Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hostness]

I'm sick of my laptop constantly crashing so I need a more powerful set up. I'm looking at about a low i core processor or high core 2 duo (or quad) range for processing power, a decent video card to run cod at medium (or even a bit lesser settings), 4gb ram, like say 500 hard drive, no monitor needed, and no OS needed either (have my own licenses already).

I frankly have no idea where to buy computers in Korea. Is there a place I can just get a good price on a desktop with around the above specs that I can get right away? The only one I know so far is dell but they have a terrible waiting period and their prices are pretty expensive. I've checked out home plus, costco, emart, and all they have are samsungs or joyplus or something like that, all Korean computers with really jacked up prices for such low quality computers.

Please don't recommend me Yongsan. I hate the culture there of dirty salesman tactics and just an overall feeling of having to be cautious when I'm the customer.

I just feel there has to be a place like back home where they have a lot of computers out where I can pick and choose (not the best example, but Best Buy having tables out with computers on it). Here it seems the places with computers are extremely limited. There has to be a place with better prices since this IS korea, or am I mistaken?

[Meow?]

I don't know. When I was in search of a desktop, I mentioned Yongsan simply because it's the only place I know where atleast a better number of sellers know what they're talking about ... 'cause I don't. I don't like buying electronic items in, let's say Walmart (of Ilsan 1990 something) because no matter how old or outdated, they don't adjust their prices. And most of them people there don't know what they're selling.

Before I asked in this forum, I opted to having one built for me by those computer A/S booths scattered around. But they seem to charge for each piece of the computer instead of the whole.

I can already say that the pros in here would recommend you building one yourself. It seems practical and you got total control. Asking someone in here to build one for you would be second best... maybe. But I do know someone in here could offer you such service.

[eamo]

You could go into your little neighborhood computer store. Sit down at the table with the store owner, have an instant coffee, tell him what you will use the PC for, then go through some component choices which hopefully will be within your budget.

Then you go away and come back in a few days when he has ordered in the parts and built it for you.

Of course, this kind of depends on his English, or your Korean, or having a bi-lingual friend.

[crossmr]

Where do you live? are you near eastern seoul? I've found technomart to be more palatable than yongsan.

[ttompatz]

[hostness]

Thanks for the responses everyone. It seems like either custom buying one or buying a custom built one seems the way to go here (to my disappointment).

Anyone have any experience with buying from gmarket's custom built computers from the many vendors selling on it?

Maybe I'll go check out Seon In. Is technomart another place where you 'bargain'? I really don't like bargaining with the ahjusshis and prefer buying from a list of set prices. Last time I went there though it just seemed so unorganized with a buncha vendors just busy doing their own thing. Didn't seem like a place to go order a computer.

Btw, does anyone know how much a setup like the one I explained above will run? Normally it'd be around $600 back in America, or around that price range. Can I expect the same because like I said, the computers at emart and such are worth about $500 in America but marked up to about $900 and it doesn't make any sense to me.

[eamo]

A PC for light needs, i.e. no heavy gaming, shouldn't set you back more than 700,000.......you can even get respectable desktops for 600,000.

[hostness]

After reading this it seems like Yongsan is unfortunately the only place I can get what I want at the prices I want.

I think I decided on just getting a custom built computer as it seems like that's the only price competitive deal I can get here.

Anyone have experience buying a custom built computer from vendors at yongsan (someone mentioned j-tech above and I'll look into that)? Any reputable, hassle-free, non-shady vendors out there that will make the process easy?

I'm knowledgeable enough to built my own computer but 1) haven't been into this computer stuff for a while ever since life got busy a few years ago and 2) don't want to deal with gathering small parts here and there.

I thought about it some more and prob will go with a i5 750/760, 4gb, 1tb card setup. I usually stuck with WD black caviars back home, but it seems like everyone uses samsung HD's here. How are they? I can trust their ram, but yea hd's a complete new part. And also, any mobo to recommend and is 500W fan fine?

And also, any video card to recommend for my price range (haha I don't actually know my price range but I'm guessing like 650k won to high 700k won) but some of the cards out there seem to be around the GTS 250. Personally I think that's overkill for me but just wondering what's the best bang for the buck to say (I just need to be able to play games like COD on medium settings enough for a complete smooth fps without everything looking like crap).

[vDroop]

[hostness]

Haha yup a 500w PSU, not a fan hahaha. Thanks a lot for your recommendations. I'm actually going to blindly try out technomart even though it's extremely far from me based on your advice.

I've just had a bad experience with Yongsan over the past few times I've gone there. It just feels like a warehouse instead of an actual B&M store. It's not worth my time trying to figure out how it works.

[ttompatz]

[vDroop]

Yeah, try it out. I like it because it's all in one place, clean, and they have the latest (mid-range) parts available. Typically, there's room for a little haggling but the place does not exude the feeling of the hungry sales guys preying on foreigners that Yongsan has. There's also a food-court 1 floor up while you wait for your build.

It may be similar to some parts of Yongsan but the shops you want to look for will have a billboard on a stand with printed out packages listing the parts and the price.

Also make sure you get an English version of Windows 7, 64 bit installed on it.

[milspecs]

Icoda.co.kr

One year warranty

[hostness]

Is the quotes they have on the aisles with windows 7 included in the price?

I went today and it was a bit more than I expected it to be (about 100,000 more), and i'm wondering if the price includes the OS and if its possible to get it w/o the OS for cheaper.

And also I didn't know it included a 10% vat (not included) in the listed price. So yeah while it wasn't the preying atmosphere as Yongsan is the price was a bit higher than I expected.

Anyone know why theres some vendors with a greatly reduced price. I know the configs are a bit different from vendor to vendor but for the most part they were pretty steady and easy to discern why a certain price was a bit off. But there'd be one or two 'stores' with the same config about 90k won lower. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this would be so but felt something was wrong. One seemed to indicate CASH ONLY price and it was about 100k lower..and I'm wondering if it's because of that...a better price for paying in cash instead of credit.

[hostness]

Also, anyone have a rep/store from technomart they can recommend (hopefully highly recommend).

It's funny how you can't run from the yongsan preying culture though. So I think it was the 8th and 9th floors there that they have the computer stores at technomart. I went to the 9th floor first and wanted to work my way down so I ended up spending a lot of time on the 9th floor. They were pretty chill and laid back. One ahjusshi even asked me if I had any questions and immediately my natural you're going to rob me foriegner instincts went up and I said no I'm ok.

Surprisingly in the customer service manner I'm used to he said "ok let me know if you need any help...I'm not gonna give you a hard time" and he went back to his desktop computer to work on something else. I was shocked.

BUT later when I was satisfied at seeing what the prices were I went down to the 8th floor. Everywhere I went people came to prey on me Korean style and were eyeing me the whole time to 'introduce' me to their stores. Not only that, but some stores had the same specs for 100,000+ more than the set ups at the 9th floor. I realized it might seem a bit better than Yongsan, but at the end of the day I'm still in Korea!

It might have helped that people were too distracted with the Asian Games to give any concern to me.