Foo - Thanks to the forum. What can I give back? Does your computer suck?

Hey. I couldn't think of the most appropriate place to post so I chose here.

Anyway, I've learned alot I didn't know about bikes in the past few days more than LBS would offer (they just ain't very chatty).

So thanks. Especially the Classic and Vintage guys.

Bicycles just ain't my wheelhouse. Computers are (especially mobile)

So if any of you have any laptop / notebook computer (or anything in that realm, routing, DNS, operating system install / upgrade, mobile phones) troubles and don't want to worry about posting in another forum or calling some support line and want some unbiased, totally free no strings attached expert advice, I'd be more than happy to help if I can.

Thanks. Really.

That's a nice thought and offer.

I didn't contribute to your knowledge but I do have a question for your generous offer. May I?

*nudges Mango* just ask him, silly

Dwellman, that's really nice of you. Thank YOU. :)

I didn't contribute to your knowledge but I do have a question for your generous offer. May I?Whatchya got?

I accidentally got my DNS mixed up with my TCP. So now my DNS is serving up netework requests and my TCP is performing name lookups. Which would be great except my firewall is on strike due to these 2 switching jobs. And to make matters worse my network stack decied to invert itself but it got interrupted mid inversion and well now it' all in shambles also.

Reformat.

Or better yet, put gparted on a USB stick and Secure Erase all the hard drives.

This is FOO. Therefore, this will become a thread diverted multiple times to epic proportions in about two days.

Just sit and watch.

:D

Thread subversion? I know not this thread subversion.

This computer sucks surprisingly little, actually. It's a somewhat old Dell E520 with 3GB RAM and a 500GB drive leftover from a server upgrade. Not bad for a hand-me-down. It currently runs Debian Squeeze 32-bit, with VirtualBox for my choice of WinXP, Win7, or RedHat guest operating systems. Dual 20" monitors... it's a nice working setup.

Can I have you do my job for me? I answer computer questions all day for a law firm.

Can't be worse than: "My microsft don't work no more."

Can't be worse than: "My microsft don't work no more."
Me: Can you reboot your computer?
[1 second later]
Lawyer's secretary: Okay, it's done.
Me: Already? Can you do it again for me?
[1 second later]
Lawyer's secretary: Okay, it's done again.
Me: Really? What are you doing to reboot the computer?
Lawyer's secretary: Just pushing the button at the corner of the screen.

*facepalm*

Ok, that's pretty bad.

Don't deal directly with end users, but from time to time I will see a problem ticket escalated (from two previous levels of "support") to dev (us) that says: "the fax line is busy."

Its a strange world out there.

Unfortunately, in an IT department of ten people, I do have to deal with end users.

Me: Can you reboot your computer?
[1 second later]
Lawyer's secretary: Okay, it's done.
Me: Already? Can you do it again for me?
[1 second later]
Lawyer's secretary: Okay, it's done again.
Me: Really? What are you doing to reboot the computer?
Lawyer's secretary: Just pushing the button at the corner of the screen.

*facepalm*


See that's where your mistake is. Assuming that people know what a random word (reboot) means in some unrelated niche (IT) that non IT people have to work with.
You would be equally embarrassed if you were forced to work with a technology or at a job you never worked or had any knowledge/experience with. And said people instructing you to do something would be equally frustrated. :p

Well have to give the secretary credit: he/she at least push a button.

IT? is that like IS?

Hey, Dwellman,

I have a dummy question: what would you be looking for if you wanted to buy a new, cheap home computer? What are the minimums for memory, etc., that would make for simple, reliable internet use? Say you have up to $1000 to spend. Can you give an example of something you might buy and what makes it the right choice? Don't be afraid to dumb it down. thanks.

Anything with a minimum of 3gb of ram. It's quite often easy to see cheap systems being pushed with 6gb of ram now a days.

I would recommend looking for the Intel core i3 or i5. These systems are generally cheap, very powerful.

If you're not into gaming then almost any video card will do, often times the Intel onboard will do. Though if you want you can always look for a system with a nvidia/ati card knowing that pretty much no matter what video card you get it will handle most anything you throw at it (provided you're not doing lots of intense gaming)

Most systems have 1/2 TB (500GB) min hard drives and some will even have up to 1TB.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dddoya1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=inspiron-580

Heck something as cheap as that will last you a long time.
The only thing I would recommend is clicking on "Monitors" and get yourself a nice LCD monitor.
If you don't have Office 2010 and like MS Office I would recomend picking an Office Software package .

For Peace of mind a 3 year contract is available for 99 bucks extra. It covers pretty much everything for 3 years.
All for under 1k.

Hey, Dwellman,

I have a dummy question: what would you be looking for if you wanted to buy a new, cheap home computer? What are the minimums for memory, etc., that would make for simple, reliable internet use? Say you have up to $1000 to spend. Can you give an example of something you might buy and what makes it the right choice? Don't be afraid to dumb it down. thanks.
Cheap reliable Internet usage? There's no need to spend $1000.

2GB RAM, something dual core, Windows 7 just to keep up with current technology. I just helped my mom pick out a computer for Internet use: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108361

That does just fine. You don't really need more than that. More memory is good to help performance out, but that can always be sorted out later.

At the law firm, we still have receptionist and library PCs running XP with 512MB of RAM. They run just fine for some heavy use of Outlook and Internet. Windows 7 needs a little more oomph however.

up to $1000 to spend $1000 can buy an awful lot of computer these days-- especially in a desktop. But whether you settle on a desktop or laptop

Processor Intel Core i5. Texasguy is right: your looking for i3/i5 for Intel based machines or Phenom II for AMD based machines. Of the three I prefer i5 5xxM series (for instance Intel i5 540M)

Memory: hard minimum of 3 gigabytes (GB) of memory (also called RAM, DDR2, or DDR3). But there's no reason to demand a minimum of 4 for a laptop The price difference between 3 and 4 should be around $15 anyway.

Hard Drive: minimum of 320 gigabytes. I don't worry about too much. Right now, all my data (photos, documents, tax returns, school projects, back up images, tv episodes, DVD backups, ect) that I've been accumulating for the past 12 years consumes just about 289 GB. . sitting on my NAS. . which is backed up to yet another external array.

Optical drive: DVD RW (Read /Write) Although there's no reason not to have a BluRay drive but right expect to pay around $100 more.

Power Supply (desktops only) 80 Plus Silver certified, or better. The power supply in some ways is the most important part of the computer. You want to make sure you get a quality unit.

Operating System Recommend 64 bit, whatever it ends up being. For Windows I prefer Windows 7 Professional over Home Premium, especially for a desktop. Professional has the ability to accept Remote Desktop connections (RDP) and has Windows XP Mode (just in case).

Essential connectivity:
HDMI out
USB 2.0 (although you'd be hard pressed to find a PC not having USB, so it's kind of moot)
100/1000 (aka gigabit, aka 1000 Mbps) LAN.

Nice to have connectivity:
USB 3.0 (the new USB standard)
eSATA
SDHC (Secure Digital High Capcity) memory card reader
802.11n wireless (if you get a notebook, this moves to essential)

Connectivity you reall shouldn't worry about
Bluetooth
Webcam

Cheap reliable Internet usage? There's no need to spend $1000. . .You are absolutely correct.

Problem, by now a lot of the cheaper machines (running Core 2 and such) are pretty much refurbs or EOL / off lease stuff. We and the woot.com crowd run them because if something goes wrong no big deal we can pop onto Newegg or flEabay and grab some parts and viola! I have never in my life bough a new computer (or laptop), but I rarely ever recommend refurbs to people unless I sell them and usually at a significantly reduced rate (I only refurb Thinkpads these days).

ThinkCenter-- good choice. I usually pay a lot less though. Half that price. . . muhahahaha. . . hell IBM dang near begs us to.

Oh, I forgot to mention screen resolution.

Monitor size means less today than it used to, just about every laptop in the known universe is 1366 x 768 regardless of size (12.1, 13.3, 15.6). I think that bites. By the time a monitor gets to 14, I want to see at least WXGA+ / 1440 x 900 for the WVGA (16:10) standard or 1600 x 900 (16:9). At 22 inches and bigger I want dang-o 1080p (1920 x 1080) for the HD standard.

And then there's QFHD 3840 x 2160 -- 1080p time two. How would you like to be able to read 8 pt type on a 56 inch screen? Set back at LEAST 30K and the graphics card to run it? Ten Thousand Dollars.

Oh, I forgot to mention screen resolution.

Monitor size means less today than it used to, just about every laptop in the known universe is 1366 x 768 regardless of size (12.1, 13.3, 15.6). I think that bites. By the time a monitor gets to 14, I want to see at least WXGA+ / 1440 x 900 for the WVGA (16:10) standard or 1600 x 900 (16:9). At 22 inches and bigger I want dang-o 1080p (1920 x 1080) for the HD standard.

And then there's QFHD (3840 x 2160 -- 1080p time two. How would you like to be able to read 8 pt type on a 56 inch screen? I bet it costs more than I make in a year)

I want that last monitor.

ThinkCenter-- good choice. I usually pay a lot less though. Half that price. . . muhahahaha. . . hell IBM dang near begs us to.
Back in the day, I was a "Lenovo Experts Live" tech (until they closed our desk and moved the support to China). Kinda haven't really like other brands since.

Unfortunately, now I work in a 100% Dell shop. I'm Dell certified for desktops, but the boss won't pay to certify us for laptops, so we have to talk to Ranjeet/Surya/Gupta and fake our way through troubleshooting just to get some laptop parts.

Boy, I wish we were a Lenovo shop. Their business support is still in Atlanta if I recall.

ALL my computer problems ceased to exist once I got an iMac and a Macbook :D

I want to replace my 775 mobo but I don't want to have to upgrade my CPU at the same time but I also don't want another 775. What I do?

I want to replace my 775 mobo but I don't want to have to upgrade my CPU at the same time but I also don't want another 775. What I do?

You are kind of screwed there. Intel is going through Socket designs like AMD is going through bad name vague letter combos. The number of the socket generally refers to the # of pins which quite often refers to the number of memory channels served. So there's a strong possibility that it won't stop.
I think the biggest thing that people are going to have a problem with is understanding that there will be a big gap between physical hardware keeping up with technological advances and people keeping up with hardware.

Normally Socket and chip designs had a reign of easily 5-7 years+ Now we're going through major socket revisions about every 2-3 years. Intel's going through 755, 1156, 1366 with plans for 3 more replacements (1155, 1356, 2011) most likely in the coming in the next 1-2 years.

I want to replace my 775 mobo but I don't want to have to upgrade my CPU at the same time but I also don't want another 775. What I do?

Of course you could always just buy a 1366 motherboard and use a hammer if your 755 chip doesn't fit in. Use electric conducting putty for any looseness.

Boy, I wish we were a Lenovo shop. Their business support is still in Atlanta if I recall.Yes and repair depot in Memphis (NERP).

I don't like I had a fan error on the corporate issue and when they replaced the fan they put in a "clacky" keyboard. It sucks. I think it was the last T4x they serviced. On a T410 now. Bought the T42p from CPP anyway to replace my finally dead (I think) T23. It has Fedora 14 LXDE on it now. Battery life sucks. Thinking about going to Windows / Jolicloud.

600E -> 600X (proc swap) -> T22 -> T23 -> T42p -> T410

I could use a laptop. I mostly want it to make reservations and play some
old computer games.

Borderlands is not hard on the hardware, what will run it?

Thanks.

I want to replace my 775 mobo but I don't want to have to upgrade my CPU at the same time but I also don't want another 775. What I do?*shrug*

Generally I approach upgrades as buying the best of the current generation minus one. If it's a new pin layout, sometimes I'll get the crappiest, cheapest CPU that will work in the socket and change it out later. I also very rarely buy parts all at once. I'll plan my build and acquire them over time (like an installment plan)

Honestly, though the last "desktop" I built for personal use was an AMD 64 x2 on an Nvidia NForce 4 Ultra. I've been using laptops (DIY) exclusively for the last four 1/2 years.

Hey, Dwellman,

I have a dummy question: what would you be looking for if you wanted to buy a new, cheap home computer? What are the minimums for memory, etc., that would make for simple, reliable internet use? Say you have up to $1000 to spend. Can you give an example of something you might buy and what makes it the right choice? Don't be afraid to dumb it down. thanks.

If all you want to do is surf the internet then you can do it for way less than $1000.

My laptop has a 2GHz processor, 2GB of memory, single-core processor, 250GB hard disk. It can cope with anything it encounters browsing the internet, and can also handle 50MB TIFF files in Photoshop with relative ease. It's nearly six years old. I increased the memory and hard disk (to the most it can take) for the photographic stuff. Every once in a while I use it to write code and it copes with that just fine too.

Honestly, if that's all you want you can probably get by with $3-400, although I'm not overly familiar with just what stuff costs in the US.

If all you want to do is surf the internet then you can do it for way less than $1000...Honestly, if that's all you want you can probably get by with $3-400, although I'm not overly familiar with just what stuff costs in the US.

I think you're right, and that was my impression. Yet, I did not know what to look for. Thanks to Dwellman, Texasguy, Mikeybikes for spelling it out. Now I have a way to compare models.

I think you're right, and that was my impression. Yet, I did not know what to look for. Thanks to Dwellman, Texasguy, Mikeybikes for spelling it out. Now I have a way to compare models.

The only real downside I can see to buying something very cheap to perform a very basic function is if you subsequently decide you want it to do more than you originally expected. Your $300 laptop should do just about anything you want where surfing the internet and sending/receiving emails etc is concerned, but if you decide you want to do digital photo processing, video editing, gaming, or similar then you'll find it slows to a crawl or can't cope at all.

When I bought my laptop it had 512MB of memory and a 60GB hard drive. That was all I needed at the time, and I used it as it was for some years before upgrading it. What prompted the upgrade was trying to do photo processing on it, and the time I spent a week on a nature reserve with a long lens and a fast drive, and needed more disk space than I had to copy all my flashcards.

IMy laptop has a 2GHz processor, 2GB of memory, single-core processor, 250GB hard disk.Heck, the kitchen PC is a Celeron M (1.4) based deal cobbled together out of two Dell 1000 (rescued from a dumpster), a Dell Latitude L110 and Insipron 1200. It maxes out at 1280 MB ram. I never finish the LCD top assembly (two attempts at getting SXGA panel to go, but here's no compatible SXGA cable). So its not really a laptop anymore.

The biggest problem I run into with "internet" usage is flash (Youtube, for instance).

My Pentium M (1.4 and 2.1 GHz, respectively) and newer based machines work just fine regardless of clock speed. My Mobile Pentium 4 (the last surviving Dell 1000, BTW) though it runs at 1.2 also does OK. It's my Tualitin based Pentium III based machines (Compaq EVO N160 / 1720US and Thinkpad T23) 1.13 GHz that just kind of. .. croak. Well they're both dead now anyway. Two things to take away: 1) By and large, clock speed is less meaningful than architecture, 2) Newer is almost always better than older.

Borderlands is not hard on the hardware, what will run it? Thanks.Just about any discrete graphics solution of the last 18 months should do it (anything that's not Intel Extreme / Intel GMA HD / AMD 4200 / AMD 5200. Intel HD 2000 / 30000 / 40000 being the exception)

For AMD you're looking for HD54xx or HD64xx or higher
For Nvidia . . . 12x or higher, 22x or higher, or 32x or higher, or any 4xx. GT is better than G, GTS is better than GT. NVS "workstation" class.

This is an example what could work
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/735481-REG/Gateway_NV5928U_NV5928u_15_6_Notebook_Computer.html

but you're looking at a budget around 600 to 800.

And to think, last week I didn't know the actual differences between a freewheel and a cassette. Let alone 8 of 9 on 7.

If all you want to do is surf the internet then you can do it for way less than $1000...

...Honestly, if that's all you want you can probably get by with $3-400, although I'm not overly familiar with just what stuff costs in the US.
+1

Just so happens I replaced my almost 10 year old machine yesterday. Even on that, I could do things like watch netflix no problem, though it wasn't very good for video editing (though I have done that before).

Because I replace machines so rarely and my wife wanted to get something with more oomph, I got a machine for $529 that has 6GB memory, 1TB storage, plenty of card slots, built in wifi, 64 bit OS, etc. They chinsed out on the video (it uses integrated graphics like my old computer) so this is not a hard core gaming machine, but it will still do anything most normal people would want to do. It's mind blowing how fast everything is on it.

Just for the heck of it, I checked with a local shop to see you can get custom built for $1K. That buys an awful lot of machine. Basically it buys something similar to what I got with a better processor and motherboard as well a kickass graphics card.

You'll be fine with practically anything so long as you don't bog it down with too much crap.

Honestly, if that's all you want you can probably get by with $3-400, although I'm not overly familiar with just what stuff costs in the US.

Last fall I bought a basic desktop (tower only) from the Dell Outlet for $300. 4gb ram, 650gb hd, 64 bit, Win7. Works great for our DSL internet and we run various GIS and graphics programs on it. I don't know much about computers, but I had no problem picking this one out.

It's all notebook or HTPC these days anyway.

Nettop or "mobile on desktop"