I will never--never!--purchase an expensive computer again. It's getting
almost as bad as purchasing a new car. You drive it off the lot and it
immediately drops 10 percent or more in value. And when you buy new
hardware and software, one week later the same computer is $200 cheaper
or--even worse--a newer model with more and better hardware is out and
is $300 cheaper! Argh! I go through computers fast in my line of work. I
wear out a laptop in about two years. My desktop computer frequently has
half a dozen or more operating system reinstalls in a year so that I can
take screenshots of the installation, test software compatibility, and
more. I'm always pulling out some piece of hardware to pop in a newer
piece of hardware. (I've been known to drop a piece of sensitive
hardware--another trip to the computer store!) Costs start to add up. In
late 2008, my test computer (nicknamed FrankenPC) died. The autopsy I
performed was inconclusive; I think the little desktop just lost the
will to compute: RIP, FrankenPC. I found myself sitting down and listing
the things I wanted in a basic little desktop test PC: - I wanted to
keep the cost down. Under $250 would be great, but was it realistic? - I
needed to be able to access the Internet (a realistic expectation these
days, right?). - It would be one of three computers that I would use for
e-mail: laptop, netbook, and desktop.
