New Acquisition

I have finally joined the 21st Century!

My household finally has an LCD monitor connected to my desktop computer.

Yes, we (I got my wife's approval) purchased a Samsung SyncMaster 203B today. Fry's Electronics had it on sale for $299.99 and there are two rebates totalling $70.00 on this unit. This was the last day to get the rebate and they had one in stock. So I picked one up after work and installed it when I got home.

This is a very nice monitor, I am glad we got it. Even though it is not a widescreen, it has a lot of area. We are talking a 20.1" monitor after all... It is significantly larger than the 17" Relisys unit that I have used for many years.

It's funny really, I am an IT professional (Technical Project Manager/Business Analyst) who has spent the last decade and a half working on computers but has some of the oldest equipment out there. Here is the evidence:

The motherboard and CPU inside my Antec Sonata case were hand-me-downs, the USB and mouse ports don't even work (I got around that problem with a SIIG USB card).

Up until three weeks ago I was using an old Sony 32x CD-ROM. My Sony 52x CD-RW died over a year ago and all I had laying around was the CD-ROM from 1998. Got a new Pioneer DVR 112D which works like a champ, now all I need to do is start burning some discs again.

My NIC is a recycled 3Com 3C905B card that I bought at a surplus sale in 1999. It was $10 well-spent because it has served in three of my computer concoctions since I purchased it. I have never had any problems with either 3Com or Intel NICs, which is why I still have a couple of each laying around.

The LS-120 drive was a gift back in 1998 when it was actually worth something. I have another one in a box somewhere in a storage bin.

Two of my hard drives are under 10GB in capacity and the other two are only 20GB. I have four other drives laying around that I am planning to use in a Linux box. Someday that might happen.

Now that I have demonstrated to you that I am a long way from computing's cutting edge, let me bring you back around the my beloved 203B.

Believe it or not, I have wanted one of these Samsungs for a while. They are very solid mid-range LCDs and give me what I need. The picture quality, color depth, and resolution are good enough to replace the old CRT with this new unit. I'll forget about Samsung's legal troubles and bribery issues for now because they really do make a good LCD.

Yes, they are one of only a handful of companies that actually manufacture LCDs! S-LCD (Samsung and Sony Joint Venture) along with LG.Philips, AU Optronics (Acer and Unipac), Chi Mei, and Sharp produce most of the flat screens out there. So I got one from the source so to speak.

Ah yes, it feels good to be in the modern era...