It’s hard to believe it was only last June (2008) when I had multiple systems failures, two desktops and two notebooks. One notebook never recovered (it was dropped and the extended warranty just refunded the purchase price so I didn’t replace it). I’m typing this on the other notebook, repaired by HP under warranty. The desktops, Desktop 3 and Desktop 4, were part of a 4 computer cluster I have in my office connected via the network and sharing a monitor et al via a KVM switch. I ended up replacing both with a single new HP desktop, which has been Desktop 3 ever since. It is a dual core processor with 3 GB RAM, dual 500 GB hard drives (one operational and the other as a backup using Bounce Back Professional) and Windows XP 32 bit.
A friend wanted to upgrade his system so I’ve been watching for a suitable computer. Over Labor Day, Micro Center had a sale on a Dell 435MT that was 80% of his ultimate computer configuration at 20% of the cost. He deferred, then agreed this week we should go ahead and get it. Fortunately it was still on sale. The old system had a Passmark system score of 356. The base 435MT we got for him had a Passmark score of 1680. I replaced the installed hard drive with a Western Digital VelociRaptor, using the "old" 640 GB drive as a back up drive. The Passmark score is now 1970. We’ll upgrade RAM later.
While buying his system I noticed an open box unit of the same computer so I got it. I didn’t upgrade the hard drive, so I have a system with a Passmark score of only 1680 versus the 410 of Desktop 3. It’s got 6GB of RAM now, and is running Vista, but my contacts at Kingston are working on their recommendations for more RAM and the end of this month I’ll upgrade to Windows 7. My unit had a 1TB main drive and I’ve added an internal 500GB drive for back ups. Total cost was less than $750, which is an amazing price for that much RAM, storage and a quad core i7 processor.
Vista’s Easy Transfer Wizard is currently calculating how much information is going to be transferred and I’m guessing that 200 GB is going to take a day or two to transfer across the network.
Then the “fun” of reinstalling all the software I use on the new primary desktop will begin.
But I find a new toy lots of fun.