If You're In The Market For A new Computer.....

Okay, decided on a Sony Vaio to replace my neurotic Dell.....

However, I have some thoughts and warnings about the sales process, no matter who you deal with.

My main uses involve wi-fi at the airport, playing mp3s and watching movies while I wait for orders, and letting customers watch a movie on the occasional longer trip to DC or Richmond, so I needed something built for multimedia and InterNet.

I went to Best Buy, maybe not the best place, but it seemed reasonable enough. Had my eye on a Gateway with 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive and a 2.1 Ghz processor. Not a bad little machine for $699, I thought.

The sales girl told me that the Gateway wasn't a bad machine, but maybe not suited for what I wanted to do. When I asked why, she told me that the video card in the Gateway was parasitic to the CPU, and would basically force me to shut everything else down if I played back video. This is not something I want to deal with, so I asked for an alternative.

She showed me the Sony Vaio that I decided on. The only thing I really didn't like was the hard drive only being 250GB. However, she said that it would be much better suited for playing movies.

I could have stepped up to another with a 320GB hard drive, but I would have paid another $150 for 70GB of hard drive space and a Blu-Ray drive I didn't necessarily want or need. Still, I'm happy that the girl informed me that the machine I was looking at wasn't necessarily going to best serve my needs.

So I'm thinking I've gotten a great deal. $750 for a laptop that normally runs around $1000. Then I ask about a car adapter for use in the cab. $100.00 for a universal adapter. Then I'm informed that the system restore discs no longer come with the machine, apparently because Bill Gates doesn't think he makes enough money. (Greedy bastard -- if I had my way I'd run Linux. Unfortunately Linux doesn't really lend itself to my particular applications.)

So now I shell out another $60 for "burned" copies of the restore discs that, in my mind, should be part of the price of the computer. Why should I have to pay extra for discs to reinstall if something happens? I bought the operating system with the machine, didn't I?

Now I'm finding out that if something DOES happen, it's not simply wipe the hard drive and reload anymore. Sony apparently requires a "machine build" process in which you systematically load drivers to enable separate components of the machine.

So you REALLY have to know what you're doing in order to get it back up and running in the event of a problem. Not exactly confidence inspiring. I have a bad feeling I will be dumping this machine within a year, but we shall see.

So there you have it. Be very careful when buying a new computer. Things are not the way they used to be, and definitely not the way they SHOULD be in some cases.