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Topic: Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC! (Read 2785 times) previous topic - next topic

Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC!

Funny, I have had the same old Pentium 4 PC for 10 years or so. I had XP on it for the longest time, then I switched to Ubuntu 10. It has been a good ol' PC. However, at my day job, my desktop PC is a Core i7 with 16gb ram and Windows 7. I started to get used to it, and it made the ol' P4 at home downright painful to use. I decided to bite the bullet and find a newer PC. Not new, mind you, but newer.

I found a Core i5 with 8gb Ram for less than $200. It had no hard drive, but it did have the Win7 Pro COA. I picked up a 160gb SSD ($40) for the OS, and I had a 750gb SATA to use for the rest of my . I must say, this combo is working great so far. It actually feels faster than my work PC (probably due to the SSD).

I can run Ubuntu on VirtualBox, and even with the overhead it's still faster than my old PC. It's neat to run Windows and Linux simultaneously.

I don't know what the point of this thread is, other than to say how there is some great cheap hardware out there if you are considering an upgrade.
CoogarXR : 1985 Cougar XR-7

Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC!

Reply #1
Computers have come a long ways. I haven't had a computer in 10 years and i used to have 25+. I actually got kicked off of comcast in 1997 for having too many computers.

With my smart phones, i almost see no point in a computer, but i want to get back in them.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC!

Reply #2
I am going to get back into selling stuff on ebay, and my old setup wasn't cutting it. My postage printer would only run on windows so I had a second PC just for that and my DVR. My newer DVR required windows to be able to save videos from it. My Linux graphic software was so slow when editing large pictures. Plus, so many websites are adding huge flash productions or other embedded videos that would make my poor old computer stall (such as paypal's homepage, heh). I just figured it was time to find something new.

I like the safety of Linux (you never get malware). So I will do all my web browsing in the linux virtual machine, and I can have my windows environment for my proprietary apps.
CoogarXR : 1985 Cougar XR-7

Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC!

Reply #3
Some of the real heavy-duty computer guys will chime in, but I found out a few weeks ago it's a great idea to have a backup power supply, especially if your electric co-op has frequent outages. Early fall, we had several rounds of storms, and some close lightning strikes that knocked out the power about a dozen times, then on two separate days, a racpuppies and a possum decided they wanted some juice.

What it did was cause my c drive to have have an error and my system wouldn't boot. I replaced the drive, and now I'm back in business, but the data I lost was pretty important.

If you guys have stuff you can't afford to lose, as they say, back that shiznit up.

Now I bought a new system off the shelf in 2011, it came with a 3.4 ghz dual core AMD, and that was about it. It now has 16gb of memory, a 1TB c drive, a 3TB "storage" drive, and about 5 more or less (mostly less, I leave my stuff alone when it's working) portable HDD units. I also am a part time gamer, and have moved into creating game mods as a hobby.
One of the games I work with is a system hog, so things need to be robust to deal with it. I've also got a 2 gig Nvidia graphics card, and a few little tweaks to make the computer run a little better. Next time out though, I will simply get a full tower case, and most likely an 8 core processor...I've done some video editing with one of those and those s really cook along.

I've got about 900 bucks in mine, but if I had shopped around and found deals and rebates, I could have saved a few bucks and had a bigger case for more stuff later on..
'84 Mustang
'98 Explorer 5.0
'03 Focus, dropped a valve seat. yay. freakin' split port engines...
'06 Explorer EB 4.6

Finally, after about 10 years, a newer PC!

Reply #4
I'm going to try and breath a little more life into my system by putting in a Q9650 (Quad-core 3.0Ghz) in place of the E8400 (Dual-core 3.0Ghz). It's already got a 512GB SSD and a GTX590, so I'm set there. $110 seems an easier pill to swallow than the $700 or so a decent i7/motherboard/RAM combo would cost, even though the i7 setup would blow my current setup out of the water.


Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;440757
If you guys have stuff you can't afford to lose, as they say, back that shiznit up.

I got Carbonite a little over a year ago. A little over 150GB of stuff backed up. Saved my butt recently after Windows flipped out and hosed up my RAID 1 array. Took a few days to pull all the data back down, but I didn't lose anything!

RAID 1/5 doesn't help you if you get a virus that deletes/corrupts your stuff or you accidentally can some desired file.
On-site is of no use if it's stolen, house burns down, tornado outbreak comes to down, etc.
IMO, off-site is the way to go!