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The most interesting new gadget I see coming out this week is by far the Mini PCI-E SSD. Just about every laptop has a Mini PCI-E slot which is usually taken up by the WLAN module. Many laptops have 2 of these slots and if in use, a 3G module usually takes up the 2nd slot.

Since 3G has yet to become commonly commercially available in Thailand ( 4G is in use in quite a few countries already), many of the laptops sold in Thailand have this 2nd slot empty.

SSDs are nothing new and though they are up to 100x faster than traditional Hard Drives, their drawback is price per gigabyte of storage. Most laptops also only have one SATA slot for a HDD, making upgrading to a fast SSD a choice between capacity or speed.

Not so anymore.

The mini PCI-E SSD is the perfect solution. Use that for OS and critical program files and use the traditional HDD for data storage. To make things even more interesting, the upcoming Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) Driver version 10.5 promises to combine a HDD and a SSD to a single drive and automatically place files it deems to benefit from the fast SSD on that drive.

It is not clear yet if this will work with older chipsets though so we have to wait. Even if it doesn't, a 60 GB SSD is already big enough for Win 7 and crucial program files to be installed on it.

The catch may however be the BIOS. The ability to boot from a PCI-E drive is not a given, not even in desktop motherboards for which BIOS updates are both frequent and their layout far more extensive.

So in a nutshell it offers significant performance improvements with a few yet-to-be-answered question.

I can't wait to try one out.

Warranties on Phuket

Island life has it's advantages but also it's disadvantages. The level of service provided here is often far from what you get in BKK, which is understandable, up to a point.

The ten years I've been here I've had quite a few warranty issues. I'll describe my experiences with various suppliers.

Acer Warranty Repairs

This is my favorite of them all. Until Toshiba / XNet opened a repair shop in Pang Ngha Road near the Bus Station last December, they were the only manufacturer to my knowledge who actually repair units here in Phuket. If they don't have the part available, they will order it and call you when it arrives. Repair is then usually done in 1 day. On top of that the spare part prices are a fraction of what they cost for other laptops. To give you a few examples - CPU fan with heatsink apprx Bt 700, Mainboard Bt 4500, Power connector PCB Bt 240. They guarantee spare parts supply up to 3 years from market introduction, after which they will not back order but many times the parts are still in stock in BKK.

A couple of other price examples:

• HP / Compaq CPU fan with heatsink Bt 2500 Mainboard Bt 14.400
• ASUS Mainboard Bt 19.000 Keyboard Bt 1900
• Sony CPU heatsink Bt 1450

All other manufacturers insist on sending the laptop to BKK, which means it's gone for 2 weeks, if not longer. Major inconvenience IMO.

ACER has another ace up their sleeve. Every new laptop not only has warranty but also insurance for 1 year. Let's say a domestic dispute results in your significant other sending your laptop flying against the wall with a force strong enough to send it into earth orbit (not as uncommon an event as one would want it to be) and you find yourself picking up laptop parts the size of bread crumbs. Tough to argue it just spontaneously exploded and claim warranty but with the insurance, ACER will repair or replace the unit. It even covers theft.

SONY

Sony is by far the worst. For some inexplicable reason they REFUSE to sell you the spare parts. They will ONLY supply them IF you have them replaced at their BKK service center. I've had several incidents and as far as I know this is ONLY happening with SONY Thailand. Sony USA happily sells you whatever your heart may desire. I would somehow understand if it was applied to units under warranty only but it's applied to all units and parts. Pure madness.

COM7

This is in essence Banana IT. Com7 does not have a service point anymore but all claims are handled through Banana IT outlets. Warranty claims take about 2-3 weeks on average and the system works

SYNNEX

Service center on PhangNga Rd in Phuket Town, next to Acer. Had a Motherboard recently where the warranty sticker stated warranty good through Jan 2011. Took it in on Jan 18th but was told warranty had expired in December, according to S/N info in their system. They declined to replace it. After several visits and persistent arguing they told me "we do you a favor" and took it in. I pointed out that I was not the one who slapped the wrong sticker to the unit and from a customer point of view you are just doing your job, quite reluctantly may I add.

MoBo went to BKK and came back with a note "test passed". I had to go back with the MoBo built into a PC and show them on-site that it does NOT work to make them believe it. As of now the MoBo is on its 2nd trip to BKK and it's taken over 2 months already.

To be fair, the local Phuket staff was at the mercy of those in BKK and I understand they had no authority. Regardless, I'm not impressed.

SVOA

Though I would advise everyone to stay away from any PC or laptop rebadged by SVOA, their warranty service is very good. Took about 1.5 weeks and worked without a hitch (broken VGA card). The card now adorns the latest PC Woody acquired.

DCOM

This is the exception among distributors here. They refuse to accept any items directly from end users. I recently had 2 VGA cards and they insisted I have to drive to BigC, drop off the cards over there only to have the shop send them back to them (wasting several days in the process for sure) No amount of reasoning would make them budge so I walked across the street to XNET and left them there. They were very helpful, took the cards in and shook their heads at the stupidity of DCOM when I told them what just happened. Smiles included.

To add to this agony, many shops charge a "service fee" for warranty claims for items not purchased from them and some do so even if they were indeed sold by them. IT City charges Bt 100 and Future Accessories in BigC charges Bt 150, not to mention that it can take 3 months before Future Accessories can be bothered to claim the replacement item.

In the end I've always managed to get my warranty replacement but the aggravation associated with endless discussions where there should be no discussion at all is frustrating to say the least.

For this simple reason I lean towards ACER with laptops. Zero hassle, cheap prices, local service and knowledgeable staff. Com7 is reliable when it comes to PC components.

That's my 2 cents' worth for this week. If I do this every week for a year I've made US$ 1.04.