PURPLEHELLO98

Computers

On this page I'll discuss my history with computers and all the computers I've used, just for the heck of it. Enjoy?

Current Computers

2017 21-inch iMac

  • Lifespan: 2018-present
  • Storage: 1TB "Fusion drive" (some sort of blend of an SSD and a hard drive)
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Original OS: OS X High Sierra (I'm still not calling it macOS, fight me IRL Apple)
  • Current OS: OS X Monterey
  • Current Accessories: Some 2000s Dell USB keyboard and Apple's Magic Mouse, a 4TB external hard drive, that right now is half backup, half storage, a Logitech wireless mouse with a USB dongle that I use for gaming, and an Apple "SuperDrive" DVD drive (I used to use Apple's Magic Keyboard, but the Dell feels better to type on)

So this is my current main desktop, a 2017 iMac that I got back in summer 2018, so I've been using it for about four years. It's still holding up pretty well for the most part, at least for all that I need to do with it. It does get a little slow sometimes when I'm editing videos in iMovie, but that's probably because I always have a crap tonne of stuff open at the same time. (Yes, I'm the dreaded Web browser tab hoarder, and also a program hoarder.) Also, it takes a little while to "warm up" when it starts up. Maybe something's wrong with the Fusion Drive? But I digress.

But overall, it's still pretty much as fast as when I got it. It'll still probably last me until university (two more years as of me writing this in September 2022), and maybe even beyond that. Some people hate this generation of iMac's bezels and "chin", but honestly, I've never been bothered about bezels, and I find the chin pretty useful for keeping sticky notes, as you can see from the photos, though I am starting to use the Stickies program more instead.

2019 13-inch MacBook Air

  • Lifespan: 2019-present
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Original OS: OS X Mojave
  • Current OS: OS X Monterey

This is my main laptop, which I mostly use for taking to school. I got it back in December 2019, when, after a saga of cheap laptops that y'all will read about later on, my family and I decided to actually invest in a computer for once in the hopes that it would last a while, and it has. Currently, I've had it for almost three years, and it's still going strong! The only complaint is that the fan is a bit trigger-happy, though to be fair, that seems to be a problem with all Intel Macs as far as I can see.

Anyways, you can see on the back that I let my inner white girl out (which wasn't hard, since I am a white girl) and decided to start sticking stickers (and bits of paper I printed out - thanks, Pinterest! I really am a white girl, lol) on the back, including an Apple sticker for the white Mac logo aesthetic. (RIP glowing Mac logo, gone but never forgotten.) Anyways, it's great for my (admittedly small) daily workload and still runs quicker than my 4-year-old little cousin. So so far, it seems that spending $1000 or so on a computer compared to $300 or $400 actually does make a difference. Who woulda thunk it?

Previous computers

2018 Dell Inspiron something-or-other

  • Lifespan: 2018-19
  • Storage: 500 GB HDD
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Original OS: Windows 10
  • Current OS: Windows 10

And this is where we hit the cheapos. For 7th grade, my parents and I decided that I needed a new laptop to handle the poweer-hungry tasks of word processing, watching YouTube and the occasional Minecraft session, so we turned to this Dell thingie, which flips around to become a tablet, which was neat, though not particularly useful. And since it had Windows 10 and a spinning hard drive, it was a joy to use! Yeah, this thing was slow as crap, and I had to reinstall Windows at least once because it blue-screened me in the middle of class. Which was, of course, because of those lovely automatic Windows updates. Yeah, this thing helped turn me off Windows forever.

And what's more, at one point the keyboard, which already wasn't the best (it was more cramped than I was after typing on it), crapped out, and half of the home row stopped working entirely, which couldn't be fixed or diagnosed by any tool I could find. Ironic how I had a lot of trouble on a normal laptop keyboard and none on the much-maligned MacBook butterfly keyboard... This did have that thingie where it flips back into a tablet, which is pretty cool in theory, I guess, but not really practical and generally, at least for me, kind of pointless. Plus, because of that spinning HDD, Windows was pretty slow to switch between laptop and tablet mode. Anyways, partway through 7th grade I switched back to my HP Stream full-time. And speaking of...

2014 HP Stream 11

  • Lifespan: 2015-20
  • Storage: 32 GB EMMC storage
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Original OS: Windows 8.1
  • Current OS: Windows 8.1

This was the first computer I ever owned! When I was 9, I had some desire to own a MacBook Air, but when my parents were like "fat chance", I decided to ask for a cheap laptop instead. (And I guess, in a roundabout way, that did get me a MacBook Air!) You can see how much of an Apple fanatic I was at this time by the logo I cut out and taped on the back. Speaking of the back, that tape in the corner is from a time in 6th grade when my Chromebook was in repair, so I brought the HP to school, and dropped it, and had to tape that bit back on. The bezel also kinda popped off, so I had to press it back on like I was making ravioli. And speaking of Chromebooks, this was marketed as a "Chromebook killer" in its day. It was basically a mid-2010s netbook, with low-end hardware that can't do much beyond Web surfing, a fun yet cheap design, and a cheap price tag.

Anyways, I found out about this one, my grandma found this for me on as a special deal on QVC (for less then $100, I believe, so you can tell it's very fancy) and got it for me. I remember being kind of upset because shortly after, it was replaced with a new version, that came in purple (my favourite colour, can you tell from my site?) and had Windows 10. Anyways, this had its share of problems (for a while it would overheat and shut off after about 10 minutes of use, so I had to reinstall Windows), but by some miracle of God, it survived almost five years, including a year and a half-ish as my school laptop. And somehow, at one point I managed to run Minecraft on this thing, though, of course, it wasn't exactly... good? And the storage was so small that I had to keep an SD card permanently in at all times when I used it for school, because it was always full, but I think it at least deserves some credit for somehow lasting five years. Also, fun fact: this laptop is where I made this Neocities account! Though by the time I started actually working on my site, this laptop had been retired for almost a year.

Lenovo Chromebook N22

  • Lifespan: 2017-18
  • Storage: 16 GB EMMC storage
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Original OS: Chrome OS
  • Current OS: Chrome OS

This was my school-assigned Chromebook in sixth grade, and oh boy, was it a piece of crap! I have fond memories of playing Run 3 on this thing in class, not-so-fond memories of getting chewed out for doing so, and very unfond memories of this thing's keyboard crapping out (apparently due to some ribbon cable coming undone) so much to the point that the school just gave me another Chromebook, which was an HP instead. This Chromebook did have a handle built-in, though, which was pretty cool, though it was kind of flimsy and felt kind of like it was about to break. That handle reminded me of the G3 iBooks, which I always wanted, even though they wouldn't have been of much use to me. But yeah, this Chromebook was Crap, with a capital C which rhymes with P which stands for pool.

Computers I used that weren't exactly mine

Toshiba Satellite

  • Lifespan: 2002 (I think)-present
  • Storage: 40GB HDD
  • RAM: 512MB
  • Original OS: Windows XP
  • Current OS: Windows XP SP3

This is the old family computer from when I was young, and now my parents use it for taxes and stuff. This computer didn't have the Internet, so I was limited to playing games and faffing about in Windows, which might be where I started liking computers so much! I remember when I was eight or so, I would spend afternoons on here writing little stories, which were never that good, but probably kickstarted my current affinity for writing! I remember writing a story about my science class's pet rabbit, where apparently she saved someone from choking by throwing a carrot in their mouth? Somebody should've taught baby Lizzie the Heimlich.

I also remember keeping a diary on it (which had a whopping three entries overall) where I said I "had a huge crush" on some girl I met once. Looking back, I think I just really wanted to be her friend. I was a sad child who thought I was a straight boy, not a straight girl.

And we had a few educational CD-ROM games, too. We had at least one version of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and a few others. For some reason, I vividly remember this Clifford the Big Red Dog game where you could go to different parts of the little town where the show took place, and you could go to this old couple's lawn and they'd sometimes ask you to get them ice cream. I don't know why elementary school Lizzie found being an errand boy so amusing, but she did! And of course, you can't forget Bejeweled! I loved that game SO much, and honestly still kinda do.

Anyways, this was a pretty dang good computer, and I'm surprised that it's held up for twenty years, given all that it's been through. I mean, I once spilt milk on it somehow, and it survived! (Though the USB number pad didn't. RIP...) And it's useful to write on when I'm sick of being distracted by the Net, though Microsoft Office is annoying to get a hang of.

Back to my tech page!