Compocalypse '09: The Repricening

[cleolinda]

If you are a salesguy at the Best Buy off 280 (Birmingham) who looks a touch like James McAvoy and helped a girl in a red v-neck who charged in and dragged you all around the store chattering away about what "people on the internet" told her about various computer brands:

Hi... sorry about that?

So... yeah. Apparently my will to deal with life returned. I marched in there with my printed-out specs ("I WANT THIS ONE. WHERE IS THIS ONE. HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE THIS ONE") and my carefully prepared questions ("OKAY SO WHAT DOES IT NOT COME WITH") and my Microsoft Office XP disk ("CAN I PUT THIS ON A COMPUTER RUNNING VISTA BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT AGAIN I THINK THAT IS REALLY STUPID I MEAN WHO WANTS TO DO THAT") and trooped through the store asking about service agreements and externals and UPSes and headsets (for podcasting!) with the intent of finding out how bad the total damage will be when I go yet again, tomorrow, third day in a row, and actually make purchases. I mean, yes, I went to newegg.com, but apparently the Best Buy price ($509) is as good as anyone else's, and yes, I am buying it off the shelf, and yes, someone somewhere probably could build this and transfer my data more cheaply, but you know what? I will PAY THE STORE to MAKE MY LIFE BETTER at this point. I DO NOT CARE. MAKE THIS COMPUTER-NOT-HAVING GO AWAY.

(Salesguy also said, "Yeah... I have a Gateway. DO NOT EVER GET A GATEWAY," which made me laugh.)

So basically, I'm getting the Asus. And don't bother trying to talk me out of it, because she already has a name.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

Comments

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

Do you know what I could do with 6GB? The same thing I'm doing right now, but twice as fast omg.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Not under Windows XP, though.

Windows XP will only see/recognize and be able to manage up to 3Gb of RAM. (There's also a chance that it would be deeply disturbed by the fact that there is too much RAM around than it can handle and therefore be pouty and glitching hardcore).

Vista is able to handle that much of RAM, but it sucks.

Windows 7 is said to be on its way and not as stinky as its predecessor, so I'm guessing there is hope.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

They told me that Vista takes up 2GB of RAM just to run, although W7 *should* be better (who knows), which was why I splurged on the 6GB. Well, that's what the Asus came with anyway. Mostly I wanted to buy ahead to keep up with the ongoing march of technology (five years ago 150GB storage was extravagant), and ideally I won't be buying a new one after this for a long time. (Although the lesser parts I guess you can update/augment/upgrade as time goes on.)

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Mostly I wanted to buy ahead to keep up with the ongoing march of technology

That is certainly a good idea, but since you mentioned being willing to (have them) install XP on the machine, I thought I'd mention that not only XP won't be able to see half of that RAM, but also you should be aware that it might cause the system trouble to have it physically installed (i.e. the MB, for one, would know that it's there) while the OS doesn't see, much less know what to do with it. The amount of trouble that might (or might not) arise from this situation can depend on a variety of factors, including what specific type of RAM you've got installed, how many modules and what is each module's size: for instance, if you've got 3 modules installed each of which amounts to 2Gb, XP should see one of the 2Gb modules allright, but will likely have trouble working with either of the other two. My wholehearted suggestion would be to inquire the BB (tech)people about this, just to check that (a) they're aware of this issue and (b) know how to circumvent it, in order to avoid future nuisance (for you, the customer).

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did ask them if I could run Microsoft Office for XP on the Vista OS. Let's just say that after all the asking around I did, I gave up on the XP idea pretty quickly.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did ask them if I could run Microsoft Office for XP on the Vista OS

1) Wait... WHAT?! (ETA = cause I was checking my LJ Inbox and saw this comment of mine and I myself thought "Wait... what the heck did I mean?" Well, I mean: the version of M$ Office that runs on XP, doesn't run on Vista? That's new levels of low that I had no idea could exist -- expecially considering that a fully-equipped copy of Office went for over EU500 last I checked).

2) I thought you'd asked them to provide the system to you with XP installed and your files back-upped on it. I must have misunderstood what you said.

If you're going to have Vista installed as your OS, then, well... you shall be... basically doomed okay, in a sorta-kinda kind of way. I guess? *shudder*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, first I asked about running the XP OS on it, and they told me that installing a different (or was it just lower?) OS would void the warranty, so I asked just about Office XP (to save money) and they said it wouldn't work well with a new 64-bit hoohaaaaa. Given that my approach to the whole thing has basically been I WILL PAY YOU TO MAKE ALL THIS GO AWAY, I finally gave up on the whole XP business and made my peace with the hatefulness of Vista. And they'll upgrade me to W7 for free in a couple of months.