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Fri, Jun. 29th, 2012 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annarti
Allow me to get my geek on for a little bit. I've been pondering, over the course of the last month or two, the idea of getting a new computer*. Today's announcement of the GW2 release date has pretty much clinched it. HERE'S WHY:
This once-awesome bugger, bought for about $400 five years ago, has just about had its day. I could probably squeeze another year out of it without being too frustrated with it, but it is getting pretty slow these days. The virus scan makes it virtually unusable, and it can only reliably run one Adobe program at a time. GW isn't nearly so smooth as when I was first mesmerised by the thing. Again, the speed is not unbearable right now, but allow me to continue. This is but the beginning.
I'm having serious monitor issues, which could be anything from the monitor itself to software/driver issues to (most likely according to the electrical engineer and the Java programmer) the graphics card. It's been coming up with something new and exciting every couple of weeks for the last month and a half. Started off taking half a minute to turn on again after the computer had gone to sleep, then a little longer, until it now takes a good 5-10 minutes to turn on, either from sleep or from just turning the computer on. Two weeks ago it changed its own brightness settings. Last week it changed some other setting that killed the green so everything was MAGENTA AND ORANGE and it was horrible. Also it has this high-pitched TV-turned-on noise which is inaudible while the computer's turned on, but has been becoming more noticeable when the computer's off over the last couple of weeks.
Also, Colin's found this HUGE LED thing for about $280. I just. Drool, you guys.
It's noisy. The hard disk is 80gig, because that was the only bit salvaged when I bought the computer* so it must be a good ten years old by now. With the acquisition of the 2TB hard disk two years ago, the 80gig disk's only purpose is to have the software, annnnd it can't currently fit all that on it, either. I have Adobe CS6 on the 2TB disk because it just won't fit, and there's no way in hell I'll get GW2 to fit there. So let's upgrade the poor old bugger to a shiny solid state disk and leave the 2TB to the Stuff.
Um. Oh yeah. NEEDS MOAR RAM. I'm currently running with 2gigs. The motherboard can handle 4, which the Java programmer reckons will make sod-all difference as most machines these days are running 8-16.
GW2 will not run on this computer. The beta weekends have made this painfully clear, and it's the major reason I haven't really participated in the said weekends. If nobody's around, sure, runs just as smoothly as GW ever did. Add half a dozen people and we're lagging. A dozen people and I'm at 2fps. Get to the standard GW2 mode of OMG EVERYONE KILL THE GIANT WURM and I'm watching my character be at full health in one frame, dead in the next, and alive again with a dead giant wurm in front of her after that. Assassin's Creed Anything But 1 is marginally better, but I haven't gotten Revelations yet. These are the only games I play and they're frustratingly laggy. I can't do half the things in Brotherhood, like the races or anything requiring too much dexterity because the lag is just impossible.
Also GW2 release is a week after my birthday. So. Happy birthday, self!
The tablet, mouse, keyboard, DVD burner and sound system are all still shiny. If it turns out that the screen is actually fine and it's just the graphics card then I'll hang onto the screen and maybe upgrade to a dual display in a year or two when I will also get a new desk, but that'll be a way down the track yet.
I have no idea about the CPU. I don't actually know what the thing does.
Also, I'm bored of this old beige box. I inherited it from Colin when I first got my own computer in my bedroom in, what, 2004? First year uni, yeah. And it was already 3 or 4 years old by then, too. It'll be a purely cosmetic thing to buy a new box, but gdit I want some bling. IT'S BEIGE. Computers haven't been beige in a DECADE.
So basically, I need (or, at least, want):
o Motherboard
o Graphics card/monitor/both???
o RAM
o Box/power supply (I'm not falling in that trap again)
o Solid state hard disk
o CPU? idk. I have no idea. I'm assuming a 4 year old CPU won't be much use in a brand new computer.
Finally, the real kicker, money. It's the end of the financial year (and god don't I know it, working admin in what is basically a retail franchise) which means three things:
o TAX RETURN. FINALLY. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK, GOVERNMENT I DIDN'T VOTE FOR AND WISH I COULD VOTE OUT NOW.
o Pay rise comes into effect!
o Probably the biggest thing, along with the pay rise comes back-pay to February.
I haven't spent money, I mean SPENT money, since I moved out. I've bought an $80 book case, half a dozen books for about $12 each, two or three jumpers, a pair of leather gloves, and three Assassin's Creed games, on special for $20, $40 and $45 respectively. (And for those pointing out the electric frypan and wok, I got those with gift vouchers). My only genuine splurges (over $300 for each thing, omg) have been going to Sydney last year, and the Barossa this year, but I still budgeted for those things and bought sod-all in the month leading up to each thing. I've been so focused on buying a house and saving and scraping and need a deposit and bloody hell I'm bored of it.
So screw it. I'm spending money. I'm buying something awesome. I'm going to do my tax return as soon as I get my PAYG summary or whatever it's called, get all my tax back and my back-pay, and I'm going to tally it up and give a value to my brother and go BUILD ME A COMPUTER and it will be awesome.
* When my family says 'a new computer' we actually mean 'new bits combined with the old bits that still work that we will then construct into a computer.' I have an electrical engineer for a dad and a Java programmer for a brother. We don't buy 'a computer'.
This once-awesome bugger, bought for about $400 five years ago, has just about had its day. I could probably squeeze another year out of it without being too frustrated with it, but it is getting pretty slow these days. The virus scan makes it virtually unusable, and it can only reliably run one Adobe program at a time. GW isn't nearly so smooth as when I was first mesmerised by the thing. Again, the speed is not unbearable right now, but allow me to continue. This is but the beginning.
I'm having serious monitor issues, which could be anything from the monitor itself to software/driver issues to (most likely according to the electrical engineer and the Java programmer) the graphics card. It's been coming up with something new and exciting every couple of weeks for the last month and a half. Started off taking half a minute to turn on again after the computer had gone to sleep, then a little longer, until it now takes a good 5-10 minutes to turn on, either from sleep or from just turning the computer on. Two weeks ago it changed its own brightness settings. Last week it changed some other setting that killed the green so everything was MAGENTA AND ORANGE and it was horrible. Also it has this high-pitched TV-turned-on noise which is inaudible while the computer's turned on, but has been becoming more noticeable when the computer's off over the last couple of weeks.
Also, Colin's found this HUGE LED thing for about $280. I just. Drool, you guys.
It's noisy. The hard disk is 80gig, because that was the only bit salvaged when I bought the computer* so it must be a good ten years old by now. With the acquisition of the 2TB hard disk two years ago, the 80gig disk's only purpose is to have the software, annnnd it can't currently fit all that on it, either. I have Adobe CS6 on the 2TB disk because it just won't fit, and there's no way in hell I'll get GW2 to fit there. So let's upgrade the poor old bugger to a shiny solid state disk and leave the 2TB to the Stuff.
Um. Oh yeah. NEEDS MOAR RAM. I'm currently running with 2gigs. The motherboard can handle 4, which the Java programmer reckons will make sod-all difference as most machines these days are running 8-16.
GW2 will not run on this computer. The beta weekends have made this painfully clear, and it's the major reason I haven't really participated in the said weekends. If nobody's around, sure, runs just as smoothly as GW ever did. Add half a dozen people and we're lagging. A dozen people and I'm at 2fps. Get to the standard GW2 mode of OMG EVERYONE KILL THE GIANT WURM and I'm watching my character be at full health in one frame, dead in the next, and alive again with a dead giant wurm in front of her after that. Assassin's Creed Anything But 1 is marginally better, but I haven't gotten Revelations yet. These are the only games I play and they're frustratingly laggy. I can't do half the things in Brotherhood, like the races or anything requiring too much dexterity because the lag is just impossible.
Also GW2 release is a week after my birthday. So. Happy birthday, self!
The tablet, mouse, keyboard, DVD burner and sound system are all still shiny. If it turns out that the screen is actually fine and it's just the graphics card then I'll hang onto the screen and maybe upgrade to a dual display in a year or two when I will also get a new desk, but that'll be a way down the track yet.
I have no idea about the CPU. I don't actually know what the thing does.
Also, I'm bored of this old beige box. I inherited it from Colin when I first got my own computer in my bedroom in, what, 2004? First year uni, yeah. And it was already 3 or 4 years old by then, too. It'll be a purely cosmetic thing to buy a new box, but gdit I want some bling. IT'S BEIGE. Computers haven't been beige in a DECADE.
So basically, I need (or, at least, want):
o Motherboard
o Graphics card/monitor/both???
o RAM
o Box/power supply (I'm not falling in that trap again)
o Solid state hard disk
o CPU? idk. I have no idea. I'm assuming a 4 year old CPU won't be much use in a brand new computer.
Finally, the real kicker, money. It's the end of the financial year (and god don't I know it, working admin in what is basically a retail franchise) which means three things:
o TAX RETURN. FINALLY. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK, GOVERNMENT I DIDN'T VOTE FOR AND WISH I COULD VOTE OUT NOW.
o Pay rise comes into effect!
o Probably the biggest thing, along with the pay rise comes back-pay to February.
I haven't spent money, I mean SPENT money, since I moved out. I've bought an $80 book case, half a dozen books for about $12 each, two or three jumpers, a pair of leather gloves, and three Assassin's Creed games, on special for $20, $40 and $45 respectively. (And for those pointing out the electric frypan and wok, I got those with gift vouchers). My only genuine splurges (over $300 for each thing, omg) have been going to Sydney last year, and the Barossa this year, but I still budgeted for those things and bought sod-all in the month leading up to each thing. I've been so focused on buying a house and saving and scraping and need a deposit and bloody hell I'm bored of it.
So screw it. I'm spending money. I'm buying something awesome. I'm going to do my tax return as soon as I get my PAYG summary or whatever it's called, get all my tax back and my back-pay, and I'm going to tally it up and give a value to my brother and go BUILD ME A COMPUTER and it will be awesome.
* When my family says 'a new computer' we actually mean 'new bits combined with the old bits that still work that we will then construct into a computer.' I have an electrical engineer for a dad and a Java programmer for a brother. We don't buy 'a computer'.
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Date: Sat, Jun. 30th, 2012 01:35 pm (UTC)I KNOW YOUR TECHY-GO-BEEP TAGS, DON'T TRY TO TRICK ME!
no subject
Date: Sat, Jun. 30th, 2012 01:53 pm (UTC)2) Phone
3) iPad
None of those are a new PC :p
no subject
Date: Sat, Jun. 30th, 2012 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sat, Jun. 30th, 2012 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sun, Jul. 1st, 2012 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sun, Jul. 1st, 2012 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tue, Jul. 3rd, 2012 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tue, Jul. 3rd, 2012 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wed, Jul. 4th, 2012 08:03 am (UTC)*waits patiently for group certificate*
no subject
Date: Sat, Jun. 30th, 2012 05:04 pm (UTC)(A) Consoles.
(B) If you see them there why ask if I sell them?
no subject
Date: Sun, Jul. 1st, 2012 05:18 am (UTC)