Jump to content
Erkki

Damn it, but computers have become really complicated

Recommended Posts

Is it worth investing the money into a Mid 2008 MacBook Pro with more RAM and a solid state drive? I have a PC desktop that I do most of my work on, but I'm planning to do a little more on my MacBook and since I love it 95% of the time, I'm wondering if it's wise to spend more money on it to extend it's life or save it to get a new one to have for another 6 years.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Considering the cost of a new apple device and the somewhat lack-luster improvements to the Pro line as of late, I think it might be worth it, provided that MacBook will still be getting new versions of OSX.

 

*note, this advice is strictly due to impressions from listening to the Tested Podcast, I don't own an apple device myself.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

*note, this advice is strictly due to impressions from listening to the Tested Podcast, I don't own an apple device myself.

 

I also went to Tested first when looking for opinions!

 

If I bought a new MBP I'd want to go all out and it looks like the 15' ones only come in retina and everything is soldered into the logic board so there's no upgrade path. That combined with the fact that the highest end one costs twice as much as my desktop and isn't even as fast makes me think I'll go with just upgrading the one I have. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lately I've been thinking about getting a UPS for my computer.  I frequently lose power during storms.  Even steady but otherwise mild rain can cause brief outages where I live.  Anyone have any good recommendations for one?  This CyberPower one seems to be frequently recommended based on a cursory search.  I'm not looking for something that's going to last me until I get power back, just enough that I can safely shutdown.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just got myself a Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard, to replace the almost-excellent K400. Well, IMHO K400 was the best thing there was. The K400 Plus is likely better, but wasn't available in Estonian yet. So I discovered the Harmony Smart Keyboard, that it's very similar to K400/Plus and even though this was also not available in Estonian, I decided to get the German one.

 

So the initial setup took a bit of fiddling, some dead ends and a few device restarts, but now it seems to be able to switch between activities such as PS3, TV, PC. I never actually watched TV before because the remote was somewhere put away, but maybe I'll start now. It can also turn my Haiku ceiling fan on/off, and the keyboard seems to be functioning nicely for both the PS3 and Windows PC.

 

My devices: BenQ W1070, PS3, Motorola TV box, MonoPrice HDMI switch, BigAss Haiku ceiling fan. It managed to connect all of the devices on first try (most difficult part was looking up the serial number from the bottom of the HDMI switch), no problems there, but I think the hub somehow messed up the states of the devices in it's brain-thing. Only after a restart of the hub (power off-on) did it start correctly switching between activities. And the keyboard just didn't work for a while, dunno exactly what made it start working.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lately I've been thinking about getting a UPS for my computer.  I frequently lose power during storms.  Even steady but otherwise mild rain can cause brief outages where I live.  Anyone have any good recommendations for one?  This CyberPower one seems to be frequently recommended based on a cursory search.  I'm not looking for something that's going to last me until I get power back, just enough that I can safely shutdown.

 

It's the only one I've owned, but I've had that CyberPower model for a few years and have never had any problems with it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So I got up to work this morning, and discovered that my trusty Dell Ultrasharp monitor that's been my workhorse for almost a decade was dead.  Initial troubleshooting leads me to believe that the internal power supply has failed.  I hope so, the thing still delivered a better picture than the lady's much newer 27" monitor.  I've ordered a used power supply board (all that's available), but it's going to take a few days to get here, so I went out and bought one of the ultrawide monitors to try, 29" with 2560x1080 resolution.  After an afternoon of working with it, I think I could really dig this and see it hard to go back to a 16:9 or 16:10 monitor.  The extra width is much more natural for splitting two windows side by side and have plenty of space for both.  My 16:10 Dell never really felt right when I would do that.  I wish I could have afforded the 34" version, but it was more than twice as expensive.  That seems like it would be about the perfect size for my desk and my working needs. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lately I've been thinking about getting a UPS for my computer.  I frequently lose power during storms.  Even steady but otherwise mild rain can cause brief outages where I live.  Anyone have any good recommendations for one?  This CyberPower one seems to be frequently recommended based on a cursory search.  I'm not looking for something that's going to last me until I get power back, just enough that I can safely shutdown.

APC Back-UPS series.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So I got up to work this morning, and discovered that my trusty Dell Ultrasharp monitor that's been my workhorse for almost a decade was dead.  Initial troubleshooting leads me to believe that the internal power supply has failed.  I hope so, the thing still delivered a better picture than the lady's much newer 27" monitor.  I've ordered a used power supply board (all that's available), but it's going to take a few days to get here, so I went out and bought one of the ultrawide monitors to try, 29" with 2560x1080 resolution.  After an afternoon of working with it, I think I could really dig this and see it hard to go back to a 16:9 or 16:10 monitor.  The extra width is much more natural for splitting two windows side by side and have plenty of space for both.  My 16:10 Dell never really felt right when I would do that.  I wish I could have afforded the 34" version, but it was more than twice as expensive.  That seems like it would be about the perfect size for my desk and my working needs. 

 

the extra wide (XW?) style seems to a new trend that ive seen come across as of late.  it feels the same to me if you had two same brand/model monitors - just losing the bezel gap?  i still use a single screen at work for space purposes...but will be upgrading soon.

 

I think i'd have to play with it in my work flow for a few days to feel what you mean about the window splitting

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's very similar to having two monitors side by side, and I even debated on buying two cheaper 21" screens (which would have been the same price and more screen real estate), but this one has way more inputs than cheapo screens and generally better performance/reviews.  I've used multiple monitors off and on over the years, and for whatever reason I almost always end up liking a large, single screen better.  It might just be my own psychology, but somehow I never get as much use out of a second screen as I think I will.

 

That said, if I can repair my old Ultrasharp, I cam going to switch it to a vertical orientation and try it as a second monitor.  I've got a few things that I tend to have open throughout the day that I need to look at, without interacting a lot, and one of the windows can use as much vertical space as it can get. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Some rambling about buying things, and a preamble to my question:

 

I'm planing to upgrade my old budget-model 1080p monitor to a new sexy 1440p ips beauty (specific model tbd). To prepare for all the extra pixels I'll need to push (and, potentially, to be able to play new graphics-hog games at decent settings), I'm also planning to upgrade my 6 year old lowish-midrange graphics card to something modern. While I'm at it, my CPU is similarly old and dusty, so I might as well upgrade that too. Which probably means I'll need a new motherboard. Which probably means I'll need to upgrade to newer-format RAM. And with all that happening, I wouldn't be surprised if I need a higher capacity power supply too.

 

So long story short, I've made the round-about decision to buy an entire new computer (although I'm putting it in my old case, with my old hard drives). And also to budget the next several months of my life around funding this decision.

 

Question:

 

How do y'all tend to handle your old parts after upgrading? With some parts it's straightforward: I know I can put away old ram or an old graphics card until I find someone who wants it. Can I do the same with an old CPU or motherboard? Is there some proper way of handling/storing that stuff outside of a machine? Is anyone actually looking for old used PSUs?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In general I keep all the static bags and such that come with the new parts and put the old parts in it, then try to fit it all in the motherboard box so it's collected together. I've routinely hooked up old parts in a new case when I need a server for Minecraft or something so I keep my parts around.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In general I keep all the static bags and such that come with the new parts and put the old parts in it, then try to fit it all in the motherboard box so it's collected together. I've routinely hooked up old parts in a new case when I need a server for Minecraft or something so I keep my parts around.

 

Yep, every nerd has a "parts box/bag" hah.

 

 

So I had my first hard drive fail on me, or at least I think its failing. Windows 10 started to fail to pick it up, when i opened up disk management it was there but listed as raw. I swapped sata cables and ports, Windows 10 picked it up now. It took a second for all of my data to show up after I rebooted my PC. Initially I saw it as empty but after 30 seconds my data was there all of a sudden. I ran a chkdsk and everything seemed OK.  That was fine until steam started crashing, I restarted my PC and windows failed to pick up the drive and listed it as 'RAW' again.

 

I picked up a new drive and swapped it out, but I wonder if there is something I can do to fix it. It is getting a little long in the tooth, Its just over 5 years old at this point. 

 

This was the same drive I had issues with that led to my witcher 3 saves being wiped and me getting a new 500gb SSD as my primary drive so I might as well bin it, its caused me a lot of heart ache in the last few months.  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Depending on what part of the drive is broken, you might be able to hook it up to USB and have it spin up and read even if it doesn't work hooked up to SATA. If it's an electronics problem, not a physical problem, and if you can find another drive that's exactly the same, down to firmware versions and everything, you could try and swap the controller board on the bottom of the drive. I have done that successfully twice.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I want to build a PC.

My wish list contains
- GeForce 950 2GB
- Intel I3-4160 Dual-Core or Intel I5-4460 Quad-Core
- 2x 4GB RAM
- 500W Power Supply

- Win 7 64Bit

As I’ve been out of the loop for quite some time, so questions arose.
- Do the components fit together, power-wise?
- Is the power supply strong enough? I probably won’t put in much more, a small SSD and a larger normal one, occasionally it’d need watts for an external drive.
- Do I have to buy the more expansive Intel? Is it worth the 50-70 bucks more?
- Anything tricky I need to watch out for?

I’d really appreciate some input from you people.

Thanks!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What are you trying to do with the computer? My gut feeling is pairing a current spec video card with a lower end dual core processor that's more than a year old is not a good marriage, but I have not been following cpu updates in a couple of years with more than a passing knowledge of what architecture they're using. The biggest selling point on getting the i3 to my mind is the ability to update to a faster haswell chip at some point.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpus,3986.html

 

Tom's Hardware recommends the i3-4170 for a budget cpu, but from poking around it's basically the same as a 4160, so get the best price if you go that option. Are you buying a new motherboard? The i5-6500 is, right this second and may expire at any time, within about $10-15 of the i5-4460 and is new skylake architecture.

 

I guess what I'm saying is I don't know! What I do know for sure is a 500W psu should work for you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Got my old Dell monitor fixed! 

 

Now I've got to figure out why I've got some serious screen tearing going on every time I scroll windows.  Probably linked to having one vertical monitor, I'm guessing.

 

Spoilered bigass picture

 

post-33601-0-00274300-1446841441_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What I do know for sure is a 500W psu should work for you.

 

This and 500W actually works for almost all single card setup (minus those weird 'single card' GPUs that are actually two GPUs built into one).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the input, Badfinger and Gaizokubanou!

I just bought a PC. Normally it probably takes me six months of buying the occasional beer, cinema-ticket or odd indie game to spend that much money for something I don't really need. Apart from traveling, which doesn’t count, because

Strange feeling!

I'll probably be back here when I try to turn it on and bad things happen.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm thinking of buying a big ass 2tb+ hdd to take over as the main storage drive for my pc since my current main drive is a fair few years old at this point(the old drive will morph into a temporary storage place only housing things i can afford to loose).  Any brand recommendations or tips about what makes a better large hdd?

 

also is it worth considering a external drive? In terms of just having something that is separate from the rest of the PC (& so i assume less vulnerable to something like a psu breakdown/whatever)

 

my case has a plethora of usb 3  ports & a vsata so i would hope that it would be possible to get fairly decent data speed

 

I could either just get a new external drive instead of buying a internal or maybe buy a drive case for my old 1tb take up residence in and make the hdd bay of my pc a little less packed (i also have a hdd and a hybrid drive i use the former for OS and systems etc and the later for my most played games)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I use two external drives for backups and they work great. I assume that an internal drive would be a better investment, but there is something about having an external drive on my bookcase rather than in my computer that comforts me irrationally.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The advantage of having an external drive is that the drive is only running when you plug it in, so the parts that are vulnerable to wear don't die as fast. The disadvantage (besides the obvious "it could get lost") is that there are added components that make up the enclosure that can fail, which you might or might not be able to get around by ripping it apart and hooking the drive up manually.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×