I really lucked out this year having my days off fall on Tuesday and Thursday, since both Christmas day and New Years day both fall on Wednesdays this year, I can take advantage of two three day weekends in a row. I had a few things I wanted to accomplish over last week's extended weekend. My primary goal was to build a new desktop computer so I could take advantage of the extra processing power for the upcoming projects I will get from Quinn. I had searched Newegg for components soon after I'd arrived here in China, and Karl, our school's old DOS from Ireland, was nice enough to scout out the hardware I was looking for, so I had a reasonable approximation of the cost for a new computer. But I hadn't had the spare income to spend on it until now. Back then I was recounted with tales of wonder about Computer City and now I finally had the opportunity to visit it.
I met up with Sean, a local friend of Nick and Jess, at their apartment in Tongzilin in the early afternoon of Christmas Day. Nick and Jess were out buying groceries for their Christmas dinner party that night and were a little late getting back. Nick suggested that in the meantime, Sean and I wandered down to the closest China Telecom store just outside of the apartments to check out the equipment they had. Nick has had wonderful experiences with the friendly staff there and recommended seeing what they could offer me. As it turns out the tech-geeks in the shop had constructed a high-end PC and put it up for sale. I inspected the machine and components while Sean helped translate with the sales clerk, when I had questions. I was impressed with the hardware and the price was reasonable, but I wasn't going to pass up on the chance to visit Computer City, so I requested a list of specs and told the sales rep that I'd compare their offer with any pre-built machines that might be available in the tech zone.
We grabbed a quick snack from the 7-11 next door and hoofed it over to the metro, taking the subway north a few stops until we arrived at our destination. The bottom floor of Computer City can be accessed directly from the subway, and it is truly something to behold... Back home we of course have several big-box store franchises such as Best Buy, scattered relatively evenly around the city, where one can go for just about any tech related item. But here in China, specialty products can be found predominantly in their respective districts; the music district, arts district, etc. Computer City is just the same, except that rather than a street lined with small shops, you enter into a massive, multi-story building with floor after floor of shops and merchandise. It is a tech-geek's wet-dream. The handful of photos I took cannot do justice to the spectacle that is Computer City.
I met up with Sean, a local friend of Nick and Jess, at their apartment in Tongzilin in the early afternoon of Christmas Day. Nick and Jess were out buying groceries for their Christmas dinner party that night and were a little late getting back. Nick suggested that in the meantime, Sean and I wandered down to the closest China Telecom store just outside of the apartments to check out the equipment they had. Nick has had wonderful experiences with the friendly staff there and recommended seeing what they could offer me. As it turns out the tech-geeks in the shop had constructed a high-end PC and put it up for sale. I inspected the machine and components while Sean helped translate with the sales clerk, when I had questions. I was impressed with the hardware and the price was reasonable, but I wasn't going to pass up on the chance to visit Computer City, so I requested a list of specs and told the sales rep that I'd compare their offer with any pre-built machines that might be available in the tech zone.
We grabbed a quick snack from the 7-11 next door and hoofed it over to the metro, taking the subway north a few stops until we arrived at our destination. The bottom floor of Computer City can be accessed directly from the subway, and it is truly something to behold... Back home we of course have several big-box store franchises such as Best Buy, scattered relatively evenly around the city, where one can go for just about any tech related item. But here in China, specialty products can be found predominantly in their respective districts; the music district, arts district, etc. Computer City is just the same, except that rather than a street lined with small shops, you enter into a massive, multi-story building with floor after floor of shops and merchandise. It is a tech-geek's wet-dream. The handful of photos I took cannot do justice to the spectacle that is Computer City.
Nick was searching for a heavy-duty video tripod for his new professional camera, and I was looking for computer components, so we spent a few hours wandering the barely organized chaos of the shops while Sean tried desperately to communicate our wishlists to the vendors. In the end we left empty handed. Nick decided to order a specific tripod from the internet, and I had settled on the pre-built machine at the China Telecom shop. It was nearing dinner time when we returned to Tongzilin. Nick shuffled up to his apartment to help Jess start prepping dinner while Sean and I hammered out the remaining details with the sales reps. In the end we negotiated some additional RAM and for them to order and install a superior graphics card. They would order the card and install it for free, as well as installing the Windows 7 operating system for free as well. Free hardware and software installation is unheard of back home... But what really sold me was the fact that they offer tech support for their products and will even make house calls if necessary.
In the end I spent roughly $1,200 on my new machine, and it is truly a beast:
Alienware case and motherboard
Intel i7 dual core processor and water-cooled heatsink.
GTX-760 256 bit graphics card
16 Gigs of RAM.
Two, 1 Terabyte hard drives and an additional 100 Gig hard drive.
It should certainly last me for a few years and has more than enough processing power for any project I can throw at it. So I am quite happy with it, although there are a few occasional hiccoughs where I'll get a dialogue box that powers up with an error message in Chinese. (Not very helpful...)
Anyways, the techs agreed to finish upgrading the computer so that I could pick it up the next day. I left a deposit for half the cost and went upstairs to join the festivities. Nick and Jess were hard at work on Christmas dinner. When I arrived at the apartment the smell of cooking red sauce and herbs was enticing and watching Nick struggle to knead and make meatballs out of a wad of beef and pork larger than his head has quite entertaining.
In the end I spent roughly $1,200 on my new machine, and it is truly a beast:
Alienware case and motherboard
Intel i7 dual core processor and water-cooled heatsink.
GTX-760 256 bit graphics card
16 Gigs of RAM.
Two, 1 Terabyte hard drives and an additional 100 Gig hard drive.
It should certainly last me for a few years and has more than enough processing power for any project I can throw at it. So I am quite happy with it, although there are a few occasional hiccoughs where I'll get a dialogue box that powers up with an error message in Chinese. (Not very helpful...)
Anyways, the techs agreed to finish upgrading the computer so that I could pick it up the next day. I left a deposit for half the cost and went upstairs to join the festivities. Nick and Jess were hard at work on Christmas dinner. When I arrived at the apartment the smell of cooking red sauce and herbs was enticing and watching Nick struggle to knead and make meatballs out of a wad of beef and pork larger than his head has quite entertaining.
Sean and I helped Jess make the homemade noodles, and soon after Mike and his wife arrived. Mike of course, owns and operates the Chicago pizza joint just outside the apartments. He had just wrapped up a musical gig, (Mike is the one and only Elvis impersonator in Chengdu) and they brought over fresh dough for making bread in Jess's small convection oven. Rachel also arrived and once we were all gathered together we sat down for dinner. Mike is a real hoot, and it was interesting seeing him outside the context of his restaurant. Rachel and I fell into a mutual food coma after two servings of noodles and meatballs. And Jess flitted about cheerfully distributing wine to everyone.
The following day, Nick and I were slated to meet up with Quinn again to show him our portfolios. He was impressed with both presentations and asked for us to include a bit more technical information to his staff so they could retool the presentations in a manner consistent with his current employees. We sat in his office and shared tea while discussing current and future business projects while his personal assistant Regina took notes. Nick had already done a bit of work for him, including acting in a commercial for a local restaurant and a digital voice sampling for some sort of Transformers advertisement. Quinn informed me that a local game company is looking for someone to make a few models for them, so he'll send me a few projects soon for me to cut my teeth on.
The following day, Nick and I were slated to meet up with Quinn again to show him our portfolios. He was impressed with both presentations and asked for us to include a bit more technical information to his staff so they could retool the presentations in a manner consistent with his current employees. We sat in his office and shared tea while discussing current and future business projects while his personal assistant Regina took notes. Nick had already done a bit of work for him, including acting in a commercial for a local restaurant and a digital voice sampling for some sort of Transformers advertisement. Quinn informed me that a local game company is looking for someone to make a few models for them, so he'll send me a few projects soon for me to cut my teeth on.
After the meeting, we decided to go out to eat at the Indian restaurant at the Soho building near the Haka Bar. We spent the course of the dinner discussing everything from our upcoming projects to the differences between Eastern philosophy and Western religion. Pleasantly stuffed with Indian curry, we departed back to Tongzilin. I said goodbye to Nick and Jess and picked up my computer from the shop. They were nice enough to box it up for me and I hailed a cab home.
All in all it was a busy three-day weekend, and I'm looking forward to a slightly more relaxed weekend this week. Happy New Year everyone! For half of tomorrow, it will be 2014 here while it's still 2013 back home! How weird is that?
All in all it was a busy three-day weekend, and I'm looking forward to a slightly more relaxed weekend this week. Happy New Year everyone! For half of tomorrow, it will be 2014 here while it's still 2013 back home! How weird is that?