Thomas Kobelsky's Blog

September 28, 2010

Memory Express is amazing.
Sunday night, Nick and I were researching some different places to buy RAM for our servers.

I decided to check out Memory Express's website website to see what kind of prices they'd have, if they even stocked our RAM sticks (I'm looking for some specialty 1x8gb DDR2-800 PC2-6400 ECC FB-DIMM modules, while he was looking for 8x2gb DDR-400 REG/ECC). I found out that they were having a Grand Opening of a new store in Richmond and that their "soft opening" was that Monday. We decided to head out there and check it out.

Next day rolls around and the end of the work day comes to a close. Nick was meeting with some potential clients at 4:00 PM, so we decided to meet up around 6:30. I get a text saying to meet him at the Burrard Skytrain Station downtown and then we walked to the Canada Line to head outward to Richmond.

As we enter the new Memory Express store, Nick turns to me and says "This reminds me of an american-style computer store, like the Buy More from Chuck." Immediately, a man comes up to us, welcoming us with open arms. What followed seemed like a whirlwind as we tried to put their team to the test. The first questions out of our mouths were about our specialty RAM. As soon as I handed a slip of paper with my RAM specs on it to a sales representative, he ran off to the back saying "I'll check to see what I can do for you!"

Nick got the next guy and started looking at things on the computer terminal right there. I decided to check out some other things they had on display while I waited for my RAM's results. Looking further into the store, I noticed a really interesting looking Gaming Case with a 3D-gaming setup on demonstration. I jumped in a played a bit, really impressed by what I saw. After I died, I sauntered over to the Processors on display to see if they had one I was looking for (Intel E5410). I couldn't find one, and when the guys behind the counter saw me scratching my head, they ran over to see what the problem was. I asked if it was possible to get one ordered in, and the guy ran to the back as well saying "I'll check to see what I can do for you!" I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's their signature saying when they have to really dig into finding something.

Immediately after that, a man who I'm assuming was the manager of the store came over and started talking to me about what I was asking about. I told him my story about how I'm trying to build a server: I've only got the motherboard (an i5400PW), and now I just need to fill it with stuff. He led me over to Nick and began saying "While my boys are helping you two out, I'll give you the grand tour of the place" and he did just that.

He took us around showing us the computer line-ups they have on display, then walked us past the bulk/random section and told us that everything we can find on the website can be found in stock in store, or they'll order it for next day delivery. Following that, he showed us the three fully soundproof home theatre rooms, complete with 65inch 3D TVs, but told us that they were just missing the 3D hardware (glasses) and they should be in within the week. Each room was for a different brand of TV, so there was a Samsung, Sony and LG room. Nick and I were kind of joking about how we might want to rent out one of the soundproof rooms for future business meetings, and were wondering how much Memory Express would charge to rent out the room. The manager kind of laughed and said "Tell you what, if you come in during regular store hours, talk to me and you can have the room for as long as you want, totally free." We were blown away by that.

Exiting the soundproof rooms, he led us past the displays of regular TVs and said they have all the standard models, the top 4 brands, all sizes and all resolutions, in stock. If there's a TV that's not being demonstrated that we want to look at, they'll pull it out and show us on the spot.

Right next to the TVs were the digital cameras. Nick was just on cloud 9 when he saw that section. The manager was explained to us us that they have the major brand names, like Nikon and Canon, and if they didn't have something that we were looking for, they'd order it in for us. Immediately after the Camera section, he showed us the laptop area and said that they have all the major Asus laptops in stock, and that they'll be getting a 50 foot long countertop to display their other non-Asus brand laptops and netbooks within the week.

Once the store tour was complete, he noticed how amazed we were with the store and pulled us over to an entrance into the back. "Ok, here's our Service Department. It's actually bigger than an NCIX store!" and took us back behind the counter and display cases to the Service Department where they do all the computer repairs and IT tech. We saw the three guys that were helping us earlier sitting around a computer talking and I guess they were trying to find some kind of results to give us. He saw how impressed we were with that and basically said that if we ever had any questions, that we were to find him personally.

Nick and I sort of went off exploring on our own and found some really interesting things there. For example, we found a box of 1000ft cat6 cable for basically $85. We couldn't find any standard harddrives though, so Nick went over and asked where we could find them, and the manager said "Oh, they're back here" and walked behind the counter. I turned to Nick and asked "...Do we follow him? Or what's going on?" and sure enough, the manager turned around and beckoned us to come back with him. What we saw amazed us.

Piles upon stacks of harddrives, boxes and bags of them. An entire wall plastered with stacks of harddrives ranging in size from 500gb to 1.5tb. Directly behind us was their stock of SSD harddrives. It was the first day I have ever seen, let alone held a SSD harddrive, and it happened to be a 64gb SSD. It was my turn to float on cloud 9. I looked over to the right and saw a wall filled with Power Supplies. I noticed a tx750w PSU and basically ran over to it saying "This is exactly what I have been looking for." I then proceded to pull it off the shelf and hug it, while the manager just laughed.

We exited that little haven and asked a question "What's the largest and cheapest harddrive you have?" Immediately we had someone jumping on a computer and finding it for us. They said they have a 2tb 5.9k Barracuda harddrive for $105. Amazing.

It was right around then that the three boys in the Service Department came out and told us that they found modules for my build, and at roughly $300 cheaper for 2 sticks than I found online. The only downside was that it was DDR2-667 instead of DDR2-800. Nick's RAM on the other hand couldn't be found, but they were going to try talking to their contacts at Kingston to see if they could get something. That's about when one of the guys, the only one wearing a white shirt, said that was essentially the Head Product Manager of Memory Express. Not just of that location, but of the entire Memory Express chain. He then gave me his card and told me to email him about my motherboard and he'll look into what he can get for me. One of the other guys with him, Kenneth (the manager of the Service Department), also gave me his card and basically said if I ever have any questions about hard-to-find hardware, that I should give him a shout instead of talking to one of his lackeys. Nick also got the exact same service, with a massive stack of business cards to hand out.

Needless to say, Memory Express has become the official hardware supplier of Tensioncore Administration Services. Unless we can find better deals on eBay, that is.


-tk

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