New Computer

I just bought another computer this afternoon. However, I have an excuse: I'm giving my Dell "laptop" to my dad. He's currently using Shirley's old Compaq 1722 laptop; it's running really slow and he's looking for a replacement since he's spending a lot of time on digital photography and audio recording. I was also thinking of getting a smaller laptop since the 17" models are not really portable. Lately, I've been carrying around my work computer (Dell D410) on both PMI and personal trips which is probably not good.

I ended up buying a Sony VAIO CR420 from Amazon.com. It's not the latest model (CR490) but it was $100 cheaper and buying through Amazon means no sales tax! The only differences appear to be the CPU (2.1GHz vs. 2.4GHz) and the sound chip.


OK, I admit it. I bought it for the nice shiny blue cover.


I just went to Amazon.com to grab these pictures. It seems I managed to get the last unit sold by Amazon. The price is now $1,139 ($40 more) and sold by a third party which usually means no free shipping.

My Dell Inspiron 1705 is only 18 months old and because I wanted to play games on it, I loaded it up with upgrades when I bought it. It has an Intel T5600 (Dual Core, 1.83GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB cache, 65nm process) and a nVidia 256MB graphics card that cost $200 extra. The new computer has an Intel T8100 (Dual Core, 2.1GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB cache, 45nm process) and 3GB of RAM but only the on-board Intel X3100 video chip. I thought it would run cooler than my Dell since it's manufactured with 45nm technology but both CPU's are using ~35 watts of power. The Sony CR series has a 14.1" LCD so it should be significantly lighter and smaller than what I have now.

The one bad thing with the new computer is that it's running Windows Vista. :(