New computer!

[carbonel]

As is so often the case, it's a cat's fault. I'd been dithering about which computer to buy (computer purchasing decisions tend to induce choice paralysis in me), and dealing with it by pushing off the decision. Until Monday, that is, when Morwen bumped against the back of the computer and knocked the plug out of the sound card. When I went to put it back in, there wasn't a plug-shaped hole to put it in anymore. I don't know if she knocked it out of place, or destroyed it, or what. But in any case, no sound, not even an "oops, you did something wrong" beep. That was the last straw.

So I took aedifica up on her offer to help with selection. She suggested various parameters (4 GB memory, 32-bit processor), and I found a computer on the Dell outlet site that met all of them. It's a scratch-and-dent model rather than a refurb, and it was about $100 less than the comparable refurb model. It's also about $300 less than the comparable model would have been at the regular site. It only has a 320-Gb hard drive, which means my music (all 130 Gb of it) stays on the external drive for the nonce, but storage is cheap these days.

With tax, the computer (plus DVD-RW but no other accessories than a useless mouse) cost just under $500. The last computer I bought with my own money -- I've had a succession of company-provided computers for the last 10 years or so -- was around five times that, if I recall correctly.

It should be arriving next week, and while I'm not looking forward to the migration, I'll be very happy to have a new computer. It's really past time.

(Eep! I bet it won't have a parallel port. I'm going to have to buy a USB-to-parallel adapter to use my printer, won't I?)

Comments

[aedifica]

Actually I think that model does have a parallel port! I can't swear to it, but I think so.

[carbonel]

That would be great if it did. On the other hand, Amazon has the adapter cables for $10, instead of the $35 it cost when I bought one for minnehaha B a couple of years ago.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Wow! I had no idea computers had gotten quite that cheap! Of course you did some pretty canny shopping to get the price that low, but still...

Do you want to give away the old one? I was thinking of trying to set up a computer next to the PS3 in the attic to use as a media server for streaming video. For that use it wouldn't matter if it has sound or not. However, articles I've found on doing this say the computer needs to be "fairly powerful," whatever that means.

[carbonel]

I am planning to give the old one away, but arkuat has first dibs on it; I offered it to him as a desktop machine.

Technically, it belongs to Counterpane, but they don't want it back.

[arkuat]

Congratulations!