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

Apparently, Realtek makes garbage wifi cards and HP should always use Intel, but presumably, they're more expensive.

I don't remember why I chose an AMD processor, but I have chosen them in the past because they come with discrete graphics, not garbage on-board video, like Intel.

Maybe Intel machines come with better Wi-Fi cards.

I just know that I have needed to reboot my laptop many times, since it was new, just because wireless disappeared.

I felt stunned when my laptop lasted the 4 hours of orientation without charging, but when I didn't use it over fall break, the battery discharged completely.

From what I can tell, the capacity is down 30%, but if it still lasts 4 hours, I am not complaining.

However, if I open it to replace the Wi-Fi adapter, I might as well replace the battery, right?

Right?! :D

I bought an extended warranty, which runs out next month, and I doubt that HP would do anything useful.

Just out of curiosity, I went to see what was available, although since we are still long ahead of Black Friday, I probably should have seen what Costco has.

This is the first one that I found on SlickDeals: HP EliteBook 860 16 inch G10 Notebook

Why 16"?!

The other option is 14!

It is $1,304 off, so I can't afford not to buy it! :D

Google Bard says that the processor is 46% faster than this one.

Two aspects of my laptop are mildly inconvenient, so I am not racking up predatory debt until I actually worry about reliability, but a $2,000 laptop being 46% faster than an almost-3-year-old $800 one doesn't impress me.

I've got my finger back on the pulse of the market again now that I've decided I want to replace my insane 16 core Xeon tower that idles at 100 watts.

Black Friday 2019 was the last time I purchased a laptop. Costco always has an insane deal on a consumer grade HP. Paid $280 for a 10th gen Intel i5 14" display.

I replaced the battery last weekend with a compatible part on Amazon for $27. I was getting 20 minutes of run time on the original battery.

You should be able to replace the WiFi card fairly easily. Pro tip, lay the screws out in the same pattern they are installed in so you're sure the right size screw goes back in when you put it back together. I told my friend this once, and he immediately proceeds to pile them all together. Then he drove a too-long screw through his keyboard when he assembled it, so he got more practice when he had to take it all apart again to replace the keyboard.

It's been years since I've owned AMD, and I only bought it because there was a hack where you buy a cheaper 2-core CPU and unlock the other 2 cores in software. Quad core for the price of dual core.

Intel CPUs are more energy efficient, which is why I always prefer them. Their product lines containing 'F' means it has no built in video processing, meaning a discrete GPU is required.

My graphics needs are modest, so my preference is for the integrated graphics, which have massively improved in performance in recent years. Gen 12 and 13 (most recent Intel generations) are way more power efficient than prior generations and the integrated graphics are much better.

For a laptop, 14" is the largest I would go with, otherwise portability tanks. 13.3 might even be better. If the laptop is to go everywhere, then consumer grade is too fragile. Dell's Inspiron line is an example of fragile consumer grade. At minimum, I would be looking at entry level business product lines like the Dell Vostro, Lenovo Thinkpad or HP Elite.

My wife's ThinkPad X1 Carbon purchased for school back in 2015 is still flawless and on the original battery. She has used it every day and abuses the battery, but it's still going. Probably get a decade of use out of it.

Finally, I would never game on a laptop. Too noisy, too expensive, to hot, to confining... better to have a tower where individual components can be upgraded at will. This is precisely why I'm in the market again to build a mid-sized tower. It's going to house 3x 3.5" hard drives and 1x SSD. I'll have the option to add a GPU if I want to game. It will be a Plex server, NVR, and NAS.

This laptop was $350, but it seemed like everyone compared every deal that season with one sale that must have been an accident, it was taken down almost immediately, but I read over and over that the same laptop had been available for just $250.

I believe that I paid $80 more for a FHD screen and another $10 for a backlit keyboard, which doesn't work great when everything is silver.

I paid $90 for the extended warranty, which is supposed to be refunded in full if I don't use it.

Wish me luck! :D

I always say that I paid $800 for a $350 laptop because I bought RAM and an SSD that I swapped in because it was cheaper than having it ship like that.

It didn't have shipping included, either.

People kept talking about going through different sites or buying with particular credit cards to get cash back.

I believe that one of those things was supposed to work, but didn't seem to work for me.

I found Chinese batteries for $25-30, but only IFixIt sold the OEM battery for $90.

That may have been more than I wanted to pay... :)

A friend told me that he always put screws in a jar so his kids didn't kick them.

Remember when my then-girlfriend kicked my laptop screws?! :D

I thought that was bad, but having loose screws is just annoying, while you can do actual damage driving a screw that is too long! :)

I always try to lay out screws in the order they came out, but I also bought ice cube trays for at least putting fasteners in the order I removed them, but if you pull screws of different lengths for the same step, that doesn't help you.

They also have repair mats with grids on them to help you keep track.

I miss WoW and I spent 6 minutes showing the lady with whom I went hiking 3 times how to play the one lower-level character that I can still access.

I think that I mostly miss it because I want a break from grad school! :D

I posted in my other thread that I bought my Dell XPS 8900 on 5/21/2016.
I have just upgraded the RAM and SSD, but I couldn't play WoW at some point after buying this laptop even though I think it came with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650.

When I showed Miss Hiker WoW, I had it full-screen on my 43" television, and I was in a capital city, where the game tends to slow down, but there is another capital city with each expansion.

I don't even know how many there are nowadays, and for several expansions, there have been fewer and fewer players, although the last time that I saw, it was still the most popular MMORPG.
(if you count Classic, it is a distant #2, with Baldur's Gate III being #1)

25-man raids were also extremely demanding, but I don't have any idea how to do that at level 20.

I don't recall ever having a smaller laptop than 15.6".

People rant and rave about numeric keypads, but I use them.

Yes.

And I'm about to do it again.

I've been procrastinating getting another Raspberry Pi, and now the Pi 5 is shipping. Same price point with 2-3X performance.

Now with two (count 'em two) video inputs. Here's an overclocking video where you can assess the gaming performance.
Overclocking The Raspberry Pi 5 To 3.0GHz! Taking The Pi5 To The Edge!
Overclocking is simply a matter of editing the Config.txt. PCIe if you want a graphics card bigger than the SBC.

People wanting to do serious work dock their laptop or have a workstation. A numeric pad probably requires 15"+ making it not a laptop, but a desktop that cost a lot.

Wish I could claim I speak 3 foreign languages fluently because I avoided WoW, but alas, I cannot. I did complete a prolific amount of foruming though.

I avoided WoW, but alas, the three languages are English, Basic and HTML.

If anyone watches the part on gaming performance, is the result mediocre or very mediocre? Not that I care, I have no standard for comparison.

Insofar as the form factor, once the computer fits in your shirt pocket, the display could be a tablet, laptop, desktop (like mine) or a wearable. An interesting tablet is the Seeed reTerminal.

https://media-cdn.seeedstudio.com/me.../_1_8032_1.jpg


reTerminal CM4104032 - AI, IoT, IIoT Human Machine Interface, All-in-one Board, Modular Design, RPi CM4 32GB powered, IPS multi-touch screen, 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 5.0, rich interfaces
SKU 110070048
Rating:
18 Reviews
The reTerminal is a Human-Machine Interface facility, designed in modularization, offered multiple interfaces and components. It is your hand-size, powerful, Raspberry Pi-based all-in-one board, assisting you to develop individual IoT & AI projects and being ready to materialize industrial-level monitor and control functions.

$215.00
1+ in stock

For twice the price you get brass threaded inserts on all sides and a PCIe port on the back for industrial levels of control. You can see the breadth of applications at www.seeedstudio.com/blog/news-center/.

Haven't read this, but there's hope for a CM5 board.

If you want a computer to play World of Warcraft, I'd start with looking up the recommended specs for World of Warcraft (or whatever it is you want to do with your computer).

Buying a faster computer doesn't mean whatever you do with the computer will be faster. It could be like buying a Ferrari and using it only to drive around the local school zone to help move books from one school to another.

What was considered bad in the past may not be bad today. Intel's next gen laptop CPU's are scheduled to come with really good integrated graphics that even include ray-tracing.

If I were to get a laptop right now I'd go with a Framework Laptop 16 with AMD. I'd get the AMD version because right now they are more efficient so have better battery life. Framework laptops are designed to be repairable, customizeable and upgradeable, all of which is important to me.

However, since I have desktop, I'm contemplating just getting a tablet when my Surface Go dies. The problem is I don't know what tablet to get.

For my significant other I chose the tablet based on size and whether it had expandable memory (NOT sdram). Os was a consideration as was price. After that they are pretty much the same except for size, shape and color

If I'm going to carry around a tablet, I need it to hold all my stuff. A 1TB would be nice. SD card would be nice for that reason as opposed to buying an expensive tablet.

Size, it would need to be close enought to replace a typical 8.5" x 11" piece of paper.

I do use it outside. I find my Surface to not be bright enough. I like the Eyemoo EPaper-S1, but it seems to be lacking features like an SD card slot (limiting me to 128GB) and is a new company.

Longevity is also important. With 5 or more years of updates an iPad does seem enticing.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. My Surface Go 2 works just fine. As long as it works I have no reason to get another tablet.

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

I usually do that every 5-6 years. I might use my Ryzen computers for 10 years. They are 5 and 6 years old now.

AMD Ryzens have often been more efficient than Intels over the last 3-4 years. You could not say that about the several years preceding that. I'm drawing 65 watts from the wall receptacle from my Ryzen 2400G computer, 43" 4K TV, and cable modem while browsing this website. Intel's integrated graphics suck compared to igpu in the Ryzen G cpus.

Interesting development.

AMD had always been lagging Intel transistor process size, but I just Googled and AMD is now at 5nm while Intel is at 10nm.

From what I'm reading, AMD is more power efficient under load, while Intel is more efficient under idle conditions.

I'll have to reconsider my component picks for the next build. That said, I have a need for efficient h.264 and h.265 encoding/decoding, and Intel's QuickSync is designed to handle that in an efficient way. My requirements are mostly that, and efficient idling. Would be nice to have the option to game, but that represents a small percentage of 24/7 operation.

If a person's main goal is efficiency, then Apple Silicon is currently king. Of course, that's an entirely different animal.

I'm running an efficient, 12th gen Intel Core i5 on a 300W PSU.

This message comes from a Raspberry Pi 4 that uses 3 Amps at 5 Volts (IIRC 15 Watts).

The new Pi 5 requires a 5 Watt supply, because it how has a PCIe connector. OTOH, it has Power over Ethernet in addition to the USB-C power.

The Mac Mini is not world-facing because I foolishly installed Norton Antivirus on it, and that came with a lot of baggage that I don't trust. Asahi Linux is still on the way.

I have a Pi 3 and a Pi 4. I'm using the Pi 4 as a MIDI controller. I had ordered the Pi 3 a long time ago and when it finally came in I had the Pi 4.

However, I'm looking for a tiny form factor way of sending data over shortwave using the VARA protocol. I can use my Surface Windows tablet along with a modem (external sound card). But that's bulky and takes up a lot of space. I'm looking into putting together a (tr)uSDX tranceiver that can take CAT controls over USB (as in "universal serial bus", not to be confused with "upper side band.") I can run VARA on Linux, so maybe that would a project for the Pi-3. But I am hoping there's a way, or will be a way, of running VARA on an Android phone. I can already run data to HF/VHF code on Android, but don't have a good way of using the VARA protocol without something external like a Linux or Windows computer.

Generally I don't see the point of any thrid party antivirus software with only a few exceptions. Usually the antivirus that Apple, Windows or Google hands out is good enough for the average user, especially if you avoid shady websites and don't open emails you're not 100% sure of where they came from.

In the 1990s I [phone] supported Norton Utilities for Symantec. The Mac product was mainly for data recovery, with the Norton Disk Editor for when Norton Disk Doctor failed. I could go into the boot blocks with it when I forgot my password.

The Utilities accommodated HFS+, but never was updated for OS X's big changes. Once the newer Mac couldn't boot under OS 9 it was all over. I also spent a year and a half in the Windows queue, coaching people on editing their own Registry, over the phone. No remote access, never lost a patient.

Now it's bundled with hduckduckgo.com/?q=Norton+Lifelock&ia=web. Name should have warned me. :) Now I don't even trust the uninstaller.

It doesn't get much smaller than the Compute Module 4.

I need Winders because that's what the software I run is built for.

I'm keeping an eye out for 200-400 watt PSUs, but it seems like they only want to sell 800-1000w. Way overkill for someone trying to operate a PSU efficiently.

I can't imagine software not being cross-platform, but there it is. If it's FOSS you could fork it. Oh well, anyways....

www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-now-officially-supports-running-windows-11-on-apple-silicon-macs

What are we considering a computer? Laptop, desktop, tablet, phone - all of the above?

I haven't owned a desktop for more than 30 years so those are out. For laptops my wife and I got a Macbook when we first got married and used it for about 8 years with no issues. We replaced that with an HP chromebook that I used for 7 years until it no longer got updates. It was replaced with another HP Chromebook which I'm typing on now. For CAD and photo editing I have a Dell 6800 engineering laptop that is about 10 years old and that I bought used for a fraction of the original cost.

Phones - I generally buy a 1 year old flagship and then use it for 2 years.

Anything bigger than a microcontroller. CPU memory and storage.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/m3...wToT6oYIjuFi2n
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/m3...wToT6oYIjuFi2n

The only difference with your desktop, laptop and phone are the display.

Perhaps you neglected ancillary access ports? Or do you successfully daisy chain the usb and use either wifi or bluetooth? Don't know how far you can push those for connectivity. Maybe 2 on wifi and so far 5 on bluetooth but in their own partition

My phone has more compute power that I had at the city of Bakersfield data operations center, but if I connect it to more than a couple external devices it gets stupid, slow and sometimes hangs. Had a thousand users at the data center but phone doesn't have that front end system. Not supposed to, I guess.

I tried using just a laptop, but It's a pain having all sorts of dongles and addons in a drawer, or drawers.

I built my desktop to address all my wants and needs. It has a Blu-ray player/burner, floppy drive, HDMI/DP/DVI/VGA on the motherboard for all my monitor testing needs, 2x PS/2 ports, 1x serial port, and my backup drive is installed inside the case with an external on-off button.

I also made the desktop a true desktop computer, not a tower, that lies flat so I can put it under my printer. It's a small form factor (SFF) desktop anyway, so adds about 5 inches under the printer.

The computer is connected to the TV, so that saves even more space. And it's not a smart TV, but with the computer attached it is.

Can you actually use the serial port without a lot of fiddling? Since WIN7 it became a pita to use

Maybe you need to upgrade the hardware?

Then use the GPIO header:

Right now I'm using a old serial mouse that I plugged in months ago. Windows Update (Windows 10 then, now 11) automatically detected it and download the drivers, just like with any USB mouse.

So far it's been very easy to use.

No I actually meant as a serial communication device. Mice are standardized special case units actually a necessary part of win os.

The famous Costco Black Friday HP deal has come early this year. $350 for a 13th gen i3 processor. As Xist pointed out, the wireless might go out. My Bluetooth died and I bought a $6 USB dongle to replace the failed internal one. Battery died after 4 years and I replaced it for $27. Heck of a lot of laptop for $350. I think I paid more for a stinkin tablet.

https://www.costco.com/hp-14%22-lapt...000209051.html

I paid more for an Apple Newton. :)

https://cdn.macrumors.com/article-ne...ple-newton.jpg
cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2016/04/apple-newton.jpg

I used it to read Edgar Rice Burroughs novels on the city bus.

I paid more for for a Dell Axim PDA WITH WiFi. It was absolutely insane.

https://imgs.search.brave.com/wcp0UL...3/NS5qcGc_Yz0y

It's getting closer:

www.canakit.com/canakit-raspberry-pi-5-starter-kit-turbine-black.html

https://www.canakit.com/Media/700/2782.jpg

Preorder now, ships 'late Nov'. The 8Gbmodel is $180 all up.

I think my new favorite Youtube channel is www.youtube.com/@lauriewired

Here's the top video on her home page:
The Magic of RISC-V Vector Processing

Part of the appeal is the video production and using a windowing system from Mac OS, from the Mac Plus to the candy-colored iMac. I guess I'm nostalgic for watching an OS evolve.

She seems to be Raspberry Pi oriented today, and this video introduces another generational change in ISAs, such as x86 and ARM, and this one is Open Source. One test article.

I think this channel will draw in adolescent males and get them to 'touch metal'.

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.

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.

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

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.

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'

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.

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.

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.

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

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.