Lazy Man and Money

I Bought a New Computer… and Perhaps You Should too.

by 8 Comments

Today’s article may be a little dry and technical, so I’m going to take the unusual step of writing a summary upfront of the key points.

One thing that I love about blogging is that it serves as my personal journal. This article serves a dual purpose as an entry in that journal. I can look back at all the laptops I’ve owned and understand what I was thinking at the time I was making that decision. It’s particularly helpful for larger purchases. It’s another great reason for starting a blog.

One of the important points to take away from this article is that if you are looking to buy a new computer, you are going to want the new 8th generation Intel chips. They benchmarks show it to be an incredible leap forward. Perhaps more important (at least readers of this blog) is that such computers are quite affordable… at least they have been around holiday season.

While you may have missed out on the particular deal I (maybe) got, here’s a very powerful Dell for $580. If that deal sells out, there will likely be another coming soon.

Finally the title of “I hope” refers to Lenovo not shipping the product when they said they would. Nearly a week later, it still hasn’t shipped. I called and they are working on it, but we’ll see.

Let’s dig into the “meat” of the article:

So About that New Computer

Less than two weeks ago, I wrote:

“I’m going to try to resist [these laptop deals] and wait for the next cycle. However, if you are in the market for a new laptop, I’d jump on these now. I think prices will only go up after the holiday season before they float back down throughout 2018.”

What’s that they say about best-laid plans? I guess resistance is futile.

At least I can say that I put my money where my mouth is on the last part of the quote, right?

So what changed?

My Love/Hate Relationship with My Current Computer

I have a 13″ Dell XPS from late 2015. I love how small (almost no bezel!) and light it is. I paid $800 for 4GB of memory, 128GB of SSD storage, and a 5th generation Intel Core i5. That was with a deal that saved me a couple hundred dollars. The 4GB of memory was very low, but if I wanted to get 8GB of memory I would have had to pay $1200 or more. The Microsoft Store only stocked a low-end and high-end version. When I bought it, I immediately had some buyers remorse about only getting 4GB of memory. Worse that 4GB of memory can’t be upgraded.

The 128GB SSD storage was bare minimum at the time. The Core i5 was a middle of the road processor. Overall it was a little below average in performance, but it looked good, traveled well, and had tremendous battery life.

Fortunately, one of my very few talents is that I can make computers run a lot faster. I should be good at it due to my computer science degree. Despite this, I tend to have dozens of Firefox tabs open to work on several different articles and other projects at any given time.

Unfortunately, the new Firefox Quantum uses more memory, so my computer has ground to a halt for the last few weeks. If I had to point my finger on one thing, it would be this. Firefox Quantum is great if you aren’t bumping up against memory and disk space limits.

For example, I’ve just lost 15 minutes on a 3-minute task because my computer is simply trying to figure out what to do without memory or disk space. I write my articles in Notepad++ and cut and paste them into the WordPress, because typing on a website is painfully slow.

The easy answer is to just change my ways and keep my Firefox tabs limited. Unfortunately, I can never seem to manage that.

Technology Life Moves Pretty Fast…

… If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. At least I think that’s what Ferris Bueller would say, right?

I don’t live for CPU benchmarks, but I have a general feel for them. A few months ago, Intel released their 8th generation Core i7 chip. It’s the top of the line chip available for ultra portable computers. As Laptop Mag’s review of the chip noted, “If you’re shopping for a laptop and there’s a model with 8th Gen Core available in your price range, you should definitely prioritize it.”

It seems like Intel is always coming out with new chips. However, this chip is revolutionary because it doubles the number of cores. That may sound like gobbledygook to you, so let me give you two numbers. My current computer’s processor scores a (3497 on Passmark’s test. The 8th generation i7 scores a 8016 on Passmark’s test.

It’s around 2.3 times faster.

That’s great, but I’ve never been able to justify buying an Core i7 chip, much less a new one. Those are the chips that they tend to put in $1500 laptops (for example, this Dell XPS).

I may not need a super-CPU, but as long as it doesn’t cost a lot of extra money, I might as well “future proof” and enjoy the best of the best for once, right? Well fortunately, it doesn’t cost a lot of money…

This Time it’s Different

I had rushed to publish my Black Friday deals article, because I wanted you to have a chance to get a this 14″ Lenovo 720s IdeaPad before it sold out. For $800 you could get the following:

  • Intel’s 8th Generation, Core i7 CPU
  • 14″ 1920×1080 IPS Anti-Glare Display
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT MX150 2GB Graphics

I was able to resist this deal because it had a decent graphics card. That’s a great feature if you do some gaming, but I don’t. I didn’t want to pay a premium for something that I wouldn’t take advantage of. I would rather have a cheaper price or more memory to run more programs. Nonetheless, it sold out fairly quickly.

A little later, I saw an ideal laptop at an amazing price. Once again it was an Lenovo (this article is not sponsored by Lenovo in any way). Slickdeals showed this stacked Yoga 720s for $669:

  • Intel’s 8th Generation, Core i7 CPU
  • 13″ 1920×1080 IPS Anti-Glare Display
  • 16GB DDR4 Memory
  • 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. More than twice as fast, four times the memory, and 4 times the size of the hard drive. That’s faster memory and a faster hard drive than what I have too. That’s so much memory that I could run almost any combination of anything. All of this in an ultra-portable computer like my current Dell 13″ XPS.

However, after spending $2000 on a television a couple of days before, I thought my wife would kill me if I made a big impulse purchase. I decided to sleep on it.

By morning it was sold out. It barely lasted a couple of hours. There was tremendous buzz that it was the best deal of the Black Friday weekend.

I kicked myself. I should make up that $700 in productivity in just the first 45 days with it, right?

Alas, there’s no use crying about missed deals. (I’m too busy crying about writing about Bitcoin in 2010 and not actually buying any.)

On December 1st, the same computer was back with another great deal. It wasn’t under $669 plus tax like the last one, but instead it was $800 with 10% back from Ebates. I ended up getting $90 back as I had just signed up for Ebates and they gave me an extra $10. In total it was $765. That’s $855 after tax minus the $90 cash back.

(You can sign up for Ebates here. It’s free. You can save some big money buying through there I as did. If you do sign up, I may get a referal fee, which means I’ll love you a little more.)

Now all I need is for Lenovo to deliver it. By the mid-January (when the holidays are dying down), I should be publishing a lot more with the increased productivity.

Working on a $100 Computer

by 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, I brought you 10 Hacks to Speed Up Your Browser. I explored how I hacked my version of Firefox to run very fast and consume much less memory (most of the tricks will work for Chrome as well). What I didn’t know is that within a week, I’d be forced to put the hacks to the test.

My crazy computer purchase of February 2013 died on me. An ounce of drink hit the keyboard and though it worked for a few more hours, I had trouble getting it started after it went to sleep. It turns out that both the video card and the keyboard took major damage. I was able to rescue it long enough by plugging it in to television and using a spare keyboard. Getting that to work seemed nothing short of miraculous.

This put me in a position of needing a computer to work, but not having one. Circuit City is long gone. Best Buy moved out of my town years ago. I could get something cheap from Wal-Mart, but when you use a computer as much as I do, you don’t want to make a 2+ year decision because of a day or two.

And this is when I cashed in on the best insurance I bought last year. During Black Friday I bought a ASUS X205TA Laptop at Staples for $100. My rationale was that it would be a great travel computer at 2.2 pounds with 12 hour battery life. The processor runs like it is powered by a hamster wheel. It has very little memory meaning you can only open up a couple of programs before it grinds to halt. The screen angle has to be just right. The 11.6-inch screen is a big difference from the 16-inches I used a few years ago.

However, I was able to get real work done. I could write articles, check emails, update spreadsheets and just about anything else I needed to do.

It made me think, “What if I could just pick up nearly any computer and get to work?” What if I could do the same things on a $100 computer that cost me $1100 two years ago? Computers are getting cheaper and cheaper, but my computing needs aren’t necessarily expanding. The ability to retain my data and workflow are far more important to me than hardware itself.

I can’t lie, my computing desires expand all the time. I look up all the latest laptops much more often than I should. There’s sexy 4K screens and new processors that zip along using very little battery, all wrapped up in a package of around 2.5 pounds or less. As long as I can keep myself in check, being productive on a very cheap computer could save me hundreds of dollars.

Create a “Work Anywhere” Environment

Being able to work on any computer saved my bacon in this disaster. How did I do it? I simply looked at everything I do and tried to find a way to make it work on another computer. Specifically, these things came in particularly handy:

  • Firefox Sync – I was very nervous about syncing my browsing history with a third-party. It seems like a huge security risk. After reading about how the security was handled, I felt more secure. Being able to download Firefox (even on my Android phone and tablet) and have my browsing environment is about 80% of the battle.
  • LastPass – I use LastPass to store and secure all my passwords. If I can remember one password, I have them all. It seems like every site I use nowadays requires a login, so this is huge.
  • Google Documents – I have documents and spreadsheets that I want to have with me at all times. For example, I have notes on the articles that I am intending to write as well as a spreadsheet of earnings.

I’m sure I’m just touching the surface of what I could use. Feedly and Pocket are two apps that I’m looking to use more. I recently started to use NotePad++ which offers backing up data to the cloud via DropBox and similar services. I’m going to see if I can use this to sync files a little faster than dealing with Google Documents (it can be a bit of a resource hog to leave it open all the time).

I am testing my “work anywhere” environment by trying to work on my wife’s computer with my own separate Windows login. (I offer the same to her on my computer of course.) So far it is working pretty nicely.

What I Learned From Using a $100 Computer

I learned two really valuable lessons from using a $100 computer:

  1. While the computer is functional, it is annoying enough to use that I found myself looking forward to doing errands rather than goofing off.
  2. Most people probably don’t need nearly as much “computer” as they think they do.

There’s definitely some kind of sweet spot of having a very functional computer at a relatively bargain price. In the past you might need to spend $500 to satisfy basic computing needs. I feel like that has shifted significantly and much of that money is more about wants.

That leads me to…

Should You Really Skimp on a Computer?

This is a difficult question and it really depends on the person. I use my computer so much, that I feel like any loss in productivity would be magnified. At the same time, my wife uses her non-work computer only about an hour a day, so it isn’t magnified as much.

I’m going to cop out escape this question by simply saying that many people could save money if they wish to.

Next week, I’ll review the new computer I bought. In writing this article, I’ve realized I might have made a several hundred dollar mistake.

A Crazy Computer Purchase

by 2 Comments

Today’s post is written a 9″ Acer Aspire One netbook (remember those?) that is probably about 4 years old. I bought it as a travel computer and it’s come in handy more than few times, but never more so than in the last 24 hours. If you notice some words missing a “c” it’s because most of the time it doesn’t register the first 3 times I type it.

Yesterday my main computer, a Dell 16XPS died on me. By dying, the computer gave me beep codes which I hadn’t heard of before. That’s the computer’s way of saying, “Things are so bad, that I can’t even put an error on the screen.” I took it to GeekSquad and they gave me an option of sending it out to get a quote on repair and getting a new computer. I wonder if anyone really answers with, “Yeah, I don’t need a computer or access to all the data that was on there for week or two. Why don’t you take it and then tell me that it will cost me 50% of a new computer to fix this outdated computer?” I’m guessing not too many.

So today, I bought a new computer to replace that one that is probably between 2 to 2.5 years old. Every time I’ve bought a new computer, I always was able to upgrade thanks to Moore’s Law. I’ve usually saved myself a little money too. This purchase feels a little different. My old computer had the following improvements over my new one:

  • A spacious 16″ screen vs. a cramped 13.3 inch screen
  • 4GB of extra memory
  • 200GB of hard drive space
  • An Intel i7-core processor vs. an Intel i5-core processor
  • A $999 price tag vs. a $1100 one
  • A DVD-RW drive vs. no optical drive at all

So two years later I managed to downgrade a number of critical components and spend more money. Good job Lazy Man, right?

Well, the new computer has a few things going for it. It’s an Asus U31Xa (rolls right off the tongue) Ultrabook. Despite all those minuses above, it has a super fast SSD hard drive, USB 3.0, a really long battery life (6+ hours according to most), and a weight of 3 pounds, which isn’t too far off what HP Touchpad tablet weighs with its case. Oh and that i5-core processor today is about 3 times faster than the i7 that I had before according to Passmark benchmarks.

The biggest downside is that I got the bad luck of the draw with the much slower Sandisk SSD vs. the Adata SSD. It will still be faster than what I had previously.

I would have paid extra for 8GB of memory and an i7, but while Asus claims to make it on their website, they aren’t available in any store online that I could find. In fact no one seems to make all that with a touch screen. The Acer S7 is pretty close with almost everything that I want, except that the cover is glass, which just doesn’t seem durable. It’s also another $500 or so. Vizio makes some good 14 and 15″ “thin and light” computers that seem impressive, but I’ve read bad things about the touchpad and keyboard.

Manufacturers are just starting to come out with touchscreens to work with Windows 8. Also, SSD prices are expected to drop dramatically this year. Until that happens computer makers are going with hybrid drives where the operating system is on a fast SSD, but the data is on slower old fashioned hard drives. In an attempt to keep costs low, they are also going with 4GB of memory instead of 8GB.

All of this adds up to why I didn’t want to buy a computer at this time. There’s really never a good time to buy a computer and be future-proofed, but this is a particularly poor time. Maybe for back to school or Black Friday this year, you’ll start seeing cheaper prices on several components hit the stores.

I’m off to think about getting a big SD card for the slot to work as a second drive. Hit me up in the comments with what I should tell my wife when the 14″, i7, 256GB SSD, 8GB memory, 3.2lb Ultrabook goes on sale for $999 later this year.

Buying and Selling a Computer

by 16 Comments

Buying a Computer

buy-sell-computer.jpgIt’s been awhile since I bought a new desktop computer. Liv has been around for a few years. To really begin the story of Liv, I should start with my laptop, Sarah Michelle. Most of the time Sarah Michelle runs fine – after all she’s just a couple of years old. However, now and again my 754 open tabs in Firefox brings her to a screeching halt. In fact, in the last month, Sarah Michelle simply shut off on me in the the middle of my typing a sentence. She put her foot down. It wasn’t a slow shut down, she simply reacted as if there were no longer power going to the computer.

I’ve started to realize that I need to have a second computer – a fast one – and one where I can sit down and focus on my writing. Liv is old enough that she’s isn’t quite what I needed any more. She’s also takes up a little extra space compared to some newer computers (I’m always thinking small.) Newer computers also come with new fancy features like USB ports in the front.

I began the search for a new computer. I seriously considered this Shuttle PC, until I found a brand new, unopened Dell Vostro Slim on Craigslist. It was $330 and compared to Liv’s Athlon 1Ghz chip, it really flies. Scarlett has lots of memory, 2GBs and a processor that is fast in comparison to what I’m used to. I’m not going to set it up with World of Warcraft, so I’m happy with something “much better than I had before” vs “state of the art”. It was clear as soon as Scarlett was set up she was going to be of great value. She hides under my desk leaving me room to organize my thoughts in a zen of organization.

There was a problem though. With a new great computer, I realized I needed a monitor. My old 17″ LCD monitor is at least 6-7 years old now. It still works okay, but there are occasional signs of it starting to slow down. I went back to my friend Craigslist. I found a new 20″ Dell monitor that hadn’t been opened for $175. I could have spent another $70 and bought a 22″ monitor of similar quality, but again I was happy to have something better than before.

With this set-up, a $505 should keep me productive for the next 5 years. At that point, I may need to look for a quad-speed processor and a 24″ monitor. By that time, the prices on those should be close to another $505. At $100 a year, I have to marvel how much cheaper and better computers have become. You have to love Moore’s Law.

Selling a Computer

This is where I run into a bit of problem. I cleaned up Liv’s hard drive, using some great free software (Darik’s Boot and Nuke). (You always want to use software like that to avoid identity theft). I put an older operating system on it, and now Liv is running almost as good as new. I realize I could have done this before and avoided buying the new computer. However, as a part-time software engineer, I need a computer capable of larger tasks than e-mail.

So I have a computer that’s suitable for basic tasks. I tried to sell it on Craigslist for a price that was similar to other computers I saw for sale. I’ve had no bites yet. I could (and will) lower the price in hopes it attracts attention at some point. I would prefer to donate it, but it seems that few organizations take old computers. If anyone has any other ideas how I can keep a fine computer active and out of a recycling bin as long as possible, I’d love to hear them.

Photo Credit: jima