SW, That's an oversimplification, unfortunately.
The difficulty is finding the spot in the middle
(my middle name) where you can get good performance
now AND have an upgrade path for some reasonable
future time.
The 599-899 stuff, (I read, no fisrthand knowledge,
but it's EASY to believe) can hardly be upgraded at
all. Little memory; no video upgrade; no or very
few added peripherals, etc.
SO if you need that extra disk space (or whatever)
what do you do? Start over? Want to add a
second monitor? Where are you going to plug the
other card if you don't have an expansion slot.
On the other hand, I don't buy Networm's reusable
tower idea wholesale either. Every time I turn
around there's a new form factor or a new power
supply requirement (with a different cable and different
voltage and different mounting).
So far I've been pretty lucky, having managed to upgrade
everything I own for several years each. My failures
in network cards have been reported here and I won't
repeat the embarrassment, but I'm still using in various
places 1-meg and 4-meg 32-pin memory simms bought 5 and
seven years ago. Of course I have a house full of hubs.
and network cables running around, but I've always been
carefule to leave SOME upgrade path, even on the old
junk. I think some of it is old enough now to qualify
as junque (antique junk) <G>. But I still save backups
to the first hard drive I ever bought over a two-bit
eithernet connection (by todays standards). I still
have an aging scanner in my basement that works fine
when the 32-bit color job on my desktop goes south
for a little R&R, which it does occasionally.
Ok, I admit I HAVE to keep up some of the old junque
because I still support products on older OSs. BUT
(cross my fingers and toes) I haven't had a support
call on the old stuff in over three years, so this
is not the entire story.
Sorry, rambling around here. But somewhere up there
is a valid point about the midground between throwaway
and high end. There is a useful, economic mid ground
there somewhere amid all the chatter.
Regards,
Spots |
