You Know You Need to Upgrade Your PC When...
... you really need your PC to work. Here's my story... (and please share yours, too, if you have one!)
Three weeks ago, we were robbed at home. I won't get into the details of what happened except to say that you should ALWAYS lock your door, even if someone is home and even if you're taking your dog for a quick 5 minute walk around the block. Oh, and don't carry your check book in your purse.
Anyway, my purse (along with wallet, all credit cards, check book, etc.) and my work laptop were stolen. I immediately noticed they were gone and we called the police. I also knew that I had to call the banks and credit card companies. I was too frazzled to recall account numbers and I had to find the phone numbers for all of these cards and banks. But what's a girl to do when her laptop was also stolen? I wasn't about to resort to the old phone book.
Fortunately we have a home PC - a Pentium 4-based laptop. I usually use it for storing my music and some photos and that's about it. But now I really needed it. I sat down on the floor, turned on the PC (which is connected directly to our modem) and started my search for credit card company phone numbers, info on how to contact the major credit bureaus and other stuff. I was feeling a tremendous amount of pressure. I wanted to cancel cards and prevent any potential ID theft or fraud from happening, so I knew I had to move quickly.
You can imagine my frustration, then, when I had about 5 different screens open, all trying to pull up different web sites for my credit cards, but all moving at the speed of a snail. I was going nuts and was ready to pull my hair out and throw the laptop across the room. The system was great when I got it 5 or so years ago but clearly can't handle what I need it for today.
Fighting back tears, I closed all of the windows and just did one search at a time, which worked out fine, but took far more time. It was then that I realized its time for a new home PC. I know that many in my family and some of my friends face this type of experience with their home PCs nearly everyday. Maybe they're used to it. For me, it was truly awful. I just don't have the patience to wait for things to load. I've since tried going to YouTube and some other video sites, and while they work, they're S-L-O-W.
I have a great Centrino-based laptop for work and I'm so used to being able to have multiple screens open, multi-tasking between email, Twitter, Facebook, my Google reader, posting blogs, and more. I'm shocked that people are willing to live with a slow PC, but then again, I've been living with it at home. That's why its time for a PC upgrade... my husband and I are researching our options.
Here are some more tips and thoughts worth listening to from TechKnowledge's Mike Feibus on why you may be in need of an upgrade if you have a 3+ year old PC sitting at home.
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Comments
Mar 25 | Robert Hallock said:
Gosh, I'm really sorry to hear about your misfortune, Kari. I can't even imagine what that would be like, but I'm glad you've been able to set the ship on the right course so quickly!
While I've never had to suggest an upgrade for so dire a reason, the site that I work for is brimming with visitors who have come and gone in the pursuit of a faster computer. In fact, our site was *built* to cater to people who want to upgrade for *any* reason: The desire for new hardware, retiring an old box, fixing broken parts.
While we can all go buy parts that will last a good 3-4 years, there comes a time when every user's rig is eclipsed by the demands of the day. Almost any computer user has been there, and it doesn't take spyware, viruses or a crisis to get there.
People don't know what they're missing out on until they fire up that new rig for the first time and do all their favorite things at a speed that they never imagined possible. The way they write about the experience, you'd think we've changed their life... In many ways, we have. We've improved their entertainment, their work, their connectivity and their productivity.
It's hard to say no to that.
Again, Kari, I'm sorry for your troubles. I'm glad you've been able to use your experience to teach people about the value of keeping your hardware with the times. People update all the things in their life, but they always (strangely) seem to expect a computer to last 8 years.
It's weird.
Mar 26 | Kari Aakre said:
Robert -- thanks much for the comment and for sharing your experience, too. So true... people don't know what they're missing until they've tried out that new system and everything just amazingly works (and all at once, too!).
Mar 30 | Annie said:
Oh my!!!!
Mar 31 | Jon said:
I have had two moments when I realised I needed to upgrade my PC's, the first was a loooong time ago, with my Intel 486 SX2 running at a blazing 50Mhz, I was doing some simple programming, and I suddenly realised without the multiplication parts of the Chip (the SX model having no math co-processor) it was quicker to convert integers to strings and do a case statement check of the last character to see if it was odd or even (as opposed to just doing the modulus). I soon had myself a Pentium I 60Mhz :)
The second time was more recently, I went away for a few days and when I returned I found the back door had been jimmied open, they had not turned over the house, instead they had carefully taken the TV, the DVD player, the microwave, basically all the equipment in the house.
Except the PC, which they had taken out from the desk, and apparently returned to the middle of the floor... now when a thief leaves the PC you really know it's out of date.
I now enjoy a nice alarm system, a large dog, and a fantastic Intel Quad Core-2 based machine :)