A grandfather computer

My grandfather asked if I could help him buy a computer since "Bachelor of Science, Major in Computer Science" automatically means I can.

He's doing it for the right reasons, by the way. He's buying a computer because he can't find any more typewriters around, and he's going to have someone type for him. That means computer and printer. I was also told that they may need to connect to the Internet. At least this computer will give me something to do when we go to Bulacan instead of loafing around pretending to read books or staring at the ceiling.

Choosing one will be easier than the time I wanted to buy my own computer. I just get the cheapest package, give that don't-mess-with-me look and watch out for the salestalk.

Greenhills is still the place to go for your computer shopping needs. Since they're still renovating the Mecca of computer shopping, Virramall, the next best places to look is either Shoppesville Plus or the Annapolis Carpark. We went for the latter since it's easier to load things to the car afterwards.

The cheapest package these days is an AMD Sempron 2200 with 256 MB DDRAM with shared video memory, a 40 GB IDE hard drive, a 52x CD-ROM drive, floppy drive of course, speakers, keyboard, mouse and auto voltage regulator. The new term I heard them describe monitors is "refurbished", which essentially means recycled, and thus, cheap, probably riskier. This comes in at around a bit less than P15,000. Printer is an additional P2350.00, we're getting a computer table too.

The guy at the shop tells me they've run out of Sempron 2200s and tells me I could get a Sempron 2500 and he'll cut a few hundred from it. He tells me it's 64-bit ready and that when Windows XP 64-bit edition, I'll be ready. To let him know I'm no chump, I tell him "bakit ko gusto nun? [why would I want that?]". He starts to go into this "be at the forefront of technology" bit, but I cut him off by saying that it's really just for my grandfather. He's all business afterwards, running down the available parts, sometimes discounting them without me asking. They assemble the thing in front of us, taking the parts out of the box and into their corresponding place inside the PC case, wires and cables and all. The printer's pretty decent, an Epson C45, at a hundred bucks less. Gives me the modem for free.

My mom mentions the internet connection, and this guy jumps to suggest Smart Wi-Fi at P1000.00. I immediately shook my head. My grandfather won't need it, heck, even I don't really need it. I mean it's nice to have, except it's more of a luxury for me who spends around 2 online hours a day at home. They'll just take their chances with prepaid dial-up connection. I also tell the guy to format the hard drive and make it bootable, since they're against piracy and all that. You can guess how I solved the operating system problem.

My grandfather was prepared to spend around P25,000.00 for it, we got ours for P19,250.00 w/ printer and table. A pretty good deal.

Since they'll be bringing the computer to Bulacan, and I won't be there until the All Saints break, we label all the wires at home (in Manila) so that they can figure out where to put what when they get there. I'm a little scared that they'll start calling hours later so that they can get tech support from me. (shudder). My dad reassures us, "marunong ngang magpatakbo yan ng tren, eto pa kaya [he (my grandfather) knows how to make trains run, he can make this work]". My grandfather was a railroad engineer. I'm a different kind of engineer. The kind that saves relatives a few thousand when buying a computer.