Replacement Media PC
After a lot of dithering I've decided to get a replacement Media PC.
The one I'm using now is not what I once had. The internals were swapped around when Kevin was here and really I should have had them swapped back before he left (but it was just too much). I had a major problem with it a while back. The boot drive it was using stopped booting and I had to disconnect it, even though it's still in the PC because it really would be too much trouble to remove it. But the current Media PC is very unreliable. It mysteriously loses sound, Windows XP routinely crashes and whether it's in Win or Linux it reboots at random intervals! Not the best bit of hardware for a media PC.
So I'm replacing it with a PC a lot like the one I bought late last year for the RecRoom. It's- AMD A4-3400 (2.70GHz)
- Graphics Controller on Board HD 5450 1GB DDR3 PCIE HDMI
- F1A55-M LX Plux Motherboard
- HD Audio on Board
- 500GB 1TB SATAII HDD
- DVD Burner Dual Layer
- 4GB DDR3 1333
- PC Tower with PSU
The whole thing will cost me about $380 which I think is reasonable. Technically the old PC's CPU is .1 of a GHz faster, but it's old kit in a specially small case that's going to get harder and more expensive to maintain over time. I'll be able to Run WIN7 and Linux fine on the new one, so I see this as an investment. I should also be able to remove the drives I put in the other two PCs (which had TV and Film backups) and put them in the new PC.
Like I say, I dithered other this. When Jayne was up she pointed out that my house needs fixing (TRUE) and is a much bigger investment than a PC. But this has been eating at me for a while. I'm very much into my media and watching my shows and selected TV helps sooth and balance me. Plus, on the new PC I'll finally be able to reinstall some PC games I want to play, especially if it can show them on the HDMI screen (the current own outputs to a reduced VGA screen on the TV). And also, I know I enjoy drawing while watching the TV.When this is finally set-up, I'll be able to plug in the Wacom tablet .and draw direct to the PC. That's something I can't do well yet on the old PC - it's just not up to it.The old PC will be kept, just in case.
I wasn't going to do this with Bentley around. Too much chaos!