Building the Wish List.....

[poltr1]

In the next couple of years I'd like to upgrade my computers. While I'm fond of old and cheap inexpensive technology that still works, I realize the market's slowly leaving me behind.


Here's the list.

Desktop: orac Mk IV will more than likely come from my friends at the Computer Zoo. While XP Home has given my 7-year-old desktop (orac Mk III) a few more years of life, there are some things I wish it did better, like play DVDs and do video editing. Unless something goes seriously kablooey, I can put this purchase off for the time being.

Laptop: I can't upgrade tardis Mk II to XP -- the processor is too slow -- so I'll continue to use Win98SE on it, along with a slew of PCMCIA cards for the modem, LAN, USB 2, FireWire, and wireless connections. The new laptop should have these built in, and I want to be able to play streaming video and/or DVDs on it. Next question: New or used/refurbished? tardis Mk II was a refurb machine and I had good luck with it. But the place I got it from went out of business.

Handheld: I'd love to get one of the Palm Tungsten E models to replace my 7-year-old Palm IIIxe (called "zen"). What I thought was missing from the IIIxe (but not from the TRG Pro) was a slot for SD memory, and a voice recorder.

Are there any online shops I should consider buying from? Any shops to avoid?

Comments

Jim...

[amazon-42.livejournal.com]

You can't afford anything new right now, let alone a computer, laptop, and/or palm. You'll just have to live with what you have until ALL of your bills are caught up. I'm having this same argument with Alex, and you're in a lot deeper.

Zon...

[poltr1]

Re-read the first line. Adding emphasis, I said "In the next couple of years I'd like to upgrade...". This doesn't mean that I'll actually do this, or that it will be done in the timeframe I specified.

I can still dream, can't I?

Re: Zon...

[amazon-42.livejournal.com]

*wry smile*

Well, of course. I do. Everyone must. It's what makes us human. And it will get you through what's got to be a rough today.

I was just worried you'd do an Alex-style impulse buy, that's all. Bit too near home, I'm afraid...

Re: Zon...

[poltr1]

I've been thinking about the upgrades for a while. But there are other things I need to buy, pay for, or repair first: The car. A new garage door opener. The HEPA filter in my room. The large burner on the stove. And the occasional condo association assessment. *sigh*

I've also been thinking about getting a 6 Gb hard drive for my current laptop for over a year. That'll set me back about $100; more if I have someone else do the upgrade and data transfer.

Re: Zon...

[filkergem.livejournal.com]

Hmm? Is your laptop a strange one or did you mean larger than six gb (like maybe 60)? Newegg will sell you a 20 GB laptop 2.5" IDE drive for $29.99 plus $5.29 shipping (The link is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822146232 and I just got it.) Add a USB enclosure (like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817708006 as an example) for $9.99, and you can transfer the contents of the current laptop to the new drive in the external case, swap drives, and have a usable small USB hard drive for either the laptop or the desktop - possibly enough space for the suggestion I made earlier this evening in a later post of using a virtual machine on the XP box to permit you to retrieve files from your Win98 machine. All for handily less than $100. Of course, I will also second the importance of not spending money that you can't afford to.

Re: Zon...

[poltr1]

No, it's an *old* laptop which I purchased almost six years ago secondhand. It's a Dell Latitude XPi CD with a Pentium MMX 166 Mhz CPU, 80 Mb of memory, and a 3 Gb hard drive. Anything more than 12 Gb is overkill.

[fuzzyvanman.livejournal.com]

I find it's hard to go wrong with NewEgg at least for components.