Better than the Energizer Bunny
Jun 02 '00
I’ve been thinking lately of upgrading my trusty old HP Pavilion 7050. By today’s standards, this five year old 120 MHz, Pentium class ‘puter is a dinosaur … but then, maybe not.
I have two kids, 10 and 13. They’ve been playing around on this thing now since they were five and eight. I’ve used it as a home computer; had it in my office for business use; had music software loaded on it; built and produced hundreds and hundreds of documents and promotional flyers; and still use it extensively as an Internet computer, despite it’s slower than death 14.4 modem.
I finally, last year, had to have a new 4 gig hard drive. Other than that, the only things I’ve done to this amazingly resilient computer was boost the RAM to 40 meg when I got it and put in a new floppy drive last year, because my old one wore out like an old set of brakes.
When I bought this computer almost five years ago, I also bought the HP Deskjet 855C. Outside of general maintenance, I have never had a single problem with it. In fact, to this day, most of my friend’s still marvel at the quality of the print jobs I can do with it.
Have I had any problems at all with this HP gear? Sure, but then who hasn’t had problems with their computers? When the warranty was in effect, HP personnel were there to answer all my questions and help me solve the problems. I can’t say enough about the quality of personnel at HP.
One of the most consistent problems I’ve had over the years is the system locking up. It's less a problem really, then just an annoyance. By comparison, my girlfriend has a much newer Acer, sitting right next to my HP. I have yet to see where my five year old HP has any more trouble with today’s software and Internet access then her three year Acer.
Ok, where am I going with all of this? It’s simple … we are in such a rush to go out and buy the latest and greatest new technologies that we often overlook quality used equipment.
Are you looking for something dependable for your pre-teen kids? Chances are, if you’re reading this epinion, you have a much faster, much more modern system than what I have right now. But do you allow your kids to play with it and experiment and do the things that kids like to do?
I’m going to give this trusty old "used car" to my kids, as soon as I make the decision to spend the money to go buy myself a new computer ….
But then, that may take another five years.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
aliencowboy
|
|
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 53 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.