I'm in my first year of graduate school, which is pretty surprising to me because it took me a long time to finish my bachelor's degree. I wasn't sure about grad school right away, but I graduated with the worst possible timing, which was during our "Great Recession." After spending the entire summer looking for that well deserved opportunity that would pay off after all the effort of a college degree, I started to freak out. I wasn't getting any leads for new jobs. Not surprising, considering that there were so many people with more experience who were in the same non-existent job market. So after a 3 month break from college, I dove deep into graduate school. Yes, the school loan total jumped considerably, but there were some new costs that appeared that I did not expect. One of these included a new computer. I had a laptop (is it labtop or laptop?) that worked okay, until I heard that ear-piercing sound of my virus scanner picking up a Trojan Virus. How the hell did this happen?
Anyway, there was no getting that Trojan out, and the computer was pushing its 7th Birthday. There wasn't even enough memory to run the "Sneezing Panda" video on youtube.
So, time for a new computer. I was excited about getting a new machine, but also developing a belly ache from the anticipated $1000 dollars that I would have to drop to get a computer that lived up to my expectations.
I'll cut to the end and then fill in the details.... I am the proud owner of the greatest laptop now, and I spent $300 dollars on her. She's an hp pavillion I think with 6 gig of RAM, along with other bells and whistles, including the full microsoft office suite, i-tunes, included music files, new comodo internet security, new drivers, and other things I have no idea about yet.
The greatest part, I have PERSONAL IT support. No calling overseas or being on hold for hours. My guy is a text message away.
How did I do it? I started asking people, not salespeople, about my anticipated purchase, and I found my computer guy. Everyone knows someone who is that techy/computer savvy type, and they will tell you where and how to get a good cheap computer. In fact, they probably own a few machines themselves. In this case, Jack had one he "wasn't really using." And mentioned he could sell his if I was interested. I was a little skeptical buying someone's used laptop, but he agree to loan it to me and let me try it out for awhile.
Wow was I surprised! This laptop was clean inside and out, and looked like it was brand new. I was stunned to find out that it was a couple of years old because of the excellent condition that it was in. I agreed to buy it because it was more than I could have ever asked for. I didn't even want to give it back, but he insisted on reloading all the drivers, updating it, and even installing some programs that he thought I would personally need. We have some similar music tastes so he even left a taste of his music files on the hard drive for me. Here's the personal note he left me on the desktop:
"i installed microsoft office 2003 pro, DO NOT UPDATE IT. You may need to do a couple more
MS OFFICE updates, there shouldn't be too many left. otherwise enjoy the laptop.
If you have any problems please don't hesitate to contact me."
How great was this. He even download a clean i-tunes for me because of how addicted to my i-pod I am.
All in all, a great buy, and I saved $700. So if you're in the market for a new computer, ask that guy you know that is the computer savvy type. He might have a few "lying around." I've included some pics of the new machine, and yes, there are some xbox stickers on the top. I think the stickers give it character, plus they remind me of my friend. He's my favorite. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment