ugh, technology

ok, I seriously love my tiny little baby laptop but it’s currently over 3 years old and, honestly, it’s not what I ordered. 

When I ordered it back in the fall of ‘08, the idea was that I would order the computer, go on leave to get married and enjoy my honeymoon, and it would be waiting for me when I got back to the office.  Unfortunately for me, Dell was in the middle of a model change on Latitudes and the computer I ordered was no longer available.  And when did I find this out?  When I got back after being out for a month.  I had to reorder my computer and it took quite some time but I figured out that I didn’t end up with what I’d wanted.  The main errors being that the computer I ended up with has a solid state 128GB hard drive – not nearly enough space and the processor speed is wrong too.

At this point 3+ years later, I’m lucky if it will stay alive for an hour and half, the processor speed won’t support Photo Shop Elements 8.0 (it grinds the whole works to a screeching halt), and I’ve maxed out my hard drive space.

I need a new computer.  I need something to save for. 

I really want a MacBook Pro (the little 13” one) but I’m not keen on the price and I’m not really sure that I want to jump platforms.  Mostly, I want it for the battery life.  SEVEN hours!

So who wants to find me a computer to save for? 

This is what I want:

• little.  no bigger than a 13” screen.  Preferably under 3lbs but I’ll deal with under 5lbs.
• lots of RAM
• lots and lots of hard drive space.  At least 500GB.  Preferably more.  None of this solid state HD nonsense either.
• processing power that will handle some combination of Photoshop CS5, Photoshop/Premiere Elements 10, and Lightroom 4.  (and figure out how I can afford new versions of those too)
• a looooong battery life.  Something in the 7+ hr range.
• has to have an SD card reader built in.  But I don’t actually have to have a CD/DVD drive or writer.
• under the MacBook Pro’s $1199 price tag

Anyone got any ideas?

Update (3/29): no one had any Windows based ideas for me and a friend came up with a discount that I could use so I currently have a brand new 13” MacBook Pro making its way to me.  So excited!  So scared!