Indulge me, if you will, dear readers, and allow me a few moments to brag about my new baby.   My new PC runs on an Athlon 64 3200 Processor, mounted on an MSI K8NEO Platinum Motherboard.  I gave it one Gigabyte of Kingston DDR PC400 RAM, a total of two hundred gigabytes of  Seagate hard disk space, and an INNO3D GeForce FX 6600 with 256 MB of RAM.

        I even threw in a BenQ 16X DVD+/-R Double Layer Writer for good measure and movie viewing.

        They’re all housed in a sleek Viper black case, with the AMD Athlon 64 sticker proudly brandished on its front.

        Like any large purchases (and this one cost a pretty penny, as you can imagine), its best to take your time and look around for the best options before buying.  In my case, I spent months looking at websites of all the big computer shops, Villman, PC Express, PC Corner and Rising Sun among them.  I downloaded .PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format) files of their price lists and compared them weekly.

        As I was doing this for about three months, the whole thing I’m sure seemed humorous to those who saw me search for the best deal but never actually go out and get one.

        Then, it happened.  As I was working on my PC at the time, it crashed and my monitor went blank, giving me nothing but a “No signal” warning.  I tried using a different monitor and still nothing.  Growing concerned, I tried rebooting and my trusty pc beeped in agony.  That’s when I knew that something was seriously wrong with my computer.

        I also took it as a sign to buy a new one.  My old one is by now three years old.  Its an Athlon XP 2000, with 512 Megabytes of RAM, 80 gigabytes of disk space and, at the time, an INNO3D GeForce Titanium (Ti) 128 Megabyte video card.  It gave me three years of loyal, unerring service, and I love it for that.  I computed my cost and over three years it was only as if I spent thirty-four pesos a day.  That’s cheaper than going to an internet café and surfing.

        With my trusty computer in tow, I headed off to Gilmore, which is widely known as a melting pot of all things tech.   Virramall being currently non-existent, I decided to concentrate my canvassing efforts there.

        As it turned out my video card was the problem, it had burned out due to the heat this summer.  Like I said, this was an omen to me get a new PC.  I didn’t want to wait for anything else to go wrong to serve as more portents for me to go buy.

        So I went around asking about a new video card, and, at the same time, inquiring about prices for a new unit.  The kind of response I got was very disappointing to say the least.

        I walked into one store, and all those working there who were not with a customer were watching television. The guard had to prod one lady to help me.  When I asked about AMD 64’s she said they didn’t have any, and didn’t really carry them, so I left.

        I entered another store on the ground floor of the building… one of the so-called “big” stores as in they have multiple branches, and a website even… and also inquired.  I wanted to make sure that the newer video cards would still work with my old motherboard.  I wasn’t even sure it they would fit in the slot, my board was three years old after all.  And what did the sales person say?

        “Di ko lang po alam.”

        “I don’t really know.”  That’s an answer I can live with.  I can’t expect  people who work at computer shops to know EVERYTHING, even if it is their job to know.  But what irritated me more was that he didn’t even bother to check.  He didn’t say, “Just a while, let me ask someone who knows” or look it up on the net. I even gave him the model, it was and ASUS A7S333.  I’m sure if he tried he’d find out on the net if the new cards worked on the old board or not.

        And after telling me that it would take them a week to get the Athlon 64 3200 I wanted, I thanked the guy and left the shop.

        A bit disappointed at the kind of customer service I was receiving, I moved on anyway to another shop.  This wasn't the kind of canvasing I was hoping to do.  The whole area is probably the best place to get PC parts and services now.  I remember seeing flyers from elsewhere saying "Gilmore Prices" on them. 

       Buying a PC is like buying a car, except that you can't really expect to buy a second hand PC and make it last.  Its a big thing, and I was hoping for better help at doing that.

        I then entered a shop called DYNAMIC computers, on the ground floor,  Unit 2 Aurora Garden Plaza  at the corner of Aurora Boulevard and Gilmore, right across Saint Paul.  I asked about my problem.  I was told immediately that as long as my motherboard could use DDR-RAM, and that I actually had DDR-RAM installed, the newer cards should work.  They even tried to fix my card, thinking that maybe It was just the fan that gave out.  Alas, the chip itself had burned in the sweltering heat of this summer.  (A health tip: If your PC is not in an air-conditioned room and is idle anyway, might as well turn it off.)

        Happy that I found someone who looked like they knew what they were talking about, I chatted with them for a while, and eventually bought a new INNO3D GeForce FX 5200 256 MB card for my poor PC. (Who is now merrily running again)

        When I asked for a quotation on the new PC I wanted, they gave me one that was over a thousand pesos cheaper that the last place I had asked, with only minor brand changes in the specifications.   AND… the clincher was it would only take them one day to get the AMD Athlon 64 and the GeForce 6600 256 Mb video card I wanted.

        Three days later they contacted me that my machine was all done. When I arrived to pick it up, the casing was still open.   They showed me all the parts and turned it on before closing up, which I appreciate.

        I also appreciate getting the boxes for everything that I bought.  Some other places only give the boxes of the motherboard and video card, but this time I got the boxes of the RAM, Processor, DVD-Writer and Power Supply too.  I’ll probably throw them away or put them aside anyway, but still, I like having them.  Makes me feel like I get what I paid for.

        And so now I have my new baby set up at home.  I’m not quite done configuring it yet.  I have yet to call Microsoft to activate Windows XP.  I still have twenty-two days to do that.

        And I also haven’t configured the two computers to talk to each other properly yet, which is also a bit of a pain.  I’ve never set up a workgroup before.  But there’s a first time for everything I suppose.