September 20, 2002

 NEW CASES AND NEON FANS

We have 2 new cases for gamers.  Both are from Rtron and both have side windows.  Both come with a new brand of 350 watt power supply.  Along with these new cases we are bringing in 350, 400, and 500 watt power supplies. They sell for $28, $42, and $73 respectively.  We have experienced a higher than acceptable failure rate on our existing 300 watt Award and Max power supplies.  After several weeks of negotiating with the manufacturer of these power supplies we decided to cut our losses and move on to another brand.  Note that the 400 and 500 watt power supplies will have 2 fans, 1 in the front and back of the unit.  As an added aesthetics feature, the rear fan has red, green, and blue, neon lights in the fan blades.  These fans will also be available to buy individually for $10.00

 ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL NET INTEGRATION SEMINAR

We have now held 2 certification classes for the Net Integration servers.   These classes require about 4 hours.  (When was the last time you took any computer related class and were able to declare your certification in 4 hours?)  Each participant is required to pay $500 for the course.  If you are interested in the next class, please let us know.  We expect to have another seminar at the end of October.  

HARD DRIVES REMAIN IN SHORTAGE

IBM hard drives have been difficult for us to get direct from IBM distribution.  We have been forced into the open market for these drives and that has continued to drive the prices up.  Maxtor and Western Digital drives continue to creep upwards as well. 

Just a quick note on other products, it appears that the AMD Durons are end of life.  I previously warned that the Durons would go away and the XP processors would fall into that price range.  That appears to be happening as the Duron 1200 has gone up in price.  A candle always burns brightest near the end.  Computer parts prices always go up before they go away.

S&K