New PC

2 weeks ago, I convinced Kim that 6 years to have a PC is like having a car for 20 years....way overdue for a new one. And our old PC worked, but it was showing its age every day. Getting pretty slow. And coupled with the fact that I can get a PC through work pretty cheap, it was enough argument for her to let me get a new one. (Actually I think the statement that really made her decide to let me order it was "How many times have I heard you curse that PC because it is too slow?") ;)

So I ordered the following for $350:

HP Pavilion a6210z customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4200+ dual-core - 2.4GHz
2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Skinit - removable, personal skins for your PC - SPECIAL PROMOTION!
56Kbps Data/Fax Modem for dial-up Internet access
160GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
FREE UPGRADE! LS 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
2 USB, front audio ports
Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound w/ front audio ports
No additional security software (60-day Norton Internet Security trial)
Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
HP keyboard and HP scroller mouse
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I realize it is a little skimp on the hard drive, but I have a few of those laying around I can use, plus, I think I am getting a big external hard drive for Christmas. Also, I maxed out the RAM on this system, but I also know that you can buy thumb drives real cheap, and with Vista, you can designate thumb drives to function solely as extra memory. This is my first experience with an AMD processor, we'll see how it goes. Its working well so far. (Note: this price is no monitor included, but we have a 15" LCD we use now, so I am using that until my birthday in February when I hope to get enough money to buy a decent 19" widescreen LCD.) I know it only has Vista Home Basic on it, but we bought a copy of Vista Home Premium through Kim's work, I'm just waiting for them to get it in.

I also picked this up at OfficeMax yesterday: http://www.belkin.com/support/product/?lid=en&pid=F8E829-BNDL&scid=7 . The PC came with a keyboard and mouse, but it wasn't an optical mouse. This Belkin combo was the last one there and it was only $25! Wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse. I couldn't pass on it. I really didn't need it, but it was too good to pass on.

So you may ask, what are you going to do with your old PC? I mean it is a P4, 1.8 gHz, 768MB RAM. Not bad, but definitely not new. Well, after a few more weeks and I am sure that I will have everything off of it that I need, I will be wiping it clean, adding a 120GB hard drive, a TV tuner card and installing MythBuntu on it. (MythBuntu is a distro of Linux that comes optimized to run the PVR software, MythTV, on it.) To this, you might ask, Erich, you already have a DVR through Dish Network, why would you do this? Well, a couple of reasons...first, some of the shows we record we would like to be able to burn to DVD. Right now we can't do that with DishDVR. Second, I would like to run Ubuntu as one of my main PCs to get more exposure to see how far it has come since last time I did this about 2.5 years ago. Third, I'm a big nerd, and that's one of the things I like to do in my spare time.

I know the 6 people who actually read this were hoping to see pictures of Ava on this. Sorry, but I will post pics of her again soon. In the meantime, you can go here to see some updated pictures!

-ETM