Should i buy this?

[Trenton_net]

Ya, I don't know why for-commission companies like to rip you on EMS all the time. Profit perhaps? The fact that non-Chinese won't know better? Ridiculous!

When I get packages using EMS from China it's so much cheaper and faster. Like I get my stuff within a week or something like that. Not 3 months.

@Bramsworth: I get boxes folded too, but in my case I request it since it comes factory like that. If it was pre-assembled and glued, and they took it apart again with no real care, I'd be pissed too.

EDIT: By the way, people do know that these units are shipped to China in bulk right? Because since these are marked for destruction, there's no real reason to pad, protect, or do anything for them. They just dump them in a box like garbage and ship. Also, if your going non-ems or someone who's trying to profit from you, expect crummy packaging back to you as well. So many places to accumulate damage!

And don't forget, once these arrive in China, black market sellers basically do the bare minimum to get things up and running. They'll hack job it so it barely passes a Red Ring and mark it as 'working'.

[APE]

I hope those of you with heating issues lapped your heatsinks and used diamond thermal paste on there. Both help move heat from the source quite a bit faster than AS5 alone will.

Idle and 100% load went down 10°C each on my GPU and CPU for my desktop machine using stock heatsinks. Didn't even lap either to a perfectly flat shine either, anything helps so long as you don't sand a dent into it.

[ProtonX]

Not to steal the thread, but suppose I was looking to buy these:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10723954485

They look terrible, but all i really want is the motherboards. I figure at the price of 170 yuan each shipped I could get 5, and if i get 1 or 2 working im a happy man. What do i need to do to buy them? Someone mentioned a proxy buyer, but what i just want to buy directly off this site and get it shipped?

[Cyantist]

Not to steal the thread, but suppose I was looking to buy these:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10723954485

They look terrible, but all i really want is the motherboards. I figure at the price of 170 yuan each shipped I could get 5, and if i get 1 or 2 working im a happy man. What do i need to do to buy them? Someone mentioned a proxy buyer, but what i just want to buy directly off this site and get it shipped?

Learn chinese and find a seller who will sell you one. That is the difficult part because Chinese people on their often flat out refuse to sell to foreigners unless its through a proxy.

[sneakypeanut]

Learn chinese and find a seller who will sell you one. That is the difficult part because Chinese people on their often flat out refuse to sell to foreigners unless its through a proxy.

use taobaofocus

[Trenton_net]

use taobaofocus

Hrm, Well he said he wants to buy directly from the site and have it shipped.

You can do it, but you need to first register with the site, then register and setup an Alipay account for payment processing. Usually you link your Bank of China account to it. Then you use the website and contact people via Chinese instant messenger. You can haggle for the price, make payment, and have your order shipped out. Most people will refuse to ship outside of China due to cost and trouble. If the seller knows some English they might agree to it, but if they do ship outside of China you'll probably get gouged in terms of pricing since they know you have no other option but to use them (For both product and shipping). If you want to ship outside of China but the sellers don't want to ship internationally (or you just want cheaper shipping than the seller can offer), you can use a shipping agent who does international shipping. Whatever they receive, they'll ship as per your instructions, but thats mostly a service Chinese businesses use, not regular people (though nothing stops you from doing it).

You can of course use a for-commission service which will do all this for you, but as you can imagine, you'll be raked over the coals the most with that since they are doing all the work. Most agents won't bargain prices for you and will overcharge on shipping. Since they get paid a percentage of your purchase, it's in their interest to make sure you spend as much money as they can make you. And if something you receive is bad, defective, or just plain wrong, you'll end up paying for everything if you want a return (if they even do it for you). You'll usually pay for everything because otherwise it would eat away at their profit margin and bottom line.

EDIT: By the way, I dunno if anyone else has experience with the Bank of China, but their service sucks! If you get a security token from them, it's such a pain if something goes wrong and you need to get it replaced or fixed.

[charim]

i ve got a xdk kit from tao . If i will take working ports from xenon board and solder them to xdk board they will work ? or i need specific replacement ports for xdk ? i have xenon board in xdk

[Lyth]

Why do the ports need to be cut off? Will that not make it through customs if they arent? Surely customs agents don't know what they are? Care to elaborate?

[Cyantist]

Why do the ports need to be cut off? Will that not make it through customs if they arent? Surely customs agents don't know what they are? Care to elaborate?

Makes them legal to be sold or something.

[r34per]

Makes them legal to be sold or something.

i dont get why. does ms not realize that people can easily solder new ports on

[Trenton_net]

AFAIK, it doesn't make them legal to be sold. MS damages the ports because the Chinese are selling units destined for destruction on the black market. Damaging the ports is just a simple way to act as a deterrent. I'm sure they could just as easily put their foot through a board and do it that way.

But as to damaging the console, I have no idea why the don't just cut IC legs, power surge them, or do something else that would fairly guarantee a dead weight.