I don’t like buying junk, but in the realm of computers, buying anything top-notch is usually beyond my budget. Whenever I get close to making a major purpose, I am careful to be certain that I search out the best buy I can find, whether at retail, online or through word-of-mouth.

This week, I was particularly blessed. I’ve been needing a new graphic card for my PC, one that will future-proof it a bit and make running games on it a viable option. My PC came with an ATI Radeon 2400 Pro with only 128MB RAM on it. Slow RAM. DDR1-slow.

I’ve always been more of an nVidia guy, and my underwhelming experience with the 2400 Pro hasn’t changed by opinion one iota. I’d been thinking of getting a half-decent 8600 card I found online at a discount. That was I’d only be spending between $99 to $149 on it. (Well, more than that, because I need a bigger power supply, too.)

Anyway, like anyone and everyone, I admired the PNY nVidia 8800 GT Performane Edition, but there was no way I was affording that, right? After all, it typially retails at $249 or so.

Well, I was at a retail outlet on Monday and found that very card for a mere $149, due to a weekly special! Talk about savings? As soon as I can buy the proper power supply and get both these things installed, my Acer Aspire will be flying for some time to come!