Shopping for Motherboards in China

When it comes to the world of crypto, I am new and sometimes feel overwhelmed by it. It's easy to say that about being a foreigner living in China. Yet, I really want to learn a lot more about both. Recently, I began taking a keen interest in mining alt coins. I even set up an old laptop to CPU mine Monero, but that is so slow and so unsatisfying. So, with the help of a friend, I decided to look into setting up a rig. Pretty much, I have most of what I need. The rig I need, however, needs a motherboard. That sounds easy, right? In America, you could just go to the store, and if you're a newb, you can ask questions from somebody qualified.  In China, it's not so easy if you don't know the language. The process is also hard if you are not fluent in tech-speak. So, the first part of my shopping was to go to the huge computer mall pictured above. That place is really massive, and the Chinese dictionary on phone on my phone didn't have the word for "motherboard." I wandered for like an hour. 

This also involved navigating down dark corridors where the broken husks of old computers were neatly stacked. 

Most of the time, I was wandering and randomly looking into the small, little stores. After all, I didn't know the chinese for "mother board." Eventually, I did find a place, and that's when the real difficulty could have started. The woman in the shop could not speak any English at all. 

I know enough Chinese to almost get by when ordering food. Add in looking for a specific type of Gigabyte brand motherboard and terms like PCI slots, and it got much more difficult at first. It's situations like this that make a good translation app on your phone essential. So, I was able to communicate that way, and it helped that I had a picture of the type of motherboard on my phone.  The woman was able to retrieve one off the shelf and let me look at it. 

So, was did I walk away with a new motherboard? No. I thought to try a few other places, but I soon realized that I had an easier time with the first person I asked. She was just trying to find me exactly what I was looking for. People in other shops tried to actually sell me something different and more expensive, and when you don't speak Chinese, that just makes the simple task of buying something much more difficult. I likely will go back and get the first one I saw on another day.