My New Baby

Ok, the title is a bit of a tease, more a bait and switch, since I'm not talking about the human baby that is expected very soon (sixteen days or less).

No, this is about another baby. One I just ordered online. No, there's no slavery involved here. Well, there might be, at some factory somewhere, but I hope not. No, I'm talking about a new computer! Yes, after six years of my old machine, a machine that despite a few minor upgrades (a new video card, a larger hard drive), is about to the end of its useful life as a decent machine, a machine that used to be at the top of the game. Now it is time for something new.

I spent rather a lot on it. Just under $5,000. Some might consider that alot. They would be right. But oh, it is going to be so sweet. (For those that think this is too much, consider that I have a ten year old car I plan on driving for another 15 years at least - saving untold thousands of dollars over those who buy a new car every five years (or less)). I'd rather spend car-money on a computer. Even at the high end, a computer is way way cheaper than a new car (though it doesn't have as long of a useful life). But I really don't need to justify this to anyone. I earned that money. I want to enjoy it. Between various discounts, I actually saved $700 over what I thought I'd end up spending, so it could have been worse. I think it is the most I've ever spent on a new computer, though I have spent quite a lot on them before. I think my last computer was around $4,000 new, though that might not be an exact comparison, because I got some software for it separately that I included in the order to begin with this time (because it would not be appreciably cheaper to get it separately like it was last time).

The computer is from Dell. An XPS. I have three Dells already, two desktops, one laptop. All have served me well. Call me a loyal customer. It is a quad-core intel chip. It has 4 GB of RAM, two 1-TB hard drives, a 768 MB video card, a nice sound card, nice speakers, a DVD-R/W/CD-R drive, and so on. It is, in short, one hell of a machine. And it arrives this friday. I can hardly wait. The only downside is I'll have to stay home for delivery because my wife isn't off work until next week. At least it will give me time to get the old computer ready for the switchover. They managed to build it and ship it in just over a day, rather than the eight days it said it could originally have taken. I really shouldn't complain about that, though.

I might as well enjoy it now, since in about two weeks, I'll have another baby to occupy me - and this other baby is going to cost me way more than $5,000. But that will be worth it, too.