My trusty old Sony Vaio desktop has been getting increasingly snowed under with the weight of modern versions of software and its workload. It’s all of eight years old, poor thing, but it has been faultlessly reliable and it struggles gamely on with its paltry 1Gb RAM (which is the maximum it can take) and its ageing Pentium processor. I figured it was time for a new one.
A swift investigation showed that desktops are becoming something of a rarity. Some companies produce only laptops, it seems, while others are switching to the all-in-one desktops. The all-in-one approach doesn’t fit my office layout and, more to the point, I don’t really want an all-in-one which might well all-breakdown-at-once. Dell seemed to have a well specified home desktop: an XPS with an Intel i5 processor, 6Gb RAM and a 1.5Tb hard drive. Despite reservations caused by my recent experiences with a less than reliable Dell Inspiron 1545 Craptop, hopefully now fixed with a shiny new hard drive, I took the plunge ordered one, complete with a wireless card, expecting soon to be forced into a re-sited router.
More correctly, I tried to order one. About five seconds after submitting my attempted order, John Lewis Partnership Card security department was on the phone saying they’d rejected the charge ‘cos there had been some fraudulent charges put through on computer kit recently. I should be pleased that they were so vigilant, I suppose, but at the time it was a bit of a trial. I explained to Dell and they put the charge through again. My order was accepted. Phew!
Being a special configuration with a wireless card, my machine was built to order – in Poland. After a few days I got a note saying that it was completed and ready for shipment with a UPS tracking number. UPS, goody – I’d be getting a visit from one of those bitch-ugly, brown UPS vans! My machine left Lod, in Poland and pitched up in Tamworth. Right country, at least. The next day it made its way to Luton.
Today it arrived chez moi aboard the expected bitch-ugly UPS van and here I am writing about it on it. I’m writing on my also new Logitech wireless keyboard (complete with wireless mouse) and what I write is being brightly displayed on my super new 23 inch widescreen Dell monitor. Commissioning this little lot was a relative breeze.
So far so good and so far, impressed. Let’s hope the 1.5Tb disk is more reliable than the 500Gb that came in the Craptop.
Great minds think alike! My desktop died when I returned from holiday in the new year. I too ordered an XPS, and our machines may well have been on the same lorry from Lod John! My XPS arrived yesterday, 12Gb RAM (W7 Ultimate), a single 1Tb drive, and yes to wireless here too. I have a second 1Tb to install once I can get Dell to supply me the requisite cables – I did tell them I wanted to do this, but as the second drive wasn’t on the manifest, they only supplied the single drive cable.
Yikes, 12Gb RAM, Alan, what on earth are you going to do with that? 😀