New computers - don't you just love Craig's List

Well, I've been messing around with computers for the house.  BB wanted something to check email with and use Skype to talk to Dave (he's in Korea).  I wanted a HTPC so I can fire Comcast TV.

I resurrected three old Dell V3xx machines.  They are Pentium II machines that originally ran Win98.  I loaded Ubuntu on them and it runs ... but is rather painfully slow.  No joy here though they might be ok as file servers.

Next up was an old Compaq.  Not sure of the chip but it has XP and I used it happily for some years.  It developed a bad habit of locking up after a bit.  Not good.  My solution at the time was to simply replace it.  Now, it might have a purpose in life.  After a bit of mucking about I've narrowed the lockup problem down to either a bad video card (I changed cards and the machine is now stable) or a DVD player that hangs the system (I depowered it and the machine is now stable).  One or both are at issue.  I'll have to do a bit more work to determine which.  Along the way I loaded Ubuntu 11.04.  It runs well but there is not enough machine/video card to play streaming media so I continued my search.

Next up was the old Dell laptop.  Way underpowered.

I've still got a fair P4 that doesn't work but I'll have to wait a bit to get to it.

At any event I decided to buy a laptop for BB.  There was a Craig's list entry by Allen (617 600 8091, 535Auburn, Newton, Ma) for a Dell 410 at an OK price so I arranged to buy one.

New Dell 410

It's a nice compact laptop good for travel.  Unfortunately, after I bought it BB decided that she wanted to do video Skype.  The machine has no camera.  I could buy a USB camera or I'll keep this for use with the HTPC as a remote console using VNC and give BB my current Samsung.

While I was talking to Allen I mentioned my interest in HTPC.  He's running a system built around file servers and the WD TV box.  Interesting.  I'm not sure it's for me and as we were talking I mentioned my interest in a machine with HDMI out.  He had a Sony Vaio VGN-FW370J he was willing to part with.

Sony Vaio VGN-FW370J

It's a VERY nice fast laptop.  Hooked to the TV it does a great job of playing streaming video.  That said, it's rather a nicer machine than I want to use for that purpose so I'll keep looking.

I'm going to focus on an ATX or miniATX machine that can sit behind the TV.

Great thing about these new machines, new to me anyway, is that I picked them both up for $220!  Don't you just love Craig's list!
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