[lug] Searching the archives & buying a new PC?

[Nate Duehr]

John Dollison wrote:

> I was hoping to dig up the discussion on local computer companies, since
> 'tis the season to buy a new desktop PC, and maybe a laptop, too.  I need
> some advice on where to purchase a reasonably priced machine to replace my
> old PIII-500 system.  Nothing fancy.  I'm sick of building / upgrading my
> own machines, and want to find a company that actually builds stable
> systems, provides real customer service, and will still be around in 3
> years.  (Preferably in Broomfield / Westminster, but anywhere in the Denver
> / Boulder area would be fine.)

You may also want to take a peek at Dell's "no OS loaded" machines like 
the PowerEdge SC240.  $274 for a Celeron machine with free upgrade to 1G 
of RAM (through December 1st) and a 7200 RPM 40G SATA drive (only $10 
more for 80G) isn't too bad really.  $99 more for a P4 2.8 GHz in it.

You can add all sorts of crazy customizations to it through their 
website.  They've hidden 'em under "Small Business" servers, as they 
don't want home computer purchasers to be confused by a machine showing 
up with no OS, no keyboard, no mouse... etc.

You might have to call them though to get the "right" price - I found a 
couple of humorous things on the website:

FREE UPGRADE to 1G DDR2, 533MHz, 2X512 Single Ranked DIMMs [add $119]

Hmm... Free, eh?

And...

No Operating System, Microsoft

As the OS option.  LOL!  Somehow I thought that last snafu was rather 
apropos!

--
Nate Duehr, nate at natetech.com