Oops

Cold chicken for lunch today, cold chicken and cold rice which were supposed to be yesterday's lunch. What was yesterday's lunch instead? Hint: McDonald's McCrispy McChicken McSandwich McAnd McMedium McFries Mc. Remarkably, if you price out the parts separately for a Dell computer system, the total comes out almost the same as what Dell is charging for their package system (not even including extended Warranty, etc.). I expected Dell to be offering a more substantial discount, there is after all that whole "economy of scale" thing, no? Sam's System; Athlon 64 3000+ OEM: $219 ASUS K8V Deluxe Motherboard: $151 Antec Sonata case (w/ power): $113 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB: $247 Seagate 120MB SATA hard drive: $104 Lite-On 52X CD-RW drive: $45 Mitsumi floppy drive: $10 1024MB Crucial DDR PC3200 RAM: $220 Windows XP Home: $92

TOTAL: $1,201

Dell's System; Dell Dimension 8300 (similarly configured):

TOTAL: $1,189

Actually, my configuration has a faster processor (64 bit AMD vs. Intel P4), faster RAM, a faster hard drive, a faster CD writer, runs quieter and in addition looks a lot "sexier" in that Antec case, which is all shiny black with blue LED's. I am not anti-Dell exactly, but if you have the time to slap together some parts I say go to Thompson's Computer Warehouse and get you's some. Why Thompson's? Because Jake's cat is named Thompson... But actually; because they throw in a roll of lifesavers with every shipment.