How to buy a computer at CompUSA or Best Buy without getting TOTALLY ripped off.

or, why a Dangerous Sandwich Computer may not be your best option.

  People come up to me and say "Juanito, do people really come up to you?"  (sorry, joke shamelessly ripped off from Emo Phillips).  actually, people do come up to me and ask me to build them a cheap good computer.  i no longer do this.  when people want a cheap computer, i refer them to the internet if they are adventurous, and to Best Buy or CompUSA if they want more security. 

  why don't i build cheap computers anymore?  when i build a computer for someone, i want to stand behind it.  i want to be able to assure the customer (my friends and family so far) that they are getting really good hardware that will not run slow, be temperamental or just plain break on them.  i also find it nice to be able to say "you have the best motherboard available" or "you have one of the best sound cards out there for less than $200."  also, when my friends call me up and say "hey juanito, my computer broke" it makes me feel like somehow i failed them.  and getting more and more people interested (hooked) in computers is, after all, my goal as a CYBERJOCK, and how can I get more people interested if they are so freaking frustrated with their computer that they want to throw it out a window?

  so,  here i am wanting to build only the fastest computers around, for near $1000.  machines that i can build at that price will (as of September, 2001) run at 1.2 Gigahertz or faster (NOT a Pentium4 - blech), they will have 256Megs of Crucial DDR, they will have at least 40 Gigabytes of reliable IBM hard drive, they will be based on the fastest DDR chipset out there and have at least a GeForce2 MX video card.  and those GeForce2 MX's are looking pretty slow to me at this point.  this kind of computer power will cost a bundle at CompUSA, if you can even find it.

  with me not building cheap computers anymore, what are we to do?  i think what we should do is look elsewhere, specifically to www.pricewatch.com, if you feel lucky, or to CompUSA or Best Buy if you want to see what you are getting.

here's my cheap computer case with advanced stuff inside.  yes, that's a radiator you see.

here's Karyn being so cute.