-The New Computer
I have a ten year old Dell PC with an hyper threaded single core 3 GHz processor, a mid-grade graphics card, two hard drives with a combined storage of 400 GB, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, USB 2.0 (which has been acting up in strange ways lately) and a recent install of Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It is a decent computer. Even after ten years of use, I believe that it has a few more years of service left in it. I cannot complain.
However, lately I have been craving a computer with a little more oomph. My PC is incapable of playing most computer games except for World of Warcraft, which is intentionally programmed for computers with lower specifications. This is a well-informed business decision on Blizzard Entertainment’s part, who want a fun and exciting game that everyone can play. World of Warcraft is a beautiful game with lush graphics and addicting gameplay (I would know, I have been playing it since November of 2006), but there are other games out there that would simply crash my computer if I tried to play them. For instance, Civilization V, a game that is demanding not because of it’s graphics, but because of the complex algorithms used to power the artificial intelligence in the game. I have had the game since it was released in September of 2010 and I have completed one out of five games played because it would randomly crash when playing it on my PC.
I have been pricing for good deals on computers for a couple of months now. I have considered mid grade PC’s, under-powered netbooks, and various tablet computers. For a while, I even contemplated buying an iPad, an over-priced, albeit nifty device that in no way replaces a proper computer and simply does not offer the gaming opportunities or programs that I am looking for. Well, after thorough research and lots of patience, I finally found the computer deal that I had been looking for. I am currently writing this blog with that computer.
I found a brand new Asus X54C laptop at the local Micro Center for a steal. It has a dual core 2.2 GHz Intel Sandy Bridge CPU with an Intel HD graphics chip (plus HDMI output), a 15.6” high definition screen, a 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of DDR 3 RAM, USB 3.0, and a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium. I have been trying to push this laptop to it’s limits, but I have been unable to do so. So far, it can handle anything that I throw at it. I am so pleased.
Now, to put this bargain into perspective, I have compared it to my wife’s HP laptop that she bought two and a half years ago. I will spare you all of the tech specs and just say that basically, we have very similar computers. Her processor is a tad faster, but I have USB 3.0. The Windows Experience Index on hers is a 4.1 whereas mine is a 4.4. My graphics chip can handle 3D gaming graphics a little more than hers, but it’s not enough for her to cry about. So, these are very similar laptops, but hers was purchased when the internal hardware was still brand new. Her HP laptop cost her about $750.00 and my new Asus cost me only $300.00.
During my research, I had at one point decided to save up for an eleven inch MacBook Air, which costs $999.00. The Air has an underclocked Intel Core i5 dual core processor at 1.6 GHz speed, and comes with only 2 GB of DDR3 RAM (it costs two hundred dollars more for the 4GB upgrade, which is a one thousand percent markup). We can only hope that the extra cost for RAM is going to improve the living conditions of some poor Foxconn employee in China (perhaps, they will receive an extra bowl of rice or a pair of partially worn New Balance tennis shoes), but we all know that this is not the case and the proceeds will likely be used to erect a floating glass staircase inside a new Apple Store in Luxembourg or Tokyo. I digress. The only thing that the MacBook Air has going for it is a sleek design and bragging rights for owning an Apple computer. So, for $1300.00 after tax, I could have purchased an Apple laptop with lower specs than the Asus that I bought for $300.00. How could I pass up a deal like that?
I have really enjoyed this new computer. Laptops are new to me. So, on the second day of owning it, I had a few things to learn regarding the battery. I found out that it is smart to train a laptop battery by charging it and draining it and then charging it again, which is pretty standard. Also, it is not necessary to keep the battery plugged in while using the AC adaptor. In fact, storing the battery during these times and when the laptop is not in use will vastly improve the life that your battery can have. I had no idea until I did some research.
-It’s All In The Cloud, Baby
My new laptop has decent hard drive space (320 GB), but I decided to see what my options were to store my data on the various cloud services that are available. I have over 60 GB of music, 30 GB of movies, and over 10 GB of photos on my old PC.
According to Apple.com, “with iTunes Match, all your music — even songs you’ve imported from CDs — can be stored in iCloud. So you can access your music from all your devices and listen to your entire library, wherever you are.” It is a handy service that costs only twenty-five dollars a year for a 25,000 song limit and I have been using it since it was first released. Wherever I go, I can access all of my music with my iPhone 4S by simply downloading directly from the cloud. The only complaint that I had about the service was that the files could not simply stream from the cloud, but must be downloaded to the device with the option to play during the download process. I admit, it’s a small gripe for a wonderful service, but if I had a complaint, then that would be it.
Recently, I stumbled upon Google Play, another great cloud music service provided by Apple’s competition. According to Play.Google.Com, you can “store up to 20,000 songs from your own library for free and instantly access your music on any of your Android devices or the web”. In Google’s case, ‘instantly access’ not only refers to downloading, but includes streaming as well. Not only does this work great with my new laptop, but I have also started using it on my iPhone by bookmarking the page in Safari and adding a link to my Homepage for instant access. The only complaint I had with Google was the amount of time it took to upload all of my music to Google’s servers, which took three days to complete. After the upload had finished, I believe that it is a better service than Apple’s iTunes Match.
Because of both of these great services, I have no need to store all of my music on the hard drive of my new laptop. It is all stored in the cloud and remains safe on the hard drive of my other PC.
While I researched Google Play, I came across another great cloud service, but this one was provided by Microsoft and it is called SkyDrive, one of the great features of Windows Live. For the introductory user, Microsoft offers 7 GB of free cloud storage (with a 25 GB offer for users who signed up before April 22, 2012) and other tiers of storage at various price points. Luckily, I had signed up for SkyDrive a few years ago, but never used it. The 25 GB option was available to me and I took it.
I decided to store all of my photo and word files on SkyDrive, which provides access from any other computer (including my new Asus), as long as I am signed into Windows Live. One feature that I really like is that the documents can be edited on any of the Windows Live Office products or sent to your computer to be edited with Microsoft Office. Also, when using Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can edit your photos on the computer and then seamlessly store them into Windows SkyDrive without needing to store them on your local drive. When I am ready, I will store all of my video files in SkyDrive as well, but that is the only thing that I need to do to untether my laptop from my old PC. Soon enough, the PC will be unplugged and stored away, with all of my data still on it’s hard drive for safe keeping.
So, there we have it. I bought a new laptop for a deal that I simply could not pass up and then I learned about all of the excellent cloud computing options that are out there. This has been a fun week for me. I have been looking for work, writing more, playing Civilization V and Diablo 3 without any problems, and just loving this computer. As for all of my old data? It’s all in the cloud, baby.
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