Novinthen's Blog

Posted this in MI CLUB after seeing metformin hcl and pregnancy alot of Indian PC vendor selling Pentium 3 / Pentium 4 PCs for sky high prices.

Thanks to Mr.Poobalan for adding some valuable inputs that I have left out.

Please note metformin hcl 1000 mg I am not PC expert. Just sharing some information on how to buy PC from my “valuable” experiance getting cheated by,mostly Indian vendors. *sigh*



Vanakam,

Saw alot of PC sales advertisement in MI CLUB by our fellow indian
brothers and sisters.

Sadfully , the prices are very high for average pcs.Today , most of
the new pc users are going after Dual Core or even Quad Core PCs.

I’m not a PC expert,but ill try to share some information with you
guys which i have learned over there years,cheated by mostly Indians
and some Chinese PC vendors too.

You can get Dual Core CPU’s cheapest for RM 800 if you search in
lelong.com.my or lowyat.net,Or you can walk into any PC shop in lowyat
( Near Jalan Bkt Bintang) and build your own PCs according to your specs.

A good CPU can be built for price average RM1K. Plus with
monitor,keyboard,mouse,speaker,etc it will be around RM1.5K – RM1.8K
only. Dont go gaga over LCD monitors. Normal CRT monitor is just nice
for any Internet user. Can save few hundred over here.On Keyboards and
mouse,I have been using RM15 keyboard for like almost 2 years! There
is certainly no need for Microsoft’s RM 300 Keyboard, or RM100 mouse
and RM500 speaker,my RM15 speaker from Tesco is just nice to listen
some songs.

And also try “the other” brands like AMD processors,which are lesser
in price and work smoothly like Intel brands. You can save at least
few hundred in processors if you chose wisely.

And always wait for PC Fair! All tech gadgets and gizmos and really
cheap in PC Fair. It’s held few times in a year all over Malaysia.

And lastly, just dont ask them to send Quotation and pick the cheapest
or the highest pricing. Highest doesnt mean its the best,and cheapest
doesnt mean its the worst. Learn somethings about PC. See which PC
will suit your need. Normal internet surfers surely dont need to have
Quad Core PCs with Hundreds of Gigabytes Hard disk. Pentium 4 with 40
GB HD also will do the trick. You also can check latest price listing
from www.lowyat.net. Most of the PC shops in Lowyat Plaza will upload
their latest pricing at this website.

That’s all for now.

Just sharing some info .

Yours Sincerely,
Novinthen Krishnan

Reply by Mr.Poobalan.

Vanakkam,

if i may add:

before buying a PC, the person should analyse the following:

1. WHO will be using it. for households where its average income and there
are school-going kids, its likely that 3 or more people will share the PC.
So, there are different requirements. If the user is only one person, then
see if he/she interested in surfing or gaming (computer games) or for office
work or for graphics/multimedia editing etc.

If there are many users, please get a PC with larger storage (hard disk) at
least 160GB. If your house have digital camera, then most likely photos will
be stored in PC, so bigger storage is important. Plus with storing MP3
songs, it will eat up the hard disk space easily. If just to do Microsoft
Office work and Internet browsing, storage about 100GB is enough for the
moment. But remember, newer software and OS is taking more and more disk
space, so anything less than 100GB is insufficient for long period.

If you are programmer/multimedia/gaming person – then the requirements are
totally different.

2. Monitor – LCD monitors will save space, whereas CRT will take a bit more
space on the table. a 15″ LCD is quite cheap, but if can, go for 17″ at
least.

3. Keyboard and mouse – yeah basically anything will do. My Microsoft
Wireless Mouse has problems until now. I gave up and now using RM8 mouse!
HOWEVER, a good ergonomic keyboard will reduce stress on the hands/wrist.
So, if your house have users who sit in front PC for more than 2 hours
continuously, better get a good keyboard, table,chair, and proper lighting
so that won’t affect the health much.

4. Speakers – well here it depends, if you are into music, then of course
should invest in a good system. If just to heard MP3 “Naka Muka” songs and
watch movies, anything for about RM50 will do. Some even buy a good set of
headphones as well.

5. HOW long you plan to use the PC. Nothing last forever. With constant
upgrades, your PC can last for more than 5 years. The usual problems are
hard disk full and newer software/OS which have higher requirement. The
second reason (software/OS) causes the existing
PC “power” to be increased – either the RAM (memory) or CPU (processor). For
reasonable use, plan a PC for 3 years of use before considering upgrading to
a newer model.

6. DON’T forget to invest in a good (i) antivirus software, (ii) Firewall,
(iii) anti-spyware/malware. some free antivirus like Avast is quite good. If
you want to buy, try Kaspersky. Firewall – Windows XP SP2 onwards has
built-in ones, while other free option are like ZoneAlarm. You can download
Google Pack (free) which include basic Antivirus scanner and anti-spyware
tool. For spyware protection, Windows Defender is a free download.

7. To constantly ensure that Antivirus is always updated, you must have
internet connection. People assume that just installing those anti-virus and
anti-spyware tools, the PC will protected. ACTUALLY, the PC is protected AS
LONG AS THE ANTIVIRUS DEFINITION LIST is updated.Basic streamyx costs about
Rm44-RM60/month. NEVER use Internet without protection.

8. Ask people. IT is a fast moving industry. If you don’t take an interest,
prepare to be conned. Try to go to PC Fairs and see the new technologies.
Get to know the terms. Read my posting again, see if you can understand what
is OS, MP3, RAM, 100GB, anti-virus, etc.

9. Just like antivirus, your OS allows needs to constantly updated – via
patches and service packs. With internet connection it will be easier to do
so.

10. Finally, do include the cost of original software like Microsoft Windows
and MS Office. Original Windows will allow you to download extra tools from
Windows website – like the Windows Defender. Unless of course, you can use
Open Source products like Linux and OpenOffice.

Feel free to ask. I’m sure many experts in the forum will help. Malu
bertanya, sesat jalan. BTW, thanks to bro Novinthen for the initiative.

poobalan