my home computer...
quite the machine in 2002...
and functioning very well in 2009...
software & operating system up to the minute...
and still running fast & true...
before I gave up my cable broadband, that is...
now it sits...mostly idle...
as I still haven't gotten the DSL to work...
so I've been going to the church & using my Airbook...
it hops on their wifi network and works great...
and the USB2 downloads from my camera are so fast!
that I decided to have some hardware up grades done to my desktop one...
while it's down & off the Internet anyway...
today I went to my local computer store...
it's a small, non-chain operation about a mile from my house...
they deal with both PCs & Mac...
and my dealings with them in the past have been good...
after some discussion with the guy of my issues...
I now know the following...
an Airport,[Mac wifisystem] wifi card for my tower cpu would cost $80...
[labor is $90p/hr...]
the Airport Express base station is $100...
it would function as a network router and the DSL would plug into it...
this would also allow me to use my Airbook at home from anywhere in my house...
or even outside in the yard...
I have also been hampered by having only a USB1 in my desk cpu...
I can't download from my Fujifilm digital SLR at all...
and other digital downloads are very s-l-o-w...
uploading digital pictures to the Web is often s-l-o-w...
or just impossible due to the old technology...
they can install a USB2 drive in my desktop cpu for $40...
[plus $90 p/hr labor]
I could also grab some more memory at 512 MB [$57 each]...
there are 3 levels of memory cache...2 are empty...
since I got the impression...
that it would be a quick install of both the USB2 port...
and the Airport card...
AND since installing the memory is also quick...
perhaps I should spend the $$...
while I can still get the memory for this model...
and make sure I get my $90 worth for the labor...
they can also do a diagnostic on what is corrupting my Quicken...
it would be nice to have access to all those records again...
what's sad is that if I were more techno/geeky...
I could probably install all this myself...
Macs are very simple to work with...
but that would only save $90...
the parts are about $325 if I buy some memory...
$210, without...
so I have a decision to make...
do I spend the $$ and hope this solves several annoying problems ?
or do I leave it until my desktop cpu is useless...
and I still don't have an ISP at home ?
one decision is easy however...
they would be glad to come over & "hook up" my DSL...
for $90 p/hour...
uhhhh... NO THANKS!
2 comments:
If you know that everything else is humming along on your desktop maybe it would be a good idea to load it up so you could use it effectively for a while. But, there's always the risk of catastrophic failure at any time on an old unit. Our last computer's power supply went ker-plooy with such gusto that it fried two drives, one internal and one external. Bye bye files. However, that could happen on a new machine, so who knows?
It's almost never the cost of parts for computers. The labor is killer. That's the pity, if you're adept at that sort of thing, it's a fast fix to install this stuff. My solution to computer issues to is give it to my husband, who can unbutton the box and fix stuff before you can blink. I wouldn't recommend getting married to get free access to a tech-y person! LOL (But it works very well!) Actually, I think it would be a good question to include on matchmaking sites. Forget what he thinks about long moonlight walks, can he FIX THINGS?
hi Calico...Macs usually don't fry themselves and this one is working great... adding the airport would allow me to do most of my net stuff on the laptop & keep the desktop dinosaur for storage... the guy at the computer place said that my cpu could last indefinitely...it would also allow me to do my printing from my current printer...
I had a friend who would have been able to do all this, but alas he passed away almost 5 years ago...
Post a Comment