Today I stopped by a local computer shop, Rockbochs Inc. My friend Chad runs the place, and he gets the best prices on stuff anywhere in town, and even online at times. Well I stopped by to pick up a couple older computers from him. P3 450mhz and the like for about $20 each to use as development boxes for testing various setups/software before implementing it on our regular servers.
While I was there, I asked Chad if he had any older, cheap laptops. I wanted a laptop to run linux on to use as a test machine. Run network diagnostics etc on it to scan our client’s networks for vulnerabilities. He didn’t have any old laptops, but he had a cheap one. So I ended up getting a brand new Dell Inspiron 1200 from him. It’s a 1.3ghz CeleronM, 256 ram, 30gb HD, 14″ screen etc. It’s not the fastest car on the block, but it will do the job. And at the price of $550, I couldn’t complain.
One of the problems of shopping at Rockbochs, is that you can buy stuff from them for so cheap, that you end up spending more money because you buy more. In the past 6 months, I’ve spent thousands at Rockbochs. Buying things like my Digital Camera (Cannon S500, 5.0 Megapixel), a 19″ Dell LCD monitor, and 2 17″ Viewsonic LCD Monitors, the Rack we now use in the office to house some local servers, oh and the Xbox we use to host www.xbochs.com. I also go to Rockbochs to buy equipment for clients. I’ve gotten at least 4 UPS’s from them for use with various consulting clients, as well as other various hardware/comptuer purchases.
Now I get to configure my new laptop, I’m installing Open SUSE 10 on it. It will be a nice new tool and toy. 
