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[Lucy]

1) What brand are you using? Or you build your own?

2) How good/stable/fast is your system?

3) what price for a computer you think is reasonable/affordable?

4) Have you ever seen LCD monitors below US$300?

5) This is what I want to know most: Microtel and Emachine are selling cheaper PCs around US$500 with no monitor and OS but with 256MB ram and CDRW. The price is attractive. But how stable are those computers? Anyone ever bought a computer like I mentioned? Most importantly, do these computers have enough slots for users to upgrade?


Dear friends, I live in Hong Kong. Computers in Hong Kong can be VERY cheap but with good quality. My computer is one year old. I have AMD Duron 824mhz, 256 sd ram, AC97 audio, 30GB hard disk, ethernet card, 56k modem, 8X CDRW, with a 15inch LCD monitor. Of course my system is not that good compare to today's ones. But they only costed me totally HKD6200 (USD 795). I am not using any brand like Dell, HP, etc. My friend chose all the components for me at a compputer hardware store. Then the staff there built the machine. I waited for 2 hours (quite fast) after I paid them. Then the staff tested my built machine on a monitor in front of us. We picked them and went home.

I just had a customization at Dell.com. The same system from Dell is USD 1089. Very expensive.

If you have time, please reply to my survey. I would like to know more about your society.

[tullio]

If you are conducting a survey, there can be absolutely no doubt that you are a sociologist :-).

I just left you some information about farm workers on the Lucy What Do You See Thread.

1.  I have a Dell Dimension 8100 with a 1.4 GHz Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM, 2 Maxtor HDDs: 40GB & 60GB, ATI All in Wonder Radeon 7500 video card, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, DVD/CD drive, Plextor 40-12-40 CDRW drive, and an Iomega 250 MB Zip drive  (no longer of much value) I use a Dell 19 inch monitor that came with the computer, 56K modem and ethernet connection to my cable modem.

2.  I'm using Windows XP Professional (NTFS) on this system, and it is very stable.  I have never had a blue screen crash, and very few lock-ups or freezes.  It's also the fastest machine I've ever owned.
It gets heavy use.  I'm at the keyboard about 12 hours most days, and I frequently encode video files overnight.

3.  I think the original machine cost me about $1400 with monitor, but I then upgraded the video card, added a second HDD, and just this week added a faster CDRW.  I estimate the total cost at about $1900.
For me that is a reasonable/affordable price.  For someone, like my son who is just about to get married, it would seem expensive.  Affordable and reasonable are relative terms.

4.  I've never priced LCD monitors.

5.  Sorry, I don't know anything about these machines.

In the other thread you mentioned the low wages paid to McDonalds workers.  They are about half what a similar worker earns here.  I am interested in the comparative cost of living in Hong Kong and the US, particularly for poorer working people.

1. What basic services are provided by the government?  I assume you have health care provided, but what else?

2.  What are housing costs like.  For example, what is the rent for a small one-bedroom apartment, such as a student might occupy?  What would be the cost of a small house in a working class neighborhood?

[Lucy]

Oh tullio

You have replied to my survey with great clear detail! Thank you very much!

I am happy that you are also curious about Hong Kong's living standard. I am going to answer your questions.

Now is 2:24am. Let me take a rest first.

[claudio]

Hi Lucy,

I have several Dell systems (2 PIII 800 Mhz and a P4 1.9 Ghz) . I use them for work (I work from my home office) and I find then very reliable and good priced. If I had to go around and shop to assemble a pc with quality components, it would cost me much more if I factor in my hourly rate, even if the HW cost could be lower. Not to mention all those little time consuming incompatibility that tend to happen very frequently when you assemble a system. I've tried a few other vendors in the past, build my own,  and used all sort of systems in my contracts, but so far Dell remains my favorite choice.


My main machine is a Dell Dimension 8200 (p4 1.9 Ghz) with 512 Mb rdram, Nvidia GeForce 2 tv out, Haupauge Tv card, approximately 300 Gb of disk between internal and external disks, dvd-cdrw combo, usb2-firewire, santa cruz, Yamaha speakers and subwoofer set, plus another bunch of little accessory here and there.

I believe the base machine was 3000 Cdn (Canadian dollar), so approximately 1900 Us but I've added a bunch of stuff after

I'm continuing to stick with CRT, mainly because of cost, image quality and better ability to work at multiple resolutions... and because space is not really an issue for my office

I don't know Microtel... but I think I've heard (and seen ) the Emachine systems. I did not hear very good things about them..

Claudio

[Influxor]

hi,

1) I built my own,  windows 2000 pro workstation.
  socket 370 motherboard, 5 pci slots, 1 agp slot (4x).
  512 megs sdram currently installed, the MB also supports ddr ram
  but i havent invested in any yet.
  intel celeron 1.1ghz cpu, soundblaster live soundcard.
  geforce 4 mx 440 videocard w/64megs ddr ram.
  philips 24x burner (40x read) and 2 hardrives, 40 gig maxtors.
  atx tower case. one old compaq monitor (cheap).
  altogether i have about $990.00 invested (i bought all the parts
  from wholesale distributers).

2) I must rate the system as being very stable for me, and yes NTFS  
  rocks.  speed? hmm seems speedy compared to my last system , a
  500mhz varity.

3) I believe a resonable prices is dependant on what you want.
  700 to 2,000 are the ususal prices i see for good systems.

4) I have seen cheap LCD monitors 250 to 300, i believe the
  performance was not very good on those though.

5) a friend of mine has 3 e-machines, they are not bad BUT they are  
  NOT upgradeable.  they have either NO slots or ONE slot.


cheers!

[nila]

Bah Humbug - Buying systems???
What rubbish is this. We all known they shove in cheap parts so that they can make it sound nice and high spec yet save on cost so they can make a fat profit.

Influxor is the only one who seems clued up - Build your own system all the way!!

Mine's half a new system, half my old one.

I USED to have:

MSI K7 Pro motherboard
700Mhz Slot A Athlon,
3x 256 Mb DIM RAM,
Matrox G400 Max Dual Head (32Mb),
QuickCam 3000 Pro
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro,
Logitech Mouse (4 button one with mousewheel)
SBLive Player 1024
Cambridge Soundworks 1500 speakers (Need some new ones and a new soundcard)
100/10 ethernet card,
Plextor 124Tsi SCSI CDRW
Pioneer 10x DVD drive
Canon IXUS digital camera with 2x128Mb Compact Flash Cards(cant seem to work out where the hell I put this, I hope I haven't lost it)
140 Gig hard drive (1x20, 1x40, 1x80)
OS: Win2k (sometimes Pro, sometimes Adv Server, sometimes Server)

NOW I have:
Abit Kx7-333R Motherboard
Athlon 2000
Volcano 7 CPU fan
512 Mb DDR PC2100 RAM
Gorgeous Case (Chieftec Scorpio Black TX-10 BD 340W PFC Midi Case)
and the rest of the system mentioned above.
OS: WinXP Pro

[Lucy]

Thank you for your guys opinion. @_@ I hope I can get more response later.

From the response so far I got, it seems that "brand" and "build" 50/50...but I know I can't make a conclusion like this.

From your (why doesn't "you" have plural form?) opinion, the advantages of brand machines seem to be confidence for big manufacturers and compatibility. To SOME extent, I do agree that "you get what you paid" (?).

As for building machines, the pros are you can arrange flexibly - budget or performance. But this requires that customer is already familiar with computer hardware.

A professor of mine dislikes reporters just wander in streets and interview people around. He thinks that such opinions can't represent that of the whole population. I also understand my survey is not really a strict survey. Just would like to know people's taste in general. I have no other cheaper ways and knowledge to conduct.

Hey. it seems the reputation of Dell is good. How is it compared to HP/Gateway/IBM? My university (Chinese University of Hong Kong) uses Dell systems in all its offices and departments. The computer room for students in my department is filled with black Dell machines. I am not professional in judging their performance, BUT those machines run really quiet/silent! And its keyboard is also quiet too. I think this brand is quite good. But it seems that I can't buy one in retai stores. It only needs phone to buy.