Highspeed transfer VS. USB 1.0

So tonight I made an attempt to transfer some of my mom's pictures (9 GB worth! Wow!) to my computer. It failed miserably. The SD card didn't work, the new external hard drive we got tonight (a 500 GB My Book marked down from $170 to $130) wouldn't work, and it was just a mess.

These are the problems you encounter when you have a computer that is 6+ years old that has USB 1.0, no Firewire, no CD burner, and no DVD burner. It seems to be across the board; I get the same error message with the SD card as I did the previous external HD. It must be...I don't know.

Bah. Once more. Bah. Again, now, with feeling. Bah. Humbug! Humbug! Pancake flapperjacks!


I'll just wait until my mom buys a USB/Firewire upgrade...but then again, for the cost of buying the $40 upgrade, we might as well just buy a new desktop. OK, maybe desktops aren't that cheap, but darnit, I'm mad at my mom's computer right now. Oh, it's disclaimer time.


Disclaimer: I am in NO way an expert in computers. I studied purchasing laptops for about a week when I purchased my laptop a year ago, and it's easy to apply that to purchasing a desktop.

Go look at this Gateway GT5405E, and rage against my mom's machine with me. Ooh, feel the hate. Tss, burn.

A 2.8 GHz dual-core, 1 GB memory, 250 GB hard drive...only problem I see is that it has 2 RAM slots, and both are taken up by 512 MB chips/board/cards/whichever (max RAM: 2 GB). It's got Vista premium. The graphics processor looks like the only lmao but we have a (better) GPU on the current desktop. It costs $300, and shipping would make it around $350.

Then there's this eMachines T5230, which has the same processor as my laptop, only it's 2.3 GHz and it's a dual core. It also comes with Vista and a 250 GB drive. The difference is that this one has only 1 RAM card, which is 1 GB (max RAM: 2 GB). Actually...a reviewer argued that it has 2x 512, and Tiger Direct is usually wrong when contested by anyone. It has a Nvidia 6150SE GPU...only thing I know about that GPU is that it's shared memory, and I think the 128 MB GPU on our current desktop is 128 dedicated. It is also $300.

Then there's the Gateway GT5407E, which is almost the same as the first Gateway, except that it has a slightly different processor (it's still a 2.8 Dual Core), 2 spare RAM slots (max ram: 4 GB), and a 320 GB HD. It also comes with a TV tuner. I'd choose this model over the first Gateway, the 05E. This is the 07E.

I believe those 3 are the top 3 on Tiger Direct as far as refurbished in the $300-$400 price range. Now...would I choose the eMachines, or the Gateway 07E? First things first, only looking at Tiger Direct is a mistake. You have to vary your search to different sites, but given the choices...oh...I suppose since we already have a GPU, I would choose the Gateway. The 320 GB HD pushes it over.

The next step towards buying one would be A: see if the need is logical (it might be), B: get the money together and see if it's possible, and C: research the heck out of them and find others. But the really awesome, amazing thing about desktops is the ability to upgrade them. So any small lack of foresight can be remedied easily.


For example, I got Command and Conquer: Generals as a birthday gift from my dearest Granny several years ago. I was so overjoyed! I loved it already!

I put it into the machine, and...lo and behold...it didn't work! It would crash the game and dump me onto the desktop just in the opening movie. If it were a laptop, I'd be out of luck. But it was a desktop, so my mom bought me a...I think Nvidia GPU. Then it worked. I was happy. I think I may have peed my pants; I can't remember.



Of course...I would install the current desktop's HD into the new desktop just to spite it, therein taking care of the file transfer problem. Assimilation. The Borg have it down right. Anyway, I consider the hard drive the soul of the computer, and we've had that old desktop for 6+ years. It's also refurbished (we would not have bought a new one), so I have no doubts about refurbished computers. It's still going very strong, and it's a generic brand, to boot. Get it? To boot? Computer humor! Laugh, man!

Of course, first things first, determine if there's a need. We'll see how all this pans out.