Mail Order Computer Components

[modafinil]

Hi!

I'm wondering where the best place to buy computer components in Thailand is - such as new RAM, new Hard Drive, etc etc. In the UK and the US, the cheapest way to buy was always by mail order - newegg in the US and ebuyer in the UK usually seemed to have the best available prices.

Is there an equivalent site in Thailand - very cheap prices, very large product range and will deliver anywhere in Thailand? I'm currently in Phuket BTW.

[lomatopo]

PC component distribution is a bit different here. There are a lot brick and mortar shops, as people like to buy face-to-face, negotiate, compare, shop in person, etc. In the U.S. there are not a lot of component shops and more mail order. There are some mail order companies here, invadeIT is a sponsor here http://www.invadeit.co.th/ and many shops will mail items to you. However pricing tends to be less variable here, outside of special promotions (which everyone matches usually). For many items I still buy at Newegg (their promotions, MIRs are hard to beat, plus free shipping and no sales tax) as I go to the U.S. often. Some items are almost the same price here, e.g. HDDs.

[modafinil]

Have been looking at the invadeIT site, their prices seem pretty good. I'm initially looking to spend 3000-4000 baht on an external HD, they list 3 options for postage:

EMS 92 baht, TNT 339 baht, Thailand Post 35 baht

Which delivery option would you go for - obviously Thailand Post is the cheapest, but are they reliable? (Any other suggestions for similar websites would be very useful - its always nice to be able to compare products on price before ordering)

Have bought a couple of cheap items in Carrefour, but as with many things in Phuket I'm a bit wary about the Brick and Mortar stores overcharging - you always know you are getting fleeced when the big calculator comes out

Edited September 21, 2010 by modafinil

[Tywais]

You might check through the pinned topic > On-line computer/electronic stores

[floridaguy]

First, I am in no way affiliated with any products or services that I may recommend on TV.

When I was in the States, Newegg was always my go to place for great products at the best prices, and fast shipping. Now, I use Thanni. Not nearly the amount of products, but good here. I took a list of 10 items to Pantip and Fortune Tower and couldn't get lower prices than Thanni, even after haggling in Thai (I get the "Thai" discount). Shipping in Bangkok by messenger is very fast and only 135 baht. I place an order and immediately transfer the funds and I usually get it the next day. Granted I am in BKK, but they ship the next day. They are also very fast to respond to emails, usually within less than an hour.

I have also used shop4thai, but not as much product, and prices are always higher.

Tried pantip market place, all in Thai only, but they seem a little shadier, so I avoid that place other than research.

Good luck

[floridaguy]

Ok, just went and compared prices for the last 2 items I bought between Thanni and InvadeIT.

Linksys WRT320 Thanni 3855 Baht including 135 Baht 1 day shipping

InvadeIT 4300 Baht before shipping charges

ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 Thanni 4615 Baht including 135 Baht 1 day shipping

InvadeIT 4990 Baht before shipping charges

You all had me worried. I had never heard of InvadeIT before. I am glad I chose the cheaper vendor.

[Spoonman]

InvadeIT may be slightly more expensive than Thanni but everything I have purchased from invadeIT (just placed an order today infact) has always arrived on time, cant say the same for Thanni.

Not to mention invadeIT are really good communicators, my current purchase include some items that were not instock, from the time I placed the order to recieving an email offering alternate solutions was within the hour, a true hassle free service that aways results in me sorting out my own PC issues promptly.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Spoonman

[bkk_mike]

It depends where you are.

If you're in Bangkok, and you're buying more than a memory stick (i.e. the cost of getting there and your time wandering around is less important than the saving), then you're actually better off going to one of the IT places. i.e. Pantip, Fortune Town, or Zeer etc.

It's counter-intuitive for anyone from the west, but the little shops in Pantip can often have better prices than the mail order places as although the mail-order place will save on scale, the little shops tend to be more aggressive as they have a lot more local competition. (whereas there's not that much online competition).

It's probably that staff costs are so low here that the overheads from running a shop are less along with the competition...

[JSixpack]

InvadeIT may be slightly more expensive than Thanni but everything I have purchased from invadeIT (just placed an order today infact) has always arrived on time, cant say the same for Thanni.

I've used both Thanni and InvadeIT. If a product is in stock then they both ship promptly. I've had good service from both. As noted in the thread, Thanni tends to have better prices. However, sometimes you can find an item at one shop that the other doesn't have.

I appreciate the convenience of online ordering and getting things shipped to my door. I love browsing around in Panthip and Fortune, but I don't often have time to go there and do that.

The trouble with these Thailand-based online shops, including InvadeIT, is that what they show is often not in stock and they don't know when it will be. The website says nothing like "out of stock" as newegg or amazon would show. So you've got to email or call them first.

[modafinil]

Thanks for the advice, everybody! 2 good online recommendations, and some interesting comments about both. Cheers!

[ManInSurat]

I can also personally vouch for Thanni.com and Jedicool.com.

Both excellent, decent prices, a good range of stock (maybe a little behind other countries) and very efficient.

I've bought a full unit I designed my self from component parts on Thanni.com, whole thing came to over 70,000 THB and was delivered straight to my door 3 days later with no complications at all.

Jedicool are a little strange in the way that they operate, in that I got absolutely no confirmation back from them that my order was on the way, although it came 4 days later. They're a little more basic, as is their site, but again they have a decent range of stock.

One thing I can say of Thanni, is that make sure you're ordering exactly what you need. I mis-ordered the processor for the unit I put together myself, getting a wrong size CPU for my motherboard and they would not replace it. I was a little disappointed by this, but I did manange to sell it on for more-or-less the same price as I bought it. Lesson learned there.

So I'd personally recommend these two.

Best of luck.

[siamect]

... whole thing came to over 70,000 THB and was delivered straight to my door 3 days later with no complications at all.

Are you building space shuttles or what?

Martin

[ManInSurat]

Hi Martin, what's up mate?

... whole thing came to over 70,000 THB and was delivered straight to my door 3 days later with no complications at all.

Are you building space shuttles or what?

Martin

Haha, no mate!

I just needed, for work, the very best CPU, motherboard, everything I could afford, as it would definitely pay off in the long rong.

I can give you a rundown of what I ordered if you like:

1 x Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz 4C/8T 4x 256KB L2 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 CPU Retail

1 x ASUS "Rampage II GENE" Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset Mainboard for Intel LGA 1366 CPU Retail

2 x G.SKILL F3-12800CL8T RM Series 6GB (3x 2GB) DDR3-1600 240-Pin CL8 RAM Retail

1 x Neolution XLD-8013 ATX Mid Tower Case w/ 550w Power Supply Retail

2 x Western Digital 500GB GP 7200RPM 32MB Cache S-ATA II Hard Disk Drive Model "WD5000AADS" OEM

1 x Spark GeForce 9400GT OC600 LP 1GB DDR2 128-bit HDTV DVI PCIe 2.0 Retail

1 x LG GH22NS 22x22 DVD Writer w/ 10x10 DL 12x DVD-RAM S-ATA OEM

1 x DGET "DG-1000U" 1000VA 400W Intelligence UPS Retail

1 x Cooler Master "Hyper 212 Plus" CPU Fan/Heatsink for AMD & Intel Retail

There was also an SSD, that I ordered at the same time, and quite a few more ram sticks (as I operate on x64), and another VGA card, and all in all it was over 70k! This was about a year ago though, so the prices for most of these things would have come down by now!

You can also see in that list I originally ordered the wrong size CPU for the motherboard, and I needed to keep the motherboard so I had to sell that on and get the right 1366 CPU, what a mistake to make! That's what I was talking about before.

I'm very very happy though with it and all the parts, it's been a godsend.

I'm looking at building another one, this time using a newer motherboard and the new Intel "hexacore" technology, but each machine I try to build myself, keeps coming out at very very silly money, way over 100k. I find it real fun though putting them together! I'm a major geek, what can I say.

Sorry to have gone a bit off topic here!

Edited September 23, 2010 by ManInSurat

[cali]

There is no equivalent to Newegg in Thailand. Newegg has a professional web site, generations ahead of the amateurish thai sites. That's the first obvious thing everyone notices. I mean how ridiculous is it to shop for hard drives and not have a button to select the capacity of interest? And Thanni requires payment to a personal bank account, that's shady. A consumer should at minimum be able to use a credit card giving protection and ease of use. InvadeIt got this one right.

Prices are WAY more expensive than Newegg. The video card & router mentioned are not high end at all, yet you would save 1000 baht or more at Newegg on EACH of them!!! And it's wrong to say hard drives are as cheap in Thailand. They're not even when the hard drive is MADE IN THAILAND so get over it. I don't know why some people feel the need to defend substandard mail order sites and overpriced items. There are a zillion reasons Newegg completely outclasses Thai mail order.

[floridaguy]

There is no equivalent to Newegg in Thailand. Newegg has a professional web site, generations ahead of the amateurish thai sites. That's the first obvious thing everyone notices. I mean how ridiculous is it to shop for hard drives and not have a button to select the capacity of interest? And Thanni requires payment to a personal bank account, that's shady. A consumer should at minimum be able to use a credit card giving protection and ease of use. InvadeIt got this one right.

Prices are WAY more expensive than Newegg. The video card & router mentioned are not high end at all, yet you would save 1000 baht or more at Newegg on EACH of them!!! And it's wrong to say hard drives are as cheap in Thailand. They're not even when the hard drive is MADE IN THAILAND so get over it. I don't know why some people feel the need to defend substandard mail order sites and overpriced items. There are a zillion reasons Newegg completely outclasses Thai mail order.

No body is defending Thai mail order, we are just answering the OP's question. Read his post.

And if you love Newegg so much, as all of us who lived in the US and used them probably did, then order from them, save the 1000 baht, and see how much you save after customs. Total order prices will be lower ordering from here than the US.

[hyperdimension]

You can also see in that list I originally ordered the wrong size CPU for the motherboard, and I needed to keep the motherboard so I had to sell that on and get the right 1366 CPU, what a mistake to make!

It's strange that they did not advise you that you ordered a CPU that didn't match the motherboard socket, as it should have been obvious to them.

I have found these days that J.I.B. have the best prices, and they even do VAT refund. I'll be flying out for a week and am looking forward to getting a refund from purchases that I made recently at J.I.B. I'm not sure if they do mail order (I prefer to see the product in front of me), but you can check their prices on their web site: jib.co.th.

InvadeIT prices are ridiculous.

Edited January 7, 2011 by hyperdimension

[Spoonman]

InvadeIT prices are ridiculous.

Really, care to elaborate ?

Some things are more expensive some are not, to say the prices are ridiculous is a bit misleading.

[astral]

Does Phuket have a Tukom computer centre where you can walk round and browse

to compare prices?

[hyperdimension]

Really, care to elaborate ?

I've been hunting for an SSD. at J.I.B. the 128 GB. SSD KINGSTON (SV100S2) is 6990 THB. At InvaedIT it's 7980 THB. That's bad enough to never consider visiting the web site again.

[Spoonman]

Really, care to elaborate ?

I've been hunting for an SSD. at J.I.B. the 128 GB. SSD KINGSTON (SV100S2) is 6990 THB. At InvaedIT it's 7980 THB. That's bad enough to never consider visiting the web site again.

Did you purchase the SSD yet, if so thats good, every time I price up things on J.I.B's website then go in there to purchase they dont have stock.

As I said, something are more expensive some are not, My 80gb Intel X25-m was cheaper at invade then any shop in Tukom.

[lopburi3]

I was looking for a Linksys (WAG120N) two weeks ago and found price 2,350 on internet but noticed posters saying they paid about 1,900 baht and first shop in Fortune Town sold me for 1,700 baht without any bargaining.

[negreanu]

I have given up with thai mail order companies for basically anything and go with shipito.com and any us provider.

Fedex rates at shipito.com are 50% discounted.