Can You Have Too Much Computer Hardware?

I’m sure this is a problem that some of you would gladly want to have. Too much computer hardware can be both a blessing and a curse.  However, right now, it is somewhat of an annoyance because it is just taking up way too much room in my office, and overflowing out of my drawers. What I’ve been trying to do is consolidate my systems into a few key ones that will serve me for the remainder of the year.

Notebooks

I’ve got two great notebooks, an ASUS A8Ja that survived the “Milkshake Incident” and my brand new darling, the ASUS U1F UltraPortable. I bought the ASUS A8Ja last year during my stopover in Hong Kong. It is a solid machine that holds up to 2 GB’s of RAM and with the ATI X1600 mobile graphics card inside, it can also hold its own alright on most games that I have chosen to play on it like Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars or even a bit of Quake IV and FEAR. It also survived a scare when it had a run in with a Milkshake. Luckily, only the keyboard was toasted and was easily replaced.

With a 14.1 inch widescreen LCD, it definitely isn’t honking huge like some of the 15.4 or 17 inch behemoths out there.  However, battery life and portability have been things that I’ve been longing for so the change to the ASUS U1F is out of necessity.  The U1F is freakin’ tiny, has a similar screen resolution at 1366×768 with an 11.1 inch screen, and can go for over 6 hrs with the two included batteries.

I might still hold on to the ASUS A8Ja till the end of the year, but if the right buyer comes along, then it might have to go. For now, the U1F will become my workhorse.

The Admin Box

I’ve been running a Shuttle SD31P as my main administrative system for the last year or so. What I mean by administrative is that I don’t mess with the configuration of this system. I only do software patches and driver updates to keep it stable and rely on it 100% for running all my websites from the paper pushing perspective.  Since Shuttle sent me a new system to play with, the SD39P2, I’ll be moving into a Core 2 DUO setup (the old one was a Intel D820) and because the new system has 4 memory slots, I’ll be able to run up to 8 GB’s of RAM, but I’ll probably go upto 4 GB this time around. Most of the time, with all my browsers, email, and Photoshop running, I’m already using at least 2 GB’s.

I’m going to retire this system over to my parents. Since I know it is a solid system, they should have little problem with it. Also, because I know it inside out, it will make those “my computer is not working” stops a little less frequent.  I’m sure Mom would love to see a new computer for her birthday. It’s definitely a whole lot prettier and takes up way less room that their old beige box.

I’ve been stress testing the new system for reliability continuously over the last couple weeks so I have every confidence that it will treat me well. I’m also running VISTA Ultimate on it and Office 2007, but because I’m not doing crazy stuff to it, I’m sure it’ll run just fine like it has over the last couple weeks of pounding. Look for the review of the SD39P2 coming up soon at Futurelooks.

I’ve got a few more systems to piece together from all this crap. I’m going to keep digging tonight and hopefully have a clearer picture by tomorrow.