Building a computer in europe

Sygnon

Hey dudes

I am about to leave the sates and move to Germany.

I have a laptop, but really want to build a machine while over there. the main question I have is what do I need to buy here vs what do I need to buy there.

I don't want to get there to discover that I cannot buy X. Will a US copy of windows work? is my itunes account going to freak out? What about taking this stuff back to the states? will any of it work? buying a 360 over there - will it play US games? and on and on and on.

if anyone has experience with gadgets and moving abroad i would love to hear them

Legba

Europe isn't the exactly the sticks. The power plug will be different, so if you bring any electronics with you there (or back again), it would be a good idea to get a converter.

I have no idea about the Xbox, although I've heard about some issues of moving from Europe to America and trying to pay for your Live account. But it doesn't sound like you're going to be there long enough to have that problem.

Apart from that, pretty much anything you can get in America you'll be able to get in Germany. The only difference might be the price, so if you know what you'll want to buy over there it would be worth browsing a few online shops and seeing what the price difference is.

Spam

Yeah seriously man, computers are the same the world over. Bring a keyboard if you cannae handle a slightly different layout and that's about it.

You won't have a problem taking it back to the US either - just make sure the power supply has a 110/240V switch and get a new power lead.

With the 360, you might run into PAL/NTSC issues with games, and you'll need a seperate power brick for it if you take it back to the US

Fuzzywhale

my experience with moving to europe(scotland) has been:

my american itunes account got really fussy, and I made a new account specifically for european purchases, as the itunes stores for the regions are somewhat different.

software is region free no worries there!

if you buy a european xbox360, it wont be able to play 95 of the games in ntsc format. I have read that a few games are region free, but at any rate be prepared to import. Also, the power bricks take different voltages, so you'll either need a new brick or need to buy a voltage converter(May I suggest a converter Ive had no luck finding xbox power bricks on their own).

and again, dont forget to buy a plug adaptor thing.

Rook

Spam wrote: »

You won't have a problem taking it back to the US either - just make sure the power supply has a 110/240V switch and get a new power lead.

You only see those switches on very cheap and shitty PSUs, a good quality PSU should automagically adjust for the voltage it's receiving.

Sygnon

Legba wrote: »

Europe isn't the exactly the sticks.

I am fully aware of this, I am really just trying to get at any incompatibilities that I am unaware of

Sygnon

Fuzzywhale wrote: »

my experience with moving to europe(scotland) has been:

my american itunes account got really fussy, and I made a new account specifically for european purchases, as the itunes stores for the regions are somewhat different.

software is region free no worries there!

if you buy a european xbox360, it wont be able to play 95 of the games in ntsc format. I have read that a few games are region free, but at any rate be prepared to import. Also, the power bricks take different voltages, so you'll either need a new brick or need to buy a voltage converter(May I suggest a converter Ive had no luck finding xbox power bricks on their own).

and again, dont forget to buy a plug adaptor thing.

thanks this is exactly what i was looking for. Does your steam account work? any issues connecting with friends using live?

Gabriel_Pitt

Of course the fact that the Itunes stores are region independent means you can use the U.S. store from anywhere in the world (unless you want to get stuff that's only available from the European stores - in which case buying a point card and using it to open an account for the foreign store is the easiest option).

Fuzzywhale

dont know about live as im still searching for a voltage adapter(admittedly not very hard, as id rather not get booted out of my grad program right now!).

steam games ive bought work fine for me. however: the us/european marketplaces are different. For example, the EA stuff isnt available over here(like mass effect).



hahah yeah. I should have mentioned the only reason i opened a new itunes account was to use GBP to buy stuff. as the guy above me said: If you're gonna use us dollars to buy stuff then your current itunes account's fine!

Aldo

Valve recently changed their dollar signs to euro signs in European Steam, so watch out with what you buy. Also: everything seems to be cheaper in the US, I wouldn't bother buying any parts in Germany.

Sygnon

Aldo wrote: »

Valve recently changed their dollar signs to euro signs in European Steam, so watch out with what you buy. Also: everything seems to be cheaper in the US, I wouldn't bother buying any parts in Germany.

Yeah i am rather conflicted with this myself. I am looking around for places that ship internationally or potentially having some super awkward carry on items, still not sure.

Aldo

It's some extra baggage of course, but I don't think you're going to be dragged off to the torture room for having a motherboard with you. I mean, it's not ticking.

Grobian

Aldo wrote: »

Also: everything seems to be cheaper in the US, I wouldn't bother buying any parts in Germany.

This. I know lots of people that buy electronics while on vacation in the U.S.


But: German customs doesn't like that, so you may have to pay import tax. I'm not sure how that works on Americans, though. Maybe you won't have to pay, if you stay for a limited time and can argue that you will take it back home with you.

Funny story: When my sister moved back to Germany, customs wanted her to pay import tax for the two cats she picked up from the streets in Philadelphia.



Regarding PC hardware: Everything will work fine here or there. Only possible exception is the power supply (as we have 220V outlets here), but most come with a switch. You won't find every product and some may go by different names (or even brand names). For a general price check you could use http://geizhals.at/deutschland/ The website lists online stores (in Germany).

Sygnon

after talking a great deal with people, I would be looking at paying an import tax that would be pretty heavy. One option is to ship to a nearby country and drive it, czech republic / hungary looks like it would work as they dont check if you are driving, but that is quite a hassle that makes the difference pretty small.

Vixx

watch out for voltage incompatibility issues so you don't blow out your American electric stuff

the US and Japan run 110V, while pretty much everywhere else (including Europe) runs 220V

most power supplies for PCs will have a flip-notch in the back that swaps between 110 and 220/240, so just make sure it's properly flipped

DS chargers are sometimes 110V, 240V or 110~240V... double check and make sure if you have a DS

the XBox 360 power brick (the big rectangular thing that attaches to the 360 and the power outlet) is also 110V only or 220/240V only... double-check and make sure what you plug in is 220 or 240... and if you use a transformer, make sure it can handle the wattage (I think the 360 needs 40W), as most store-bought transformers only handle up to 20W or so

Grobian

Sygnon wrote: »

after talking a great deal with people, I would be looking at paying an import tax that would be pretty heavy. One option is to ship to a nearby country and drive it, czech republic / hungary looks like it would work as they dont check if you are driving, but that is quite a hassle that makes the difference pretty small.

While we do have open borders to most (all?) of our neighbours nowadays, customs can and will check random cars. Mostly they are searching for cigarettes/drugs and illegal immigrants and therefore check cars from eastern Europe, but you still could be caught. I don't think it's worth it.

Sygnon

Grobian wrote: »

Sygnon wrote: »

after talking a great deal with people, I would be looking at paying an import tax that would be pretty heavy. One option is to ship to a nearby country and drive it, czech republic / hungary looks like it would work as they dont check if you are driving, but that is quite a hassle that makes the difference pretty small.

While we do have open borders to most (all?) of our neighbours nowadays, customs can and will check random cars. Mostly they are searching for cigarettes/drugs and illegal immigrants and therefore check cars from eastern Europe, but you still could be caught. I don't think it's worth it.

Yeah exactly my point, a lot of risk and hassle for not much of a price difference in the end

Sygnon

does anyone know what goes on with hdmi on a 16:10 monitor? does it stretch or should there be an option to detect what is going on