that geeky dude

So, as I had previously mentioned, my PC got fried by lightning a few weeks ago.

Dad put out a decently sized homeowner’s insurance claim with Allstate, and they paid out last week. The total sum I received was $650 for the old machine, which could have built a half decent computer from parts off Newegg, but I realized I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of hardware incompatibility and putting it together myself, not to mention the added cost of a valid Windows XP (gasp!) license.

So, I took my $650 to Wal*Mart of all places, looked in their computer section, and found a pretty good HP for $688. 2.3ghz dual core 64 bit processor, 3gb of DDR2-667 RAM, a 500gb SATA hard drive, and a 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe capable SATA burner. Not only that, but it has a few open ports and bays for upgrades, and an integraded media card reader that supports SD, CompactFlash, MemoryStick and xD cards.

The only downside I could figure out was that it came with Windows Vista Home Premium, rather than an XP variant like Home, Pro or Media Center. I’ve decided to give Vista a month to grow on me. Unlike my previous post about Vista, I really started to dislike it on the old machine. Granted, my old machine barely fit the minimum requiremens for Vista, and I had a bad stick of RAM in the box, so I was having stability problems. To be completely honest, the machine getting fried might have been a godsend rather than a problem.

If I don’t like Vista in a month, I’ll grab an OEM copy of Media Center off Newegg and dual boot it with Ubuntu. I realize my “geek cred” is gone for buying an OEM box, but meh. I’ve grown lazy and complacent in my old age.