Personal Computing And Current Events
I’m ‘sweating’ at the purchase of a much faster CPU. I guess it’s because the prices seem so high to me.
I had to drop my desire to get a 3000+ Athlon chip because the price was just not right. The quote I got was $199.00. I just can’t do it!
The four motherboards I have purchased (which includes the one I intend on using with my faster chip) in my days tinkering with PC’s cost approximately $273.00 dollars (think four computers). One 3000+ xp CPU would cost almost as much as four motherboards.
The three CPU’s I’ve purchased up to this point cost a total of 185.00 dollars. (Think the brains of three computers). I cannot believe that one CPU would cost me the price of three CPU’s.
I am suffering price anxiety trying to break the 2000 threshold. An AMD Sempron 2800 chip cost 120 dollars and the 2800+ xp chip cost 139 dollars (prices vary but these were the best [cheapest] ones quoted to me). I will probably have to take the plunge and get a 2800 xp or sempron.
New Mother: I have my new motherboard. I wanted to avoid the most common brand named boards but I had to balance this against the time I could spend looking for a board. I ended up getting a common brand name- Micro-Star International micro board.
It was a ‘sweet’ price and I just couldn’t walk away from it. It cost 59 dollars (pre tax), which I’m sure the small form factor contributed to. Although I’m shy a few PCI slots I felt the deficit was offset by the built on audio and video (I don’t need fancy sound or graphics since I am not a big time gamer).
However just in case I wanted to use a video card there is a 4x AGP slot available and the three PCI slots give more than enough room for a possible sound card, wireless card, modem, or whatever.
The board also has a built on LAN port and USB ports.
I’ll probably plug my old AMD 1800+ chip into my new micro motherboard and run it for a week or two until I get a faster chip.
I feel I have all the processing power and memory I need with this latest upgrade. Nothing available today or likely to be available in the near future would make me think another upgrade is needed so with this upgrade I don’t think I’ll be getting another one soon except for a larger hard drive which is necessary with DVD making abilities. Hard drives are still competitively priced also.
An 80 to 120 gig hard drive may be necessary. These sizes were unthinkable pre DVD burner. They were just not needed. That has definitely changed in my opinion if you intend on downloading movies or making and manipulating moving images plus storing them on your hard drive.
Christopher Reeves: I note the news reports of the passing of Christopher Reeves today. The reports say over the past weeks he has suffered bed sores which caused various infections with the last one being a blood infection that eventually led to him lapsing into a coma where he subsequently suffered heart failure and passed away.
I have seen three movies in which he starred. The two that I will mention here (and that are worth seeing) are “Superman” (B grade, 1978) and “Superman II” (A grade, 1980).
Although I have not seen many of the other movies he has made I am aware of the man after his tragic accident (being thrown from a horse, severing his spin and suffering almost total paralysis).
He had a strong desire to walk again and was a big advocate for stem cell research and the potential of it leading to a cure of the condition he was in.
He was also an inspiration for those that were missing limbs or were immobilized to various degrees due to trauma or illness.
He used his wealth and fame well. The indomitable spirit of Christopher Reeves will be missed.