jim and i went to circuit city (liquidation sale!) and best buy today to price computers, since i desperately need one- a laptop would be best, so i can get the mobility of bringing it to studio to work with my professor. i got $400 christmas money towards that end, and my budget is $500 (before tax)- depressingly, i still need to pay for my wedding this year too.... *sighs* anyway, jim gave me a run-down of the relative merits of everything we looked at, and we came down to three options:
desktop #1:Compaq #SR5710Y
processor: AMD Athlon 4450E dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 250 GB
graphics card: Nvidia GEForce 6150-SE
includes keyboard and mouseprice: $369
(and nearby, a shiny flatscreen monitor for $149; i have an older monitor, but it's a big clunker... that totals to $520 before tax)
http://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/2988/category.htmhttp://reviews.bestbuy.com/3545/9175064/reviews.htm(a similar machine)
http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/PresarioSR5550f.htmdesktop #2:HP Pavilion Slimline (it's freakin' tiny! i could put it in a lunchbox!)
processor: AMD Athlon X2-5000 dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 320 GB
graphics card: GEForce 6150-SE
price: $429
(another related machine)
http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/HPPavila6600f.htm(closer to the one i was looking at)
http://compreviews.about.com/od/sff/gr/HPPavils3120n.htmlaptop:Toshiba Satellite L305D
processor: AMD Turion X2 dual-core
ram: 3 GB
hard drive: 250 GB
graphics card: Radeon 3100-S29
price: $529
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L305D-S5904-15-4-Inch-Processor/dp/B001GXR0UIhttp://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetnote/gr/SatelL305DS5874.htmAutoCAD 2009 sysem req's:processor: AMD 64 or Intel EM64T
64bit (what??? i'm reading jim's notes here...)
ram: 2 GB
hard drive: 750 MB for installation (and those files get
big, too; but i do already have an external hard drive for those)
so my thoughts are as follows:
-i want a laptop for the mobility of having it in studio (i am the
only person in my class who doesn't bring their laptop to work in class, and it's gotten me in trouble before.)
-i am already used to working in the computer lab and borrowing time on other people's computers to make do
-i want to not exceed my budget but still have a decent machine
-i want to get the best i can for the price i pay
so... i think i want to get the compaq desktop. and i should
probably get the monitor as well, because i'll need a good one anyway... but on the other hand, i do already have a functional monitor, and i also have a wedding to pay for. thoughts?
whatever i buy, its name will be
Hoffnung auf Zukunft.