Home Computers

I just took delivery on a new PC. Its a Dell Dimension 5100 pentium 4 3.0 Mhz, with souped up video and audio cards, and a 160MB harddrive. I bought it from Dell's outlet store, which features factory reconditions with full warranty -- its worked well for me in the past.

The industry rule of thumb is that PC's should be replaced about every 3 years due to technology obsolesence and software bloat improvements.

Here's a history of my home computer purchases:

• 1986 private label PC XT, monochrome monitor (local retailer, $1,900)
  
• 1989 private label 386SX, with CGA color display (local retailer, ~$1,600)
• 1995 Acer pentium 90 mhz (From Best Buy, $1,600) First windows computer, first internet access computer. Ran Gina's game software "Can I interest you in a hot cup of tea?"
  
• 1998, private label AMD K5 (local repair shop, $350) used/reconditioned, to replace lightning damaged Acer. Insurance covered this and it worked well.
  
• 2001 Dell PIII 866mhz (Dell reconditioned, $1,100), this was for my grad studies program and upgraded for video editing. Its served me well...over time I upgraded it with a network card, a video card, a firewire card, a 19" monitor, DVD burner, additional harddrive, and a new power supply.
  
• 2003 Dell PIII 500mhz (eBay used $350) this one never worked too well
  
• 2004 Gateway Profile 4 for Gina (Gateway reconditioned, $700) this is a sexy looking PC, but it's a little buggy.
  
• 2005 Dell 5100 P4 3.0Mhz (Dell reconditioned $700) my new hot rod.
  

Categories: technology