I already had a new computer priced out — One of the dual-core AMD Athlon X2 4400+ processors (because 0.2 MHz isn’t worth a motherfucking $500 price jump) based on the Toledo core — marking my switch to AMD, 2 gigs of super fast RAM, 200 gig SATA HDD (I decided not to go dual for RAID 0 cause striping apparently doesn’t do much), the latest ATI Sapphire Radeon series — X850XT Platinum with dual DVI (I was thinking of SLI nVidia cards, but then I’d want to buy two cards when upgrading), a DVD burner, and one of the deluxe socket-939 Asus motherboards. I even bought two 19″ flat panel monitors two months ago in anticipation of the system, and got my parents to front me for some of the cash.
Then my air conditioner broke. It’s one of those grey areas, where it would cost me $300 just to test for leaks (after spending $100 to find out what was wrong in the first place). This, in turn, is to find out how much it would cost to fix it, which could be anywhere from $300 to $1000. So instead of taking the chance on a seven-year-old A/C that may break again next year, I decided to put the money towards a new one. A brand-name one that would hopefully last me more than 10 years, with a 5 year parts/labor warranty and a 10 year warranty on the compressor coil.
Unfortunately, it’s going to cost me $3500. This means that instead of saving for a computer, I’ll be aiming to pay the A/C over the next six months. I could have stretched the payment over a year, but it’d be at 5% interest, compounded monthly. My financial goals are being put on hold now. I don’t need a new computer, although I could easily take advantage of a dual-core desktop, and it would certainly be inspiring to use such a sweet machine to work on my projects with Aaron. This has only made me more determined; I’m going to save all the money myself now, and thinking over a longer term.