So, after being sucked in by dreams of a great deal based on advertisements, I decided I needed a new computer.
Walmart (is it the only store I ever shop at?) was selling what looked like a screaming machine for a phenomenal price. Some of the specs, now kinda common place actually, blew my old dinosaur aged mind in sheer size and comparable power. Comparable to the 90s, anyway.
- Intel Dual Core Pentium 3.2 GHz
- 3 Gig of RAM
- 1 Terabyte of hard drive space
I remember a day in 1993 when Jeff Cooper and I attended a computer trade show in Burlington, Mass. There was a display featuring what was then kinda just a concept model PC, built with a potential future vertical market of high-end users in mind, like 3-D architectural firms and graphics designers, no doubt. Among this computer's many stunning stats was, foremost in my memory, its mindbogglingly almost unimaginable hard drive capacity: ONE GIGABYTE!
This was in the age of heavy, clunky hard drives found usually in the 40 to 80 MEGABYTE range. Newer cutting edge models were being equipped with up to a whopping 100 Mb. But a Gig? Roughly 1032 Megs? Unheard of.
Well, to get back to the present...this Walmart computer made by eMachines was also equipped with a 20" widescreen LCD monitor...all for just $398! Wow, huh?
But before I ran to Wally World as fast as could be, I checked out the finer details. Oh oh, here's the rub:
- Monitor had built-in speakers. 1 watt speakers, that is. Um, why bother? Luckily, I would just use my current speaker/sub-woofer set up instead.
- PS2 mouse and keyboard. Huh? Who uses this now ancient standard for I/O hookups nowadays? And in a brand new system...hmmm, somethings up with that.
- Totally worthless integrated graphics. Well, I would just use my current video card (boy, I'm using a lot of upgrade components already...not really a complete system if you ask me). I did check that there were 16 pin PCI Express expansions slots available...but oddly only 1! Hmmm, again.
- Oh, oh...power supply is only 220 watts. Damn, that's way less then my current 5 year old desktop! So now I'll need to swap that out with a more adequate 500 watts or so. More cost....
And right out of the box I was not impressed.
Components and even the monitor construction was cheap plastic and looked it. Not good. And then I pulled out the case...what is this? Literally the size of my cable box, this was one of those "mini PCs" I'd seen advertised. It never said that in the ad! And most of these minis are far cheaper. Well how could I upgrade this? The "expansion slot" in no way allowed for my graphics card...and I have a low profile card! Never, ever, especially with that sad power supply could I even think of getting a video card in line with today's even moderate gaming requirements.
So, after a short little tour of her interface and a little performance test, I powered her down and re-boxed her. She goes back to Wally World today. No doubt she'll be flown in shame back to her makers in Taiwan along with probably hundreds of her sisters that others like me, returned in frustration.
So ends the very short reign of Mildred XIII. She sat on her throne with the other two bitches for just a few soon-to-be-forgotten minutes.