my kingdom for a Fry’s…

So for a few months I’ve been looking for a computer.  I need something more robust for work and dual processors look good and I’m tired of waiting (at times) minutes for my computer to catch up.  Right now I need 2 laptops to get my work done, but I think if I wiped the HD on my computer and started from scratch I’d have a pretty hopping machine.  Course, it heats up rather severely also…

So I first had to figure out if I could go with Windows 7.  I decided that since so much of my software is legacy that I really needed to stick with XP.  I can’t even begin to find software that works with Mac, so that was out from the start.  All I could really find with XP was Lenovo and Dell.  I could find old reconditioned systems with XP but I really wanted something that would allow me to eventually upgrade to Windows 7 with XP mode and that involved a  CPU with virtualization technology.

So I decided that VT wasn’t really such an issue and I continued to keep an eye out for deals.  I was pretty sold on a Lenovo Thinkcentre M58 at Fry’s and almost brought it home with me when I unexpectedly went to the US for a funeral, but at the last minute a highly-regarded guy in Cancun was contacted and he said he’d build me a system to meet my needs for about the same price as the M58.  Since I would have had to pay about $150 in import fees once I got to Cancun, I figured his was a much better deal so I came home only loaded with about 50 kilos of STUFF.

Well, it turns out Dr. Chip (yeah, that’s his handle) had his store robbed and is very typical in responding to requests and here we are, about a month later and I still don’t have many specifics about the system other than it is looking like it will be an extra $200US for the operating system.

So I started looking again online.  I checked Ebay, I waffled, I checked MercadoLibre (Mexico’s Ebay) I researched CPUs and finally decided that I was going to go with Windows 7 and upgrade to XP mode and stop looking for XP machines.  If my software can’t handle XP mode then I’ll keep working on the laptop for that one account until I get XP installed on the desktop or whatever.  Decision made.

So Dell had a 15% coupon for their outlet that expired last night (at midnight, one would think).  About 9pm or so I finally made a decision and purchased a system.  It ended up about $321 including tax and would run Windows 7 XP mode.  I would pay another $70 for XP mode and about $150 (though probably less) to ship it here.  So, all in all, about $500 US for a new system.  I can’t find that price for anything here, especially with English OS, so I was happy with my decision.  The only regret was that it was a minitower and not a small form factor but whatevah, I finally made a decision, bought a system and now I could FINALLY drop that big decision and hassle.

Except this morning I found that Dell had canceled the order.  They said the customer decided they didn’t want the system.  I have no idea where they got that information, but after 30 minutes on the phone with about 4 different departments I need to wait 2 hours now and call yet another department to get my order reinstated.  Or not.

So now I have to decide if I want to try to reinstate this order or find something “better”.  Sigh.

In local news we have 3 new turtle nests and hope for a calm season.

UPDATE:  Woohoo!  After trying 3 times to purchase 3 different systems today (ranging from $466 to $271) I finally made it!  It has been “proccessing” all day today and just moved to “production” status.  It should be in Laredo on the 7th and then Merkalink picks up the baton and imports it and ships it to me here.  That is probably another week or so of processing.  I know customs is at least 2-3 days.  So it looks like I finally might have purchased something!  I’ll have a 2-core processor (AMD Athlon II X2 240) and 4GB ram and 320GB HDD and Windows Seven Pro (and then I’ll download XP mode).

UPDATED DOS:  Well, it looks like Dell canceled the 2nd order also.  I can only assume they don’t want my business.  So I just ordered a Compaq.  Who knows what will happen now.