Worldwide, where is the cheapest place to buy PC components?

You would think tiwan/malasia/china where they are made but does anyone know for sure?

I am going to Pakistan tomorrow and we see what they have there - i know there is a lot of china-pakistan trade (they share a common border) - and i hope i can pick up a few bargains

A friend of mine went to Hong Kong and he found that there were three prices. The Cheapest was for people who could speak Chinese, the next price was for people who could speak Japanese and the highest price was for people who spoke in English. The way this was accomplished was that there was no price listed for the equipment. You would ask the merchant how much does it cost and he would answer how much do you want to pay? You would then start haggling with the merchant but the merchant would drop his price the most if you could bargain in Chinese.

Haggle haggle haggle! Only stupid foreigners doesnt know to haggle, so haggle away!

I always envy the US. Even with the USD to AUD conversion, they still come out on top. I've seen NEC 3500's for $45 USD, here in Australia the best I've seen is $135 AUD. The cheapest I can build a generic AMD64 system is around $1100 AUD, in the states $600 USD for exactly what I want no generic cheap crap. The market and demand here i guess is to small.

The border between China and Pakistan means little for consumer goods. Asia isn't a small town, but the largest continent in the world. Most industrial centers of China are located in the eastern seaports for easy transportation to the West, Japan, South Korea, and South East Asia. Dutch and German seaports are big and efficient but they aren't exactly for transporation to Moscow. It's that far, and more difficult.

The general rule in this hi-tech world is that where information for consumers merge, prices for consumers are lowest. In South Korea, Seoul is the place to buy almost anything at the lowest possible cost. In Japan, Tokyo. In Asia as a whole, Tokyo, or Hong Kong. In the entire world, the US is the cheapest place. China does have the most number of factory workers and produced items for the IT industry, but this century isn't like 1.5 millenia ago when Tang was the cheapest place for silk because silk was produced there and it took months to years to transport the products to Rome or Arabia or Japan. Right now, the most popular TV drama in South Korea is Hae Shin (Sea God), a story about a sea merchant who defeated pirates and traded silk and other things between Tang, Shin-La, and Japan. One World for all consumers hasn't been achieved even 1,500 years later!

Thats a great answer Kenshin. Capitalism does have it disadvantages but I can sure appreciate the cost of goods here. I would hate to have to pay what some do (like Australia). I couldn't aford a small fraction of the toys I have.

Nice little piece,Kenshin.