PCs are built around the world.
Hey, Eric Gordon on what PC World?
We are here at Computex 2023.
We're actually at a Caesar's headquarters and I have a very special guest.
This is Pedro of PC IMR.
And I don't know if you know Pedro, but I'm sure you do.
But he is basically the ambassador of all PCs around the world.
He gets to travel everywhere.
And I want to hear his perspective because I realize coming to Taipei that my
my view of how pieces are built in the U.S.
are completely different than how it's done, because here in Taipei,
it's all about walking into a store,
picking your parts out.
There's a lot of times
they'll build it for you and then you carry your machine out.
The US is you order the parts that shows up at your house,
you assemble it or you buy a prebuilt pre-built.
It's so different than us to Taipei,
but your perspective is different because you're from Europe.
You've also gone everywhere in the world.
What kind of interesting ways are you seeing that so different than the U.S.
or Taipei as far as PCs go?
I mean, the thing with PCs, I mean, PCs are freedom.
So I guess that's what you see when you travel around the world like each
each culture has its own way of doing things.
And like I mentioned in Taiwan, it's it's very common to just go to a shop
just to choose your parts because availability is awesome.
There's a lot of stuff here.
Most of the brands we know are from Taiwan or have a lot of parts
always available and people grew up building like that.
The Build Your Own Machine is not so popular here like it is in the U.S.
But I would say that considering all the cultural differences
and where it's just one world, right, with the Internet to where
each and every day are becoming
accustomed to to expanding our horizons and seeing new information
in places like like Europe, I would say there's like a mix.
There's a lot of mom and pop shops.
But the advent with influencers and even like streaming
after COVID people started learning a lot more about building your stuff.
It's not quite at the level that it is in the U.S.
And of course, you know me and know that I would say that building your own
machine is unless something very specific is going on, it's probably the way to go.
We a few years ago, we saw the advent of GPU pricing
being absurd because of mining.
So it actually made sense to pick like a prebuilt fro for a while.
It was a lot cheaper
and a lot easier to get GPUs, but nowadays not so much and gladly.
But like I would say that with the advent of information, people
are just realizing that they have all these choices.
And of course for some people they don't want to build their own things.
I would say they should try, but even if they don't, they want to pay a bit
more and just get the comfort of getting their own pre-built.
And that's fine too.
In some places, like I mentioned, like in South America.
Yeah, especially I know the Brazilian reality.
I have some friends there and there's like tremendous import taxes for hardware.
They have that there.
So it's not just PC with consoles every lunch, electronic stuff in general.
So they have like this awesome retro
make your own stuff retro building of PC.
So it's kind of cool to see how they use that.
In that case, it's the opposite of freedom.
So they have that restriction, but they make the most out of it.
Like using old parts, overclocking stuff, making sure that games are tweaked
so they can actually play modern games with older PCs.
That's also, I think you'll agree with me when I say
that that's also part of what being on the PC in the PC market is like.
Right? Right.
Making taking the most out of your stuff.
Like are you like build your own machine kind of guy?
Do you think people should go for that or I'm the I, I am a build your own.
I haven't bought a prebuilt probably in 30 years.
So I definitely lean that way.
Not there's anything wrong with it folks.
But generally buying building your own is way to go.
But I you know it's not everybody does it so
and then it's like again like the Taipei example is
it's fascinating that not a lot of not everybody even though you walk around
the markets, there's so many markets selling so many components,
it still feels like a lot of people go in and buy fully DOM machines.
They have a shop, build it, but
it's just
you just kind of it shocked me because that's the way
people used to build machines like 30 years ago in the U.S.
you go to a corner store,
you pick your parts out, they would build it for you,
you would take it home, but you wouldn't build it yourself.
So it's it's just interesting that there's still really popular ways to do it.
You know, again, I love retail.
We don't have retail much in the U.S. anymore.
So have you seen any other patterns as you travel around the world,
being the ambassador for the PC
is that's different.
Like I'm just a mere vessel for the good word of PC.
But like, I was wondering,
like you mentioned that here are like mom and pop shops are so popular.
I wonder I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the fact that
maybe in some places there's still that misunderstanding,
that PC parts are more fragile than than they actually are.
Because I think especially in the U.S., that's that's the tweaking that
people aren't so afraid to touch there that the PC parts
it we know that they're much stronger than most people realize.
You can just I'm not telling you you should grab your GPU
and just try and scratch it on the floor, but it'll probably work if you do that.
Like, I wonder if in some cultures and there's probably a
not just a cultural but also a financial component to this.
Like being extremely careful because of course, depending on
how much money each family makes, it's, it's a large investment, sometimes a PC.
And I wonder if it has something to do with that.
I can see that because if it's you know, again, because of exchange rates and
unfortunately a CPU in the United States sometimes may be cheaper than like
you've been here with exchange rate is is is different.
And if you get to other, you know, geo locations where it's a bit more expensive,
do you really want to risk having your high school kid build their own computer?
I mean, that's a far more of a risk, right?
Because that's it could be a cultural thing.
Yeah.
Maybe like getting rid of of, of the the, the being tied to, to limitations.
And I think in America I think probably earlier than in most other places
there's like an independence people are probably independent of any younger
or maybe they they make their own money, they buy their own things
and they're not so afraid.
And especially in Europe, people get out, get away from their parents home.
But later, sometimes they're maybe more financially dependent.
That's an interesting concept that I never realized.
I never thought about it, but it might have something to do with that.
Because sometimes when you're a kid, especially,
it's your parents who buy your stuff, right?
In the U.S., I think people tend to work a bit earlier.
A lot of people in the U.S. or young people in the U.S.
have summer jobs. Right?
So sometimes you work during the summer
to build your own parts and you it's your proud moment to.
This is what I bought with my own money. I'm going to build it.
Maybe that's not so prevalent.
And in Europe and Asia, I guess.
Yeah, I wonder if that is part of it.
And it's just yeah, it's.
And I also realize, you know, because a lot of consuls like
it doesn't feel like there's a big cultural foothold here in Taipei.
I mean good good And like I realize actually going in a lot of those shops
that it felt like the PC is the console the world, right?
It has been. It's just changed, obviously.
But at one point your gaming gaming experience was PC because their consoles
sometimes weren't available overseas.
So I'm wondering if that was like
something they expected of a fantastic gaming experience.
But they don't want to
have to deal with the hassle of thinking about what parts to get.
And they just they're going to trust their local store
that they always buy the same computer from.
It could be what they call hassle. We probably call joy.
Yeah, no, it is right, Right.
Being able to choose what you want is my favorite part of of building.
Yeah. And upgrading right.
So yeah it's it's interesting especially when you travel the world and seeing
the different
culture cultures, how people look at things in a different way.
It's it's a learning experience really.
Sometimes there is no wrong and right way to do things.
It's it's interesting for us to be here as well of course
very strongly build your own PC kind of guys.
What like seeing how people are engaging, I'm guessing especially with communities
as a global community and nowadays
most communities are global because the Internet, everyone has access.
So it's cool to see that some of them might be learning a bit
about our ways as well, maybe considering other ways, especially here.
And like you mentioned, it's not as inexpensive as people might think.
Sometimes it's cheaper in the U.S., which is kind of crazy, right?
It's it is crazy.
This is the land of plenty.
We have all the parts we want and we get lower prices.
I don't it's almost like you have nothing to complain about
sometimes Internet, but it doesn't matter.
We're all always going to find something, something to complain about.
That's.
That's part of the joy of being on the Internet.
Yeah. You can only complain nine times out of ten.
Working on is everyone and everyone likes to complain about.
But yes, in the end we're all friends.
It's like having a a successful sports franchise.
And then you have you don't go all the way
and win the championship and you really start to complain about it.
So you don't just go like, wow, things are pretty good right now.
Of course, you know, let's let's talk about breaking everything up now.
So but anyway, that's cool stuff because again, the PC are global
and it is really interesting to me, like
the different approaches worldwide to it.
So if you have any comments, tell us how pieces are built in your country.
Are you doing it at local corner stores or are you buying prebuilt
still or are you really getting into build it yourself?
Put the comments in there. Of course.
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