TLA Confusion

I'm midway through a PC upgrade. After a while I settled on this Asus motherboard. With it came a decision I didn't even realise I'd made. It's a while since kept up with PC hardware, so the graphics card was something I took care with, knowing my own ignorance. From a review at PCPro, a UK magazine, I picked on the 7600GT, then had fun and games finding one. It seems the card is known by the graphics processing chip, as apposed to the company that makes it? I'm sure it's all a sales war between the chip makers, but it simply went over my head.

What isn't stated on that review is the wet string connecting the graphics card and the rest of the PC? When I was young it was the PCI bus. It appears to have moved on twice since I last bought a PC. this tells enough of the story.

Today all the bits were here and it was when I was faced with a square peg and round hole that I realised my mistake. There was (luckily) a gross mismatch between the card and the PCI express slot on the motherboard. More reading and I realised my error. I'm now in full agreement with those who talk about the cost of learning. My ignorance cost me fifteen pounds (there and back delivery charge for the old card, another nine for the new card to be delivered. Ah well. Live and learn.

Here I told the tale of the service I received from Dabs.com. The end of that saga is that they shrugged and said they'd lost my kit. Would I like to re-order or get my money back? I replied to the email (mistake number one) saying money back please. Twelve hours later I received another email repeating the question. They send emails from non-existant addresses, then don't bounce it when I reply. Yuk. I'm curious how long it will take to find the money in my account, and how much it will be.

Having been bitten by Dabs, I searched for an alternative. I found ebuyer.com through a recommendation. I ordered Tuesday afternoon and took delivery Thursday morning, around half eight. I was impressed, and the prices are very much the same as Dabs.com.

Guess where I'll be going in future.