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Feb. 21st, 2004 02:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2I'm thinking of buying a computer tomorrow.
I was looking through Computer Shopper/User/whatever it is... and having all of these fantasies where I get a mega-powerful computer for really cheap. Only it doesn't really work that way, does it?
Anyway the plan went something like this:
My computer in my room is dead. Not really horribly dead forever dead, but dead enough that when we spent an hour or two reviving it last time, it died in just a few days. Something about the hard drive or other hardware architecture is messed up and keeps crashing Windoze permenantly.
So... I only use this computer to write and web surf when I want to do that privately in my own room. You know, it's hard to concentrate on writing with Tom right next to me or watching TV in the living room. I liked being able to shut the world out and just write when I wanted to.
So... all I need is a basic computer. But then in the back of my mind a little voice says, "Oh, but you might want to play online games on it. It's not so much money to assemble a gamable PC these days!" And so then I start looking for things like reasonable processor speed (my current game machine is after all two years old now) and at least 512mb memory, and a big hard drive, and a good video card with 128mb memory, and then I really want a copy of Win XP, and... and... and...
Suddenly my "cheap machine" is looking like $400 at the bare minimum, and $700 or more at the high end. When all I really need is something to write on and surf the web occasionally... and maybe something capable of 3D gaming if I really want to do that. Nor am I fabulously wealthy at the moment so... something relatively cheap.
So... returning to my original plan. An AMD barebone system from Funkey Computers can cost as little ast $179 with an AMD XP 1900+ Processor. That's slightly more powerful than my so-called big bad-ass gaming machine is right now. I can bump the memory to 512 for around $30. I *think* I can pull a cd rom drive and a serviceable video card from my old computer (need to make sure it's an AGP card but I'm pretty certain it is). I could use a cheap 40gig hard drive as my C drive... that's another $50.00 but it's not as if people sell smaller ones these days and I don't think I'd want one smaller... eventually I would like a 120gig for the D drive but that can wait. And then get Win XP... well, if I buy that from the store then I'm getting close to $400 again, but if I wait I'd have to run Win98.
Or I could go with a less powerful barebones system... like for example the IQS computer add has an AMD Duron 1.4 for $135 but it looks like that has on board video which I want to avoid. Otherwise, you know, I don't need all that power... I WANT it, but don't NEED it, hehe. Funkey also has a stripped-down ultra-barebones setup for $119.99 that is an AMD Pro 2000+ processor but... has lots of onboard stuff. I think it's just the motherboard, processor, memory, and tower... onboard sound, video, modem, bleah.
And they do a "you build it kit"... same system as what I'm thinking of getting, but with an AMD XP 2500+ for $196. If they assemble it you pay $219. Personally I've assembled a machine myself, and it was an interesting experience but I don't want to do it again.
Oh well maybe I'll just think about it some more.
I was looking through Computer Shopper/User/whatever it is... and having all of these fantasies where I get a mega-powerful computer for really cheap. Only it doesn't really work that way, does it?
Anyway the plan went something like this:
My computer in my room is dead. Not really horribly dead forever dead, but dead enough that when we spent an hour or two reviving it last time, it died in just a few days. Something about the hard drive or other hardware architecture is messed up and keeps crashing Windoze permenantly.
So... I only use this computer to write and web surf when I want to do that privately in my own room. You know, it's hard to concentrate on writing with Tom right next to me or watching TV in the living room. I liked being able to shut the world out and just write when I wanted to.
So... all I need is a basic computer. But then in the back of my mind a little voice says, "Oh, but you might want to play online games on it. It's not so much money to assemble a gamable PC these days!" And so then I start looking for things like reasonable processor speed (my current game machine is after all two years old now) and at least 512mb memory, and a big hard drive, and a good video card with 128mb memory, and then I really want a copy of Win XP, and... and... and...
Suddenly my "cheap machine" is looking like $400 at the bare minimum, and $700 or more at the high end. When all I really need is something to write on and surf the web occasionally... and maybe something capable of 3D gaming if I really want to do that. Nor am I fabulously wealthy at the moment so... something relatively cheap.
So... returning to my original plan. An AMD barebone system from Funkey Computers can cost as little ast $179 with an AMD XP 1900+ Processor. That's slightly more powerful than my so-called big bad-ass gaming machine is right now. I can bump the memory to 512 for around $30. I *think* I can pull a cd rom drive and a serviceable video card from my old computer (need to make sure it's an AGP card but I'm pretty certain it is). I could use a cheap 40gig hard drive as my C drive... that's another $50.00 but it's not as if people sell smaller ones these days and I don't think I'd want one smaller... eventually I would like a 120gig for the D drive but that can wait. And then get Win XP... well, if I buy that from the store then I'm getting close to $400 again, but if I wait I'd have to run Win98.
Or I could go with a less powerful barebones system... like for example the IQS computer add has an AMD Duron 1.4 for $135 but it looks like that has on board video which I want to avoid. Otherwise, you know, I don't need all that power... I WANT it, but don't NEED it, hehe. Funkey also has a stripped-down ultra-barebones setup for $119.99 that is an AMD Pro 2000+ processor but... has lots of onboard stuff. I think it's just the motherboard, processor, memory, and tower... onboard sound, video, modem, bleah.
And they do a "you build it kit"... same system as what I'm thinking of getting, but with an AMD XP 2500+ for $196. If they assemble it you pay $219. Personally I've assembled a machine myself, and it was an interesting experience but I don't want to do it again.
Oh well maybe I'll just think about it some more.
