Posted for future future forum searches and general info on my experience of buying a new laptop in PP.

So I started by making a printout to take with me as I visited a long list of businesses over the course of a few weekends. I was looking for a base unit and monitor at first but given the current climate of online teaching and for general mobility I then moved to also looking at laptops.

I visited around 15 places and collected information on the basics, processor, RAM, HD, GPU, price and availability etc.
I then sat on this info for about a month while I considered an alternative to a new laptop... adding more RAM to my old one.

Now, of all the shops I visited one really stood out. Gold One Computers (I went to the one on Kampuchea Krom) I gave them a list of my preferred specs and they printed out quite a nice price list of components and build/test/OS installation etc. They even added a few item prices so I could swap a few things around before committing to a spec.

Anyway, I went there to buy some RAM for my old laptop and while I was there I made a casual inquiry about availability of 2 MSI laptops I had seen advertised on their site. One they had at the shop the other arrived within 20 minutes from their other shop.

I decided to go with the lower spec’d model simply because it would be more than enough for what I do these days and no amount of wishing was going to give me more time to get back into some serious gaming. Which is what the better machine was intended for.

Without going into great detail the laptop was an MSI 63 xsomethingx and the better one was the GF75 or something... anyway the 63 spec had an i5 processor, 512Gb SSD, 8Gb RAM, 4Gb nvidia card and a 15” display.

Once the decision to buy had been made it was unboxed and we went into the back to start it up and make sure everything worked and it was a genuine machine. We had it booted up and went through the usual stuff when you first run a new PC and it was all spot on. They did ask me if I wanted any extra software installing some was free and some not. I needed nothing as I have everything I need ready to install on my old laptop. Which for me to get a clean machine with just windows and no junk pre-installed was a bonus tbh.

As I was about to go they pulled me back and put a large plastic bag in my hand as I had “forgotten” it... it was a bunch of freebies. Nice headset, mouse, mouse mat (actually much needed there), a 16Gb USB stick and a small stainless steel flask.

Then when I got it home and took it out the box myself I realised there was a nice backpack laptop case included in the Original box!
Double bonus as I was in need of a new one. It also looks to of fairly decent quality too, as far as laptop cases here go.

Anyway.... the laptop itself has been well worth the money ($749... the GF75 model was around $1000) great speed... runs Bluestacks nicely and the final pièce de résistance came as I was registering my laptop on the manufactures website... you enter country of purchase.... then city... then it list the resellers... Gold One was there. I know not much but it is the accumulation of these small details that makes for a nice buying experience IMO.

As a footnote.. I bought a nice HP laser printer from them about a year ago and it’s been a sweet buy too.