Computer Shop

[Dietmar]

Coming to Chiang Mai in September for an extended period of time I have a requirement for some computer stuff - mostly accessories and peripherals. As an example I will need a good printer.

Can anyone point out the major suppliers in Chiang Mai?

Where are they located?

Which major brands are available?

Any info is much appreciated.

Dietmar

[toopeekaa 1]

Coming to Chiang Mai in September for an extended period of time I have a requirement for some computer stuff - mostly accessories and peripherals. As an example I will need a good printer.

Which major brands are available?

Any info is much appreciated.

Dietmar

When you get to Chiang Mai and have a map of the area, you will see the 'square' of the old city. The old city is surrounded by a moat which the locals refer to as a 'Klong'. Look on the North Wall, on the outside of the klong and almost to the N.W. Corner, there you will find 'Computer Plaza', a multi story computer mall. In addition to this mall, as you face the plaza, to the right and to the left are new computer malls. You can spend a couple of days looking through all of the shops there...

As to brands, you will find everything you want from Acer to Yamakawahonda.

Good Luck

[ovenman]

Which major brands are available?

You won't have any trouble finding whatever you need in the way of computer equipment in Chiang Mai but if you are looking for higher-end components, many dealers will need to order the item for you. That will generally take a day or two to arrive (usually from Bangkok).

[cutethaigirl]

There are more computer shops in CM that customers at the moment.

Pantip Plaza have opened a branch which is filling up with stores . Located at the east end of the Night Bazaar on Chang Klan Road.

Airport Plaza on the South edge of the superhighway has a lot too.

There is also a few dozen in an older place called CM building which is on the North edge of the ring road just to the left of the traffic lights if you are heading to Maerim.

Pretty well everything is here and shopping around you fill find at least one place discounting what you need.

Two days in the shops near the North of the moat? Doing what??? Take food if you try that!

[chanchao]

I actually like the new Panthip building near the Night Bazar (corner of Chang Klan and Sridonchai Roads). It'll probably fold as it's mostly empty, but gosh is it nice and bright and cool and clean there! And you can actually park there! Nice difference from the other computer malls...

Oh and the city moat is a moat (khoo mueang), not a klong! :-) No doubt locals will understand when you say 'khlong' but then again they also understand it when you say 'papaya pok pok' for som tam; it does not make it the generally accepted term! There's a khlong alright in Chiang Mai but that's the Mae Kha stream along Kamphaeng Din.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[ovenman]

I actually like the new Panthip building near the Night Bazar (corner of Chang Klan and Sridonchai Roads).  It'll probably fold as it's mostly empty, but gosh is it nice and bright and cool and clean there!  And you can actually park there!  Nice difference from the other computer malls...

The new Panthip Plaza is very nice but with all of the other computer plazas in Chiang Mai, its construction hardly seemed necessary. Given a choice were one of the computer plazas to go belly-up, I can't say that I would miss the dumpy, original Computer Plaza on the north side of the moat.

[chanchao]

I think the one that was once Tantrapan dept store (argh.. I'm showing my age) is dumpier than Com Plaza..

Of course some of the more successful stores have outlets at several malls; these shops will remain around even if one or more malls fold. Examples of these bigger stores would include Empower Computer and Media Magic. Also Chi Chang for the high-end and/or more specialized stuff.

For consumer PC stuff I think I would just go to either of these, and perhaps even Data IT.. There was a time when I enjoyed going to every little hole in the wall, fly-by-night little shop but I don't think some 100 baht savings is really worth it.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[ovenman]

I think the one that was once Tantrapan dept store (argh.. I'm showing my age) is dumpier than Com Plaza..

It is hard to imagine that plaza having once been a high-end department store. Even more sad is Tantraphan's former flagship Taphae Road location. Last time I looked, that building had been completely abandoned.

There was a time when I enjoyed going to every little hole in the wall, fly-by-night little shop but I don't think some 100 baht savings is really worth it.

The novelty of "the chase" does wear off after a while. Anymore, I prefer to stick with the same shop just so I am a familiar face when the need for service occasionally arises. The sheer number of computer shops seems to keep the prices competitive.

[Johpa]

It is hard to imagine that plaza having once been a high-end department store. Even more sad is Tantraphan's former flagship Taphae Road location. Last time I looked, that building had been completely abandoned.

The old Tantraphan at the northwest corner of the moat (I too have never heard it called a klong by locals) was a very nice department store and indeed the top place to shop in Chiang Mai for many years and was Thantraphan's flagship store. After Tantraphan abandoned it for his newer mall it still was a decent computer center. But like all Thai buildings, after 20 years of little or no maintenance, it became a slum, the same as many of the buildings on Thapae and around Wororot.

[chanchao]

> it became a slum, the same as many of the buildings on

> Thapae and around Wororot.

All is not lost. If you look carefully then you see that many buildings along Thapae road and in the Wat Gate area are actually very nice old buildings. When properly renovated (yes, it's happening to some!) they suddenly look completely stunning. Like this one: http://chanchao.fotopages.com/?entry=94176

Cheers,

Chanchao

[ovenman]

But like all Thai buildings, after 20 years of little or no maintenance, it became a slum, the same as many of the buildings on Thapae and around Wororot.

Drifting a ways off-topic but it will be interesting to see whether a rejuvenation of Taphae Road will occur after the current construction project is completed. I assume that the present navigational minefield is the long-awaited burying of the electric wires(?). Driving down Taphae at the moment is a bit like running an obstacle course.

[chanchao]

Are you sure it's about electrical wiring only?? Surely they don't have to cut through the middle of the road then, like they could put it under sidewalks and it wouldn't have to take so long?

Beats me what they're doing. Maybe they're going for the current record, set by the people who kept Ratchada/Asoke in Bangkok dug up for several years. :-))

[ovenman]

Are you sure it's about electrical wiring only??

I honestly have no idea. I have been assuming that the current construction is underground wiring since it has been promised on Taphae for the past ten years or so!

[chanchao]

> I have been assuming that the current construction is

> underground wiring since it has been promised on Taphae for the

> past ten years or so!

Where do you think this is, Sweden?! Geat real, first they'll finish whatever it is they're digging, then the re-pave everything perfect and smooth, and only THEN the electrical guys come in, cut it up again to do the wiring!

Then it's patched up again, followed by some good flooding and after that's all done then you'll be wishing the whole thing was back to the way it is right now, uneven steel plates and covers and all!

Cheers,

Chanchao

[ovenman]

...after that's all done then you'll be wishing the whole thing was back to the way it is right now, uneven steel plates and covers and all!

Sort of like the way I wish they never "bricked" Ratchadamnoen Road...?

[cutethaigirl]

I honestly have no idea. I have been assuming that the current construction is underground wiring since it has been promised on Taphae for the past ten years or so! 

Think not unless they are putting the wires into 2 metre wide water pipes.

Wait until that is finished before they dig up the road again to do the wires?

[meadish_sweetball]

...after that's all done then you'll be wishing the whole thing was back to the way it is right now, uneven steel plates and covers and all!

Sort of like the way I wish they never "bricked" Ratchadamnoen Road...?

What is more irritating about Ratchadamnoen Rd - the bricks or the bric-a-brac?

[ovenman]

Sort of like the way I wish they never "bricked" Ratchadamnoen Road...? 

What is more irritating about Ratchadamnoen Rd - the bricks or the bric-a-brac?

The bricks actually look nice but they have loosened up to the extent that it makes for a rather uneasy motorbike ride at a speed of say, over 20 km/h.

[cutethaigirl]

What is more irritating about Ratchadamnoen Rd - the bricks or the bric-a-brac?

Are you having a bad week Meadish?

[Dietmar]

Well, thanks all for the enlightning information. I now have a good idea, where to shop for computer stuff but also know which roads to avoid.

[ovenman]

Think not unless they are putting the wires into 2 metre wide water pipes.

I suppose that means we get to wait another five years for the underground wiring, eh?