Marco.org

I just placed my first Newegg order in a very long time to get some external SATA drive enclosures and try to revive my two dead PCs as cheaply as possible.

PC 1 needs a new hard drive. I have a surplus of SATA drives, but this is a 2001 motherboard with IDE only. SATA PCI controllers cost about $40, while an entirely new hard drive was only $44, so I went with that.

PC 2 needs a new video card, I think. It could be a dead motherboard instead, so I don’t want to take much of a risk, but I also want it to be a somewhat capable backup gaming machine so Tiff and I can play LAN games of Half-Life 2 and Moonbase Commander. I got a fanless 8400 GS for $53, and while it’s an incredibly weak card by today’s standards, it’s still a pretty damn good performer for its price. If I was really into gaming, I would have gone for the much more powerful 8600 GT, which is also amazingly cheap ($109) for its abilities. (Even the new $270 8800 GT is incredible for its price.

This is a great time to need a PC. Too bad I’m waiting for the Mac Pro refresh before I get something truly awesome.