Legion Kreinak
In Runtime
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- 254
'kay, so Merry X-mas to everyone who celebrates (happy holidays to the rest), hope you all had a great time this year. I wanted to ask advice regarding a gift I got.
I got a $2000 laptop (with an optical, wireless mouse and a sleek carrying/protective case) for X-mas from my mom. It's a Sony Vaio, black, has a built-in camera and mic, has XP, Pentium M Processory 740 (1.73 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB), 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM (max goes up to 2 GB), 100 GB Harddrive, a DVD+R Double Layer/DVD+RW drive, 14.1" screen, and comes with a memory stick. Chances are, the video card is just integrated graphics, nothing special (since it doesn't list anything on the box).
Now, she's not a techy person. She went out and figured out what would be a nice gift, worked her ass off (3 jobs) and got this for me. She felt bad since this is my first Christmas without my father (passed away July 11th). I've been talking about saving up for a new CPU for about a year now. I have a DeLL, and that's the route I planned to take again.
My current computer has: 933 MHz, 128 mb SDRAM, 17" CRT monitor, 40 GB HD, 48x CD-ROM, and a seperate CD-RW drive, 32 mb nvidia geforce graphics card, and is four years old.
Now, the only reasons I use my computer are to:
A) Listen to music (13 gb of music on here now)
B) Talk to people (AIM/AOL/ICQ)
C) Research (various websites, forums, just typical net use)
D) Play games *
* - I don't play games much. The ones I do are not typically demanding (i.e., AoE, emulated classic console games, Worms, Diablo 2)
So my computer now works well for those tasks. If I have open AIM, a few chat windows, MMJB, Mozilla, and wordpad, it starts lagging a bit. Still, for such an old computer, it suffices. If I wanna play any games, I usually close all other programs (which is fine anyway, 'cause I don't need 10 things open).
Thing is this: I could return the laptop, carrying case, optical mouse, get all the money back, and then order a DeLL Dimension for $1,019. I'd give the rest of the money back to my mom, 'cause I honestly don't feel right having her spend upwards of $2,000 on me for the holidays.
The desktop would have 3 GHz, Pentium 4 Processor, 160 gb HD, 256 mb ATI Radeon Video Card, 1 GB RAM, Dual Drives with a 16x DVD Drive and a DVD+R drive so I can copy DVDs or CDs, without having to first back them up on the computer, a 17" monitor, and 100 watt speakers with a subwoofer.
Here's the problem: I can't make a decision 'cause I know my mom went to great lengths to get me the laptop. She was excited for me and figured it'd be a good idea, especially with the portability. I don't really need to be able to drag my CPU with me everywhere, though. When I do go out, it's not a time when I'd be on the computer (with girlfriend, friends, family, running errands).
The desktop is half the price, with more power. Thing is, my computer now already does what I need just fine. The laptop's specs will suffice for those tasks I'm already performing. The desktop would blow it all out of the water, obviously, and for less but I feel terrible about exchanging the gift. She says she doesn't care, and she just wants me to be happy so I can get what I want, but I'm sure she's just saying that and is actually not as happy that I want to get a desktop rather than keep the present she originally picked out for me.
That was really long-winded, but hopefully someone can help me be rational here, and decide what I should do (or at least throw in their opinions). On the one hand, I've got a desktop that does what I need it to already. The laptop beats out my current comp. At the same time, a new desktop (though lacking portability) would be cheaper, more powerful, have external speakers (since I use my computer as my stereo), and a video card that's not integrated.
It's hard for me to choose...
I got a $2000 laptop (with an optical, wireless mouse and a sleek carrying/protective case) for X-mas from my mom. It's a Sony Vaio, black, has a built-in camera and mic, has XP, Pentium M Processory 740 (1.73 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB), 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM (max goes up to 2 GB), 100 GB Harddrive, a DVD+R Double Layer/DVD+RW drive, 14.1" screen, and comes with a memory stick. Chances are, the video card is just integrated graphics, nothing special (since it doesn't list anything on the box).
Now, she's not a techy person. She went out and figured out what would be a nice gift, worked her ass off (3 jobs) and got this for me. She felt bad since this is my first Christmas without my father (passed away July 11th). I've been talking about saving up for a new CPU for about a year now. I have a DeLL, and that's the route I planned to take again.
My current computer has: 933 MHz, 128 mb SDRAM, 17" CRT monitor, 40 GB HD, 48x CD-ROM, and a seperate CD-RW drive, 32 mb nvidia geforce graphics card, and is four years old.
Now, the only reasons I use my computer are to:
A) Listen to music (13 gb of music on here now)
B) Talk to people (AIM/AOL/ICQ)
C) Research (various websites, forums, just typical net use)
D) Play games *
* - I don't play games much. The ones I do are not typically demanding (i.e., AoE, emulated classic console games, Worms, Diablo 2)
So my computer now works well for those tasks. If I have open AIM, a few chat windows, MMJB, Mozilla, and wordpad, it starts lagging a bit. Still, for such an old computer, it suffices. If I wanna play any games, I usually close all other programs (which is fine anyway, 'cause I don't need 10 things open).
Thing is this: I could return the laptop, carrying case, optical mouse, get all the money back, and then order a DeLL Dimension for $1,019. I'd give the rest of the money back to my mom, 'cause I honestly don't feel right having her spend upwards of $2,000 on me for the holidays.
The desktop would have 3 GHz, Pentium 4 Processor, 160 gb HD, 256 mb ATI Radeon Video Card, 1 GB RAM, Dual Drives with a 16x DVD Drive and a DVD+R drive so I can copy DVDs or CDs, without having to first back them up on the computer, a 17" monitor, and 100 watt speakers with a subwoofer.
Here's the problem: I can't make a decision 'cause I know my mom went to great lengths to get me the laptop. She was excited for me and figured it'd be a good idea, especially with the portability. I don't really need to be able to drag my CPU with me everywhere, though. When I do go out, it's not a time when I'd be on the computer (with girlfriend, friends, family, running errands).
The desktop is half the price, with more power. Thing is, my computer now already does what I need just fine. The laptop's specs will suffice for those tasks I'm already performing. The desktop would blow it all out of the water, obviously, and for less but I feel terrible about exchanging the gift. She says she doesn't care, and she just wants me to be happy so I can get what I want, but I'm sure she's just saying that and is actually not as happy that I want to get a desktop rather than keep the present she originally picked out for me.
That was really long-winded, but hopefully someone can help me be rational here, and decide what I should do (or at least throw in their opinions). On the one hand, I've got a desktop that does what I need it to already. The laptop beats out my current comp. At the same time, a new desktop (though lacking portability) would be cheaper, more powerful, have external speakers (since I use my computer as my stereo), and a video card that's not integrated.
It's hard for me to choose...
