Last year was quite a year — maybe the best year ever — for acquiring computers around these parts. In January, bulking up my new home office, I bought a 24″ iMac. Best desktop computer I’ve owned, by far. In April, my mom needed a Windows Pc to do her taxes so I sent over my self-assembled Shuttle box and built a super-cheap replacement using an Asus T3 barebones system. A few months later, I upgraded my 17″ Powerbook to a 15″ Macbook Pro. And in November, I bought a Kindle. I sold the old Powerbook on eBay but for those keeping track at home that’s a net gain of two systems. My wife likes to joke about how many CPUs live in our house but she’s got a point. If you count work laptops and everything sitting around (some old and decrepit), you easily get into double-digits.
This year has been much quieter and thriftier, perhaps appropriate given the economic times we live in, on the Pc acquisition front. The old mac mini went off to my nephews and no new systems have entered the premises.
Then into these quiet times comes news of others out there on the hunt for new gear. Former Yahooligan Jeremy Zawodny started it with his post about building a cheap ass linux PC. Then mobile entrepreneur Russell Beattie went laptop hunting.
And so I find myself, in a strained geek metaphor sort of way, involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet. Or, to be less obstuse, trolling Newegg and DealMac and all sorts of other bargain bins wondering if there isn’t an insanely cheap system to be assembled this summer. Maybe just some upgrades?
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