SO! I’m confused.. My brother suggested getting a new computer for my parents, and I’ll take their notebook (since it just sits here anyways). They were amenable, but.. I really want a Dual Core (or 4×4!) new CPU with Virtualization technology, so might as well go to town, right?! Well, that’s the dilemna part of where I’m at. In addition to the idea of buying “new” items, being a consumer, and to a lesser extent how gross shopping for good deals and rebates makes me feel.. (moreso the time-consumingness and wondering who actually took advantage of who are my bigger worries/problems..)
So, here’s what I’m looking at, thought I might as well make it viewable to the world (this page will be updated with my “shopping” (window-shopping? and online! ;^)

First place to start, the Ars Technica Budget Box System Buying Guide.
Next step: Finding alternatives to their suggested components, that give the best “bang for the buck” (oh, how it hurts to write such a phrase!)

The hardest thing I’m looking for is a new monitor. Something to replace my aging Daewoo 17″ CRT (energy-wasting & radiation emitting) monitor..
First, I found this Samsung 951BW 19″ Wide LCD, 1440×900, 4ms with only 42W max load.
then I found this Sceptre X20WG-Nana Black Wide 20.1″ DVI 1680×1050, 5ms, w/ speakers (2W) but it takes 80W max!?
What a guzzler the Sceptre [1] is, how can I justify it?! It’d be cool, only downs are power load, potentially crappy speakers and response time (1 ms higher).
In thinking and searching, I just found a similar monitor to the Samsung, Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19″ 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers, also on newegg [2] for $185 w/ free 3-day shipping. Hmm, noname. If I get the other two components mentioned below, I’ll be a fully Samsung house. [3]

So there’s hard drives, they recommend Seagate (5-year warranty, wow) or Samsung (quiet and cool-running drives, that sounds more sustainable)
So, tigerdirect (liked by many supposedly) has this Seagate 320GB SATA-300 16MB/cache OEM HD for $99-$20 rebate+$7 SH=$86.
vs this Samsung Spinpoint 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s from newegg for $89+5.64 S/H=$91

Easier: DVD drive, I’m looking at a (also newegg) Samsung SATA SH-S183L 18X lightscribe with free S/H for $40

Another place to violate morals, in addition to being unsustainable (buying brand-new, energy-wasting [4] products), I could buy from amazon.com (violation#2) and open up a credit card with them (viol#3) to get $30 off my order. Hrmm.. Woa, it’s totally time to go to bed, more on this later.. ta! -@

Linknotes:
  1. – also available from Amazon ↩
  2. which is kinda funny since I had my Credit card co take money back for me from newegg since their customer service was lacking, haha.. ↩
  3. – Which will be weird, I think my first, and EGA, monitor was a Samsung ↩
  4. is coal-burning ↩
  
Updated: Jun 9, 2007
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