350 lines
10 KiB
HTML
350 lines
10 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>How to Buy</TITLE
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>The Unix Hardware Buyer HOWTO</TH
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WIDTH="10%"
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect1"
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="howtobuy"
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></A
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>8. How to Buy</H1
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="whentobuy"
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></A
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>8.1. When to Buy</H2
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><P
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>It used to be that good configurations for Unix were what the market
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called ‘server’ machines, with beefed-up I/O subsystems and
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fast buses. No longer; today's ‘servers’ are monster boxes
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with multiple power supplies and processors, gigabytes of memory, and
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industrial-grade air cooling —they're not really suitable as personal
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machines. A typical SCSI desktop workstation is as much as you'll
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need.</P
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><P
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>Prices keep dropping, so there's a temptation to wait forever to
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buy. A good way to cope with this is to configure your system on paper, get
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a couple of initial estimates, then set a trigger price, below the
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lowest one, at what you're willing to pay. Then watch and wait. When
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the configuration cost hits your trigger price, place your order.</P
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><P
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>The advantage of this method is that it requires you to settle in your
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mind, well in advance, what you're willing to pay for what you're
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getting. That way, you'll buy at the earliest time you should, and
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won't stress too much out afterwards as it depreciates.</P
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><P
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>Before you shop, do your homework. Publications like "Computer
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Shopper" (and their web site at <A
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HREF="http://www.computershopper.com"
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TARGET="_top"
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> http://www.computershopper.com</A
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>) are invaluable for helping you
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get a feel for prices and what clonemakers are doing. Another
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excellent site is <A
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HREF="http://www.computeresp.com"
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TARGET="_top"
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>ComputerESP</A
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>.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="wheretobuy"
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></A
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>8.2. Where to Buy</H2
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><P
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>The most important where-to-buy advice is negative. Do
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<EM
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>not</EM
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> go to a traditional, business-oriented
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storefront dealership. Their overheads are high. So are their
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prices.</P
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><P
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>Especially, run —do not walk —away from any outfit that
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trumpets ‘business solutions’. This is marketing code for the
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kind of place that will justify a heavy price premium by promising
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after-sale service and training which, nine times out of ten, will turn out
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to be nonexistent or incompetent. Sure, they'll give you plush carpeting
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and a firm handshake from a guy with too many teeth and an expensive watch
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—but did you really want to pay for that?</P
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><P
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>There are two major alternatives to storefront dealerships and one
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minor one. The major ones are mail order and computer superstores.
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The minor one is computer fairs.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="fairs"
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></A
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>8.3. Computer Fairs</H2
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><P
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>I used to be a big fan of hole-in-the-wall stores run by immigrants
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from the other side of the International Date Line, but most of those
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places have been driven out of the regular retail game by the superstores
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and the Web. If you still have one in your neighborhood, you're lucky. I
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do, as it happens, but that is now unusual; the only place you normally
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find diaspora Chinese and Indians selling cheap PCs over the counter
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anymore is at computer fairs. (Usually they're doing it to publicize an
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Internet/mail-order business.)</P
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><P
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>You can find good loss-leader deals on individual parts at these
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fairs (they're especially good places to buy disk drives cheap). But I call
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them a minor alternative because it's hard to get a custom configuration
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tuned for Unix built for you at a fair. So you end up, effectively, back
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in the mail-order or Web channel.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="mailorder"
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></A
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>8.4. Mail Order</H2
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><P
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>Internet buying makes a lot of sense today for anyone with
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more technical savvy than J. Random Luser in a suit. Even from no-name
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vendors, parts and system quality tend to be high and consistent,
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so conventional dealerships don't really have much more to offer than a
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warm fuzzy feeling. Furthermore, competition has become so intense that
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even Internet/mail-order vendors today have to offer not just lower prices
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than ever before but warranty and support policies of a depth that would
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have seemed incredible a few years back. For example, many bundle a year
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of on-site hardware support with their medium- and high-end
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<SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"business"</SPAN
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> configurations for a very low premium over the bare
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hardware.</P
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><P
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>Note, however, that assembling a system yourself out of parts is
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<EM
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>not</EM
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> likely to save you money over dealing with the
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Internet/mail-order systems houses. You can't buy parts at the volume they
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do; the discounts they command are bigger than the premiums reflected in
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their prices. The lack of any system warranty or support can also be a
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problem even if you're expert enough to do the integration yourself —
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because you also assume all the risk of defective parts and integration
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problems.</P
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><P
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>Watch out for dealers (Spectrum Trading for one) who charge ridiculous
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shipping fees. One of our spies reports he bought a hotswappable hard
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disc drive tray that weighed about 3 lbs. and cost $250 and they
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charged $25 to ship it UPS groud.</P
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><P
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>Don't forget that (most places) you can avoid sales tax by buying from an
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out-of-state outfit, and save yourself 6-8% depending on where you
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live. If you live near a state line, buying from a local outfit you can often
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win, quite legally, by having the stuff shipped to a friend or relative just
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over it. Best of all is a buddy with a state-registered dealer number; these
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aren't very hard to get and confer not just exemption from sales tax but
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(often) whopping discounts from the vendors. Hand him a dollar afterwards to
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make it legal.</P
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><P
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>(Note: I have been advised that you shouldn't try the latter tactic in
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Florida —they are notoriously tough on "resale license" holders).</P
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><P
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>(Note II: The Supreme Court has ruled that states may not tax
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out-of-state businesses under existing law, but left the way open for
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Congress to pass enabling legislation. Let's hope the mail-order
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industry has good lobbyists.)</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="superstores"
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></A
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>8.5. Computer Superstores</H2
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><P
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>Big chain superstores like CompUSA give you a reasonable alternative
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to the Web. And there are good reasons to explore it — these stores
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buy and sell at volumes that allow them to offer prices not far above the
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Web. (They make back a lot of their margin on computer games and small
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accessories like mouse pads, cables, and floppy disks.)</P
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><P
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>Note, however: <EM
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>Avoid Best Buy</EM
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>. Horror stories
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about them are legion — predatory salescritters, incompetent
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service, routine bait-and-switch tactics.</P
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><P
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>One thing you should not buy remotely if you can avoid it is a
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monitor. Monitors are subject to significant quality variations even
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within the same make and model. Flatscreens haver this [roblem less than
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CRTs did, but you don't want a flatscreen with dead pixels. So buy your
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monitor face-to-face, picking the best out of three or four.</P
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><P
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>Another good argument for buying at a superstore is that you may
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have to pay return postage if you ship a system back to the vendor. On a
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big, heavy system, this can eat your initial price savings.</P
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><P
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>The only major problem with superstores is that the salespeople who
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staff them aren't very bright or very clueful (it's a sort of Darwinian
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reverse-selection effect; these are the guys who are fascinated by computer
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technology but not smart enough to be techies). Most of them don't know
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from Linux and are likely to push things like two-button mice that you
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can't use. Use caution and check your system manifest.</P
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><P
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>But if you shop carefully and don't fall for one of their name-brand
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"prestige" systems, you can get prices comparable to Internet/mail-order
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with the comfort of knowing there's a trouble desk you can drive back to in
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a pinch. (Also, you <EM
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>can</EM
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> see your monitor before you
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buy!)</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="buying_tips"
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></A
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>8.6. Other Buying Tips</H2
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><P
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>You can often get out of paying tax just by paying cash,
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especially at computer shows. You can always say you're going to ship
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the equipment out of the state.</P
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><P
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>A lot of vendors bundle Windows and variable amounts of apps
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with their hardware. If you tell them to lose all this useless cruft
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they may shave $50 or $100 off the system price.</P
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>Questions You Should Always Ask Your Vendor</TD
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