shiny new PC

On Monday, I went to Fry's Electronics in Plano, partly just to look around, and partly intending to buy a USB hub. I ended up buying a new PC instead, after rationalizing it all. It just doesn't make economic sense to try to make a Yugo into a rice rocket.

I wanted to expand the number of USB ports on my old PC, and maybe buy a DVD burner since the prices have dropped (amazing how the 700 MB limit of a CD-R seems quaint). After thinking it over, I bought an AMD Athlon-powered box with 6 USB ports, a 160 GB disc, 512 MB RAM, DVD+R/RW burner, 9:1 card reader, pre-installed Windows XP Home Edition. The CPU is a pantload faster than my old box, and will be able to munch the UD Agent (searching for smallpox and cancer cures) much faster.

Years ago, I would've taken great delight in assembling this from parts so as to get the best of everything, but the manufacturers finally figured out how to make money by doing it themselves for a fraction of the "parts price". I kept my old monitor, printer and backup drive and skillfully dodged the salesman's attempt to sell a warranty extension. The $50 rebate is a pain, but I'll humor them and mail the paperwork tomorrow.

I used Aloha Bob's PC Relocator (includes a bi-directional parallel cable) to move my data and applications from the old Windows 2000 PC). I let PC Relocator run overnight, and it was mostly done when I woke the next morning .. pretty effortless. Some apps required reinstalling (such as the Yahoo! and Google Toolbars, and the RealOne Player), but they were in the minority. My biggest problem was the partitioning .. my old box had 2 logical drives and so did the new one, but the 2nd partition on the new box is small, containing the Windows XP media (when re-installing is needed). So, I backed up the 2nd (data-only) partition to my Acom Data (external IEEE-1394 box) and just restored it onto the new system's first partition. Firewire was much faster than parallel.

Odd stuff: most new PCs lack a diskette drive, since everyone's comfortable emailing large files (broadband becoming common) or burning a CD-R. This HP Pavilion a620n is no exception; the diskette is an optional purchase. My old PC wasn't loud, and this one's even quieter; that's a good trend. I can easily hear the clock ticking from 2 meters away. The built-in card reader is good, too, so I can dispense with the external USB card reader I've been using (for Compact Flash; Smart Media; and my Palm's SD card (not much larger than my thumbnail).

Deep Thought #38: I would not want to be in charge of plant security anywhere, if I had to track everything capable of storing the bits coming and going.

Once I'm convinced that everything's migrated, I'll decide whether to keep my Sony PC around. I may leave stick it in a closet and leave it online just to run the UD Agent. Otherwise, I'll nose around the National Safety Council's website: How to Donate, Reuse, or Recycle Your Old Computer, or just take it to Office Depot for the HP recycle thing announced yesterday. Pity the recycle promotion is only offered through Labor Day (about 7 weeks away). Hmmm.