Do you ever replace computers just for something newer and faster?

[H-Man]

I don't have idle hardware. Life starts when I buy it and it continues until I've ran it to the point it's cheaper to replace. I spun up another server with spare parts. Needed more ram for VMs. But I do buy new gear for myself. Bought 4x32GB DDR4 ECC for the main desktop, put the 4x16GB DDR4 ECC into my flagship server. Bought a 5900X, put my 1600AF into the server too.

[Ecky]

25 years ago, I replaced almost everything, every year. I'd sell the old stuff, and buy new stuff, generally only needing to put in $1-200 tops.

15 years ago my upgrade cycle had begun to stretch out. I held onto a Q6600 until the 3570K was released.

Between then and 2022, I believe I changed out the video card.

In 2022 I did another rebuild, not because my system was struggling with my use-case, but because I was moving overseas and didn't know what kind of hardware I'd have access to, and had pockets full of cash. Turns out it was unnecessary.

For many years computers were a hobby. I still pull them apart now and them, delid a CPU, play with voltages and fan speed profiles to make them a bit quieter and more frugal, but I've largely stopped seeing the point. Overclocking no longer has the returns it once had, and often when you enable it, you lose some of the optimizations you'd have if you left it stock. Year over year, we're seeing processing power improvements again, but they're no longer at the same price points - they get more expensive each year. Plus, with CPUs, a majority of the improvements are from the addition of cores. Maybe there's a 15% improvement in IPC with a new architecture, but then you get 2-3 refreshes that might add some cores or tweak clock speeds 2-4%.

Add to that, PCs are losing their dominance. Most use their phones for everything. Consoles are more capable and more flexible than they used to be. Alternatives such as ARM are entering the PC space. It is, for better or for worse, a matured industry.

I still enjoy tinkering, but it's more for nostalgia's sake than anything. I'm not enticed to pay $xxxx for a relatively minor visual improvement in the rare game I play, and my productivity software runs indistinguishably from how it ran on my 3rd gen i5.

[Piotrsko]

Son who does serious number crunching has a laptop an inch thick more or less. Significant other has a similar size for running her printer and laser cutter. Daughter has a company approved mac for holding lawyer sortware.

Mlst use cases are when you to control other equipment

[redpoint5]

My Brother-in-law sent me his "old" GPU, so that gave me the final nudge to start a new PC build. He wants me to play DCS VR with him, so that's why he's sending his old (1 generation from the latest) gear to me.

It's going to be a gaming rig, file server, Plex server, PVR (BlueIris), DVR... and perhaps home automation when I get around to it.

Needs to be an Intel CPU so that transcoding is efficient. Was hoping 13th gen bargains could be had considering 14th gen has been out a while now, but so far the only deals have been 12th gen stuff. There's enough of an efficiency increase in 13th that I'm holding out... but 15th gen is around the corner, and it will be a major change introducing a new platform and much smaller transistor sizes. So, I'm torn between buying now, or waiting for 15th gen.

My power consumption now is about 100 watts, and I'd like to cut that in half if I can.

[freebeard]

Mlst use cases are when you to control other equipment

What use cases?

Equipment control comes down to the interfaces.The (RP CM-4) Seeed reTerminal has, in addition to the usual USB/Ethernet/Bluetooth and 46-pin GPIO, a 'High-Speed Interface for Expansion Modules'

There is a high-speed expansion interface at the back of the reTerminal. It consists of 1 PCIe 1-lane Host Gen 2 (supporting speeds up to 5Gbps), 1 USB 2.0, 1 PoE and 26 GPIOs. The 26 GPIO pins can be further used as 2 I2C, 2 SPI and 1 UART.

reTerminal E10-1

The reTerminal E10-1 expansion board enhances the reTerminal with rechargeable functions, improved wireless communication, industrial data transmission, and audio capabilities. This makes the reTerminal more robust, suitable for high-speed industrial, agriculture, or enhanced wireless home applications...

[Piotrsko]

Use cases require cabling or places to put connectors. A PI 5 has the GPIO pins, but ethernet, USB, serial, parallel, need at least a half inch of case to install. If all you're doing is surfing the web, and letting the router handle the I/O, then all you need is power in. Have you tried a USB "C" to anything adapter lately? Theory says it's easey peasey, reality says different.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Have you tried a USB "C" to anything adapter lately? Theory says it's easey peasey, reality says different.

My work laptop has Thunderbolt on USB C, so it's the single connector to the docking station, which has 3 displays, keyboard, mouse, webcam, and headset dongle.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Have you tried a USB "C" to anything adapter lately? Theory says it's easey peasey, reality says different.

USB-C usually works just fine, until I use it:

• My phone doesn't want to charge as the USB-C cable keeps wanting to fall out. Sure, it's like 5-years old now, but still, it's a pain. I've tried all the tips and tricks like cleaning out the lent and such, but it still doesn't want to stay plugged in.
• Not all of my chargers are compatible with all of my devices. The tablet won't charge on less than 9V, so only on my QC bricks. But I have a couple USB-C UHF radios that won't charge on anything other than 5V, and my QC wall-worts don't support 5V, so again, no charge. So now I have to carry around different chargers for different devices, so no benefit to the universal standard.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My work laptop has Thunderbolt on USB C, so it's the single connector to the docking station, which has 3 displays, keyboard, mouse, webcam, and headset dongle.

Well, DUH, it works because they designed all the interfaces to work together and included dongles, hidden or visible. See if you can integrate your phone into that setup. I'll wait. Spec says it's roughly equivalent to an old fashioned parallel port which can be daisy chained but has addresses on a bus instead of physical pins

[freebeard]

freebeard
11-03-2023, 10:17 PM #29 (permalink)
It's getting closer:

I just brought home the one Raspberry Pi 5 that Best Buy had in stock. $35 more than the RP 4, that had inflated $35 from when I purchased one, with twice the RAM, 1.5=>2.4Ghz processor, PCIe and two video inputs. And, at long last, a Real Time Clock.

I shall demote the RP 4 to a Bitcoin full node. My $35 Roku TV has two HDMI inputs, so it won't have to run headless.