tin_the_fatty weblog

Modern as in, available for sale today.

Around August 2006 I set up a computer running Ubuntu for my old man as he wanted something for the Internet. The Intel Celeron chip was a late version just before they went multi-core. Not too shabby for the day, and works okay.

Then the computer died. I suspect it was the power supply, as my old man has been complaining about the computer hanging for the last couple of months. I looked at the motherboard last night. All the capacitors appeared to be in good order. No bulging. I’ll take it back to my own place and stick another power supply to test it, but that would be an exercise for another day.

My brother Mike was using my old man’s computer, then he wanted to do Chinese over MSN, and Ubuntu doesn’t have IME he is used to, so he bought his own computer just before my old man’s computer died, from our old friend Jumbo in MKCC. It cost him HK$2,600, 160GB HD, 2GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz (older version, ‘cos the latest version starts from 2.4GHz), cheap motherboard. No DVD writer. Onboard graphics and audio (Mike’s not into gaming). Oh, and an Antec power supply, which was probably the 2nd most expensive component in the whole computer. It was FAST. In fact it was so fast the Internet felt much faster. I was very impressed.

So now my old man’s computer is dead, he wants a new one. We went shopping in Tuen Mun the other night. Seeing the speed of Mike’s computer, I’d say one could get a very fast machine for well under HK$3K. We went to the two big DIY-type computer shops and picked up a few quotations. Then we went to the PCCW consignment in Justco to check out those big-name machines. The Apples were just way out of the old man’s budget. The HP big boxes were ugly and the small boxes were expensive. They have a Lenovo ThinkCentre small box for ~HK$3.5K. It comes with a nice keyboard (i.e. not mushy), an LED optical mouse, 2GB RAM, DVD writer, C2D running at 2+GHz, a cheap Canon printer/scanner (worth HK$500!), 2 years on-site service, and interest-free installment plan for up to 18 months (no payment until June!) My old man went straight for it. I’ll help him create the system restore DVDs, then put Ubuntu on it, and migrate his Firefox user data.

While waiting there I also looked briefly at the HP Mini-note. It looks pretty solid, and gives those crappy Asus Eee PCs a run for their money. The keyboard looks nice and although HP did something really clever here (shrinking the keyboard down to ~92%, by decreasing the gaps between the keys but keeping each key big enough) but because all the keys are flat and one can’t really feel the gaps between the keys, it is not so easy to use. The screen is also a little too small for this guy w/ failing eyesight to read. I am still considering whether I should get one of these small computers (and run Ubuntu) for Jasper, but he doesn’t seem to use computer for anything except games.

My Lenovo Thinkpad X61 runs a fast C2D chip and a 7200RPM HD, but for some reasons it feels a lot slower than Mike’s computer. I think that’s because I have it running on low power to keep it cool and quiet. Also it runs Windows Vista, which is supposed to be much slower than Windows XP.

I have had my iMac Core Duo for over 2 years now. Absolutely nothing to complain about. But the latest iMac 24” looks absolutely stunning and I suspect A LOT FASTER. Not to mention I can stuff it with 4GB of RAM. Maybe I’ll get it from PCCW/Justco, taking advantage of their Eon installment plan, when I finish paying for the X61.