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#1
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping.
Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. |
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#2
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 27/08/2020 06:20 am, micky wrote:
I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. The question might be easy but the answer may not be - if it is an easy answer, why are you asking the question? DVD-ROM is a reader only. DVD-RW and DVD+/-RW are DVD writers (may also do CDs). Discs to be written to are DVD+R and/or DVD-R. DVD+R cannot (probably) be written in a DVD-RW drive. -- Chris Elvidge, England |
#3
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 8/27/2020 1:20 AM, micky wrote:
I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. While I do not do it much, I do like a the ability to write to CD/DVD's While you can use a USB device to transfer information, CD/DVD/s still are the cheapest way to transfer information. Especially when you know the transfer "device" will not be returned. We use the CD/DVD's to send images for judging in art shows. We also use CD/DVD's to send people genealogical information to in response to "cousins" who are working on the same families that I am. |
#4
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote:
I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. |
#5
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 27 Aug 2020, micky wrote
(in ): I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. I haven’t seen a plain DVD-ROM is a very long time. Way back Apple put DVD-ROMs into some desktop G3/G4 systems, it’s been a while and I can’t be arsed to look it up. It was not a success. Are you sure that this isn’t a DVD _combo_ drive, which reads DVDs and can read/write CDs? Personally, I’d go with the DVD+/- systems, as they can read/write CDs and almost all DVD variants, or, if on offer, a Blu-Ray system, either a combo which reads BR media and read/writes most DVDs and CDs, or a full-on BR burner, capable of read/writing BR, DVD, and CD. A look at their site indicates that they do sell BR products, you’ll get the most flexibility with those. I have a stand-alone BR drive connected to my tv, but rarely use it nowadays. It’s been at least six months since I even turned it on, and I’m not sure where I put the remote, other than it was in a safe place where it wouldn’t get lost. I usually watch BR movies on a computer, either from a BR drive or from the ‘digital’ copy which ships with most BR movies these days. Older movies are ripped from VHS (I haven’t touched the VHS machine, except to convert a movie, in years) or DVD and the MP4 or MKV files from the rip parked on my NAS. Officially they’re nice legal, no matter what Holyweird might try to imply, backups; in reality I put the originals away safely and just watch the rips. Currently re-watching the last of the good Star Wars movies, Rogue One. I particularly like Anakin Skywalker and Grand Moff Tarkin, both being mustache-twirling evil, and most of the rebels ain’t that much better, being terrorists, mutineers, assassins, thieves, and saboteurs... (That one came with a ‘digital copy’, I’ve never even taken the BR out of the box...) Give it a few years and there won’t be any movies on DVD, and after that none on BR, they’ll all be ‘digital’. So don’t spend too much on an optical drive, the end is in sight. How many movies do you watch a year? |
#6
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
In article s.com,
Wolffan wrote: 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. I haven¹t seen a plain DVD-ROM is a very long time. Way back Apple put DVD-ROMs into some desktop G3/G4 systems, it¹s been a while and I can¹t be arsed to look it up. It was not a success. Are you sure that this isn¹t a DVD _combo_ drive, which reads DVDs and can read/write CDs? dvd-rom drives were common before writeable dvd drives appeared, just as cd-rom drives were before writeable cd drives. Give it a few years and there won¹t be any movies on DVD, and after that none on BR, they¹ll all be Œdigital¹. So don¹t spend too much on an optical drive, the end is in sight. How many movies do you watch a year? we're already there. new content is streamed and/or downloadable. very little is released on a physical disc. |
#7
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
micky wrote:
I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. A replacement optical drive for a desktop is $20. Just ignore the type declaration. Put a $20 optical drive in the order as a spare. (1) Big-ass PC $??? (1) Optical drive (SATA) $ 20 ------------------------ ---- Etc Etc I keep one spare here, and it's been used and moved around to some of the older PCs, for tests. The one I got was an IDE drive at the surplus place, as otherwise you probably couldn't find an IDE one in town. (The surplus store won't even allow you to look at their stock. They "go in the back and have a look around" for... everything!) The computer stores here just stock the SATA ones. The spare IDE drive also fits the IDE enclosure I've got (which has an IDE optical drive at the moment). The year 2000 PC won't touch the IDE DVD drive, and refuses to do anything with it. All the other PCs (like P4 era ones), are fine with the IDE DVD drive. If the Microcenter PC you're looking at has a DVDROM, that tells you it at least has the screws to hold the drive in place. Then you can swap in your fancy $20 spare. Done. Nero Infotool had a display that shows the "capabilities" of the currently installed optical drive. if you were wondering whether the drive is plus or minus, that's how you tell. Infotool is a freebie, and does not use or check any Nero license. A third-party developer actually wrote the code. I would not worry about exchanging any blanks. Keep them. You won't regret it. You don't want to be pawing through the crap they sell at local computer stores at the last minute. Hold onto what you've got. I have media I bought 15 years ago, that I just reached in and used when I was out of the usual stuff. Now, I'm out of jewel boxes. Paul |
#8
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC),
Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? This one has a 1TB SSD but only a SATA DVD-ROM, it says. It's refurbished and $350 https://www.microcenter.com/product/...r-(refurbished) |
#9
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:12:20 -0400, Paul
wrote: micky wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many Yes, only usually. but almost all the time. slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. A replacement optical drive for a desktop is $20. Just ignore the type declaration. Put a $20 optical drive in the order as a spare. (1) Big-ass PC $??? (1) Optical drive (SATA) $ 20 ------------------------ ---- Etc Etc I keep one spare here, and it's been used and moved around to some of the older PCs, for tests. The one I got was an IDE drive at the surplus place, as otherwise you probably couldn't find an IDE one in town. (The surplus store You have a suplus store! Where are you located? When I lived in Brooklyn there was a store that sold left-over parts from TVs that never got assembled. Or they bought 10,000 of something and only made 9000 tvs. Most things cost between 5 and 25cents iirc (1980) won't even allow you to look at their stock. They "go in the back and have a look around" for... everything!) The computer stores here just stock the SATA ones. The spare IDE drive also fits the IDE enclosure I've got (which has an IDE optical drive at the moment). The year 2000 PC won't touch the IDE DVD drive, and refuses to do anything with it. All the other PCs (like P4 era ones), are fine with the IDE DVD drive. If the Microcenter PC you're looking at has a DVDROM, that tells you it at least has the screws to hold the drive in place. Good point. Then you can swap in your fancy $20 spare. Done. That makes sense. I already have a spare that's sitting in the XP computer in the basement. It's been 5 or 10 years and it's sort of humid down there, but also no more than 70^ So it might still be good. It's a lightwriter or whatever they called the ones that could write text on the top of the CD. I got carried away. Nero Infotool had a display that shows the "capabilities" of the currently installed optical drive. if you were wondering whether the drive is plus or minus, that's how you tell. Infotool is a freebie, and does not use or check any Nero license. A third-party developer actually wrote the code. I would not worry about exchanging any blanks. Keep them. You won't regret it. You don't want to be Okay. pawing through the crap they sell at local computer stores at the last minute. Hold onto what you've got. I have media I bought 15 years ago, that I just reached in and used when I was out of the usual stuff. Now, I'm out of jewel boxes. A guy gave me a big box of them, from music he had bought. About 200.(Some are broken) I went on Freecycle and tried to give away most of them, whatever number they wanted. but no one asked for any Paul |
#10
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. |
#11
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 2020-08-27 3:38 p.m., Chris wrote:
micky wrote: In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. Each to his own but I would deem that a pretty poor machine for the price, especially an SFF. Rene |
#12
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 20:38:01 -0000 (UTC),
Chris wrote: micky wrote: In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. My Optiplex, and my latitude laptop each have one only 1/2" high that will write DVDs. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. You're right. I can do that. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. |
#13
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2020-08-27 3:38 p.m., Chris wrote: micky wrote: In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. Each to his own but I would deem that a pretty poor machine for the price, especially an SFF. Can't disagree. A Quadro card is of no use to most people. |
#14
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 28 Aug 2020 09:06:22 -0000 (UTC),
Chris wrote: Rene Lamontagne wrote: On 2020-08-27 3:38 p.m., Chris wrote: micky wrote: In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. Each to his own but I would deem that a pretty poor machine for the price, especially an SFF. Can't disagree. A Quadro card is of no use to most people. So is this basically a criticism of the manufacturer, or microcenter? I've presumed the maker sets the wholesale price and vendors mark everything up about the same percentage. So if it's not worth the money, it's not because of microcenter. ????? |
#15
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Still shopping, one or two easy questions
On 2020-08-28 5:41 p.m., micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 28 Aug 2020 09:06:22 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: Rene Lamontagne wrote: On 2020-08-27 3:38 p.m., Chris wrote: micky wrote: In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:13 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote: On 27 Aug 2020 at 06:20:19 BST, "micky" wrote: I was busy for a while so I'm back to shopping. Microcenter only has branches in 20 cities or so, but their webpage is very good in terms of the detail it gives. For example, they usually? tell you how much RAM it comes with, how many slots for RAM there are, how many are used, and what's the maximum amount of RAM you can put in. And it lets you filter on whether it has an optical drive or not. 1) Optical drives it splits into 3 kinds, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and DVD+/-RW. Isn't any of these good enough for me? I don't copy movies. And I just bought some blank, DVD+R's but I think I can still exchange them. Writeable DVD standards are/were a mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable Nowadays I think all drives can read/write to any media. That's one of the big reasons I asked. I though so too, but of the 11 PCs that are left after I applied a few filters, 8 of them say they have DVD-ROM Here's one of them. It says the same thing in the Overview and in the Specs. This one is $1300 !!!!! The others are cheaper but I can get you folks some urls for them ief you want. https://www.microcenter.com/product/...sktop-computer Is it really read only? Looks like it. It's a slimline model. You know I wouldn't base your decision on a $20 part. Get the machine you want and then add the DVD drive after if you want it. A USB one works just as well. That machine is expensive because of the Quadro card. Each to his own but I would deem that a pretty poor machine for the price, especially an SFF. Can't disagree. A Quadro card is of no use to most people. So is this basically a criticism of the manufacturer, or microcenter? I've presumed the maker sets the wholesale price and vendors mark everything up about the same percentage. So if it's not worth the money, it's not because of microcenter. ????? criticism of the machine and the price. as Chris said a quadro card is a poor choice for what you do, The price of it is too high, The SFF is a crappy thing to work on or expand, later if needed. Believe me I have worked on a few and hated them all. If you like Dell go to their site and look around, I'm sure there prices will be better, My first Windows 95 machine was a dell and it was great. Also 2 good places to look at are Amazon and Newegg, both have great machines at good prices. They have a huge variety so you can pick and choose whatever features you want, Delivery is fast and warranty's are good. Good Luck. Rene |
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