AKICOLJ, computer version, pretty please?
Mar. 5th, 2008 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraMy CPU is getting old and grumpy. It's at least five years old, so it has a right. The sound card died the other day, the CD burner is long dead, it doesn't always boot correctly, it runs slowly (I know I desperately need a new processor and more RAM) and no longer does everything I want it to. Not to mention that in the last couple of days it's started just shutting itself off all by its lonesome (twice, so far). Turning it back on without doing anything else has worked just fine so far, but still. It was unnerving, and the thought of potential data loss has me concerned.
However, I have shiny (in the browncoat sense), relatively new peripherals -- monitor, printer/scanner/copier, speakers, etc. My hard drive is also nowhere near full (139 gigs empty out of 159, according to "my computer") and much newer than everything else in the box (thanks to a crash almost a year and a half ago).
I know what I want it to be able to do (see list below). I also can afford to do either new hardware or new software but not both (which means I can't afford Vista right now, even if I wanted to which I don't, because I'd have to upgrade all my software, and even that wouldn't help with the quilt design stuff yet, or so I understand).
But I'm not capable of doing hardware stuff myself. I don't know enough, and even if I thought I did, I'd be nervous about doing it. The thing is, going to a big box store, I'd have to buy a system, right, not just a new CPU?
So, where do I go from here? Even just knowing specifically what I need in order to do what I want to do would be helpful, anything more would be gravy.
This is what I need to be able to do (assume I have the software unless noted):
Connect to the internet and email, including watching video without long buffer times (or at all -- I can't watch YouTube on this machine -- and I do have DSL with a good connection) and making picture uploads to Flickr.
Word process, database, spreadsheet (I have a CD with Works with Word on it -- I'd just want to be able to reload that on the new computer).
Design quilts (again, reloading software I have).
Print/scan with my XP compatible machine.
Upload (from my digital camera) and play with digital pictures (the Works CD came with some adequate software for this function -- Photoshop is out of my financial range ATM).
Watch the occasional DVD that doesn't play on my rather aged (but still very functional except for homemade DVDs) player.
Can't think of anything else. I don't play games on this computer unless you count solitaire when I'm trying to keep my hands busy while my brain hashes something out. Nor do I plan to.
So, what do I need in the box to make all this happen? And any good local-to-just-south-of-Seattle recommendations as to someone who could help me make it happen?
Thanks if you made it this far...
However, I have shiny (in the browncoat sense), relatively new peripherals -- monitor, printer/scanner/copier, speakers, etc. My hard drive is also nowhere near full (139 gigs empty out of 159, according to "my computer") and much newer than everything else in the box (thanks to a crash almost a year and a half ago).
I know what I want it to be able to do (see list below). I also can afford to do either new hardware or new software but not both (which means I can't afford Vista right now, even if I wanted to which I don't, because I'd have to upgrade all my software, and even that wouldn't help with the quilt design stuff yet, or so I understand).
But I'm not capable of doing hardware stuff myself. I don't know enough, and even if I thought I did, I'd be nervous about doing it. The thing is, going to a big box store, I'd have to buy a system, right, not just a new CPU?
So, where do I go from here? Even just knowing specifically what I need in order to do what I want to do would be helpful, anything more would be gravy.
This is what I need to be able to do (assume I have the software unless noted):
Connect to the internet and email, including watching video without long buffer times (or at all -- I can't watch YouTube on this machine -- and I do have DSL with a good connection) and making picture uploads to Flickr.
Word process, database, spreadsheet (I have a CD with Works with Word on it -- I'd just want to be able to reload that on the new computer).
Design quilts (again, reloading software I have).
Print/scan with my XP compatible machine.
Upload (from my digital camera) and play with digital pictures (the Works CD came with some adequate software for this function -- Photoshop is out of my financial range ATM).
Watch the occasional DVD that doesn't play on my rather aged (but still very functional except for homemade DVDs) player.
Can't think of anything else. I don't play games on this computer unless you count solitaire when I'm trying to keep my hands busy while my brain hashes something out. Nor do I plan to.
So, what do I need in the box to make all this happen? And any good local-to-just-south-of-Seattle recommendations as to someone who could help me make it happen?
Thanks if you made it this far...
