Solo Shrink

Most of my readers know the extent to which I will go to recycle, when possible. Getting a carload of aluminum cans to a recycler was part of a previous post. I still recycle everything that will be accepted since moving into the apartment. I believe I have just been rewarded for being an environmentally conscientious old coot.

I have intermittently mentioned wanting a new PC, but finding that everything that I configured or found on special sale were well above my budget. I continued to search until I made my way into the land of the used and refurbished. I tend to do that sort of research for several months before making my impulse purchases. I saw many PC’s that “looked good” online, but I did not know the seller, in what condition the computer really was, and that gut feeling that whenever something that looks too good to be true, it generally is. I began to search more deeply into the offerings of companies I do trust and found some good offers on factory refurbished PC’s. I didn’t see anything quite close enough to what I wanted to be willing to part with actual money. I finally found that Tiger Direct advertised good refurbished deals, but concentrated on the ones that they believed would be the best sellers. That’s reasonable for any business advertising, and admittedly I wanted something a bit out of the mainstream. Then I discovered that I should be looking at the related deals in the sidebars. Different versions of the same basic model were there. Then I saw it.

In case the link to the ad is discontinued, it is a factory refurbished HP m8467c with an AMD 2.2 GHz, quad core Phenom processor with 5 GB of RAM, 640 GB hard drive (2 x 320 GB drives,) NVIDIA GeForce 8400HD, DVD+/-RW/RAM Dual Layer burner with Lightscribe, Wi-Fi LAN, a 15 in 1 media reader, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and 64 bit Vista Home Premium OS. I was pleased. Even the hard drive(s) would seem to lend themselves to dual booting the PC with my beloved XP Pro OS. I ordered it at about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. My first credit card was refused (the company was protecting me) but a second one worked fine. It was processed at 6:55 p.m. Wednesday and arrived today, Thursday, at 1:57 p.m.

I have not yet “fired it up” as I want to make certain that I do all possible to make the dual-boot setup as easy as possible. I can see absolutely nothing that I have inspected to have anything whatever wrong with it. Not even a surface scratch. The only bit of data on the spec sheet that concerns me is that it has only a 300 watt power supply. It would only cost $40 or $50 to replace it with one double that wattage. Oh, did I mention this PC lists for $1,999.99 and I bought it for $649.99. I thought it would be a good idea to buy it while the dollar is still spendable.

Peace, Doc

“Woot! Woot!” – Doc