I used to buy a new computer every year. I’d set my budget and save up for the next one as soon as the recent one was purchased. I generally would talk one of my parents or cousins into buying my used one. I had a strange need for new computers. I don’t even think I was buying the best computer when I upgraded I was just buying the better than my current and the best I could afford.

Obviously, this model isn’t sustainable and once I got out of high school and real life hit I realized I could no longer do this. I saved up my money and worked extra jobs so I could get a really nice computer. I didn’t have a computer so I could play games, I had it for creativity purposes. I loved to write and make mini movies with my friends. I was constantly in search of the best and fastest machine to edit and render our silly creations.

I chose an IBuyPower customized machine. It was beautiful! The side panel was a transparent plastic panel so I could see inside and there were lights on each of the different components that could be programmed to light up with use or music. Best of all, it was a shiny royal blue!

That was the last computer I ever purchased for myself. I married Jason a year later and he is THE tech guy in this relationship and he has always picked out my machine for me after Big Blue died. Big Blue lasted several years and was revived a few times before Jason decided I needed a laptop. We had our marketing company back then and so while I used the laptop it wasn’t actually mine so when I left the company after our oldest daughter was born I had to give it up.

I was downgraded to Jason’s old computer that I had gotten him as a gift before we got married. It too had been revived a time or two and was more of a mutant than a machine. I started moving away from PC use altogether because using that old thing was so frustrating. For 7 years I struggled away with it and gave up writing for the most part because the machine made me so angry.

I pestered Jason so much about it he eventually got me a new laptop. It was great for word processing and could manage the kids' homeschool apps. It was slower than I would have liked, but a million times better than the old mutant I had been using.
With 3 kids in public school and each of them having about an hour of online homework to do a day our house was in need of another machine. I wanted to design the Conversation Journal and get back into writing on the blog so my desire was for a machine that could handle some creative applications too.

Jason found a steal of a deal. Dell sent him a $350 off coupon on a nice laptop. We were in the home stretch of paying off our student loans so buying a laptop was not on our radar for real, but the deal was so good we decided to go for it.
Upon the very first startup of the machine the cooling fan was broken and I had not owned it more than an hour before it was being packed back up in a box and heading back to Dell service support.

It arrived back and the sound cards hadn’t been installed properly. They initially wanted me to send it BACK to dell once more which would have meant in the 4 weeks I had owned the laptop I had only used it for two days. Jason posted a comment on Dell’s Twitter feed and they immediately corrected the problem by walking us through the fix. I was fit to throw a fit, but Jason the patient handled it all for me - he is pretty cool like that.

Now that I’ve got the machine and the fan works and the sound is properly functioning I love it. I had started designing the Conversation Journal on my old laptop and it was taking forever, I was dedicated so I pushed through. With this Laptop, I have been able to design 4 pages to every 1 on the old machine. It starts up in an instant and I haven’t even optimized my startup (kids running around means my time is limited and prioritized).

Right now Amazon has a pretty good deal on the same machine and it is possible that it may go down a little more for Prime Day. If you are on the lookout for a new laptop I highly recommend this one.