Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 11:12:34 03/28/01
Go up one level in this thread
On March 28, 2001 at 11:17:43, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>On March 28, 2001 at 10:42:04, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>>
>>
>>
>>When I buy by email, I pay taxes which are made up so the end price is less
>>interesting than buying in stores.
>>
>>I have bought my PalmIIIx two years ago from Outpost. I have been forced to
>>because I could not even find it in the stores here. But I have paid some 20% of
>>taxes.
>>
>>Yes my country puts up walls with these taxes.
>>
>>Now, what do you suggest?
>>
>>FYI it's the same in many countries.
>>
>>
>
>
>That is easy. Buy a dual MB via the internet. For under 100 bucks US.
>Pay the 20% tax and you are now out 120 bucks. Buy another CPU just like
>the one you already have. I assume you _can_ buy those locally.
Yes I can. But I need to buy 2 new CPUs because I only have a K6-2 450.
PIII-733: FF 2090 (about $285) (this is the slowest available PIII)
PIII-933: FF 2990 ($410)
AMD TB-1GHz: FF 2490 ($340)
AMB TB-1.2GHz: FF 3790 ($520)
With the x1.7 rule, buying a dual PIII-733MHz is more expensive (and it will be
as fast) as buying a single TB 1.2GHz. Just because of the price of the
processors, I have not even taken the price of the motherboard into account.
Anyway I cannot get one here, I must order it overseas.
For a dual to be faster than the fastest single I can find, I must buy a dual
PIII-933. Just the processors already cost $820, and I have not even counted the
motherboard. So I guess the total price will be between $900-$1000.
I add the tax and the postage and I'm between $1100 and $1200.
But okay, it's not my particular case which is interesting. People can make
their own computations with the price of the hardware in the place they live.
And with the informations in my original message they can take a decision...
> As a
>result, for 120 dollars US, plus the cost of a single CPU, you just doubled
>your computational speed. You can continue to use all your old peripherals,
>even the stock power supply, with no problems...
>
>
>
>>Have you been in the caribbean?
>
>Yes
>
>>
>>Have you been in Africa?
>
>Yes.
Did you step outside of the hotel? :)
>>Have you been in India?
>
>
>Yes.
>
>>
>>Have you been in South America?
>>
>Yes.
>
>>Open your eyes, Bob.
>>
>>
>
>
>And China. And Japan. And Canada. And most of Europe. And the former
>Soviet Union.
>
>Eyes are _always_ open... at least here..
>
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>I have lived in places where you can feed a family for one month with this
>>couple bucks.
>
>So? When I was an undergraduate student, with a wife (no kids) we _lived_
>on 250 bucks a month in the late 1960's. From that we paid for food, rent,
>car, etc.
>
>For a family that lives on 200 bucks a month you probably are not going to
>find them buying a computer. So that really doesn't affect things.
>
>I am saying you can buy a dual-cpu machine (dual 800 for example) for less
>money than you will spend to buy a single 1.2ghz PIV. You will have a faster
>machine. _if_ you have software that uses two cpus or you run two or more
>applications at the same time.
>
>I really don't care what it costs to put a dual together in South Timbuktu,
>because they probably don't even have single-cpu machines there in any number.
I know you don't care. I noticed a long time ago.
>But most of the free world has access to amazingly inexpensive dual hardware
>platforms at incredibly attractive prices. If a government suppresses
>technology, not much we can do about it. But not _every_ government behaves
>like that, fortunately. I happen to live in such a place.
Some people will be happy to learn that they don't live in the free world. :)
Sorry to disturb your peace with thoughts about the problems of parts of the
world you do not care about.
You have several quads at your disposal, duals everywhere in the lab, more and
more students of yours have their own, so why is this single processor idiot
bothering you with such secondary problems?
>>OK, this family does not care much about a single or dual processor computer...
>>
>>However in some countries this amount of money really makes a difference.
>>
>>
>>
>
>I would not suggest otherwise. But in a country where 200 dollars makes a
>difference, I'll bet they don't have computers in any numbers anyway.
$200 makes a difference for me, and I have a computer. Actually I have several
ones in this room, and I must be very careful because if one breaks up, I might
run into money problems.
>>Current price HERE for 128Mb SDRAM 133 is FF 690, that is approximately $94.
>>
>>I can get it for a little less but in this case the product has to be ordered
>>overseas (in France actually) and will take several days to be available. And
>>for this I must pay in advance. And if the hardware has a problem it must be
>>returned to France for repairing or exchange.
>>
>>So I am almost forced to pay a little bit more and buy from a company that as
>>the products available in quantity here.
>>
>>
>
>
>Why? I order things all the time, with the knowledge that if there is a
>problem, it has to go back to the supplier. I haven't received a bad DIMM
>in years. And I have bought _hundreds_ of computers for our labs. I buy the
>cheapest price because I buy so many. And I haven't had any problems at all.
I have tried and have had several problems. A friend of mine has had problems
too.
Now I have stopped doing this way because of the many hardware problems (maybe
partly cause by the climate here). I buy stuffs from a store that will exchange
it immediately if there is the slightest problem.
>IE if my fancy new IBM 10K RPM LVDS drives go bad, I have to get an RMA from IBM
>anyway, no matter _where_ I bought the drive. It doesn't matter whether I
>bought it from a discount house or from the local IBM office.
When you order in quantity, it is different. You can afford a limited percentage
of problems because you have enough hardware to make dirty repairs...
If the hardware you have bought is for your only computer and it does not work,
then it can mean weeks of wait. Especially if you have already sold your older
motherboard for example (happened to a friend of mine).
But if it works for you, don't change a thing. Be happy...
Christophe
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.