Road trip

A mini-one, anyway.

We're taking one of our extra computers that we're selling to my parents, up to their house in Prescott to set it up for them. Their current one is around five years old I think. They've been wanting to upgrade but haven't had the money to shell out for one up front, nor do they have the credit (not anymore) to buy one on a charge card, so we're going to let them pay $50 a month (or more if they can afford to pay more) until it's paid off. I think we agreed upon $800 total.

For a P4 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM, I think that's not too shabby a deal. It's a Sony, not some cheap PoS HP or Compaq, and we're asking about half for what we originally paid for it. I think it's been about two years since we bought it.

I was just looking at some of Sony's newer computers, and frankly, the only things one of their newer ones has over this one is the processor speed, and the fact that the new one has USB2.0 instead of the first version. Big whoop. Oh, and maybe the hard drive space. I am looking at Sony's VAIO Digital Studio RS400C, the second set up that costs $1013.99, base, before any customization.

- The new Sony has a P4 2.66GHz processor. Ours has a P4 1.8.
- The new Sony has 512MB of RAM. So does ours.
- The new Sony has 120GB hard drive. I think ours has an 80 or 100GB drive.
- The new Sony has a DVD+RW drive, and no other CD drive. Ours has DVD+RW and a CD-ROM drive.
- The new Sony comes with WinXP Home. So does ours.
- The new Sony comes with MSWorks 7.0. I'm not sure about ours, but it might. I never really installed many things off of the software disc.
- The new Sony comes with different digital media software titles. I believe ours did too, but I doubt my parents will use all of that functionality. And if they do, I can probably locate at least some of the software.
- The new Sony has some silly integrated graphics card. Ours has a GeForce Ti 4600. We bought that separately, but even the card the PC came with was not integrated, and was probably better than what the new Sony has.
- The new Sony has i.Link (firewire) and USB 2.0. Ours has i.Link and USB1.0.
- The new Sony does NOT include a multimedia slot (memory stick reader). Ours DOES. Not that my parents would probably use it. They don't own any Sony cameras.

But anyway, for $200 more, the new Sony has fewer options than ours, and a faster processor. Compared to what my parents currently have (an AMD K6-2 or something like that, compares to a P2 400 I think), ours will be lightning fast to them, so what's a measely .86MHz of speed? And without internet, they would be hard pressed to even fill up their current 15GB hard drive, so I think an 80GB will do them just fine. And two CD drives are always better than one. And if they ever decide to buy a Sony camera, well, the memory stick reader is already built right in, so they won't have to shell out $50 or more on an external reader.

So frankly, I think they're getting a better deal buying our computer. To get something that is truely comparable to ours (at least with a Sony.. I think I'd have to advise them to stay away from HP/Compaq, and probably Dell, too), they'd have to spend almost $1600 (that is without a monitor, of course, but our Sony is going to them without one, too, since they already have a monitor).

Sure, one can get an HP/Compaq or Dell for about the same price they're paying for our Sony, but I've heard horror stories about the customer service from Dell and HP/Compaq. My parents' current computer is a Compaq, and I don't know about them, but I've always thought (even when it was new), that that thing was a piece of shit. They bought it because it was a package deal, they got the computer, a monitor, a scanner, and a printer all for less than $1K, I believe.

Personally I prefer Sony's computers, although the Alienware I currently have is pretty decent too. Hopefully the Sony won't give them any grief, it was a pretty good little trooper for me.

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