Previous Laptop Specs (Currently Dead)HP Pavilion DV8000
AMD Turion 64 ML-32 Single Core Processor @ 1.8GHz
1GB DDR 333MHz Memory
100GB 5400RPM HDD
128MB ATi Radeon Mobility Xpress Video Card
17" 1440x900 Widescreen
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (
)
Story: Was my first laptop and my first step into computing on my own. Was fairly reliable until a few choice issues cropped up (DVD drive stopped spinning whenever I inserted discs, laser was misaligned from the start, heat issues, motherboard fried, monitor and monitor backlights fried). Sent in numerous times for checkup during the warranty but no progress was made. Used the laptop through it's TV output after that, then the motherboard gave out completely.
Current Desktop Specs - Circa 2002Dell Inspiron
3.4Ghz Pentium 4 Single Core Processor
60GB HDD
512MB DDR RAM
15" 1280x1024 Monitor
Integrated Intel Graphics Processor (DO NOT WANT)
Windows XP Home Edition
Story: The house PC that's way over the hill really. I just recently had to start a .NET Framework upgrade on it to get Paint.NET working on it. It's not too old, but it feels friggin ancient at times. Gets my posting and
porn research done though.
Level of Proficency - Above Average to Moderate EnthusiastOfficially, I've only had one computer to my name, the laptop, but I've been working with and been interested in computer tech oddly enough since I first played video games. It's been a weird relationship ever since, with me actually piecing together and fixing software issues on older PCs in a few summers in the past, but it's only been recently where I got interested enough in the higher end to actively follow it all. That's done mostly so that I can avoid the mistakes and not be a victim of circumstance when it came to my laptop's issues and it's more rapid aging when compared to what tech was coming out seemingly a week later. It also helps that it's one aspect of the main three things that make up the route I'm going down for developing games.
Protips: Never buy laptops for Christmas as they're just cleaning out stock in most retailer places/OEMs. They almost always launch a new model as soon as the season is over (or in my case, a week later).
Are you a light or heavy electronics consumer?I consider myself a heavy electronics consumer since almost 80% of my purchases of some sort involve electronic goods, however since my bottleneck is money, I don't spend nearly as much or as often as most other enthusiasts. I do follow up and ask a lot of questions though to show what I know and learn as I go about it all.
Experience- Years of Microsoft Windows, Office, and system tools tinkering on the side (yay spending an entire summer trying to figure out how system32 got deleted on our first install of Win98
)
- A few years of putting together PC parts and installing them with the parents
- Almost my lifetime's worth of video game purchases and playing
- Lots of time with portable music players
- A bit of shopping savvy gained from the parents and furthered by the net.
"Futureproofing" or "For The Here and Now"?I believe in future proof purchases since money is almost always something that I have to plan out well before using. I can't upgrade as often as the next guy, so I always try to choose the best for how much I currently have and plan around that for the future. I always consider adaptability to future products and accessories to be the biggest point that needs checking before a buy.