Wan Chi Computer Centre

Now, I wish I had known about this place when I still lived in Hong Kong, but then again, my finances at the time would not have handled it well.

Anyhow, I found out about this one after talking to the owner of one of the shops in Sham Shui Po, who suggested I could find what I was looking for at good prices.

As for what I was looking for, nothing too out of the normal, just a specific Sandisk 4TB SSD to use as a backup device for my laptop. These things are horribly expensive in Sydney, and that's for the slow ones, and I was looking for the top of the range when it comes to speed.

Some quick googling, and it seems this computer centre is about as easy to get to as it gets.

So after fuelling up with breakfast and, given the expected heat and humidity, plenty of hydration, I headed for Wan Chi MTR station, which has one of the exits right next to the computer centre, which means no need to rethink visiting if it's raining.

Heading into the centre, the air conditioning was like walking into an icy wall, which, after the 35C outside, was most welcome.

Just like all of the other computer shopping centres I have so far visited, this one is broken up into a collection of small shops spread over multiple floors.

Wandering around, this centre seems very much like the Golden Computer Arcade in Sham Shui Po, being focused on PC technology, and not just complete machines, laptops, monitors, etc., but all the useful parts such as storage and network gear.

The first thing I noted was the total lack of pushy salespeople, which, given it was early in the trading day, I expected to see some of. It's really good to see this, as it's one of my pet hates to be bugged by people trying to sell to me.

Yes, a few sellers asked if they could help, but all accepted my "not at the moment, just looking around" and left me alone to browse.

As you can see from the above photo, even with the majority of the shops open, the centre is not crowded, although I will admit I did go back on the weekend, and it was more than a little crowded, but not as bad as Sham Shui Po. Just be aware when you visit, plan ahead to avoid the crowds.

Another thing I noted was that no one told me not to take photos in the common areas, which is a good sign. Sure, some shops had signs, but as I always do, I follow the rules, and no one says anything. Mong Kok computer centre should take note of this. 📷

Wandering around looking for my SSD at a realistic price and talking to many different sellers, the prices quoted were interesting; it seems that the quotes were all similar per floor in this centre.

In general, I found this centre to be cheaper than Mong Kok and similar to Sham Shui Po, which is interesting as I would expect the rent on the shops to be way higher in Wan Chi than the others. Read into that what you will.

After a few hours of hunting around, I found a larger shop that claimed to be an official Sandisk reseller who had the drive I was looking for in stock, and talking to the friendly staff, we haggled a little to get the price down some more, and a purchase was made, which ended up being a little lower than Sham Shui Po.

And yes, it's a fair bit cheaper than the best I found back home. 👍

Now, why did I choose this specific shop? Well, there was the "Official Sandisk Reseller" sign, the general attitude of the staff, and the amount of stock. In short, it did not look dodgy, not that any shops in this centre looked bad.

And yes, I did check the device, verified the seal on the box, the holograms, etc., and talked to the shop staff. I told them I would test it later and come back if I had issues. They just told me to make sure I kept the receipt.

Oops, I almost forgot, while wandering around on one of the upper floors, I found a small cluster of camera shops, yes, really, in a computer shopping centre. It was not what I was looking for then, but it was still interesting and noted for future visits.

With the purchase made for the day, I was thinking of heading for the next technology shopping centre, but looking at the time, it was getting late in the day, and even with the open late, close late, time was short, so back to the hotel, and tomorrow is another day.

As for my thoughts on this technology shopping centre, it's definitely on my list to visit again.

If you are going to visit, remember the open late, close late stuff, and I would avoid weekends to skip the crowds.

Anyhow, according to my watch, the step count was a little over 27K, not bad for this time of year, given the heat.