My New Computer by HP

I finally purchased a new computer and so far, I love it.  I saw the ad initially in a Costco mailer, and then I went and checked it out yesterday.  In the store it looked pretty great, but when I got it home it became amazing and slightly more than I need.

For $999.99 I got a lot; two 23" monitors running at 1080p, an AMD Phenom II 840T Quad-Core processor, 8GB of memory, 1.5TB hard-drive, and more.  This is my first experience with Windows 7 and so far I am satisfied.

I think one of the first things I've realized is the speed and memory abilities.  Before, I was always frustrated with YouTube videos or using my Google Reader for longer than an hour.  My old computer would slow down and/or lag.  I would have issues with loading images or watching a video without it hanging up multiple times during playback.  With my new computer, I not only can view videos and multiple websites, RSS feeds, and more, but I was able to play an hour long YouTube video for my son, while I surfed the Internet on the second screen.  No lag.  No hang ups.  No waiting.  It is awesomely impressive.  I've never actually been on a computer that works this well on the Internet.

Anyway,  I love it...so far.  I went with HP because my employer went with HP for the company-wide computer upgrade program.  Some of the decision is probably based on pricing, but I think it also has to do with the support, strength, and quality of the products HP is building.  I'm super excited about having a hard-drive that can fit all my old pictures, my complete music library, and be set-up to automatically backed up to my external drive.  We will be able to keep ourselves and our data backed-up, something I really wish I'd been doing up to now because the power supply for my laptop died, and now I'm trying to figure out how to get my information of its hard-drive.  Stay tuned for more about my new desktop from HP.


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Randomness to Start 2010

It's a new year and I don't yet have a 2010 entry. I've become a very busy person. We moved, work is still just great (he said sarcastically), and the holidays with family and friends have devoured my time as of late. So, how are all of you? 2010 treating you good so far? Good. Good. Not really listening. Okay, well I'm having computer issues again. The XPS is running poorly (time for a reformat), the desktop is just old and slow. I'm thinking about a new computer but I can't decide which direction to go in. Mac vs Windows. I started pricing out computers, Apple, Dell, HP. I tried my best to build them with the same specs, and it was very interesting, the outcome. All of them have Intel chips (quad core 2.8Ghz), all of them have 4Gb of memory (the HP actually had 6), all of them have 1Tb of Hard Drive space, and a bunch of other similar specs. Pricing...the Mac was the highest and the HP was the lowest. And Dell has been nothing but a pain for me in the past (my employer with its 50,000+ employees is moving away from Dell). iMac = $2,239.00 Dell = $1,272.00 HP = $1,195.00 To be fair to Apple, the iMac does have a monitor and the Dell and HP prices don't, but it's no $1,000 monitor. ARE YOU KIDDING ME APPLE? Time for family time, well, wife time. HELLO? No it's not what you think. TV and pretzels in bed. Our kind of closeness. (Edited for the kids)

How Does Dell Sell Anything?

How does Dell sell anything these days? I am trying to upgrade my hard drive from the original 60Gb to something closer to 250 or 320Gb. The problem I am having is the speed of the drive. I wanted a 7200rpm drive, but I can't find any larger than 80Gb. And maybe that's all there is, but Dell is no help. I called and was transferred 3 times, then told there would be a wait. Next, while I was also on their website, a chat request window popped up from Dell and I accepted the request. I started down in a queue of 12 people. What is wrong with this company? I'm attempting to call or chat so I can BUY something from them and I can't even get through to a person. Their phone menu system works off voice recognition...(or doesn't work). I kept getting the, "sorry, I didn't understand that" from the other end. Now, I'm still sitting here waiting for someone to help me. And, while I've been waiting I've found (via the Internet search, and Western Digital's website) I'm going to have to go with a slower drive. Is it worth it? I don't know, but I can tell you, Dell will never get a dime from me again. What a messed up company. UPDATE: About 15 minutes later my chat began and I was given an 800# to call with my request. I called the number and got through to a person, only the person answered the phone as the "toner and ink refill department" or something to that affect. Then, the 80Gb hard drive was the only option at something like $215. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!? That's almost the price of a new laptop.

Microsoft Sucks On So Many Levels

My wife and I wanted to watch a movie in bed tonight. I grabbed my 17" Dell laptop with Windows XP on it, and we crawled into bed to enjoy the movie. Microsoft has a program called Windows Media Player, only it doesn't play the media we had. DVDs are apparently not a media that Microsoft has designed its Windows Media Player to play. Here is the error I got (click on the picture to enlarge): Just for kicks, I clicked on the "Web Help" button and found several options I could download for a fee. It looks like $14.99 will get me a decoder, but how do I know this decoder will work for all DVDs I want to watch on my "Microsoft Windows XP with Windows Media Player" computer? I DON'T. This is just another reason to buy Apple. Microsoft sucks on so many levels. Don't worry people, I've heard of and love freeware like VLC. It works wonderfully. In fact, I recommend this free media player because it will work with allllllll sorts of media. Oh yeah, and it's free.

I’m In BIG Trouble

Today was a “Big” Apple Inc. event where Steve Jobs announced new iPods. They all look really great. Here is the trouble this causes for me: Watching the keynote all the way through, I found out some troubling information. Steve lowered the price of the iPhone to $399.00 for the 8GB model (there is no more 4GB model). That’s $200.00 off the price. This makes the phone priced pretty well; after all, it is an 8GB iPod and cool functioning phone. And with the announcement of the iPod touch today, it’s only $100.00 more for the phone feature.

Now I really want the phone. I want to sell my laptop for it. But I need a new home computer to replace it. An iMac would do the job. I think for the price I should be able to get for my laptop, I could get an iMac and iPhone. Yes, it's a really nice laptop. I've just become an Apple fan. I need GarageBand to start recording my music. So, iMac.

Here's my laptop offered at $1,600.00. This is $900.00 less than my previous asking price for it in this entry. It still has a Dell warranty until May 2008 too.

DELL XPS GEN II
Warranted through May 2008
2.0GHz Intel Pentium M
1GB DDR RAM
17” LCD
Nvidia 256MB Graphics Card
60GB HD 7200rpm
Windows XP Pro
MS Office Small Business (Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, Powerpoint)
DVD/CD ROM (Newly replaced free through warranty)
XPS Backpack
Laptop Case from Targus
New Power Supply (Replaced free through warranty)

Please help. Your purchase of this great laptop will help get this boy out of trouble.