Buy a Dell from Costco.com to Save $$$

I spent a chunk of the weekend looking for a reasonably priced desktop PC to replace the eMachine T6420 that died last week (probably a system board level problem). I was all set to buy a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop for a bit over $500 until I saw the shipping cost. For some reason, Dell.com insisted that the only shipping option available was overnight for $109. Paying 20+% of the system’s cost for shipping didn’t sit well with me. So, I emptied the cart and started looking again.

Then, I noticed a paper mailing from Costco about items on Costco.com and noticed that they had a bunch of desktops including the Dell 530 model I abandoned on Dell.com. It turns out that Costco’s one-size fits all configuration was much better than the $500 config I had earlier. For $599, Costco.com delivers 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, media card reader, USB speakers with a 2 year warranty that includes onsite service. My configuation over at Dell for $499 just had 2GB RAM, 250GB HD, no card reader, no speakers, and a 1 year warranty (no home service). And, Costco.com’s shipping cost? $19.99. So I’m getting much much better specs and warranty for $620 from Costco compared to the $610 I would have paid by buying directly from Dell.com. Both configurations include a Core 2 Quad 6600 processor, btw.

Sure, it will be weeks before I see the PC from Costco.com vs. a few days from Dell. But, that is ok.