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The DEL hilarity continues

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Gillian Densmore

The DEL hilarity continues

Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.

Crashed (noun and adjective):

Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.

Now it won't even boot.

As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least 300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)

I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.

I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I initially payed for.

Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives so as backup is simple and easy.

I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs of ram

In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it has (If it's still good)

It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30, and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive

What others do if they were in my place?

New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)

Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?

Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :

What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.

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Gary Schiltz-4

Re: The DEL hilarity continues

From what you’ve said earlier, isn’t your computer like 9 years old?
In that case, most everything is probably so out of date that it might
be best to just give it to some geek that likes tinkering with old
stuff. If it were me, I would build one from scratch. Surely some nice
geeky guy or gal would help you, and you would learn a lot in the
process. Of course, that begs the question of what OS to put on it. MS
gives system builders good deals on OEM versions of their OS. Or, see
how you get along for a while with purely open source, i.e. Linux,
OpenOffice/LibreOffice. My $.02, probably worth about that much.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Gillian Densmore
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.
>
> Crashed (noun and adjective):
> Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue
> colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.
>
>
> Now it won't even boot.
>
> As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least
> 300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood
> preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)
>
> I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.
>
> I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick
> ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I
> initially payed for.
> Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard
> drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives
> so as backup is simple and easy.
>
>
> I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from
> CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs
> of ram
>
>
> In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL
> because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it
> has (If it's still good)
> It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30,
> and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little
> linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive
>
>
> What others do if they were in my place?
>
> New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)
>
> Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?
>
> Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :
>
> What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in
> the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Owen Densmore

Re: The DEL hilarity continues

Administrator

In reply to this post by Gillian Densmore

Here's an idea:

1 - Backup all your files

2 - Re-install Windows. Dell has a good reputation for helping with this.

3 - If all goes well, reinstall the files you want.

(all this is a pain but is becoming easier with Dropbox, AppStores, etc. Keep good notes!)

4 - If it fails and continues to have problems, get a new computer, possibly using the old one for a home server. If you still like Dell, they can help with "migration" .. i.e. pulling over your existing files and apps.

BTW: Windows has a bad reputation but then so does Mac and Linux. Just pick your battles:

- Windows: was horrid but getting better & doing open source. Soon to be have the best browser, and open source JS engine! Think node with an alternative to V8. And mainstream.

- Mac: *nix with a pretty face and kinda a jerk if you fall outside their design/market center. Seems to be the dev preference nowadays.

- Linux: great if you like DIY & being a system admin. Has most the apps most folks need. Again, great for devs.

-- Owen

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 1:00 PM, Gillian Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.

Crashed (noun and adjective):
Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.

Now it won't even boot.

As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least 300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)

I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.

I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I initially payed for.
Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives so as backup is simple and easy.

I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs of ram

In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it has (If it's still good)
It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30, and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive

What others do if they were in my place?

New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)

Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?

Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :

What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Russell Standish-2

[ SPAM ] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 01:35:39PM -0700, Owen Densmore wrote:

> Here's an idea:
> 1 - Backup all your files
> 2 - Re-install Windows. Dell has a good reputation for helping with this.
> 3 - If all goes well, reinstall the files you want.
> (all this is a pain but is becoming easier with Dropbox, AppStores, etc.
> Keep good notes!)
> 4 - If it fails and continues to have problems, get a new computer,
> possibly using the old one for a home server. If you still like Dell, they
> can help with "migration" .. i.e. pulling over your existing files and apps.
>
> BTW: Windows has a bad reputation but then so does Mac and Linux. Just pick
> your battles:
> - Windows: was horrid but getting better & doing open source. Soon to be
> have the best browser, and open source JS engine! Think node with an
> alternative to V8. And mainstream.
> - Mac: *nix with a pretty face and kinda a jerk if you fall outside their
> design/market center. Seems to be the dev preference nowadays.
> - Linux: great if you like DIY & being a system admin. Has most the apps
> most folks need. Again, great for devs.
>

+1 What you say is so true. Which is why it is Linux for me.

I also build my own machine, or use a custom box builder - buy the
parts you need, have it delivered with those parts already assembled,
then add you own bits. Main advantage is getting more powerful
hardware for your money.

Windows Xp => Windows 7 => Windows 10 seems to be definitely moving
in the right direction, but even Windows 10 still feels clunky to me
compared with Linux. Windows releases in between (Vista and 8) were
definite missteps.

Incidently, I run Windows 10 on a virtual machine which I found works
pretty flawlessly. I've heard people have had some problems running it
on real hardware, though.

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email]
University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Gillian Densmore

Re: [ SPAM ] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

Apreciate the responses!

lol from what i've read people tend to think windows Vista and 8 as experiments.

Way back when, I used to use FreeBSD. On a seperate machine had Gentoo (briefly) before moving on to Mandrake.

Bro turned me onto Ubuntu and Arch. I thought Arch and PcOS's update system was sexy.

I thought it was great both PCOS saw all my hardware and just worked. Updates didn't seem to cause doom. Then I was using the Liftetime Support Edition.

When I say doesn't boot, I meen as far as i can tell the power converters aren't working.therefore won't even turn on. From what I gather on forums and Ray's opinion the powersupply probably has a problem.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 4:56 PM, Russell Standish <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 01:35:39PM -0700, Owen Densmore wrote:
> Here's an idea:
> 1 - Backup all your files
> 2 - Re-install Windows. Dell has a good reputation for helping with this.
> 3 - If all goes well, reinstall the files you want.
> (all this is a pain but is becoming easier with Dropbox, AppStores, etc.
> Keep good notes!)
> 4 - If it fails and continues to have problems, get a new computer,
> possibly using the old one for a home server. If you still like Dell, they
> can help with "migration" .. i.e. pulling over your existing files and apps.
>
> BTW: Windows has a bad reputation but then so does Mac and Linux. Just pick
> your battles:
> - Windows: was horrid but getting better & doing open source. Soon to be
> have the best browser, and open source JS engine! Think node with an
> alternative to V8. And mainstream.
> - Mac: *nix with a pretty face and kinda a jerk if you fall outside their
> design/market center. Seems to be the dev preference nowadays.
> - Linux: great if you like DIY & being a system admin. Has most the apps
> most folks need. Again, great for devs.
>

+1 What you say is so true. Which is why it is Linux for me.

I also build my own machine, or use a custom box builder - buy the
parts you need, have it delivered with those parts already assembled,
then add you own bits. Main advantage is getting more powerful
hardware for your money.

Windows Xp => Windows 7 => Windows 10 seems to be definitely moving
in the right direction, but even Windows 10 still feels clunky to me
compared with Linux. Windows releases in between (Vista and 8) were
definite missteps.

Incidently, I run Windows 10 on a virtual machine which I found works
pretty flawlessly. I've heard people have had some problems running it
on real hardware, though.

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email]
University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Nick Thompson

Re: The DEL hilarity continues

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Gill,

I have had good luck with my HP “Elitebook” which I got through my University. My warrantee service was through folks down in Rio Rancho, which was really good because they actually spoke English AND I Knew Where To Find Them, and they knew it. I am not sure how you have to buy it to achieve that connection, but perhaps through their business sales people. My only problem with the machine is that it has the stupidest volume control mechanism of anything invented since the 15^th Century. Better it should have mice with megaphones.

Nick

Mark Suazo

Re: The DEL hilarity continues

EliteBook(s) are a solid choice

*disclaimer* - I work at HP now... but my add:

Elite is HP's "best" commercial-class family. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/elite-products/benefits.html

Benefits include:

+ typically, Notebooks are Mil-Spec tested - they really are solid, well engineered and well built

+ US-based "Elite" warranty support (yep, in Rio Rancho - knowledgeable folks)

+ Newer models include HP BIOSphere with sure start. - Not a standard commercial BIOS - written specifically by HP with state-of-the-art (but proprietary) self-healing. Good Stuff.

+ generally more serviceable than other NB's - with replaceable parts as opposed to soldered and/or glued-in components from others

- can be expensive, but AMD proc options will save some money ...

HP ProBook - the "better" lineup, but also very solid

+ good products, good value

+ warranties vary, but if you add a warranty uplift ("CarePack"*) you get routed to the same RR-based support group (different number, same people)

* even a $10-$15 Digital Media Retention (DMR) coverage gets you full US-based support

All can be purchased from HP's Business eCommerce site - http://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/business-solutions/laptops-and-workstations look for "SmartBuys (pre-discounted BTO's end with "UT") or go online elsewhere and look for refurbs

Any consumer-grade product from any manufacturer will not have the same quality or be as well engineered as commercial units

Chromebooks can be an option - IF:

You will always have a WiFi connection

You don't mind a "throw-away" - they're generally not higher-end units, most cannot be serviced (some HP's can) and don't plan on having it more than 12 months.

They're cheap for a few reasons. 1) No MSoft OS, 2) mostly low-end processors and 3) they're built as cheap "commodity-boxes" - when it breaks you toss it and get another.

NUC's are fun. I'd wait to get one with a Skylake proc.

Hope that helps :-)

Mark

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 5:51 PM, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gill,

I have had good luck with my HP “Elitebook” which I got through my University. My warrantee service was through folks down in Rio Rancho, which was really good because they actually spoke English AND I Knew Where To Find Them, and they knew it. I am not sure how you have to buy it to achieve that connection, but perhaps through their business sales people. My only problem with the machine is that it has the stupidest volume control mechanism of anything invented since the 15^th Century. Better it should have mice with megaphones.

Nick

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Parks, Raymond

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

In reply to this post by Gary Schiltz-4

This. I just got to this thread (still active) today because I was out ill, but my next personal desktop will be built by me consulting with the Tech Report System Guide <http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current>. For Gillian's stated purpose, I would recommend something along the line of "The Sweet Spot" on page 8 of the article. It is a gaming oriented build, so the GPU might be overkill.

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 13, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:

From what you’ve said earlier, isn’t your computer like 9 years old?
In that case, most everything is probably so out of date that it might
be best to just give it to some geek that likes tinkering with old
stuff. If it were me, I would build one from scratch. Surely some nice
geeky guy or gal would help you, and you would learn a lot in the
process. Of course, that begs the question of what OS to put on it. MS
gives system builders good deals on OEM versions of their OS. Or, see
how you get along for a while with purely open source, i.e. Linux,
OpenOffice/LibreOffice. My $.02, probably worth about that much.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Gillian Densmore
<[hidden email]> wrote:
Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.

Crashed (noun and adjective):
Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue
colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.

Now it won't even boot.

As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least
300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood
preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)

I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.

I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick
ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I
initially payed for.
Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard
drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives
so as backup is simple and easy.

I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from
CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs
of ram

In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL
because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it
has (If it's still good)
It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30,
and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little
linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive

What others do if they were in my place?

New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)

Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?

Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :

What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in
the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Gillian Densmore

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

What (if any) realistic benifits are there to building a computer yourself these days?

And does anyone have opinions or experience with Cybertron(PC)? I found them on a random google search.

One in particular here people seem fairly content with:

http://www.amazon.com/CybertronPC-Hellion-TGM1213B-FX-6300-GeForce/dp/B00D1KWS3I

One thing that stands out is they seem to use regular parts. Some of those seem to get somewhat ok reviews. A few people have said it'd be a good idea to update the power supply.

when compared to following guides on http://pcpartpicker.com/ making sure I stick to systems that are around 700-800 dollars.

I more or less come up with simillar parts, and I end up spending as much of or even way more.

I suspect in part because Winderz 10 is around 130-200 dollars, and intel chips are pretty expensive.

Anecdotally years ago I couldn't tell the difference from a intel vs AMD chip in real world day to day and gaming.

What's others peoples experience and opinions?

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 11:37 AM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

This. I just got to this thread (still active) today because I was out ill, but my next personal desktop will be built by me consulting with the Tech Report System Guide <http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current>. For Gillian's stated purpose, I would recommend something along the line of "The Sweet Spot" on page 8 of the article. It is a gaming oriented build, so the GPU might be overkill.

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: <a href="tel:505-844-4024" value="+15058444024" target="_blank">505-844-4024 M: <a href="tel:505-238-9359" value="+15052389359" target="_blank">505-238-9359 P: <a href="tel:505-951-6084" value="+15059516084" target="_blank">505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 13, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:

From what you’ve said earlier, isn’t your computer like 9 years old?
In that case, most everything is probably so out of date that it might
be best to just give it to some geek that likes tinkering with old
stuff. If it were me, I would build one from scratch. Surely some nice
geeky guy or gal would help you, and you would learn a lot in the
process. Of course, that begs the question of what OS to put on it. MS
gives system builders good deals on OEM versions of their OS. Or, see
how you get along for a while with purely open source, i.e. Linux,
OpenOffice/LibreOffice. My $.02, probably worth about that much.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Gillian Densmore
<[hidden email]> wrote:
Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.

Crashed (noun and adjective):
Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue
colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.

Now it won't even boot.

As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least
300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood
preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)

I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.

I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick
ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I
initially payed for.
Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard
drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives
so as backup is simple and easy.

I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from
CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs
of ram

In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL
because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it
has (If it's still good)
It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30,
and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little
linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive

What others do if they were in my place?

New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)

Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?

Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :

What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in
the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Gary Schiltz-4

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

In reply to this post by Parks, Raymond

Exactly the geeky guy I had in mind :-)

Another nice thing about building the system from scratch is that you get to decide which parts are important enough to you to spend a lot of money on. Since I’m not a gamer, I’d just use a motherboard with built-in graphics (maybe most of them do) and see if it was acceptable, and spend the money on a better display. Then, at some later point, it’s easy enough to add on a dedicated one.

Also, getting Amazon Prime seems like a good deal to get free fast shipping on components.

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 1:37 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

This. I just got to this thread (still active) today because I was out ill, but my next personal desktop will be built by me consulting with the Tech Report System Guide <http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current>. For Gillian's stated purpose, I would recommend something along the line of "The Sweet Spot" on page 8 of the article. It is a gaming oriented build, so the GPU might be overkill.

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 13, 2015, at 1:31 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:

From what you’ve said earlier, isn’t your computer like 9 years old?
In that case, most everything is probably so out of date that it might
be best to just give it to some geek that likes tinkering with old
stuff. If it were me, I would build one from scratch. Surely some nice
geeky guy or gal would help you, and you would learn a lot in the
process. Of course, that begs the question of what OS to put on it. MS
gives system builders good deals on OEM versions of their OS. Or, see
how you get along for a while with purely open source, i.e. Linux,
OpenOffice/LibreOffice. My $.02, probably worth about that much.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Gillian Densmore
<[hidden email]> wrote:
Ray I think you called it that damn thing crashed yesterday.

Crashed (noun and adjective):
Common accurence with windwos. Symptoms: Unresponsive programs, a blue
colored screen, mouse and keybored ignored, and otherwise describing doom.

Now it won't even boot.

As I am now in the market for a new desktop because I've put about at least
300 into the DEL (see also doom, crash, and crappy computers, highblood
preasure, and general dystopic state with a yen to crush the world)

I'm disinclined to much more, if any into it.

I'd prefer a computer that rocks. For me that meens can play games, kick
ass parts so as it's not in the damn shop costing as much or more than I
initially payed for.
Based on my now soured taste twards this dell and having replaced the hard
drive 3 times, It'd be preferable to have one with two seperate hardrives
so as backup is simple and easy.

I saw a green tank one Amazon for 900. (with free prime shipping) from
CyberPowerPC with 16gigs of ram and Nvidia of some sort that sported 2 gigs
of ram

In in the interest of transparency: I might prefer to replace this DEL
because it, or windows iritiates me. I'd prefer to Keep the Hard drive it
has (If it's still good)
It's power converter and motivators are bad then that's likely at least 30,
and it doesn't feel like it's aging gracefully. It might make a good little
linux box, provided I can put in a new hard drive

What others do if they were in my place?

New computer? (newer parts meen less wear and tear and other issues)

Replace the failed part (god knows where to even get one in santafe)?

Both? (Might buy a small amount of time till new computer) :

What kind of computer would people recomend? I've used and enjoyed Apples in
the past. If there's a PC brand that rocks by all meens sugest some.

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Parks, Raymond

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

In reply to this post by Gillian Densmore

Answers in-line below

On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:42 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

What (if any) realistic benifits are there to building a computer yourself these days?

1. You may be able to get a better overall price at the cost of your labour. With the kind of system which you're considering, price differential between commodity components and the complete system is subsumed by the OEM discounts compared to your prices. Enthusiast systems tend to have greater price differentials, especially since many spec computers simply don't have high-end components.

2. You can customize the system to meet your requirements rather than some generic set of requirements the manufacturer thinks will fit some subset of the marketplace. Some examples - using integrated graphics instead of a discrete GPU, using RAID 1 or 6 - are usually not possible without modifying a spec computer. Once you add in the customization, the cost of building it yourself is frequently lower.

And does anyone have opinions or experience with Cybertron(PC)? I found them on a random google search.

One in particular here people seem fairly content with:

http://www.amazon.com/CybertronPC-Hellion-TGM1213B-FX-6300-GeForce/dp/B00D1KWS3

You may want to do some research into complaints - I can't remember if it was Cybertron, iBuyPower, or Cyberpower , but I remember seeing complaints about one (or more) of them. Something to do with components failing and poor customer support which is just as true of Dells and HPs.

One thing that stands out is they seem to use regular parts. Some of those seem to get somewhat ok reviews. A few people have said it'd be a good idea to update the power supply.

Just like Dell or HP, when you read the fine print they reserve the right to substitute "equivalent" parts. I have had hardware problems and the manufacturer can't determine which component my computer has, even with full serial numbers.

when compared to following guides on http://pcpartpicker.com/ making sure I stick to systems that are around 700-800 dollars.

I more or less come up with simillar parts, and I end up spending as much of or even way more.

I suspect in part because Winderz 10 is around 130-200 dollars, and intel chips are pretty expensive.

Anecdotally years ago I couldn't tell the difference from a intel vs AMD chip in real world day to day and gaming.

I used to use AMD exclusively, but they have not succeeded in keeping up with Intel in compute performance or power saving.

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Owen Densmore

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

Administrator

Just looked at the systems built for between $400-$800.

http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/#X=39404,82077&sort=d3&page=1

I sorted it by date because I found that several parts were no longer available when sorting by popularity.

Also, the OS was $90 generally for Windows 8.x, and often left off the overall price. Linux and OSX have free OS's nowadays, so was a bit surprised at that added cost. Also the shipping sometimes said Free but now is $4.00.

The Tech Report http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current was superb, great way to learn how to build a system with good explanations on each part of the builds.

I think if I were building a system, I'd start with their budget system and upgrade a few parts.

So I'm left with a few questions:

- Once you buy Windows, do you get upgrades for free?

- How interoperable are the pieces within a given form factor? I.e. if in 3 years I can afford to amp it up a bit, should it be easy to upgrade to a faster CPU? More RAM?, A new graphics card (assuming I don't have an integrated one)?

My guess that's asking for a lot but possibly keeping within a given family of devices might let me be more future-proof.

-- Owen

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

Answers in-line below

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: <a href="tel:505-844-4024" value="+15058444024" target="_blank">505-844-4024 M: <a href="tel:505-238-9359" value="+15052389359" target="_blank">505-238-9359 P: <a href="tel:505-951-6084" value="+15059516084" target="_blank">505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:42 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

What (if any) realistic benifits are there to building a computer yourself these days?

1. You may be able to get a better overall price at the cost of your labour. With the kind of system which you're considering, price differential between commodity components and the complete system is subsumed by the OEM discounts compared to your prices. Enthusiast systems tend to have greater price differentials, especially since many spec computers simply don't have high-end components.
2. You can customize the system to meet your requirements rather than some generic set of requirements the manufacturer thinks will fit some subset of the marketplace. Some examples - using integrated graphics instead of a discrete GPU, using RAID 1 or 6 - are usually not possible without modifying a spec computer. Once you add in the customization, the cost of building it yourself is frequently lower.

And does anyone have opinions or experience with Cybertron(PC)? I found them on a random google search.

One in particular here people seem fairly content with:

http://www.amazon.com/CybertronPC-Hellion-TGM1213B-FX-6300-GeForce/dp/B00D1KWS3

You may want to do some research into complaints - I can't remember if it was Cybertron, iBuyPower, or Cyberpower , but I remember seeing complaints about one (or more) of them. Something to do with components failing and poor customer support which is just as true of Dells and HPs.

One thing that stands out is they seem to use regular parts. Some of those seem to get somewhat ok reviews. A few people have said it'd be a good idea to update the power supply.

Just like Dell or HP, when you read the fine print they reserve the right to substitute "equivalent" parts. I have had hardware problems and the manufacturer can't determine which component my computer has, even with full serial numbers.

when compared to following guides on http://pcpartpicker.com/ making sure I stick to systems that are around 700-800 dollars.

I more or less come up with simillar parts, and I end up spending as much of or even way more.

I suspect in part because Winderz 10 is around 130-200 dollars, and intel chips are pretty expensive.

Anecdotally years ago I couldn't tell the difference from a intel vs AMD chip in real world day to day and gaming.

I used to use AMD exclusively, but they have not succeeded in keeping up with Intel in compute performance or power saving.

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Parks, Raymond

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

I'm not sure if anyone knows yet, but Win10 (MS Spyware) should upgrade for free. Give Microsoft's past and current emphasis on licensing, particularly in Enterprise systems, I suspect that the free upgrades will cease in the future and a new version of Windows will come out, requiring one buy it (and the hardware it drives).

At work, I have an MSDN subscription ($2K per year but there are cheaper) that gives me access to every MS product from legacy to absolutely current.

At home, I make do with whatever came with my laptop.

When I built my own systems, they ran Slackware, Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva), and Debian. If I were to choose a Linux distro for a new system, I would probably use Slackware or I might get out of the Linux world and use a BSD.

If you're going to go with Win10 - the Pro version ($139 vs $99 for home on NewEgg) will give you more control over updates. I'd consider Win8.1 or Win7 (still available) rather than mess with the spyware. Amazon prices seem slightly lower for Pro and higher for Win7 Home and lower for Win8 Home.

Upgrading hardware can be a problem but you can usually limit the problem. The biggest difficult is with motherboards/CPUs. Each family of CPUs has a different socket and the motherboards have different chipsets to support each family of CPUs. That said, you can pick a socket and chipset that is the most current and it will probably be supported for some time to come. The socket and chipset for the Intel Haswell chips is the same as at least a couple of generations of CPU previous. AMD's sockets have been the same for several years although the chipsets have changed. If you get an LGA1151 socket motherboard (Skylake), right now, it will probably last for several of Intel's Tick-Tock cycles.

The chipset and motherboard also are limited to supporting features that were current at the time of purchase or can be upgraded by firmware. For example, USB 2.0 was the standard a few years ago and the changes to USB3.0 and USB3.1 have been hardware changes that firmware updates can't achieve. If you bought an LGA1150 (good up through I7-5775) motherboard before USB3.0 came out, you would be stuck with only that - unless you added a third-party board (usually fits in a PCI slot). Disk drives and even SSDs have used SATA for a long time, but there have been improvements (we're currently up to SATA 3, I think). However, the newest motherboards support M.2 and PCIe SSDs. In most cases, the difference is one of performance and ordinary users won't care.

To answer your specific questions -

faster CPU upgrade is usually doable with a firmware upgrade (buy an LGA1151 socket board if you want future-proofing)

RAM upgrades in size of ram cards (i.e. switching from 4GB to 8GB) are mostly limited by the motherboard firmware and vendors usually make it possible

new GPU is usually doable - these have been PCI for some time - but you may not get the full benefit of the performance improvement (i.e. a PCI-16 GPU can use a PCI-8 slot but not as fast)

On Dec 21, 2015, at 5:51 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:

Just looked at the systems built for between $400-$800.
http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/#X=39404,82077&sort=d3&page=1
I sorted it by date because I found that several parts were no longer available when sorting by popularity.

Also, the OS was $90 generally for Windows 8.x, and often left off the overall price. Linux and OSX have free OS's nowadays, so was a bit surprised at that added cost. Also the shipping sometimes said Free but now is $4.00.

The Tech Report http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current was superb, great way to learn how to build a system with good explanations on each part of the builds.

I think if I were building a system, I'd start with their budget system and upgrade a few parts.

So I'm left with a few questions:
- Once you buy Windows, do you get upgrades for free?
- How interoperable are the pieces within a given form factor? I.e. if in 3 years I can afford to amp it up a bit, should it be easy to upgrade to a faster CPU? More RAM?, A new graphics card (assuming I don't have an integrated one)?

My guess that's asking for a lot but possibly keeping within a given family of devices might let me be more future-proof.

-- Owen

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:
Answers in-line below

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: <a href="tel:505-844-4024" value="+15058444024" target="_blank">505-844-4024 M: <a href="tel:505-238-9359" value="+15052389359" target="_blank">505-238-9359 P: <a href="tel:505-951-6084" value="+15059516084" target="_blank">505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:42 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

What (if any) realistic benifits are there to building a computer yourself these days?

1. You may be able to get a better overall price at the cost of your labour. With the kind of system which you're considering, price differential between commodity components and the complete system is subsumed by the OEM discounts compared to your prices. Enthusiast systems tend to have greater price differentials, especially since many spec computers simply don't have high-end components.
2. You can customize the system to meet your requirements rather than some generic set of requirements the manufacturer thinks will fit some subset of the marketplace. Some examples - using integrated graphics instead of a discrete GPU, using RAID 1 or 6 - are usually not possible without modifying a spec computer. Once you add in the customization, the cost of building it yourself is frequently lower.

And does anyone have opinions or experience with Cybertron(PC)? I found them on a random google search.

One in particular here people seem fairly content with:

http://www.amazon.com/CybertronPC-Hellion-TGM1213B-FX-6300-GeForce/dp/B00D1KWS3

You may want to do some research into complaints - I can't remember if it was Cybertron, iBuyPower, or Cyberpower , but I remember seeing complaints about one (or more) of them. Something to do with components failing and poor customer support which is just as true of Dells and HPs.

One thing that stands out is they seem to use regular parts. Some of those seem to get somewhat ok reviews. A few people have said it'd be a good idea to update the power supply.

Just like Dell or HP, when you read the fine print they reserve the right to substitute "equivalent" parts. I have had hardware problems and the manufacturer can't determine which component my computer has, even with full serial numbers.

when compared to following guides on http://pcpartpicker.com/ making sure I stick to systems that are around 700-800 dollars.

I more or less come up with simillar parts, and I end up spending as much of or even way more.

I suspect in part because Winderz 10 is around 130-200 dollars, and intel chips are pretty expensive.

Anecdotally years ago I couldn't tell the difference from a intel vs AMD chip in real world day to day and gaming.

I used to use AMD exclusively, but they have not succeeded in keeping up with Intel in compute performance or power saving.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Gillian Densmore

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

@Ray I'd think it's problematic to upgrade a CPU. Where as cards are meant to give a little more life.

The budget systems guides sugest 8 gigs of ram. In my experience that isn't enough. 16 gigs would likely give way more room for Winderz (or Linux)

A SSD drive might also add a little more pep.

A hardy workhorse Hard drive with external backup would also likely be something I'd want to have

A midrange graphics card definatly.

As a pragmatist I find it perplexing to get a 8Gb graphics card.

I can see getting a 2gig or possible even 4gig graphics card. Historically that basicaly ment go to chipmerchant.com look up midrange Geforce and 2x check reviews and what's compatible.

ATI(now AMD) are no slouch. Though for some reason they have a history of quirikeness, In my epxerience I've needed to make some small adjustments to display and catalysts configuration to get a little pep.

I have no clue why.

On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm not sure if anyone knows yet, but Win10 (MS Spyware) should upgrade for free. Give Microsoft's past and current emphasis on licensing, particularly in Enterprise systems, I suspect that the free upgrades will cease in the future and a new version of Windows will come out, requiring one buy it (and the hardware it drives).

At work, I have an MSDN subscription ($2K per year but there are cheaper) that gives me access to every MS product from legacy to absolutely current.

At home, I make do with whatever came with my laptop.

When I built my own systems, they ran Slackware, Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva), and Debian. If I were to choose a Linux distro for a new system, I would probably use Slackware or I might get out of the Linux world and use a BSD.

If you're going to go with Win10 - the Pro version ($139 vs $99 for home on NewEgg) will give you more control over updates. I'd consider Win8.1 or Win7 (still available) rather than mess with the spyware. Amazon prices seem slightly lower for Pro and higher for Win7 Home and lower for Win8 Home.

Upgrading hardware can be a problem but you can usually limit the problem. The biggest difficult is with motherboards/CPUs. Each family of CPUs has a different socket and the motherboards have different chipsets to support each family of CPUs. That said, you can pick a socket and chipset that is the most current and it will probably be supported for some time to come. The socket and chipset for the Intel Haswell chips is the same as at least a couple of generations of CPU previous. AMD's sockets have been the same for several years although the chipsets have changed. If you get an LGA1151 socket motherboard (Skylake), right now, it will probably last for several of Intel's Tick-Tock cycles.

The chipset and motherboard also are limited to supporting features that were current at the time of purchase or can be upgraded by firmware. For example, USB 2.0 was the standard a few years ago and the changes to USB3.0 and USB3.1 have been hardware changes that firmware updates can't achieve. If you bought an LGA1150 (good up through I7-5775) motherboard before USB3.0 came out, you would be stuck with only that - unless you added a third-party board (usually fits in a PCI slot). Disk drives and even SSDs have used SATA for a long time, but there have been improvements (we're currently up to SATA 3, I think). However, the newest motherboards support M.2 and PCIe SSDs. In most cases, the difference is one of performance and ordinary users won't care.

To answer your specific questions -

faster CPU upgrade is usually doable with a firmware upgrade (buy an LGA1151 socket board if you want future-proofing)
RAM upgrades in size of ram cards (i.e. switching from 4GB to 8GB) are mostly limited by the motherboard firmware and vendors usually make it possible
new GPU is usually doable - these have been PCI for some time - but you may not get the full benefit of the performance improvement (i.e. a PCI-16 GPU can use a PCI-8 slot but not as fast)

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: <a href="tel:505-844-4024" value="+15058444024" target="_blank">505-844-4024 M: <a href="tel:505-238-9359" value="+15052389359" target="_blank">505-238-9359 P: <a href="tel:505-951-6084" value="+15059516084" target="_blank">505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 21, 2015, at 5:51 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:

Just looked at the systems built for between $400-$800.
http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/#X=39404,82077&sort=d3&page=1
I sorted it by date because I found that several parts were no longer available when sorting by popularity.

Also, the OS was $90 generally for Windows 8.x, and often left off the overall price. Linux and OSX have free OS's nowadays, so was a bit surprised at that added cost. Also the shipping sometimes said Free but now is $4.00.

The Tech Report http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current was superb, great way to learn how to build a system with good explanations on each part of the builds.

I think if I were building a system, I'd start with their budget system and upgrade a few parts.

So I'm left with a few questions:
- Once you buy Windows, do you get upgrades for free?
- How interoperable are the pieces within a given form factor? I.e. if in 3 years I can afford to amp it up a bit, should it be easy to upgrade to a faster CPU? More RAM?, A new graphics card (assuming I don't have an integrated one)?

My guess that's asking for a lot but possibly keeping within a given family of devices might let me be more future-proof.

-- Owen

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:
Answers in-line below

Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
V: <a href="tel:505-844-4024" value="+15058444024" target="_blank">505-844-4024 M: <a href="tel:505-238-9359" value="+15052389359" target="_blank">505-238-9359 P: <a href="tel:505-951-6084" value="+15059516084" target="_blank">505-951-6084
NIPR: [hidden email]
SIPR: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [hidden email] (send NIPR reminder)

On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:42 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

What (if any) realistic benifits are there to building a computer yourself these days?

1. You may be able to get a better overall price at the cost of your labour. With the kind of system which you're considering, price differential between commodity components and the complete system is subsumed by the OEM discounts compared to your prices. Enthusiast systems tend to have greater price differentials, especially since many spec computers simply don't have high-end components.
2. You can customize the system to meet your requirements rather than some generic set of requirements the manufacturer thinks will fit some subset of the marketplace. Some examples - using integrated graphics instead of a discrete GPU, using RAID 1 or 6 - are usually not possible without modifying a spec computer. Once you add in the customization, the cost of building it yourself is frequently lower.

And does anyone have opinions or experience with Cybertron(PC)? I found them on a random google search.

One in particular here people seem fairly content with:

http://www.amazon.com/CybertronPC-Hellion-TGM1213B-FX-6300-GeForce/dp/B00D1KWS3

You may want to do some research into complaints - I can't remember if it was Cybertron, iBuyPower, or Cyberpower , but I remember seeing complaints about one (or more) of them. Something to do with components failing and poor customer support which is just as true of Dells and HPs.

One thing that stands out is they seem to use regular parts. Some of those seem to get somewhat ok reviews. A few people have said it'd be a good idea to update the power supply.

Just like Dell or HP, when you read the fine print they reserve the right to substitute "equivalent" parts. I have had hardware problems and the manufacturer can't determine which component my computer has, even with full serial numbers.

when compared to following guides on http://pcpartpicker.com/ making sure I stick to systems that are around 700-800 dollars.

I more or less come up with simillar parts, and I end up spending as much of or even way more.

I suspect in part because Winderz 10 is around 130-200 dollars, and intel chips are pretty expensive.

Anecdotally years ago I couldn't tell the difference from a intel vs AMD chip in real world day to day and gaming.

I used to use AMD exclusively, but they have not succeeded in keeping up with Intel in compute performance or power saving.

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Parks, Raymond

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

On Dec 22, 2015, at 3:45 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

@Ray I'd think it's problematic to upgrade a CPU. Where as cards are meant to give a little more life.

Not necessarily. The X79 chipset boards with LGA2011 sockets, first released in 201, supported Sandy Bridge-E/EP and Ivy Bridge-E/EP processors until the release of the Ivy Bridge E/EX in 2014. The LGA-1155 sockets and chipsets supported Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. Haswell and Broadwell moved the voltage regulator onto the chip which necessitated the change to LGA-1150, while Skylake has shed the VRM and has the new LGA1151 (as will the future Kaby Lake). Basically, you can be moderately confident that your motherboard will last through an entire Tick-Tock cycle (two generations of Intel CPUs).

The budget systems guides sugest 8 gigs of ram. In my experience that isn't enough. 16 gigs would likely give way more room for Winderz (or Linux)

That depends on what you're doing. Tech Report's builds are aimed at gaming enthusiasts, so the budget version is meant for low-end gaming. That said, you should be able to run games that are new and not optimized like "ARK: Survival Evolved" on an 8GB memory system. You might have trouble with single player mode that runs the game client and server on the local system - I have that problem so I use a remote server and just run the client on my 6GB laptop.

A SSD drive might also add a little more pep.

The TR folks allow that some people can't afford an SSD (and are stuck with a 1TB 7200rpm drive) but they recommend 250GB SSDs which start at only $25 more.

A hardy workhorse Hard drive with external backup would also likely be something I'd want to have

The TR guide suggests have 2 to 4GB spinning platter drives for mass storage, either singly or in RAID.

TR split their system guide into three parts this year. Backup systems are in the peripheral picks and one of the best ones is an external socket device that can accept both sizes of SATA drives. That lets you use your old, too-small, hard drives as backup, if they still have acceptable bad block counts.

A midrange graphics card definatly.

As a pragmatist I find it perplexing to get a 8Gb graphics card.

Quad or UHD (3840x2160) displays are the driver for more graphics memory. If your monitor is a simple 1080P HD, then you don't need that amount of memory.

I can see getting a 2gig or possible even 4gig graphics card. Historically that basicaly ment go to chipmerchant.com look up midrange Geforce and 2x check reviews and what's compatible.

It all depends on your monitor and the detail settings of your games.

ATI(now AMD) are no slouch. Though for some reason they have a history of quirikeness, In my epxerience I've needed to make some small adjustments to display and catalysts configuration to get a little pep.
I have no clue why.

They're still problematic. When they work, they work well, but sometimes they drive me crazy. For a while, there were certain capabilities in the ATI/AMD GPUs that were much better than the Invidia cards for cryptographic table building and brute-forcing. The Bitcoin people went nuts over the AMD GPUs.

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Gillian Densmore

Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: The DEL hilarity continues

@Ray Yeah for it's age my monitor has aged fairly well (oddly). It works realy well at 1120 by I don't recall what.possibly 1020. I suspect what ever I get will both be awsome and have it's own small quirks will probably be an enjoyable improvement over my now infamous del ^_^

I tried my hand at bitoins and Altcoins, I found a place that could somehow convert altcoins to bitcoin I have no idea how. Nova Mining Company I think they were called.

I think I made about 5dollar or so over a week casually doing it, and tried some primecoin place and made about 50cents from it.

Sufficed to say say based on experience this is realy fun if that's the word and I'm famous for not being sure what the right word might be many times. Exciting and inspiring come to mind for sure.

I generally keep my graphics around the mid range, while I want games to look nice, have awsome gameplay I also want want my hardware to be able to provide enough pep so as it's fluid as well.

On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 5:29 PM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Dec 22, 2015, at 3:45 PM, Gillian Densmore wrote:

@Ray I'd think it's problematic to upgrade a CPU. Where as cards are meant to give a little more life.

Not necessarily. The X79 chipset boards with LGA2011 sockets, first released in 201, supported Sandy Bridge-E/EP and Ivy Bridge-E/EP processors until the release of the Ivy Bridge E/EX in 2014. The LGA-1155 sockets and chipsets supported Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. Haswell and Broadwell moved the voltage regulator onto the chip which necessitated the change to LGA-1150, while Skylake has shed the VRM and has the new LGA1151 (as will the future Kaby Lake). Basically, you can be moderately confident that your motherboard will last through an entire Tick-Tock cycle (two generations of Intel CPUs).

The budget systems guides sugest 8 gigs of ram. In my experience that isn't enough. 16 gigs would likely give way more room for Winderz (or Linux)

That depends on what you're doing. Tech Report's builds are aimed at gaming enthusiasts, so the budget version is meant for low-end gaming. That said, you should be able to run games that are new and not optimized like "ARK: Survival Evolved" on an 8GB memory system. You might have trouble with single player mode that runs the game client and server on the local system - I have that problem so I use a remote server and just run the client on my 6GB laptop.

A SSD drive might also add a little more pep.

The TR folks allow that some people can't afford an SSD (and are stuck with a 1TB 7200rpm drive) but they recommend 250GB SSDs which start at only $25 more.

A hardy workhorse Hard drive with external backup would also likely be something I'd want to have

The TR guide suggests have 2 to 4GB spinning platter drives for mass storage, either singly or in RAID.

TR split their system guide into three parts this year. Backup systems are in the peripheral picks and one of the best ones is an external socket device that can accept both sizes of SATA drives. That lets you use your old, too-small, hard drives as backup, if they still have acceptable bad block counts.

A midrange graphics card definatly.

As a pragmatist I find it perplexing to get a 8Gb graphics card.

Quad or UHD (3840x2160) displays are the driver for more graphics memory. If your monitor is a simple 1080P HD, then you don't need that amount of memory.

I can see getting a 2gig or possible even 4gig graphics card. Historically that basicaly ment go to chipmerchant.com look up midrange Geforce and 2x check reviews and what's compatible.

It all depends on your monitor and the detail settings of your games.

ATI(now AMD) are no slouch. Though for some reason they have a history of quirikeness, In my epxerience I've needed to make some small adjustments to display and catalysts configuration to get a little pep.
I have no clue why.

They're still problematic. When they work, they work well, but sometimes they drive me crazy. For a while, there were certain capabilities in the ATI/AMD GPUs that were much better than the Invidia cards for cryptographic table building and brute-forcing. The Bitcoin people went nuts over the AMD GPUs.

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