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Visit from the Computer Fairy

January 28th, 2007 at 10:31 pm

My house has been visited by the computer fairy! Big Grin

First, some background for this post. I remember unpacking my family's first computer with my dad in 92, maybe 93. We'd splurged and gotten a 486 instead of a 386. HAAAAAAHAHHAHA!!! Anyways, we'd had computers in school for a couple of years at this point, so I sat there in the floor with my dad showing him what all the bits and pieces were, how to hook everything up, etc.

How fast they grow up...

Fast forward to today. Computers are my dad's hobby, something he tinkers with when the cigar store is slow. Over the past few weeks he's been Ebaying, buying 3 servers of varying age and completeness in order to build himself a gigando Frankenstein server. Whatever floats your boat, right?

Anyways, after taking his pick of all the parts, there was a ton left-over so he pieced them together for a new computer for me. Woohoo!!! I can't call it a PC b/c it's technically a server configuration. Can't call it a server b/c I'm not actually serving anything on it.

Semantics aside, I've got a nice new-to-me 'box' that will more than do what I need. 3 hard drives (two 18s and a 9), dual 733 mhz processors, and 788 in ram that'll get boosted up to a gig or two once he's finished picking over the parts. And since it's a 'server', there's plenty of room to grow.





My cost? Well, he won't let me help pay for the parts. Dad's, what can you do? Since it used to be a server, there was no sound card and no USB ports (which I need for my photographs). We went to Circuit City today and bought a sound card, a USB PCI card, and a USB hub for $75.

Having the new computer gave us the motivation to rearrange the office to be able to fit everything in properly. Here is our office, with all the freebies marked with a red X. And yes, there is one on the cat Big Grin



7 Responses to “Visit from the Computer Fairy”

  1. Carolina Bound Says:
    1170024362

    Nice! You must have a knack for freebies!

  2. KEALINA Says:
    1170032650

    very cool... i wish we could furnish with freebies like that...
    yeah, parents do the freebie thing a lot... i was visiting my mom yesterday and came home with two bottles of marinade for my BBQ chicken... gotta love mango pineapple teriyaki...

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1170036923

    Cool!

    Growing up in the silicon valley, coming up with a computer deal was never a prob - hehe. Particularly with techie dads.

    I think we have 5 computers we use and we used to have a wired network. Now we have gone wireless, and I guess that is more the norm. We have lost our shock value - LOL. Wireless network, boring.

    I don't think we have paid hardly a thing for any of our computers, they abound around here, people upgrade every few months. My dh tends to buy newer computers every year or 2 for his video editing, but has never paid really much, gets most the parts for free and puts them together or simply upgrades his computer, etc. We use all the old ones for various things. Nothing else the kids will have plenty for what they need when we allocate the older ones to them.

    We could probably use monitor upgrades though - what are these 10-15 years old. LOL. Probably could upgrade easily for free too since ours are so dang old.

  4. Broken Arrow Says:
    1170084521

    Haha, I remember upgrading from an old hand-me-down 8088, and upgrading all the way up to a blistering 386. Big Grin
    Those are quite non-standard specs you have there, but since it was a server, it makes sense.

    As we speak, I'm trying to revive an old PII 233mhz for use as an internet appliance for my mom. The scarey part is that it even chokes on (Fedora) Linux it's that bad!

  5. tinapbeana Says:
    1170084893

    MM: ooooh, i would love to go dumpster diving in silicon valley! i'm pretty sure i could make money selling frankenstein's made from throwaway parts! as for the monitor, DH really wants a flat panel and i have to remind him (every time he brings it up) that an old fashioned CRT reproduces color better and can actually be calibrated if you have the right tools...

    BA: try scientific linux, it might be a smaller build and a little easier to handle. could the issue be ram instead of the processor?

  6. Broken Arrow Says:
    1170089643

    Never heard of Scientific, but it choked even on Puppy Linux!

    Actually, it was a kernel panic, but the computer has 64mb and that should've been enough. However, it's a good call though, especially for these modern linuxes. Fedora won't even let me install due to RAM limitation.

    I'll take a look at Scientific.

  7. monkeymama Says:
    1170257157

    I love that whenever dh needs a part his dad usually has one laying around - LOL. HE is a packrat and loves to buy things on sale. We always shop free from him first - hehe. For whateevr reason he likes to collect brand new computer components - whatever. Actually he picks up a lot at garage sales and stuff too - LOL. hE just can not pass up a good deal though his garage is already filled with computer crap - more than anyone in the family could ever need.

    Yup, you would have fun out here!!!!!

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