Just electrons...

[triadruid]

For whatever reason, I woke up this morning in a far better headspace than I've been since Tuesday 10pm, and in some ways for weeks if not months. Not only was I actually able to rouse myself out of bed at 7:30, but I got several things done this morning (like paying bills, working on getting my car plates re-registered, etc) that have been plagueing me, if only I had the energy to do anything about them. Having my checks and bank card arrive the other day certainly helped, but...I don't know what it is. I'm glad, though; work has sucked big hairy donkey balls lately, with me getting maybe 2-3 hours of actual work done per shift. Today a lot has gotten done and it's only 2-something... so this is a brief break, because I found this funny:

THEN:
Hewlett-Packard 386 SX/25 Mhz
Windows 3.1
floppy drive
14" CRT monitor
dot-matrix printer
Total: $999 (I remember, because I saved all summer for it)

NOW:
Store-built 900 Mhz AMD Duron (I think)
Mandrake Linux 8.1 (now 9.0)
CD-R drive (and a floppy, still)
15" refurbished CRT monitor
decrepit inkjet printer, linked to another computer in the office
Total: $799(?), not counting monitor or printer

NEXT:
I'd like to continue my trend of not-quite-top-end processors, because I'm not enough of a gamerboy to need the screaming edge stuff...and processors seem to have finally flattened out from their Mega-hertz upsurge...
Possibly a different variety of Linux this time around, but still not Windows (or Macintosh, for that matter). Getting my networking capabilities up to speed, as well as the interoperability of things like OpenOffice and the occasional Windows-emulated games (we've been trying for over a year to run a three-person Diablo II game in our house).
A CD-RW drive would be nice, now that I've finally started using digital music and larger files. Floppies are so 1997...
I think/hope the monitor is mostly okay, because the new flatscreens are hellaciously expensive (to my Scottish wallet). *Something* however is causing the occasional lockup when I leave my computer on with the monitor off, and that's unfortunate, especially in Linux... but I expect it may be video-card related rather than actual peripheral hardware. It didn't stop when I finally replaced the 14" monitor, after all...we'll see.
We definitely need a printer in the house that's a little less...well, terminally ill might be a good description. I'm not certain if it has Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, but only printing one page at a time, after you press the 'ready' button to tell it it can, is not really that useful...
Total: Not really sure since I haven't kept up on computer pricing trends, but I have it on good authority that I can probably roll-my-own for under $600 these days. Depends partially on how much of what I currently have is salvagable - for instance the current hard drive will become a slave in the new system. Of course, *that* means that the old Windows hard drive which is still my slave drive, needs to be cleared out and junked.

Heh. Stay tuned, those of you local and interested in a shopping spree. Let me get my finances sorted, and probably shortly after Yule I'll ask for direct help.

Comments

Unrestrained parts-shopping glee

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

(Extremely) Preliminary research indicates you could do pretty damned well for $500-$600, given that you're not needing/wanting/giving a shit about having a bleeding-edge system. Granted, I'm a bit fuzzy on what likes Linux and what doesn't these days, so I went high on some of this stuff, assuming that it could be worked down as easily as up for compatibility issues. But you could probably do something in this range:

AMD processor in the 1.667 - 1.8 GHz range
1024 m DDR
80-gig HD
with CD-RW, decent graphics, decent sound, NIC, etc.

mmm....hardware.

[druidevo.livejournal.com]

I will gladly assemble a new cart for your use on the information super way (as opposed to the Appian way). Between the House of Symes and my own we could very inexpensively aquire the hardware you need.

Have you ever built your own before? I ask mostly because I want to know how much fun I'll have doing it in front of you in your living room.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I haven't built my own before. In between the 386 and the current model I had a couple of other Windows machines from local shops (never went back to prefab after trying to upgrade the HP), but I didn't know much Linux when I moved here, just knew I was done with Windows and PC-viruses...

featherynscale has built her own, so I think between her, orcjohn, yourself, Mssr. Symes, and E.S., we will be hard pressed to have enough fun for everybody...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

druidevo and I can wrestle for it. It'll be fun!

(Also, look, kittenpants made me a new shiny icon!)