Well – the last time I did it was about five years ago so no-one should accuse me of doing it all the time. What did I do ? Well after five years I thought it was time to replace my Dell 8100 running XP SP2 with something that could carry the torch for the next five years. I thought long and hard about my needs and what the machine will be required to do.
I would love to have the resources to have a duplicate machine for testing the range of software and hardware that I test on my own and clients behalf but its hard to justify that sort of expenditure just sitting there. It does mean I get more software troubles than most but that comes with the territory.
So after agonising a while I stuck with Dell (even though their sales mechanism and discount structures can drive you mad sometimes) – their technical support and warranty has come through for me time after time. So I looked at their various offerings and finally settled on a T7400 running Vista 64 bit.
I’m hoping that the performance boost and the VM options will allow me to continue the types of testing and also allow me to experience the 64Bit “experience” more closely than previously.
So now the waiting until it physically pitches up – ironically April Fools day is the likely arrival date.