Desktops: Then, and now

I recently got a swanky new desktop for myself. It was a necessity, given the fact that I changed my job and that meant I had to hand over my company laptop (It also means that I do not get a laptop in my new company. Sad.). Though there were already two personal laptops at home, well, I had gotten used to having my own system, you know. I guess we all do after several years of that habit. Besides, it was getting increasingly difficult for me to post-process my photographs. So, a decision was made and I got the desktop, primarily for my photo needs.

That said and done, it cost me about INR 24,000/- for the new laptop. Like all of us here in India, this is an assembled piece and not one of those fancy-and-overtly-expensive branded PC's. Or, in other words, I got a "customized" PC. There, I think that sounds cool!

I was buying a desktop after exactly 10 years, and when I went to place the order I must admit that I felt like an overgrown child who had no clue whatsoever about the latest fads in the market. I mean, the PC configuration I got is just an average computer by today's standards. But a decade ago, if I'd have even thought of such a configuration then it would have been more expensive than our family car and would probably be called a super computer then.

And the prices, wow. Take a look at the table below. What I've tried to outline are the key components of my old PC (2001) and my new PC (2011).

Item	Then	Now
RAM	SD, 256MB	DDR3, 4GB
CPU	Pentium 4, 1GHz	AMD Phenom Dual Core, 3.3GHz
Graphics Adapter	Nvidia TNT2, 32MB SD RAM Internal	ATI Radeon, 1GB DDR3 RAM internal
System	32 bit Windows XP	64 bit Windows 7
Hard Disk Drive	Seagate Barracuda 80GB	Western Digital 1TB
Monitor	15 inch CRT LG Studioworks	20 inch LED Dell
CD/DVD	CD Reader (no writer, no DVD)	DVD R/W
Floppy Drive	Yes	Obsolete!
Network Adapter	External to Motherboard	Internal to Motherboard
Price of the PC	INR 45,000/-	INR 24,000/-

I feel old. Damn!