So here I am, stuck with my notebook PC for the time being. Last friday, my trusty old Athlon PC bit the dust after roughly 5 years of devoted service. Ok, apparently only the video card got fried (probably after me switching from 1280x1024 to it's max resolution of 1680x1050 after getting a new TFT screen, maybe it died from overexertion, who knows?) but I decided that there was no point in getting a new AGP card for the old box. After a weekend of online research and comparing prices and pushing my personal spending limit up repeatedly, I ordered a shiny new PC yesterday, made to specs for me. It was like walking the tightrope for me, between what I would like to get and what my finances would allow (naturally). Just having bought a large TFT didn't help either.
So here I am, waiting for the new box to arrive (probably on thursday) and then I will have to reinstall everything on the new PC (it comes bare bones with no OS or anything preinstalled): Windows XP (yes. XP. No Vista! Blech!), Linux, DAZ Studio, Photoshop Elements, Firefox, Thunderbird, yadda yadda and then move all the gazillion files over from the old machine (external USB harddrive cases to the rescue!)
I guess I won't be facing boredom for a couple of days...

Here's some specs of the new box:
Intel Q8200 CPU (quad core! W00t!), 2GB RAM, 500GB harddrive, GeForce 9800 GT
It's still not top notch but a whole lot faster than my previous setup and will hopefully prove to be a decent 3D rendering machine for DAZ Studio, smooth photo editing tool and also allow some decent gaming now and then. The Mainboard has some scope for later upgrades too, so I hope this workhorse will stay with me about as long as the last one did.


EDIT: It's *THERE*!!!
I picked up my new box this afternoon and I'm right now installing stuff and transferring data from the old harddrives over to the new one. Boy, how I hate migrating stuff from one PC to another!
Installing all my programs again was such a big hassle alone. I've been working for almost 6 hours now and I'm still not finished
But I think it was really worth it. The new box is really slick. The case is black with shiny piano finish, the fans inside are all very quiet and most of all, it's operating quick from what I've seen so far (though I couldn't really test it yet, it's clearly not yet time for any 3D rendering or gaming).