Deleted

[thescruff]

BG I bet you use hyper v

Who, me or Scruff?

Neither Dave.

BG = billy goat.

[BillyGoat]

Will probably buy a new computer first, this one is nearly 10 now

Ahhh, I know some people enjoy trying to fix things like this - I'm happier to use them, so use the technology to prevent my time being wasted!

I've a server at my parents and wifes parents that do incremental backups and store all accounts, full machine backups and other data. It means if they have an issue, I can restore them back to days/months/years prior and retreive ANY lost data at any point inbetween in minutes.

The small outlay in hardware (I'm lying....I didn't pay for either of them ;)) more than outweighs the time it would have cost me to "help" when things go wrong. Now, I can just pop round drink a cuppa coffee and be out the door - they are fixed and I'm back to what I want to be doing!

10 years is quite an age.....which is understandable why you need to keep things smoothly. You're next machine will be like a race car in comparison!!!!!!! My laptop that I'm on now is a Core i7 with 8GB ram. Just got hold of the second caddy I need so it will have an 128GB SSD as a boot drive and a 500GB drive as a the data storage.....mmmm fast.

BG

[root]

just not a big fan of Hyper-V stems back to rocky starts and i never got back into it, I do prefer vsphere though, vmware gave me 2 very nice courses when I joined this company...

[gas4you]

Must be going stupid. Didn't notice that BG at the front

[thescruff]

I don't want it gaming fast, but I don't want to sit around waiting more than a few seconds either.

[BillyGoat]

Hyper-V - 'fraid not.

I'm a lazy bum and just use virtual PC - means I can only use server 2008 x86, but that's more than enough!

[BillyGoat]

Mine is not for gaming, it's for productivity. Like, if I have to wait for facebook to load....I'm wasting work time

A good machine just makes things more enjoyable I think, don't have to goto extreams!

My desktop is a quadcore, 8GB of ram and an SSD boot drive. It's got two monitors and it's waaaaaaaay more than I need most of the time. I just like things to be snappy.

BG

[root]

fair do's!

to shred or not to shred that is the question?

i dont bother.... everything is encrypted and use acronis to deploy this model of laptop 25 minute wipe and install including docs and pst's.

i have a priv ubuntu box next to me for anything i dont want to be seen. and a dev vm cluster for testing new software and writing applications.

[thescruff]

Do you build your own computer Billy, Root.

[chat_to_rich]

The only computer I haven't built this the first one I ever had, an IBM PS1 from 1992! Building your own isn't necessarily cheaper, but if you're picky about components it's often the only option and I enjoy doing it.

[root]

my home dev pc is built from scratch as was my media center (r.i.p.) got a few others that i use as test web servers etc that were surplus to requirement from work, all the work equipment is dell optiplex and latitude

[Razor]

I don't want it gaming fast, but I don't want to sit around waiting more than a few seconds either.

At your age you need the fastest one possible Scruff, every second counts

[thescruff]

HaHaHa.

No good having a computer that's faster than me.

A 100 manuals in 3 hours is plenty fast enough.

My old tired fingers won't/can't keep up with the brain nowadays.

[BillyGoat]

Do you build your own computer Billy, Root.

Kindof. No, but yes.

I've built my desktop, because I was literally given everything to do it with. I've also had multiples of the same (broken) laptops and re-built those into working machines too.

It's a good excercise to learn building, helps you add another level to your trouble shooting skills. It's good to chose your own componants IF you have time to read up on what's best/what gives you a bang for your buck - but as Rich rightly points out, it won't save you money.

OEM's build to scale and often get price breaks/advertising cash that they can subsidise the PC - which is why it's hard to get close to the price.

The DOWNSIDE to that, is that savings are always being saught. For example, removal of a socket/header off a standard motherboard can save $1 per board - x10,000 and that's quite a saving, so you don't always get the full retail products options/funtionalility that one might expect.

A lot of componants are also built onto the motherboard these days, which means with a low end PC, you might find it's pretty much a disposable PC......soooooooooo, things that can make a 'good' PC perform badly:

HDDs - cheap HDDs = slower spindle speed (5400RPM rather than 7200 or 10,000) or less cache/buffer memory means lower transfer speeds

Motherboards - 'altered' to save cash, lots of integrated componants, BIOS updates not freely available without breaking modified componants (OK, unless a problem with the board NEEDS one - more common than one would imagine).

CPU - lower models means worse performance. Typical to save cash here (like installing an i3, which doesn't do the multimedia work/grunt of the slightly more expensive i5s and much more expensive i7s).

Wireless - crap wireless cards, if intalled - poor driver support means poor performance in some cases, harder to resolve connection issues with newer kit/differnt routers.

Slower memory - it might only be 1-4 %, but if EVERY componant is slower by that much, it all adds up.

Crap software builds - OEM's subsidise the machine with pre-installed software. Tools bars, trial software, 'trouble shooting' software - all can make a good machine slow (IF it's pre-installed, not pre-loaded - BIG difference).

blar blar blar....could go on forever.

Do your research, there are bargains out there though - don't buy the first thing you see. There are some damn good guys here to help you out. I'll try too ....

[BillyGoat]

Sorry that was so long too....can't even be bothered to check/correct.....feel like crap today.