Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

I’ve finally had it with my dying audio card, which is unfortunately integrated into the mother board and so can’t be simply replaced. It’s keeping me from using Skype to talk intelligibly to my 90-year-old cousin in Dallas, and also from watching PJTV without annoying stutters.

So I’m shopping for a replacement for my 5-year-old Dell Dimension 3000. So far I like the HP p6300z at about $360 delivered vs the Dell Studio Desktop at about $478. Main difference is the Dell has an Intel chip and the HP has an AMD.

But I’m also addicted to Dells, having never owned anything else. The cheaper HP is a lure, however. I was worried about whether my Outlook Express would make the transition to Windows 7 but that now seems likely with a Belkin Easy Transfer cable. I also have a copy of Word 2002, my old standby, so I’m not worried about accessing my files and continuing to write the books few people ever read. Simply must think it over and decide.

UPDATE:  I bought a Dell, but an Inspiron 546 MT with Win XP on it and a Win 7 upgrade disk for $521 delivered. Also has a low-end AMD chip. Just could not bear to start over again with browser/email and etcetera. Figuring out how to transfer it all should will be hard enough.