[NCLUG] Fighting TigerMP

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2001 at 11:24:38AM -0700, Michael Dwyer wrote:
> o Best Buy - Yes, it is sad, but true.  But good luck finding a power
>supply there.

They have a not bad selection of some stuff.  I was pretty shocked when
I found I could get a motherboard there, and not at a bad price either.

> o Computer Rennaisans - Or however you spell it.  Sort of expensive,
>IMHO.

They do have some good stuff, but they tend to be quite expensive and their
policies kind of suck.  They have lots of SCSI stuff though.  I mostly
avoid them after they tried to sell me some RAM for nearly twice was Best
Buy wanted, and wouldn't warranty it at all unless they installed it.  I
went to Best Buy instead.

> o RunPC - Unknown -- but they seem to have more homebrew equipment

They're also not bad.  THey usually carry 3-wire CPU fans which Computer
Ren hasn't seemed to the last few times I was there.  They also tend to
have 53c8xx SCSI boards in stock, though we've had better luck finding
these other places more recently.

> o DSC - Might be your best bet -- they seem pretty sharp.  Worth a try.

They tend to be pretty good, and over all have not a bad selection.  Of
particular relavence to this discussion, however, is that I thought they
were HORRIBLY overpriced on the last power supply I got from them.  I don't
recall how much, but I seem to recall that it was a substantial fraction of
$100 for a regular ATX power supply.

> o Hayes - Are they still around?  Also good homebrew store.

I've gotten some stuff from them in the past.  I wasn't very impressed over
all, they seemed to expect me to have the IQ of a carrot.  I don't recall
what it was all about though...  They moved from Elizabeth and Shields to
Elizabeth and Overland, by the grocery store there.

Other places:

   Circuit City -- I've been pretty happy with them, no problems returning
   stuff we've had problems with (which doesn't happy often, admittedly),
   and they have a pretty good selection of computer stuff.  I just got a
   24x burner, 40x ripper (TDK VeloCD) from them for $120 after rebate.
   They even usually print you extra copies of the receipt to send in for
   the rebate.

   Office Depot/Office Max -- Whatever you need, they don't have it.  No,
   really...  They have a computer section, but except for CDs I think that
   every time we've been in there looking for a computer thing, we've been
   denied.

   My spare bedroom, but unless you're a member, the prices are outrageous.
   Great selection though.  ;-P

   Wintronic -- Good for cables and stuff.  Particularly networking cables
   of all sorts.  Fairly good prices for a local shop...  A fair bit of
   SCSI stuff, too.  Not bad for rack hardware, unless you need shelves
   (IMHO).

   The Internet -- I order most of my stuff from the net.  For power
   supplies, I frequent pcpowerandcooling.com, they have a good product.
   Heck, you can even order on-line these days.  their power supplies and
   (most importantly) fans seem to last forever.

Sean
-- 
 The day that Linux invades the desktop market is the day that I start
 believing in people again.
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python