| Approximate date | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Desktops | ||
| May 2009 | Phenom X4 | Previous system failed (capacitor plague?) |
| Jan 2007 | Athlon X2 | Wanted dual core; to develop 64-bit LinuxCNC on Sempron 64; to upgrade from Fedora to Ubuntu without service disruption |
| Sep 2005 | Sempron 64 | Wanted performance, 64-bit, consolidated 2 systems |
| Jun 2003 | Athlon XP | Last machine I bought to install Windows (XP) on (to play games!) |
| Aug 2002 | Duron 1GHz | Wanted performance, "1GHz" |
| Ca 2000 | K6-3D? | I think I purchased a faster speed K6 later |
| Ca 1998 | K6-3D | because 3DNow! instructions sounded cool |
| 486DX | dumpster dived | |
| 1995? | Pentium | First computer bought with my own money |
| 1992? | AMD 386 | Added 387 co-processor later |
| Laptops | ||
| April 2008 | Dell D830 | Performance, previous system had become flaky |
| 2004? | HP zt3000 | Performance, 1920x1200 screen resolution |
| IBM T-Series (refurb?) | ||
| 2002 | Dell 300MHz (used) | |
| 2001? | Toshiba Pentium (used) | |
| 1999-2001 | 2 used 386 laptops (used) | |
I don't really know what conclusions to draw from this table; I do see that after I started buying new laptops I retained them much longer than my used and refurbished laptops. On the other hand, I probably spent 4x as much on my current laptop than on the used Dell and I've only used it about 4x as long.
From the records of my last few purchases, $700 appears to be what I'm willing to spend on a desktop machine, and $1200 is what I'll spend on a laptop. In the latter case, what I require is a very high resolution screen, so it's a tragedy that the 1920x1200 15" screen is no longer available on any new laptops.
I haven't used a "desktop" machine as a desktop at home for years; rather, every system since the Sempron 64 was a "server" machine that just happens to have X installed on it for the few occasions that I sit down at the console. While I sometimes spend time pricing systems with newer CPUs, I really don't need more power on my server—The CPU's been approximately 93% idled over the last 45 days and the disk has been 97% idle (atop 'activity since boot' numbers).
I guess the moral is that I should learn to stop looking at new hardware; it
only risks that I'll buy it without needing it. Only in a minority of cases
did I buy new hardware because the old hardware had failed. In many cases, my
justification more a new technology (64-bits, multi-core, etc) than a specific
need.
Entry first conceived on 20 January 2012, 13:51 UTC, last modified on 20 January 2012, 15:16 UTC
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