just buy an internet card from the 7 eleven. You need a dial up modem first. If highspeed is available you call them and they send someone over to hook you up, unless you are lucky enough to move into a building that has highspeed already hooked up and then you just plug into the phone jack with the modem they will supply you.

Damian Mavis

[meme]

Not exactly great advice.... the program meme uses to download torrents isnt the problem, the problem is an old out of date computer. I use Azureus on a moderate speed computer and have no slow downs.

Ok, the first thing you need to look into before moving to a "small town" is if they have internet at all! Most definately dial up... but high speed of any sort? Yeesh.... ya try to find out if they offer some sort of high speed internet or you wont have much luck with downloading torrents (its slow as hel_l and you pay per minute so leaving your computer on all day and night to download is not an option since your card will run out and you'll be constantly buying new ones). Dial up is simple, you just buy an internet card from the 7 eleven. You need a dial up modem first. If highspeed is available you call them and they send someone over to hook you up, unless you are lucky enough to move into a building that has highspeed already hooked up and then you just plug into the phone jack with the modem they will supply you.

Damian Mavis

Thanks DM,

I am moving into a house that does not even have a phone line so I am going to have to get that hooked up I guess..They def have internet shops/cafes around and I do know one couple who has it in their home so will ask what they use.

Any advise on what kind of computer I should buy?

[meadish_sweetball]

Just getting a phone line installed can take a long time if your house is far from the town centre.

As for a computer, your needs are fairly basic so you do not need anything too fancy. How much would you be willing to spend is an important question too.

I think in your case I would recommend buying an already assembled system from a known brand such as Dell and not attempt to build something of component parts, as that requires a fair amount of interest and asking many questions before you understand what is required. I am still learning... and I am still not completely happy with my system, not even after having spent upwards of 40 000 baht on it.

I agree with the advice of trying uTorrent instead of Azureus: Azureus is a good client but it does hog an unneccessary amount of system memory resources.

Azureus has more features, but uTorrent is a minimal client which is just as effective for basic torrenting and uses up a lot less resources, i.e. it gets the job done just as well. Unless you feel you need to tweak a lot of options, there is no need for Azureus.

[sbk]

meme, where are you headed?

[meme]

meme, where are you headed?

Back to Trang. My bf is house hunting for us at the moment and says that it is really hard to find a house with a land line.

MS,

Thanks for that info. How much I am willing to spend?? That is a good question. I don't know?? I do not need anything fancy. I just want to be able to do my work and dowload my shows and music and use the internet. My last computer has caused me so much greif, being slow, not shutting down etc I just want a good reliable machine so I am willing to pay whatever that will cost me. I will buy an already assembled computer as I would have no idea how to go about attempting to build one.

[sbk]

Trang has a Tesco Lotus there, you could get an HP at Lotus for a decent price. It won't be the fastest machine on the planet but anything will be faster than your old clunker (I speak from experience here, being the owner of an old clunker )

[meme]

Trang has a Tesco Lotus there, you could get an HP at Lotus for a decent price. It won't be the fastest machine on the planet but anything will be faster than your old clunker (I speak from experience here, being the owner of an old clunker )

Yeah, when we used to go to Lotus we would always see computers on sale for 20,000 baht. So was thinking we should check there for sure.

[markwhite]

I just got a Pentium 935, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, 17" LCD monitor, DVD writer, 256MB video card, speakers and stuff for 28,000 and am using it on TOT ADSL with uTorrent in a small town in Nakhon So Thammarat and I'm quite happy with it at the minute. Oh - and a UPS too, as the electricity here is really dodgy.

I went for low-end games spec which maybe something you don't need, so you might be able to cut down on the fancy stuff a little. And I bought from Plug n Play who have a few shops round here, but I have no idea if they are further afield in Thailand.

I went with TOT after speaking to locals - well the local internet shop which had good fast access, and a man at a camera shop who was downloading 2 DVDs a day using TOT via torrents. After 5 days I've had no problems (440kbs down on a 512/256 line), but it's early days yet.

The house I'm in didn't have a telephone line, but the street has provision, so the wires just came from the nearest telegraph pole, and installation for the phone and ADSL was 1,650 and took 8 days from ordering until ready to use. The ADSL modem I ended up buying was the same price as the one offered by TOT, even though I thought I could get cheaper from a shop, as did the engineer who did the installation.

Hope this helps :-)

[meme]

I just got a Pentium 935, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, 17" LCD monitor, DVD writer, 256MB video card, speakers and stuff for 28,000 and am using it on TOT ADSL with uTorrent in a small town in Nakhon So Thammarat and I'm quite happy with it at the minute. Oh - and a UPS too, as the electricity here is really dodgy.

I went for low-end games spec which maybe something you don't need, so you might be able to cut down on the fancy stuff a little. And I bought from Plug n Play who have a few shops round here, but I have no idea if they are further afield in Thailand.

I went with TOT after speaking to locals - well the local internet shop which had good fast access, and a man at a camera shop who was downloading 2 DVDs a day using TOT via torrents. After 5 days I've had no problems (440kbs down on a 512/256 line), but it's early days yet.

The house I'm in didn't have a telephone line, but the street has provision, so the wires just came from the nearest telegraph pole, and installation for the phone and ADSL was 1,650 and took 8 days from ordering until ready to use. The ADSL modem I ended up buying was the same price as the one offered by TOT, even though I thought I could get cheaper from a shop, as did the engineer who did the installation.

Hope this helps :-)

Thanks so much!! That really helps!!

[meadish_sweetball]

If you want to protect your gear, a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) which acts as a current stabilizer and provides backup electricity during power cuts is a very good idea as not having one can damage your computer.

Making sure the computer is connected to a grounded (earthed) plug is another precaution. Most Thai houses do not have grounded (earthed) plugs, so you may have to contact an electrician to arrange this for you.