New computer decisions
Aug. 28th, 2007 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleySo we have two computers to replace due to electrical surges. Maybe only one; depends on whether I decide to try to live with just the laptop.
I was shopping today online. Looks like the only reasonable way to avoid Windows Vista on a prebuilt machine is to get a Dell business class desktop. You can buy one of their regular home desktops with Vista for $349, or a business class desktop with basically the same specs (and the case looks identical except it's black instead of silver) and XP Home for $469. So it costs $120 to stay away from Vista. Yes, it's worth it to me. I prefer to buy computers that do what I want them to, not what I'm allowed to do.
At this point, I think I'm going to build my own. The $469 price has multiple compromises based on the fact that Dell is charging silly amounts for upgrades: going from 80 to 250 GB is something like $50, going to 500 GB is another $100 or so, despite the fact that you can just go BUY a 500 GB drive with the same specs for $89. Upgrading from a DVD/CDRW combo to a DVD burner is $87, even though a good quality DVD burner is $32.
For about $479 shipped I can get exactly what I want; an AMD 64 X2 dual core 4200+, 1GB RAM (may expand later, I don't want to dump too much money right now), 500 GB HD (cheapest $/GB), DVD burner, decent 500W quiet power supply. I'll install Linux (MythTV) on the machine that's for sure getting replaced, and if I get the 2nd, it'll get Windows 2000 (I'll not willingly jump into Microsoft's "activation" (Microsoft Genuine Annoyance) scheme).
If it weren't for Vista, I'd probably still be buying prebuilt machines; I don't mind building machines, but it's not my favorite thing to do in my spare time either. It only takes about an hour to bolt a machine together, but it's a bit irritating, and I haven't built one for a few years so I'm ignorant of some of the new power connectors, I only have seen pictures of PCI Express, etc.
I was shopping today online. Looks like the only reasonable way to avoid Windows Vista on a prebuilt machine is to get a Dell business class desktop. You can buy one of their regular home desktops with Vista for $349, or a business class desktop with basically the same specs (and the case looks identical except it's black instead of silver) and XP Home for $469. So it costs $120 to stay away from Vista. Yes, it's worth it to me. I prefer to buy computers that do what I want them to, not what I'm allowed to do.
At this point, I think I'm going to build my own. The $469 price has multiple compromises based on the fact that Dell is charging silly amounts for upgrades: going from 80 to 250 GB is something like $50, going to 500 GB is another $100 or so, despite the fact that you can just go BUY a 500 GB drive with the same specs for $89. Upgrading from a DVD/CDRW combo to a DVD burner is $87, even though a good quality DVD burner is $32.
For about $479 shipped I can get exactly what I want; an AMD 64 X2 dual core 4200+, 1GB RAM (may expand later, I don't want to dump too much money right now), 500 GB HD (cheapest $/GB), DVD burner, decent 500W quiet power supply. I'll install Linux (MythTV) on the machine that's for sure getting replaced, and if I get the 2nd, it'll get Windows 2000 (I'll not willingly jump into Microsoft's "activation" (Microsoft Genuine Annoyance) scheme).
If it weren't for Vista, I'd probably still be buying prebuilt machines; I don't mind building machines, but it's not my favorite thing to do in my spare time either. It only takes about an hour to bolt a machine together, but it's a bit irritating, and I haven't built one for a few years so I'm ignorant of some of the new power connectors, I only have seen pictures of PCI Express, etc.
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Date: 2007-08-29 12:42 pm (UTC)I still hate buying a copy of Vista, giving Microsoft another check in their sales, but it's not worth $150 to me to keep that check away from them. Especially since I'll probably wind up getting two of these machines.
I was thinking about using my laptop as my primary machine, but then I remembered that the PCMCIA interface on that thing is very flaky, and it only has USB 1.1 on the back so I need a PCMCIA USB card to do the USB 2.0. Also my LCD panel won't work with it for some weird reason. All in all, I guess for $329 I'll just say screw it, get the Dell, throw Windows 2000 over the top of the Vista it ships with, and get moving again.
Having something like this screw up at least a week of spare time is extremely irritating. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen at a time when I've got a dozen other projects I'd rather be doing. But then again, I can't remember such a time.