At no cost to you…As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of the other links mentioned are also my affiliate links, which I may earn a small commission if clicked or purchased. Your support is greatly appreciated, but never expected. Thank you!
Retro Tech
Many years ago, I used to have the old school desktop computer tower with a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse. Later on, as tech advanced and gaming took hold, those models were handy and automatically had CD/ DVD slots on the tower with USB and SD card slots. Gone are the days of having that kind of convenience on your desktop computer now though. I feel old. Really old. Like floppy disk and MS-DOS old. A positive spin is that the eighties are trending. I’ve seen Stranger Things than that. lol
You now have to consider purchasing additional external devices that used to be included on a pc so you can perform basic entertainment or memory storage tasks with physical components rather than trusting the increased digitization and storage of files. You are now required to purchase external devices if you want to watch “antiquated formats” such as Blu-Ray/ DVD movies, create or listen to CDs, and even connect your phone to download your captured videos and photos to the computer verses the Cloud.
I used to make Christmas music compilation CDs for my friends and co-workers each season, but as the digital world progressed alarmingly fast compared to our “new wave” discoveries from the 80’s to early 2000’s…digital mp3s, mp4s, streaming services and cloud storage have replaced the once tactile giddiness that came with mailing disks to my pals so they could literally Rock Around the Christmas tree. I now understand what my older family and friends mean when they reminisce (more like lament) about their groovy vinyl music albums, rad 8-tracks, and flashy Polaroid cameras.
Crossing the generational divide between “vintage 80’s teen” to “modern 2020’s old person”, I myself can attest to the sadness I felt transitioning my old VHS tape and cassette tape collections to DVD and CD. I’m now faced with streaming Netflix, Amazon, Spotify or Pandora for digital books, music and movies while my old collections are just there for power outages or solar flares blocking the satellite signals. That’s providing my old disc players will continue to work. Until then, they sit unused and patiently await a natural disaster or boredom as we ourselves sit through tedious ads despite paying for premium access online. But I digress, as old people are prone to do.
All-in-One Desktop Computers vs. Laptops
For the last 10 years, I have ditched my old computer tower for a less cluttered All-in-One PC approach, so I’ve got more room on my desk for books, supplies, beads, etc. It’s hard to find one with the memory capacity that I need for my video and graphics editing though. I’m not a gamer, so I don’t need to worry with that capability, but the graphics capacity and video editing that I do is of a similar or slightly higher demand on a home system. The most recent pc I got was a Dell Inspiron 27″ FHD Touch All-in-One desktop, 11th Gen Intel Core i7 with 64GB RAM and 8TB Solid State Drive (SSD). It came with a small USB external hub since there are limited ports on the back. This was the first pc I bought myself from Amazon and I’ve had it since 2021.
The All-in-One desktop and many other PCs usually don’t have that high of terabytes, from the options at Dell, HP and big box stores. If you need that many TB, most people just get an external hard drive for storage and/ or rely on Cloud services. Although I do have both those options, I still wanted my newest pc to be a 3rd option in case the other 2 fail. I researched it all over and finally took a chance on this Amazon vendor, based on their description of what they built w/ 8TB SSD availability and their reviews. They specifically added the 8TB for me after I’d messaged them. I’ve not really got any major complaints. Sometimes it will run the fan high during the virus scan/ system update, which tends to cause stuttering or screen freezing issues if I also have Adobe Premiere Pro open while editing videos for my Sparkle by Monica YouTube channel. I just shut Adobe down while it does that and then start again once it’s done.
I’ve never been a fan of laptop computers. My husband had the same HP laptop for over 20 years and rarely used it except for when he was in college. He got rid of it awhile back after our last move and now opts to surf the net on a new iPad I got him for Christmas last year. I know many people prefer laptops and iPads for portability, gaming, creative/ art programs, but I prefer to edit and create on a large screen. I do, however, still absolutely love my Amazon Kindle for the access to watch YouTube videos to relax and also let it read my eBooks to me via the text-to-speech feature. I upgraded to an Amazon Fire HD 10 back in 2021 and love the larger screen compared to my original HDX 8.9″ version that I previously reviewed. Amazon now appears to have dropped the name Kindle Fire for Amazon Fire, but they still offer a range of sizes and functionality with apps, shopping, movies, music, games and book integration through Amazon’s site.
Which style of computer do you prefer and why? Let me know in the comments.
