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I’ve been casually looking around at new computer stuff ever since the setup of the new RAID, and of course the pondering of the new video card. This is always a bad thing, of course. I’ve pretty much written out the specs of my new computer, one that’d I’d probably not be able to afford until maybe this time next year. Things will have changed so much between now and then that the whole idea of planning that far ahead is ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m absolutely lusting after this Shuttle SN25P ’small form factor’ barebones. I’ve simply not been able to find an attractive computer case, they all have some horrible flaw, except this one, plus I’ve always had a thing for those little Shuttle boxes, sort of like the Mac Mini, but… not. As much as I think my current computer is perfectly fast enough, I’m feeling very interested in going with a little Shuttle, I just love the idea of having that thing sit on the corner of my desk. I’d also love the idea of a Mac Mini, if it weren’t so damned wimpy. As weird as it seems, I really prefer Linux over any other OS, and can’t imagine converting full-time to OS X, plus, of course, it’d be pointless from a game standpoint.

So far I’m thinking I’d want to stick an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ in it, at a whopping $530, ouch. I can’t resist the dual core 64bit computing… I mean, how could I? It seems the Windows 64bit OS is a bit wonky, from the reviews, so I’d not be wasting my money on that… though, I’d still be compelled to get an XP Pro SP2, since I don’t have installation media thanks to HP. It still sickens me to think about buying Windows, since I use Linux 99% of the time, but… gotta have it for the games, heh.

I’ve thought about it, and I really think that maximum number of computers I need is three; one laptop, one workstation, one file server. A new computer would completely replace my existing workstation, because I’d want to play both games and do work (games in Windows, and work in Linux) on the fastest computer I would happen to own. I’d not want to have a fancy dual core computer go to waste. Ideally, I’d have two super fast computers, one for Linux and one for Windows, but I don’t have that kind of cash, heh. So, who knows… I haven’t a clue what I’d do with my existing one… perhaps I could actually use it for its intended purpose, a media center, HA!

Still, first on the agenda is to get either a 17″ LCD for my mom, or get a new 19″ LCD for me and then give her my 18″ Sony. I’d prefer a new one for myself, particularly this LG beauty, the 1981Q. This isn’t so much cheaping out on my mother, because while I love her to no end, I’m not exactly going to drop the kind of cash needed to get her a 19″ monitor, lol. The 17″ ones have the same native resolution, but I think giving her my 18″ (again with the same native resolution” would be better, because otherwise I think the loss of size could make text a bit too small; the 19″ CRT with 18″ viewable would be identical to my 18″ LCD. I do plan on contacting Sony’s support to see about fixing my LCD, because it has this very strange darkened band at the bottom of the screen. I doubt they’d be able to get it repaired or replaced in any sort of timely manner, thus I’d need to get myself a monitor for the interim. In the best case scenario, she’d get a brand new Sony LCD… heh.

Second on the agenda, as I mentioned before, I really, really need a new laptop. I’ll probably stick with an Apple iBook, because I don’t see much benefit to getting the Powerbook (still). I’d then be free to ‘give’ my iBook to Matthew, in exchange for a little bit of cash, lol… to avoid going through the hoopla of ebay and the like. It’s still perfectly good, I just want something with more oomph.

Somewhere along the line I’d like to get a new case for my fileserver, one that works a bit better on the inside for holding drives, but also for cooling those drives. It’s a relatively minor expense compared to all those other things, but it’s also one of those ‘not completely necessary’ sort of things. The same goes for the idea of upgrading to 5.1 speakers, I’d kind of like it, for games, but don’t really see a lot of point… It would be nice for noises coming from behind in a game to actually be heard behind me. I think though, instead of getting computer speakers, it might be better to just upgrade my surround system downstairs and move the old on up here, heh. That’s a pretty far off idea too, it’s just not necessary.