| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 36716 | 2003-08-18 10:12:00 | The 'better' system? | alisam (4427) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 168467 | 2003-08-21 14:10:00 | apart from the amd being the cheaper option, isnt a 1.8 ghz AMD chip equiv to the 2.4 ghz pentium | dotcommander (4338) | ||
| 168468 | 2003-08-22 09:07:00 | > apart from the amd being the cheaper option, isnt a > 1.8 ghz AMD chip equiv to the 2.4 ghz pentium That's what they'd like you to believe :) Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 168469 | 2003-08-22 22:23:00 | If you buy cheap you dont lose all that cash in depreciation and in 2 years the latest PC today will be old hat, cpus will be at 4 GHZ and ram HDD will be 1/2 the price they are now . There is no real future proofing in PCs unless you stay with the software You use at present. Everything changes so rapidly that I suspect its a plot from Microsoft to force us all to upgrade IE patches new O/S that require ever more HDD space and power ram etc that will slow even the fastest PCs to a crawl |
kiwibeat (304) | ||
| 168470 | 2003-08-23 11:56:00 | >If you buy cheap you dont lose all that cash in depreciation and in 2 >years the latest PC today will be old hat, cpus will be at 4 GHZ and ram >HDD will be 1/2 the price they are now . >There is no real future proofing in PCs unless you stay with the >software You use at present. >Everything changes so rapidly that I suspect its a plot from Microsoft to >force us all to upgrade IE patches new O/S that require ever more HDD >space and power ram etc that will slow even the fastest PCs to a crawl The only thing I would like to throw in here is that Hardware, mainly CPU's, have outstripped what software can put through them. That gap is getting bigger and not smaller so unless MS makes another massive growth in bloat were you will find a slower need to upgrade even though people like Intel and AMD are releasing more chips faster and faster. The only industry that will push most machines this day and age is games and thats more the graphics card than any other subsystem. The other issue here is that you are assuming everyone upgrades their OS with their machines. There are people out there with 8 year old P133's still running Windows 98 and sometimes windows 95 and they still hold up for the office or personal use they are being used for. So buying big and bad now is still future proofing because you will still have the same OS which won't push the machine. What you say is true for a Power User, IT Professionals or Gamers. Not the end user who just wants office, internet and the odd game of cards. As stated in my earlier post is the whole warranty issue, second hand gives you no peice of mind and you have to go through all the purchase hassel and teething issue's again in 2 years unlike with a new machine you can generally use it for 5 years. I remember an old Article in PC World from Geoff Palmer about productivity and basic use. This article was a couple of years ago but still valid. He had a machine running Windows 3.11 dual booting I think with something new and fancy like XP or 2000. Windows 3.11 had an early version of Word which worked fine but didn't have some of the new 'fancy' features but did everything he needed and on his new windows install he had the latest office version and in this he got side tracked by games or figuring out how something fancy worked. He was more productive on the old install because he didn't get side tracked and didn't really need the fancy gadgets and widgets. My point is that for average Joe bloggs you don't need awesome power and you don't need to upgrade regularly. You can now buy a nice new fast machine with Windows XP and Office XP and still be using the same thing in 5 years with the peice of mind that if something breaks you can probably get it fixed by a professional for nothing if it breaks. Where with second hand machines you will probably get an old OS and a moderately old machine which after the first week you have no come back and an OS that is not supported by MS, unless your lucky enough to know Linux and have that on your machine and upgrades are free. I believe the second hand market has its place: 1) People on a tight budget 2) People wanting a second machine to play with or for the kids 3) Power users looking to build a network or test machine 4) Gamers looking for a game server for their LAN parties 5) People looking for parts for an old machine which they cannot get new I am sorry if I come across as ranting but not meaning to, just a strong point with me. I am an IT professional who so regularly gets called upon to fix a machine someone purchased second hand for their primary computer even though they do have the means to buy new. They don't want to pay for the repairs and wonder why it is so difficult because I can't find parts, drivers for their OS or their scanner won't work. |
Draggy (3005) | ||
| 168471 | 2003-08-23 14:19:00 | Ahem...Draggy,...i was going to say pretty much the same thing,but i find if i hold my tounge someone yends to say it far better then i can. Lmao. Anyway,Buy a second machine if your prepared to throw it away the minute it breaks down...unless of course the owner wants to hack away at it. I get calls from people who have bought these old piles of junk,find its a pos,call me in,ask what can be done,then get upset when my best advice is to throw it away. |
metla (154) | ||
| 168472 | 2003-08-23 14:20:00 | Um....yends=tends. | metla (154) | ||
| 168473 | 2003-08-23 20:04:00 | >Everything changes so rapidly that I suspect its a plot from Microsoft to >force us all to upgrade. To be fair,the computer of the future will have to have huge memory,if one thinks of star trek etc,we must be heading that way,will be nice to say,computer,sort yourself out and not have to rely on GodF and Tweak. |
Thomas (1820) | ||
| 168474 | 2003-08-24 00:22:00 | > You can now buy a nice new fast machine with Windows XP and Office XP and still be using the same thing in 5 years Yes, you can do that now but a computer bought five years ago using the same software that it had when purchased is an old slug now. You have to wait for Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer or Microsoft Word, etc, etc to open whereas on today's fast machines there is barely a second's wait. As long as you are not constantly upgrading to the latest version of Office or the latest games, today's machines will last you for many years satisfactorily. |
Fire-and-Ice (3910) | ||
| 168475 | 2003-08-24 13:25:00 | My K6-266 does everything required of it net, WP etc. obviously no games to speak of and has done so since new, despite merciless tweaking. It is still on its original install and runs sweet as a nut. I have used XP on my daughters computer and find little difference in speed of use, obviously the files load a lot faster, and the net connection is a "bit" better but for everyday tasks there's not a lot in it. Check out how compatible your present software is with XP, and is the replacement software compatible with your present files? Take into account replacement software could cost as much, if not more than the cost of the computer. Check out you digital camera and see what the requirements are for its software. Future proofing is pointless, every 6months there is a "new" technology incorporated into the "latest" model that renders all "futureproofed" computers undone. I can't emphasize enough that the current model computers are a tremendous overkill for what you need. A 2.4Pentium is a Pentium 2400 compared to your 166 that's nearly 15 times faster!!! Same applies to memory, disc size, although you will probably NEED a decent size Hard Drive if you have a lot of images to store. I'm not recommending what I think you should do, but trying to give you a bit of perspective. Hope it helps. |
Rod ger (316) | ||
| 168476 | 2003-08-24 19:44:00 | Get yourself a 6 month old used PC and let someone else suffer the major depreciation. My needs are similar to your own, ie digital camera + Photoshop as well as surfing and office applications. I've just bought a 6 month old PC with a AMD 2500X+xp, 1Gb ram, 128mb graphics card for $1300. Its got a great sound system too. I've added another 120 Gb hard drive to augment the 40Gb which brought it to $1470. My future-proofing will be to take my new HD and fit it to my next machine in 5 years. Incidentally, I got $400 for my old P3, 450 system. My new system is much quicker on PS7 and running my utility program, SystemSuite 5 but I don't get any quicker surfing and my office applications are no different, either. My nephews like playing games on my new system MUCH better! |
Fishb8 (484) | ||
| 1 2 3 4 | |||||