The Wizblog home computer died on the last day of 2003. I had been having some trouble with the thing "freezing" on me in recent days, and this time it froze during reboot, and won't come up at all anymore. I'm assuming that a new motherboard will make it better, but I pulled the trigger on a new Dell today, just to be on the safe side. (All I was looking for was a good excuse anyway).
So my new box is the Dell 4600, P4 2.66 GHz. The timing was good, because Dell is giving free upgrades on RAM (256 to 512MB), hard drive (40 to 80 GB), and a second CD/DVD burner drive, all as part of the post-Christmas sales push. I also made the move from CRT to Flat Panel display monitor (18.1 in.), something that has just been dying to happen as a way to help ease my chronic eye strain of recent years. I added a 128 MB video card with TV-out, and upgraded a couple of the software packages, and I'm still out the door for an amazing $1168 (after $100 rebate), not including tax and shipping.
While I wait a week or 10 days for delivery, I'll have to content myself to blog on my wife's machine, and otherwise amuse myself with pursuits like learning the nuances of my new TiVo unit, and diving into my new unread books pile, which now includes new titles by Malkin, Noonan, Horowitz, Lowry, Klehr and Haynes, and C.S. Lewis.
Have I mentioned what a lucky S.O.B. I am?
Posted by dan at January 1, 2004 09:47 PM