When I returned from Wesleyan General Conference where my computer was in-use for almost every waking hour as I did my best to live-blog each session as well as report with The Techology Show team on the events as they happened, my poor little 3+ year old laptop was showing me signs that it won’t be with me very much longer. It has been a great daily-use machine, but has never had enough ‘umph’ (yep, that’s a technical term) to get me through some of what I’ve tried to do with video editing, image manipulation, and graphic design.
As has been my tradition when getting a new computer, I am posting my current computer’s specs and my upgrade specs here on stevansheets.com for archiving purposes – so that one day my children will literally laugh-out-loud when they read the account of how archaic a laptop I was using in the “old days”.
The new computer IS, in fact, a Dell. I did, for a few hours, war over whether to take the bite out of an Apple and go to the ‘dark side’, but in my late-night homework-ing I realized again that at the price-difference I just couldn’t make the leap. I’ve been VERY pleased with my Dells in the past – especially the three laptops in a row that I’ve worked on since 2006.
A quick-look at the history of laptops in my life:
November ’06 – Dell Inspiron E1505
Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB)
15.4 inch UltraSharp Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory
120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner
Windows XP Professional
May ’09 – Dell Inspiron 15
Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
15.6 inch WLED Display (1366×768)
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330
500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1 32 Bit
Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11 Wireless-N Mini Card
8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Integrated 1.3 MP Webcam
June ’12 – Dell XPS 15
Specs:
Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.20 GHz
6GB,DDR3,2 DIMM
15.6HD TLF WLED LCD L50xX
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB graphics with Optimus
750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, No Media
8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0
Price always wins for me as well. You did a great job keeping the rest of us up to date at GenCon12. Thanks my friend!
thanks for the kudos, Ryan! It was a real pleasure to have been a part of GenCon12!
Speaking of price, if you remember, you might want to note the price you paid for each of those machines at the time you purchased them (or at least the catalog retail), so your kids can also exclaim, “You mean your school didn’t just GIVE you an iPad 7 when you enrolled in kindergarten?”
lol! you’re totally right, Darrin! With colleges already giving away laptops or iPads it is only a matter of time until it trickles down into Kindergarten! :)