It's time to get a new PC at home. The current one is a work provided one, and it is now getting on 3 years old. How old is it? It's so old, I am still using a CRT monitor rather than a flat screen. How old fashioned is that?
It seems only yesterday that we were arguing at work about when to make the changeover to flat screens. At the time, it was a decision fraught with argument. Now there is no argument - the CRT monitor is dead. I want to dance on its grave. In my youth, I had to lug 17 inch and 19 inch monitors around from desk to desk. That was in the day when a 14 inch monitor was big. 19 inches was enormous - and they weighed a tonne. I think the only reason I got the job is that I did a lot of weights back then, and I was the only one in the office that could carry a 19 inch monitor on their own. I had one at home once, and I had to carry it up 4 flights of stairs. When I moved, I made sure the removalists carried it out. Never again.
Anyway, I am trying to buy a new PC from Dell. In the past, I have been very much a Compaq/HP type person, but I am branching out and giving Dell a go - mainly because I like how easy it is to buy a PC through their website. HP are sticking with the sales channel model, and it shits me no end. I have bought thousands of PC's from HP, and I like them - I like them a lot. But when I want one at home, I want the purchase to be as simple as buying a CD online. Dell does that. The rest are all stuck in the 1990's somewhere.
A mate tried to interest me in buying one from a local shop - one where the proprietor or a Uni student bolts it together for you at 3am on the day before delivery. I could have saved a few bucks, and I could have had a few more options, but to me, a PC is a PC, and it doesn't need to be that complicated. It will get tossed in 3 years time, so there is no sense in making a big song and dance about it. Just buy the damned thing and get on with it.
I can't tell you how fast it is, because I didn't pay attention to the processor speed thingy. Anything made in the last few years is fast. Hell, my three year old PC that I am using now is plenty fast enough for everything that I want to do, so the extra speed is something that I don't care about. It's like you can only do 110km/h on the open road in NSW, so why buy a car that will go 250km/h? It might be of use if I start playing the latest generation of games, but most of them don't interest me. I am happy with an old version of Red Alert. It's enough for me (old fart that I am).
I have put 2GB of RAM into it, which will seem like nothing 12 months from now. Still, it is 2.5 times more than my current home PC, and it rarely runs out of memory. I have 1.5GB in the PC at work, and I run more apps on it that I have fingers and toes, and I never run out of memory, so 2GB should be enough....
....unless Vista eats it all. I have no experience of Vista. One bloke in the office was playing with it, but I haven't been excited by an operating system since NT 3.51, and that was a long time ago.
The only thing that I am looking forward to is the monitor. I am getting a 20 inch high definition thingy. I will probably have to buy a new desk. The video card is supposed to be capable of handling two monitors, so if I get really silly, I will buy another one. I am used to using 2 x 19 inch flat screens next to each other at work, so I will probably want to buy a second monitor soon. I just like to compartmentalise what I am doing onto two screens. I would rather have two medium sized screens than one enormous one.
It also has a DVD player, but you know what? I have never burnt a DVD. Ever. People at work spend all day burning them, but I can't be shagged. So they have 500 pirate movies burnt onto DVD - so what? There are very few movies that I want to watch again and again - the only time I have ever bought a DVD is in Bali, and even then I was hard pressed to find 5 that I wanted to buy. They are a one shot thing for me in the main. Anyway, with a 20 inch monitor on the PC, I can use it as a second TV if I want to.
Put it this way - the bloody thing is really just a glorified toaster for running Firefox. I have tried to buy the cheapest machine with the biggest screen, and that is it really.
Now if Dell can't deliver it, Angela is going to be in trouble next time she comes to dinner.......
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