Dell over IBM

Yay, finally I’m going to get a brand new desktop! Yiippee! :)

Not too sure when exactly it’s arriving though. I’ll have to wait for the delivery crew to give me a ring. It should be delivered within 7-10 days, that’s what the sales rep from Dell who called yesterday to confirm my order had promised. So 6-9 more days to go. Yay, yay!

Buying a techie product is not my forte. I’m definitely not the IT girl. Tell me about RAM, chipset, motherboard, SATA, processor, memory etc. I’m totally lost and clueless. It’s just so confusing and it seems that I have little or no memory space for any of them even after several attempts of reading up.

So it was only after several rounds of decision-making that I’ve finally purchased a Dell desktop. Yes, Dell’s nothing fantastic, I know. And I also happen to know that it’s not one of the “branded” for computers and laptops. In fact with its extensive ads and slashing prices coupled with online cash discounts in the papers, you know for sure it’s targeting the super price-sensitive group. And that’s me! :) Anyway to me, as long as my computer serves me well with all the very basics like surfing the net, emailing, a place to store my pictures, some word/ excel processing, and few or no glitches, I’ll be very contented.

Initially I was almost trapped into buying one of the branded - IBM Thinkpad. Afterall that was something familiar. And I’d been using one for 3 years while working in my ex-firm. PLUS most importantly, there was a great offer (40% off!) for employees of the organization I’m currently working for. Oh my, how could I miss the great deal! It’s just like Gucci having its bi-annual sale, who would ever wanna miss it? And after having the deal concurred by Boyfriend and a couple of my IT-savvy guy friends, it really seemed like the best deal ever!

However somehow towards the last few days of the great offer, I suffered from pre-purchase dissonance. I was troubled by these questions that were running through my head over and over again.
- Do I really need the mobility? Where am I going to bring it to? Living room to bedroom to kitchen and probably bathroom?? Maybe to boyfriend’s house for a presentation of potential birthday gifts??
- Do I really need to spend over 3K (fyi, that’s after discount) for such a high-end laptop which I probably only know how to utilize 10% of its capabilities?
- To give up more updated fashion for more advanced technology??? Is the latter more of my priority?

My mind struggled for a decision. Luckily the rational side overruled and eased the dissonance eventually. That was when I finally decided to get a desktop computer that really suits my needs. And that was also when a copy of Today with its usual advertiser in its coverpage was lying in front of me.

(Shortly after, it was also reported in the papers that IBM was in the midst of selling off its personal computer and laptops business unit...no wonder the great offer.)