Now that I’m finally debt free (well, excluding college loans which’ll take me the next 20 years to pay off) and the only expenditures I have coming up that I’m aware of is the possible apartment with Laura, I’m tempted to drop a little cash on myself.
The last time I really bought something for myself was my birthday where I got myself a new 19in wide screen monitor. Its a beauty, especially for the price I paid ($129 for an Envision widescreen with DVI? Not bad). However, I’m also tempted to buy something else now. See, theres two options from the way I see it.
- Xbox 360 or Wii
- New computer intended for linux day to day
Now if my parents were involved in the decision they’d most likely smack me upside the head and ask what I was thinking. See, I have a pretty decent computer at the moment (Dual core, 2Gb of memory and an X1900GT) which is more than suitable for gaming and day to day work. I also have an Xbox (unmodded sadly) which works alright for older games. Sadly, there aren’t too many new games coming out for the Xbox and its graphics are starting to look a bit dated. And yes, my computer can run 99% of games out there and its more than fast enough for wordprocessing, movie watching and everything else I do but man it puts out a lot of heat. Leaving it on 24×7 makes my room into an oven.
What makes it even more complicated is that a new computer build (Athlon x2, 2Gb of memory, 690G board, hd, case and burner) would cost roughly around $400ish shipped. An Xbox 360 with an extra controller and a game is going to run roughly the same. So, either one puts me back the same. Ones dedicated to gaming solely and the nice thing is you don’t really have to worry about “oh man, can my system play the latest game?” If its designed for the 360, it’ll play it. Still doesnt take care of the heat related issue with the computer though.
Some people might ask why the hell two computers would simplify the heat issues but I could actually shut down the 2nd, gaming, current computer when I dont need it. The new one would be alot more frugal on both power, and heat since it’d be based on much new processes and designs.
For example, my current processor uses about 90-100 watts of power at load where the new one is a 65 watt max processor. My current video card at load uses probably 18-20A and runs close to 75c at load. The integrated on the 690G uses far, far less but even has HDMI/DVI integrated on board
Its an interesting dilemma and honestly, I probably won’t punch the button for a few more months but when Im bored (like now), its damn tempting.