Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JeJuJitsu]

Hello you tech heads, I was hoping for a bit of help. I'm in a dilemma--I have 2 million won to spend, and want a Laptop. I have been shopping/researching one for 3 months. I set a deadline for myself for deciding one way or another by Friday.

At first, I was leaning towards saving for a few more months, then getting the best Alienware out there. Then Wrench convinced me to look into Sager (esentially the same as Alienware but MUCH cheaper). I was all but decided on buying a Sager 5720, which is a Pentium M 2.0, 17", 7800GTX, 2 GB RAM monster all for $2200. Problem is, I am mortified of having any problems with the thing. Though I spoke with them, and my warranty would be valid, and they ship here, I can't afford to ship the thing out at W200,000 if I were to have 2-3 problems with it.

So, I am back, asking if it is possible to find a laptop in Korea that has a Pentium M, good chipset, 17" monitor (would be nice, but not essential), a 7800GTX graphics card, maybe 80 GB 7200 HD? Now a 7800GTX isn't a requirement, I'd take a 256MB X700 or higher in quality.

Oh yeah, a legal copy of ENGLISH XP.

My uses are gaming, photoshopping, web/video editing, some database stuff.

I've searched every store within a 50 KM radius of me, and I have yet to find a graphics card newer than 5 years old on any Korean laptop I've ever seen--Hi-Mart, E-Mart, Samsung store, LG store, HP store. once in a while I'll see an X700, but it will invariably be the 128MB version.

In fact, if you can point me to a Korean laptop that has a warranty, my approximate requirement in Graphics card, I'll figure out an English XP, and buy you several pints of Guiness.

[BigBlackEquus]

Closest thing I could find for you was a Toshiba PSP30K-200R00E that has a Pentium 3 3.46 desktop CPU in it and a 17"WXGA 1440x900 monitor. It has 512 of ram, 80Gig (not sure of speed, but at least 5600, I am sure), ATI Mobility Radion 9700 graphics at 64meg, DVD +/- Supermulti, etc.

For about 1,850,000 on www.enuri.com

That chip must get as hot as hell in that setup, though.


Toshiba also has some other models with Pentium 4-M's in them. Hardly what you want, but on www.danawa.com, I found this for around 2 million:
P4-M 2.4GHz
메모리 DDR 512MB
FDD 옵션
HDD 40GB
ODD COMBO
Display 17인치(1440*900)
비디오 nVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Go
사운드 내장 사운드
네트워크 랜, 모뎀 , 무선랜
OS Windows XP Professional
무게 4.5Kg




Oh, take a look at the HP computers with the newer Turion chips from AMD, which close the mobility gap on the Centrinos. Those have to be pretty great for gaming. There is one on enuri with a Turion 2.2, 512 DDR 333, and a mobility radeon x300, 80 gig 5400 RPM drive, SXGA 15" 1400x1050 monitor, DVD +/- RW, etc. Cost is 1,790,000.

You could upgrade the Hard drive or add more ram and still be in budget.



Basically, you have to understand that for performance in Korea on electronics, they charge a massive premium. You're looking at spending a whole ton more money to buy something with the specs you want, compared with back home. If I were you, I would buy from home, and find something with an international warranty. Screw alienware. They were once great, but now they are a name that doesn't stack up.

Good luck.

[mindmetoo]

Also check to make sure they have an english copy of the driver cd. XP gets you half way there with a laptop but then you have to install a whack of drivers for your laptop's specialized hardware. My laptop has English xp but they didn't have an English driver CD so it's loaded with small Korean buggaboos like the won symbol for the backslash. This makes drive paths look highly ugly. Doesn't matter what you set in XP's localization....

[Wrench]

[Wrench]

[BigBlackEquus]

Wrench, I was too busy coughing and gagging over the 4 million won laptop rip-offs to notice. Click the enuri and danawa links and see.

The machine I am using now, and which I absolutely love, is an NEC 1.5 Cerelon M that I paid 550,000 for in Thailand a few months ago. Can't get anything close for less than 900,000 here in Korea. The price rip-offs only get worse as the prices of the machines climbs higher. Mine doesn't have a DVD, but I decided I don't need it. If I really need to, I can transfer files over the network, or USB a dvd drive on rare occasions.

Yes, laptops here are a rip-off. All except some of those in the lower-middle range, and even still....

[JeJuJitsu]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I guess there is no way to get a good performance laptop here. Even the ones priced at about 4 million have crap 1600x1200 screens. BBE, you're right, seems the lower end ones are only a slight rip-off, whereas when you get into high-end parts, it becomes a massive ripoff...

I'll be ordering a Sager from the States tonight.

[Wrench]

[Demonicat]

Hey, can I get the link to Sager?

[JeJuJitsu]

You need to go through a reseller. www.discountlaptops.com

go to www.notebookforums.com for tons of info.

[Demonicat]

Thanks Kindly

[Wrench]

[fidel]