In a message dated 6/30/2006 8:03:40 AM US Mountain Standard Time, wien33@cox.net writes: Personally, I've all but given up on local vendors including FRY'S unless I'm desperate (Fry's north store is NOT Linux friendly at all). Of all the online vendors I use, Newegg always has the best prices and their return policy is supposed to be excellent although I've never needed to use it. :nod: I usually buy kit from Newegg if I'm gonna shop online. I will probably buy the board from them if I can't find it locally. I had the most hellish RMA experience recently with another firm :cough: zipzoomfly :cough:. They said "oh, it's on back order, you'll get it in 2-3 weeks", and over a month later not only had I not recieved anything, when I called (at my expense, probably nearly $20 worth of toll calls to Northern California) they told me "We haven't heard from our upstream supplier". That's not my problem! You promised me a timeframe, and if you can't honour it, just give me my money back, a store credit note, a better part, something! And frankly, I doubt you can get another of the part I was returning, it was on the brink of end-of-life. In contrast, the Newegg RMA I did was painless, especially considering it was, honestly, a piffling issue (fan was rattling on a new video card). They took it back, said "sorry, we have no more", and credited my account. I don't even bother asking clerks in Fry's for anything more complicated than "where's..." questions. I recall the day a clerk said "It's got 128Mb of memory, but it's DDR memory, so it's like 256Mb..." to another customer in earshot of me. It took all my energy not to stop him mid speech and correct him, or just punch him all the way back to Washer-Dryers. However, if you shop from the specials list, you can get some servicable bargains; I also noted they sell some of the Zalman heatsinks for less than online once shipping is factored. --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss