CompUSA finally gets my $$$
If you have read my previous rant about attempting to buy a laptop from CompUSA, you know I don't like CompUSA. The last time I tried to buy a laptop from those folks, I walked out in disgust, vowing not to return for a loooong time. And that time finally arrived. My loving wife said I could get a laptop for Christmas, so I watched the el-cheapo laptop deals go by. Of course, I did drive out and try to get them, but it seemed like everybody sold out of those dirt-cheap laptops the moment the stores opened, or at least it felt that way.
Starting 2006 with a bang, CompUSA advertised a $499 Compaq Presario M2000; well, it was $699 plus a $200 instant discount, yielding an honest $499 cha-ching at the register. Amazingly enough, the deal had nothing to do with a forced AOL subscription, either!
If anybody at CompUSA reads this, mark my words: The lack of the forced AOL subscription clinched the deal. That motivated me to pursue the purchase.
Anyhow, their new year deal was one of those "Doors open at 11 AM! Suplies are limited to stock on hand!" things. I rolled in at about 4:30 pm, totally expecting that the store had two of the laptops, and they both sold out by 11:01 am. Imagine my surprise when they still had them in stock! Maybe everybody else gorged themselves on previous Christmas deals. Anyhow, I heard the obligatory speech on why I should buy the extended warranty, and replied with why I would not buy it; the laptop is, imho, disposable. In two years, I'll buy a better one for half the price. Of course, they looked at me like somebody jumping out of a plane without a parachute, but hey, at least they didn't irritate me right out of the store like last time. They did tell me that this particular promotion leaves me with no warranty to speak of, but I didn't sweat that, due to what is known as the implied warranty of merchantability. They have to sell me a working laptop. After that, I'll take my chances.
So I managed to pry the laptop out of the ol' Den O' Thieves without too much grief.
Imagine my surprise when I actually lit the thing up, to find out it was a pretty good deal indeed!
First off, assume any laptop with 256mb RAM is hopeless. This is truly the case. After it booted up, a look at the Task Manager revealed that a Physical RAM vs. Commit Charge comparison left about enough RAM to launch Notepad. I placed an order for another 256mb of RAM later on in the evening, from memorysuppliers.com.
I spent the first few hours carving off all extra junk I didn't want. The Desktop was loaded up with trial AOL blah blah, along with other unwanted disk hogs. These got deleted. Windows Messenger? Gone! Internet Explorer? Adios! Firefox was my first install, and unless a better browser comes along, it will remain so. Even after trimming down the bloatware, there still wasn't much RAM available for anything useful. The laptop was paging to disk just to browse the web! I can't complain, though; I buy a minimal laptop, it's gonna have minimal RAM.
Oddly enough, it did have two things I never expected for a bargain basement laptop; built in 802.11g and a CD-ROM writer / DVD-ROM reader! Those two items were totally a surprise to me. I was expecting to have to stick in a PCMCIA card for wireless, and to have nothing but a cheapie CD-ROM reader. These two items alone make this laptop a rockin' deal, since adding in RAM is an easy upgrade. Not having to hassle with an add-in wireless card is nice.
Software-wise, the laptop comes with MS Works, and a timebomb version of MS Office. MS Money went to the bin almost immediately, as did a variety of other things I can't recall. I'll probably dump MS Office, and install OpenOffice.Org in the upcoming days. I use OpenOffice.Org on my Linux boxes and love it.
So, as I type on my newfangled $499 laptop, I wish you all a prosperous 2006, and pray this laptop lasts long past 2008. My previous laptop, a Fujitsu Lifebok 600, still runs, and it's nearly 10 years old. Let's see if this Compaq can live as long. And for now, I'll take CompUSA off of my mental blacklist. For now.
