A broken monument from the cemetery in the Presidio. First picture posted from my new PC. If you've gone digital, your PC is as essential a piece of you photography
equipment as your camera. I built my main, home PC more than three years ago
and, although in the meantime I had updated the processor, added memory and
more storage, etc., it was starting to show its age. I started to notice this
recently when I moved to PS Elements 3 as my integrated photo organization
and editing suite and started to shoot in RAW format.
I'm not going to engage in the whole Mac v PC debate; I'm sure Macs are very
good but I know windows inside out and can rebuild or upgrade a PC without
having to think about it. So I was looking for a new PC and I am a AMD loyalist.
Quick calculations showed that it is no longer economical to build your own.
A little shopping around and I picked up my new
Compaq SR1650NX from Best Buy on my way home from work on Friday. If you're
in the market for a new machine it offers incredible bang for buck;
- AMD 64 3500+ processor
- 1.0GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM Memory
- 250GB 7200 rpm Serial ATA hard drive
- Lightsribe
DVD±R/RW burner (plus a second DVD rom drive)
- XP media edition
- Media card reader, USB2, firewire, networking all included
- Price $650 after tax and a $50 rebate.
True, the onboard video card sucks so I'm likely to install a dual head PCIe
card before the year is out. It could also do with another gig of memory to
be optimal (less than $100) which I'll get soon. Still, add another $200 to
fix its short comings and it will make a pretty good digital darkroom
Even after a couple of days it is obvious that this new machine is a generation
ahead of my old machine and I'm no longer cursing Elements as I switch between
organizing and editing modes. Time will tell if this is a good buy but, if
you're in the market for a new machine, the SR1650NX is well work checking
out. |
