Any Aussies here? moving to AUS for 4 years for med school... need some advice :)

[HanmoLi]

Sooo... I got accepted to University of Queensland in Brisbane for med school (yay!), and I'll be moving there for the next 4 to 5 years. And while I can find a lot of information just using google, sometimes personal advice is just better :)

First of all, I'll of course try to continue to crunch down under hehe. But it's probably gonna be inconvenient bringing my main desktop computer there, so I was thinking of maybe buying all my parts there and put together a computer. A quick look at some of the online retailers showed that prices of computer parts are much higher there than it is here (taking into account of exchange rates). Here in Canada most stores are expensive, but DirectCanada has been great, and plus newegg.ca is coming soon. So I was wondering if there are any good computer retailers there that have more competitive pricing? And are the prices more expensive because the GST is included? Am I better off with just bringing my desktop from Canada?

Are utilities expensive there? Crunching 24/7 isn't much of a problem here in Canada 'cause I live at home, but once I start living on my own there, money is going to be a bit more of an issue. For example, if I run an Q9400 oc'ed to 3.5ghz 24/7... is that going to increase the electricity bills significantly?

Internet access: I looked at some of the monthly rates for broadband internet by Telstra in Australia at (found it through a list of ISPs on wikipedia). The rates are definitely more expensive than what I'm used to paying. Do you guys have any recommendations (I'll be sharing with 2 other roommates most likely)? And I hope crunching doesn't take up that much monthly usage?

Do starbucks offer free wifi there? If yes, I'll probably be there all the time lol (it's what I did while I was in China this summer lol).

Cellphones/mobile phones: I saw some of the plans offered at Vodafone Australia... definitely not cheap compared to here. But I don't completely understand everything... do you think I can survive without a landline (only use my cellphone)?

Rent in Brisbane: how is it compared to bigger cities like Melbourne or Sydney?

I guess that's all the questions I have for now, and I apologize for the long post! And thank you guys for your help!

[D_A]

I live in Central West New South Wales and get my power through Country Energy.
My first about 300kWh costs 21 cents each, Residential 2 (ie everything over about 300 ) is charged at 16.33c per kWh

[MomijiTMO]

Rent. . . hmm. . . .you'll pass out looking at our housing crisis. Rent is often as large as a mortgage. You'll have to live on the outskirts of the city to get affordable accommodation. Since you'll be at Herston maybe you might want to try to find something on the Northside of town.

Net : Telstra sucks. Go for TPG and other telcos like iPrimus for better pricing. You could just pay for line rental and then use VOIP through TPG for no charge. Yeah the average download plans here are 25Gb for $49 a month on DLS2+. We are slowly upgrading out network.

My favourite retailer in Brisbane would be Umart (http://www.umart.com.au). They have good pricing and pretty good customer service which I deem as an important factor. Sure there are other cheaper shops like MSY [their internet site is like a trash can] and Gamedude but when something goes wrong they really don't care and will try to tell you to contact the manufacturer even though they are obligated by law to do that for us if the part is under a year old.

Starbucks do offer wifi but we also had the massive Starbucks closedown that the US had. So in the city there are 2 Starbucks and I believe both offer that service.

For cellphones [mobiles over here], I would go on a cap with either Optus or 3 depending on how much you normally pay. 3 have a wide range of caps but the costs per activity are usually greater than Optus' plans which start at $49 per month for $300 of credit. People like Vodafone because they charge per second while others charge per 30 seconds.

Good luck with MBBS. Enjoy your time here but be sure to bring loads of shirts because our winter is pretty much the same as your summer. Summer here is normally low to mid 30s with a heatwave being high 30s.


EDIT : PM Disruptfam since he's also from Brisbane and as I live at home [yup lol] I don't have a clue what rent is like.

[eva2000]

congrats i went to University of Queensland (UQ) St Lucia campus but that was like 10yrs ago so no idea what's it like now LOL

My best advice is to register to 2 of the largest forums in Australia for pc/oc'ing and internet/ISP related info at http://forums.overclockers.com.au/index.php and http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ and Broadband choice http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ - net access in OZ is definitely more expensive than in USA something you'd need to get use to though heh. Telstra is one of the most expensive though - probably better off with http://www.iinet.net.au/ - whirlpool user forum http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=72

each major ISP in OZ has a forum user group on whirlpool.net.au forums so you can ask users about their experience etc.

I've with netspace.net.au ADSL paying AUD$149.95 for 60GB/month but now increased to 120GB/month 50/50 off/peak capped but want to move to http://www.iinet.net.au/ eventually but don't want the downtime which can be up to 10-14 days sometimes

For ideas on crunching/electricity probably ask at OCAU's distributed computing forum as those folks will know best http://forums.overclockers.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=29

OCAU also has a net/telephony/ISP forum too http://forums.overclockers.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=26

Mobile phones forum http://forums.overclockers.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=46 and http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=123 and http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=114

Wireless ISPs http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=18

basically in OZ you only need overclockers.com.au (all your pc/retailer buying advice can be asked there too) and whirlpool.net.au for all your research :)

As to rent, maybe search www.realestate.com.au and don't forget about google earth and the fact Australia has streeview enabled :)

HTH

[D_A]

If you're a light phone user, vodaphone also have a pre-paid option where your credit is good for a full year instead of expiring at the end of the month.

Optus ... don't get me started on those creeps.

Telstra is definitely crap for broadband pricing. I'm with TPG, but I think they're trying to get me to move off the plan I'm with (odd connection troubles from around 5:30PM every night) as they're not selling it anymore and anything comparable is more $$.

High 30's (centigrade that is, for you 'Mericans) a 'heatwave'? We spend a week at a time in the mid 40's out here!

[MomijiTMO]

Guys he is from Canada lol.

Anyhoo I haven't been here for a 40 for years. They always happen when I go on a holiday.

[D_A]

Well ... I'm four hours drive inland from Sydney, so it's a different kind of heat anyway.

[karl_eller]

The others have done a pretty good job of covering ISPs and mobile providers so far.

For hardware, look into getting the best of whatever you have shipped over here (unless you can ensure that it'll keep crunching back at home?). Prices over here are a fair bit higher than in the US or CA, and a lot of the good retailers (www.pccasegear.com.au, www.scorptec.com.au and www.mwave.com.au are 3 that I use regularly and have found quite good, and there are a few others like www.pcmaniacs.com.au, www.ozdirect.com.au) are based in either Sydney or Melbourne, so shipping might hurt a bit. www.umart.com.au is usually fairly cheap, but they don't always have the best range.

Eller

[MomijiTMO]

PCCaseGear is great. Air freight is normally $24 to Brisbane unless you have large items [cases etc].

[HanmoLi]

Thanks for all the replies! i'll definitely look into all these things :)

[[XC] junglemaster]

Welcome to our side of the world anyway :) great job on getting into Uni doing Med too.

There are some decent places to buy everything down here...I find CPU's a little harder to find good / great prices on, but everything else is close to comparable these days.

Anyway, yell here again if you need anything else, coz there will be a lot of people willing and able to help out.