I recently turned 21 (yesterday). Aside from the obvious benefits of turning 21, I've amassed a total of $910 in birthday money. I was thinking of buying some computer hardware. Here's a current list of the equipment I'm looking to upgrade/replace:
1. Dual 867mhz Powermac G4, 60gig, 1.25gig, combo, geforce4 mx 32mb
2. Samsung 17-inch flat panel LCD (vga, 1280x1024)
3. Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop 1ghz P3, 30gig, 512meg, dvd, radeon 7500 64mb, 15-inch display
I kind of want to replace my Powermac, because although it is decently fast, I recently had the pleasure of using a dual 2.0ghz powermac g5 at my university's bookstore, and it is REALLY SWEET. It feels like it's at least 5 times faster than my g4. I mainly use my g4 for internet, email, IM, maple, mathematica, matlab, light photoshop, itunes, unreal tournament, civ 3, etc. I can sell my g4 for about 1.1G on ebay and a decently upgraded g5 is $1884 with edu discount.
I really want to upgrade my Samsung 17-inch flat panel. I've been having flat-panel envy these days, as some people I work with recently purchased some beautiful 20.1" Dell Ultrasharp 2001fp's. At the bookstore, they also have on display new 20-inch and 23-inch apple cinema displays. They're both really sweet. I want to get the 20-inch apple cinema display because it looks really cool and has some nice specs. However, the dell ultrasharp has s-video, composit, dvi, and vga input and costs $400 less. It is also standard aspect, which means watching full-screen dvds and more importantly playing video games will use the whole screen. However, lots of games (like UT) can't be configured to use widescreen displays, which means I wouldn't get any more gameplay screen area on a 20-inch cinema display than i arleady get with my 17-inch (standard aspect) display. Which, if either, should I get? The cinema is $1169 with edu discount, dell ultrasharp is $750, and I could possibly sell my samsung for $250-$300.
Finally, I'd like to get a new laptop for one reason: the Inspiron 8100 I have weighs over 8 pounds and it literally hurts my neck and back to carry it in my backpack anywhere. What's the point of having a "portable" computer if it's so heavy I can't/don't feel like taking it anywhere? It i was going to sell my inspiron, I'd have to replace it with another PC laptop because, being an electrical engineering major, I HAVE to run software that's available PC-only (TopSPICE, Pspice, Ansoft Designer, Altera Quartus, Altera Max+II Baseline, MathCAD, Scientific Workplace, SPSS, SAS, etc.). The main consideration would be weight: anything over about 5 pounds would be unacceptable. 4 pounds or lighter would be ideal. I priced some Inspiron 600m and 700m laptops and a decently upgraded model (i.e. non-celeron processor and enough ram to at least boot into XP) is like $1700 - way more than I want to pay to shed a few pounds. The inspiron I have now is fast enough for everything I do. Should I sell it? What other PC manufacturers make light laptops? The powerbook is too expensive for me, and the ibook is far too slow. Suggestions? I could probably sell my inspiron for about $600.
What should I do?
1. Dual 867mhz Powermac G4, 60gig, 1.25gig, combo, geforce4 mx 32mb
2. Samsung 17-inch flat panel LCD (vga, 1280x1024)
3. Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop 1ghz P3, 30gig, 512meg, dvd, radeon 7500 64mb, 15-inch display
I kind of want to replace my Powermac, because although it is decently fast, I recently had the pleasure of using a dual 2.0ghz powermac g5 at my university's bookstore, and it is REALLY SWEET. It feels like it's at least 5 times faster than my g4. I mainly use my g4 for internet, email, IM, maple, mathematica, matlab, light photoshop, itunes, unreal tournament, civ 3, etc. I can sell my g4 for about 1.1G on ebay and a decently upgraded g5 is $1884 with edu discount.
I really want to upgrade my Samsung 17-inch flat panel. I've been having flat-panel envy these days, as some people I work with recently purchased some beautiful 20.1" Dell Ultrasharp 2001fp's. At the bookstore, they also have on display new 20-inch and 23-inch apple cinema displays. They're both really sweet. I want to get the 20-inch apple cinema display because it looks really cool and has some nice specs. However, the dell ultrasharp has s-video, composit, dvi, and vga input and costs $400 less. It is also standard aspect, which means watching full-screen dvds and more importantly playing video games will use the whole screen. However, lots of games (like UT) can't be configured to use widescreen displays, which means I wouldn't get any more gameplay screen area on a 20-inch cinema display than i arleady get with my 17-inch (standard aspect) display. Which, if either, should I get? The cinema is $1169 with edu discount, dell ultrasharp is $750, and I could possibly sell my samsung for $250-$300.
Finally, I'd like to get a new laptop for one reason: the Inspiron 8100 I have weighs over 8 pounds and it literally hurts my neck and back to carry it in my backpack anywhere. What's the point of having a "portable" computer if it's so heavy I can't/don't feel like taking it anywhere? It i was going to sell my inspiron, I'd have to replace it with another PC laptop because, being an electrical engineering major, I HAVE to run software that's available PC-only (TopSPICE, Pspice, Ansoft Designer, Altera Quartus, Altera Max+II Baseline, MathCAD, Scientific Workplace, SPSS, SAS, etc.). The main consideration would be weight: anything over about 5 pounds would be unacceptable. 4 pounds or lighter would be ideal. I priced some Inspiron 600m and 700m laptops and a decently upgraded model (i.e. non-celeron processor and enough ram to at least boot into XP) is like $1700 - way more than I want to pay to shed a few pounds. The inspiron I have now is fast enough for everything I do. Should I sell it? What other PC manufacturers make light laptops? The powerbook is too expensive for me, and the ibook is far too slow. Suggestions? I could probably sell my inspiron for about $600.
What should I do?
