Geek Habitat

I will be breaking my WoW hiatus soon, with the long-anticipated arrival of my new computer, purchased Thursday night on Dell.com. No more gryphon flights that look like slow-mo slideshows. Less lag in Lagfor-, I mean, Ironforge; and, finally, some practice as a primary healer for instance-runs… because, really, nothing sucks more than a lagging priest — “WTF, you’re both dead?! You were full health, standing right beside me a second ago! /sigh Tell me where your corpses are.” Oh, and of course, important things like better performance in Adobe Photoshop, BreezeBrowser, Beyond Compare, etc.!

Specs for my new rig (< $2,000):

Dell XPS 400, PD, 830 (3GHZ), VIIV

2GB DDR2 SDRAM AT 533MHZ-4X512GB

Quadruple the RAM I currently have (512MB for the mathematically challenged; never upgraded because it’s RAMBUS memory — over-priced, over-hyped.

NO KEYBOARD REQUESTED

I’m a 4-year-old convert to the MS Natural Keyboard Elite; my primary issue now is not taking “ergo breaks” enough/at all.

VIDEO READY W/O MONITOR

As you’ll recall, I recently went dual monitor. I have two Dell UltraSharp 1703FP’s (17″; any larger, and I suspect my head would fall off!)

256MB ATI HYPER MEM PCI-E X16 X600SE

Not the sexiest video card offered, but a good value for the money ($40 add’l, vs. $150 add’l for the nVidia GeForce 6800. RAM & processor limitations are the dual culprits of my current system’s lethargy.)

500GB SERIAL ATA II,7200RPM,P

I would have loved to bump this to 1TB from the factory, but not for $900+ extra. I’ve got a 250-300GB HD (not SATA, sadly) that I’ll plunk into the new machine upon its arrival.

NO FLOPPY DRIVE REQUESTED

I threw away my floppies a long time ago, although I think I still kept my licensed multi-line copy of PCBoard BBS software — all 6+ disks of it. Nostalgia value, even though I ran QuickBBS & SuperBBS far longer than I ran PCBoard.

WINXP MCE 2005,ENG,DIM,NM,U

Obligatory Windows OS. A little of me dies knowing I’ll probably never have a primary computer system that’s from Apple. I tried, once. $3,499 for an Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 in 2001 (blazingly fast 400Mhz… but it had 1GB RAM, by God! ;)) Loved it but can no longer justify the brand-loyalty “tax” imposed on Apple systems.

NO MOUSE REQUESTED

Dual convert of 1-2 years to both the Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse and a trackball.

V.92/56K PCI DATAFAX,INT MODEM,DIM,TIED

Wish this was optional. I can’t remember the last time I plugged a telephone line into my computer. It might have been 1999 to send a fax? Before that, it was Valentine’s Day 1996 — the last day my public hobbiest BBS (Tranquility Base BBS) was operational.

16X DVD+/-RW CD-RW COMBO DRIVE,DIM05,P

I can’t remember the last time I used both my DVD-rewritable and CD-RW drive at the same time, so I opted for a single drive to save the case real estate for another hard drive or airflow.

Sound Blaster X-FI PCI SOUND CARD,05,DIM9100/5100

If anything is perfect about my present Dell system, it’s the THX-certified 5-speaker surround sound. So, we splurged on the top of the line sound card offered. I’m keeping my current speakers and subwoofer.

DELL A525 SPEAKERS,LF,DIM

$30 extra, but dammit if Dell’s system configurator won’t let you select “NO SPEAKERS” or let you fudge and select the FREE LCD-mounted speakers when you’re ordering a video-ready/no monitor system. I guess we should grouse, but I’m almost afraid it’d result in a delay to my order, or worse.

MCAFEE 7.0,OEM,ENG,15MO,DIM/INSP

I’ve grown weary of Norton Systemworks. I’m ready to give McAfee a go.

WORDPERFECT OFFICE 12 + TRIAL,DIM/INSP

Not optional (just like all the ISPs’ bundles), but is a bit of nostalgia as well. I remember typing up essays and research papers for middle school on WP’s once-characteristic white-text-on-blue-background…