13 Mar
2011
13 Mar
'11
4:35 p.m.
I've not been paying attention to computer hardware for a while, and
all of the marketing terms have gotten away from me. It has to come
from Office Depot. My wife was able to get roughly
$650 for free, so
I need to get it from there. I'd prefer to build my own, but
money is
short and this deal is too good. It looks like they have HP/Compaq
(yuk), Acer, and Lenovo. I'm going to aim for a machine with quad
cores and 8 gigs of ram. I can spend a little more than the $650, but
not by much. My main problem with picking out a machine is that I
don't understand the differences in processors beyond the number of
cores. In the good old days, they'd list the processor speed and that
was all you needed. Now even that's not a good measure. Can anyone
suggest some must-have or must-avoid specs for these machines?
13 Mar
13 Mar
5:24 p.m.
I've not been paying attention to computer
hardware for a while, and
all of the marketing terms have gotten away from me.
Well, not paying attention to computer hardware for a while is sort of
the whole point of this list.
You will likely get a better answer elsewhere.
--
Will
5:33 p.m.
On 3/13/11 5:24 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
I don't know about that. A lot of people here work with (modern)
computers professionally.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I've not
been paying attention to computer hardware for a while, and
all of the marketing terms have gotten away from me.
Well, not paying attention to computer hardware for a while is sort of
the whole point of this list.
You will likely get a better answer elsewhere. 
5:46 p.m.
The only basic recommendation I can make is, make sure it has an AMD cpu.
Now, before this gets into another CPU flame war,
Intel has for a while decided that the users/owners rights don't matter,
it's DRM (digital rights management) all the way for them,
with even the ability to disable or remove software "they" don't want you to
run.
oh, you paid for that program? that's too bad.
no thanks, when I buy a machine, I buy it, not a license to use it.
go ahead, get Intel, let them monitor everything you do.
but the usual fanboys will say - the faster is better, more cores is better, more FSB is
better, larger cache is better. blah
why a desktop anyhow? why not a decent notebook? why not an ipad2 (its under your price
requirement) ?
the desktop days are numbered (yeah, just like the year of the linux desktop is every
year)
most companies aren't even making desktops any more, or are cutting back, or ending
soon.
good luck!
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:35:30 -0500
Subject: OT: Can someone help me pick out a desktop machine?
From: brianlanning at gmail.com
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
I've not been paying attention to computer hardware for a while, and
all of the marketing terms have gotten away from me. It has to come
from Office Depot. My wife was able to get roughly $650 for free, so
I need to get it from there. I'd prefer to build my own, but money is
short and this deal is too good. It looks like they have HP/Compaq
(yuk), Acer, and Lenovo. I'm going to aim for a machine with quad
cores and 8 gigs of ram. I can spend a little more than the $650, but
not by much. My main problem with picking out a machine is that I
don't understand the differences in processors beyond the number of
cores. In the good old days, they'd list the processor speed and that
was all you needed. Now even that's not a good measure. Can anyone
suggest some must-have or must-avoid specs for these machines?
6:26 p.m.
On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 4:46 PM, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
The only basic recommendation I can make is, make sure it has an AMD cpu.
Now, before this gets into another CPU flame war,
Intel has for a while decided that the users/owners rights don't matter,
it's DRM (digital rights management) all the way for them,
with even the ability to disable or remove software "they" don't want you
to run.
oh, you paid for that program? that's too bad.
no thanks, when I buy a machine, I buy it, not a license to use it.
go ahead, get Intel, let them monitor everything you do.
I didn't know that! Thanks!
but the usual fanboys will say - the faster is better,
more cores is better, more FSB is better, larger cache is better. blah
I found an HP machine there for around $850 that has a 6 core AMD chip
and 8 gigs of ram. The motherboard can take 16 gigs also. I think
that may be the winner.
why a desktop anyhow? why not a decent notebook? why
not an ipad2 (its under your price requirement) ?
the desktop days are numbered (yeah, just like the year of the linux desktop is every
year)
I really dislike notebooks. I think they have less power for the
money. They're also less expandable. I've also had a lot of problems
from a variety of notebook manufacturers. For gateway,
the keys fell
off. For a few toshibas, the power bricks crapped out, then the
power
connector in the machine broke so you can't charge. My daughter had
an asus or acer or something with flaky 802.11g. It would drop the
connection making her reconnect every 5 minutes, then went out
completely. Replaced it, then the new one did the same. I can't seem
to get one that just keeps working. I have amiga computers that still
work, why can't a notebook last more than 3 months?
I just prefer desktops. You can swap out the keyboard and mouse
whenever you like also, and upgrade the video. I know you can attach
all those to notebooks also, but why pay for extra parts when you'll
just attach desktop parts?
most companies aren't even making desktops any
more, or are cutting back, or ending soon.
There's a good selection on the office depot site. If it were up to
me, I'd just build one from scratch. Can't pass up the great gift
card though. I was able to transplant my current HP computer into a
new case to get away from the cheesy extra doors and doo-dads on the
front of the machine. I'll probably do the same with this one.
brian
8:22 p.m.
On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 05:26:16PM -0500, Brian Lanning wrote:
On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 4:46 PM, Dan Gahlinger
<dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
That's part of the price you pay for getting machine that is
- easy to carry around due to small size and low weight
- sips little enough power to work for a few hours on the batteries.
If you want the power of a big desktop, be prepared for a "luggable
computer" and an extra cart for the batteries ;-)
why a desktop anyhow? why not a decent notebook? why not an ipad2 (its under your price
requirement) ?
the desktop days are numbered (yeah, just like the year of the linux desktop is every
year)
I really dislike notebooks. I think they have less power for the
money. They're also less expandable. I've also had a lot of problems
from a variety of notebook manufacturers. For gateway, the keys fell
off. For a few toshibas, the power bricks crapped out, then the power
connector in the machine broke so you can't charge. My daughter had
an asus or acer or something with flaky 802.11g. It would drop the
connection making her reconnect every 5 minutes, then went out
completely. Replaced it, then the new one did the same. I can't seem
to get one that just keeps working. I have amiga computers that still
work, why can't a notebook last more than 3 months?
I've been using Thinkpads (T43p until almost two years ago, a X200
currently) and I'm very happy with them. They are solid, reliable
workhorses, plain and simply.
Of course, I also have my desktops (home & work), the laptop is really
just a mobile computer for me.
Kind regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
7:48 p.m.
Dan Gahlinger wrote:
The only basic recommendation I can make is, make sure
it has an AMD cpu.
Now, before this gets into another CPU flame war,
Intel has for a while decided that the users/owners rights don't matter,
it's DRM (digital rights management) all the way for them,
In case anyone might think that this is only Dan's opinion, I would
point out that Intel actually publicly stated this as their position:
"The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do
anything they want -- is the enemy."
-- David Aucsmith of Intel, quoted by Robert Lemos in
"The biggest security threat: You", ZDNet, 26-FEB-1999
Aside from that, I prefer systems with AMD processors because all AMD
desktop processors have support for ECC memory, while Intel mostly
reserves that for its more expensive Xeon brand, and few Intel "Core"
processors have it.
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6 comments
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participants (6)
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als＠thangorodrim.de -
brianlanning＠gmail.com -
dgahling＠hotmail.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com