Finally bit the bullet and bought a new PC for home. My old machine has been upgraded a few times now, most recently to a P4 I got from my buddy Paul at work, but it's finally dragging so much that I can't take it.

Got a Gateway FX7029E from Costco of all places. Compared a bunch of choices from Dell and HP, and this one in a box at Costco came out the best.

Purchased: 4/30/2008 Costco $1499

S/N: CSX83 L10 00042

Specs (Gateway info) (list of many different parts here):

• Intel Core 2 Quad proc Q9300 (2.5 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 6 MB L2 cache) (I think it's an Intel E210882 motherboard) Intel G33 here or here (dont know what's the difference). "Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard"
  
• 4 GB RAM (PC5400 dual channel DDR2 SDRAM, 2 modules)
  
• 500 GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA HD w/ 16 MB cache
• 18x DVD +/- R/RW with LabelFlash
• NVidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB (factory overclocked dual DVI, VGA, TV out)
• Sigmatel IDT HD Audio
  
• 15-in-1 media card reader
  
• Windows Vista Home 64 SP1 w/ Media Center and remote

I'm a little leary of 64 bit Vista, but will give it a try. Found it interesting that a note came in the box along with an original Windows Vista 32 bit CD, saying "64 bit is not for everyone..." with complete instructions on blasting the machine back to a 32 bit OS.

A buddy at work is running 64 bit Vista with many of the same devices I have to use (Zune, iPod, digital camera, etc) and has had zero problems.

I'll be putting some more posts up with info as I try to build it out with all the home software I want...

Posted 7:18 PM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink