Three surprises this week

I had three surprises this week:

DELL PowerEdge SC440 server for £117 offer

For just a few days DELL offered a small tower server (18Kg) with Intel Dual Core processor E2160, half a gig of ECC memory, 160Gb HDD and DVD-ROM for only £117 delivered. I ordered one with a upgraded 250Gb HDD for an extra £8. Maybe it was a mistake or DELL wants to get rid of old stock.

Anyway when it gets delivered it will make a great platform for another of my pet projects which is Windows Home Server (WHS). I already have the DELL predecessor the SC430 server with an Intel Celeron 2.5GHz but the new one will offer three times the performance (with dual core CPU responsiveness) and capacity. I can sell the old server to pay for the new one! I also have a 500Gb HDD waiting to go in the new server as well.


I'm really fond of WHS for sharing files and printers plus performing automatic backups of the other desktops and laptops that I have. Plus offering easy remote access on the occasions when I need it.




AVG Free 8 AntiVirus

Grisoft released their latest AVG Free 8 AntiVirus this week with a revised prettier user interface that looks really good and much more modern. It also integrated their antispyware software package as well, which is a real bonus. And on testing the memory footprint is not much larger than the previous version. Well done Grisoft!

I've been recommending and installing AVG Free as the antivirus software of choice for my customers for years now with very few problems. My previous choice for antispyware was AdAware SE Personal and more recently free Spyware Doctor downloaded as part of the Google Pack. Now I can install just one piece of software and know that I'm covering both bases and also make it easier for my customers.


DELL Inspiron 1525 laptop

I bought a couple of these laptops for clients recently and was surprised by the design, quality, speed and value that this model offers. Previously I'd supplied the DELL Vostro 1000 and 1500 models, but seeing this new Inspiron I thought I'd try it.

Nice wedge shape, solid looking silver keyboard, 8 in 1 card reader, Firewire, and HDMI port. Also the more usual USB ports (4), Express Card slot and inbuilt wireless networking. Bluetooth is an option.

Even with the basic Intel Pentium T2370 dual core processor, a £10 upgrade to 1.5Gb and 120Gb HDD it performs admirably on the simple tasks that my customers want them for. And when installing them, I load them up with a number of concurrent tasks it seems to handle everything well and remain responsive. All for under £350. Nice one DELL! DELL needs to get Vista SP1 quicker though.