I'm after a basic set-up, ie - 17" monitor, 60-80gig hard drive, 512MB RAM, cd burner etc. Is it worth plodding around the likes of Computer Plaza and Pantip trying to get the best bargain, or save time by grabbing one off the shelf in Carrefour?

How much should I expect to pay for the above set-up between the two?

cheers

Don't grab one from Carrefour. They're not better than anything you'll come across and the computer malls, but service is much more of an issue.

Pricing I think is pretty transparent in Chiang Mai: You get absolutely what you pay for. You can tweak the things you get down to the last nut and bolt basically. Things that affect cost by a lot would include the brand/type of mainboard and graphics hardware.

I personally would not bother going for the smallest, rock-bottom shop but take one of the slightly bigger, longer running operations like Empower, Media Magick and others.

While your requirements list may already seem techincal, down to specifying amounts of memory and CPU speed and all, you may have to dig somewhat deeper still to be able to compare between two shops.. Like imagine when the graphics hardware is on the mainboard AND sharing regular system memory... That's a MAJOR cost saver so such a computer would be priced a lot cheaper.. and you do get what you pay for.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a new computer built, the need became urgent since getting a digital video camera. :-))

Cheers,

Chanchao

Cheers Chanchao,

Yeah, it'll just be used mainly as a jukebox and for stupid little games etc. Got my laptop as the main tool for doing other stupid things with, upstairs in my office. But would rather pay a tad more for something thats not going to give me hassles in the first 10 minutes, and decent service. Quite fancied the idea of throwing the pc on the trolley with all the other groceries though. Look quite comical to see a toothbrush, a tin of beans followed by a pc bombing down the check-out conveyor.

Cheers