Computer guys....

[jeffery Ollsan]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:02 PM, Coytee said:

My PC died a couple days ago.  I've been using my phone for whatever internet lookup I need/want to do.  I'm realizing I need to buy another.  The one that died, I bought used.  My needs are low so I'm not going to pay several hundred or several thousands for the newest/bestest.

 

Poking around on craigslist, I found a Dell T5400 with monitor, keyboard, mouse (though I told him to keep the keyboard & mouse)

 

He carried on how this is an industrial tank, yada yada yada....  most of which went over my head.  When he opened the case though, I have to admit, seeing the cooling 'thing' above the processor (MUCH larger than any I've ever seen, looks like it might have some copper tubes which suggests it might have some liquid cooling)

 

Anyway, long story short, I was heading into town, saw this....so reached out to him and decided on the spot to get it.

 

$90

 

I figured I'd probably not be able to replace too many parts in my now dead pc for that much so what the heck. Also read this guide for hacks and cheats for gta 5 PS4.

 

Again, not knowing much about this T5400....  is it really the 'industrial tank' he said it was?  It doesn't really matter what the answer is, I'm now using it.  It seems to fit well as a replacement.  I DID need a pigtail to take my DVI for monitor into its other type of video plug but the pigtail was all I needed.

 

I also now have a nice foot rest as it's laying on its side under desk.

As a gamer, what has typically worked for me is to upgrade the video card every two years, and only other components if they are the system's bottleneck. Every four to six years, the motherboard, CPU, and RAM are upgraded. The PSU and case both get upgraded very infrequently. only when there has been a significant advancement in technology (e.g. jump from CRT to LCD, jump from 1080p to 2K and HDR, etc.) SSD only when required.

[Marvel]

On 8/13/2022 at 4:49 PM, Emile said:

Pretty steep learning curve for someone who is not very familiar with PC's  

Not steep at all if you get the right flavor. I could tell you which one, I've tried a lot of distros.

[Marvel]

On 8/13/2022 at 4:27 PM, Emile said:

No; you cannot use your old drive as a boot drive for the new PC. The boot drive is configured for all components in your "old" PC ... it won't even recognize the new one. It will only work on 100% identical machines.

Sometimes... have totally moved a Windows 10 pc drive to another system (different vendor no less), and it worked fine.

[Invidiosulus]

15 hours ago, Marvel said:

Sometimes... have totally moved a Windows 10 pc drive to another system (different vendor no less), and it worked fine.

Yep.

 

usually if it doesn’t recognize it at all it just means you have some UEFI or SATA compatibility settings set incorrectly.

[Thaddeus Smith]

[captainbeefheart]

My advice since all I run is personal computer towers, I'm not a phone guy and fixing laptops isn't easy or fun is to get a blank tower; i.e. no operating system. Windows costs as much as or more than the computer itself. Then just install the latest Ubuntu LTS which is a Linux operating system.

 

I have had zero issues running programs even made for windows through wine which is a Windows emulator. My newest computer I just got due to my old one being damaged from electrical issues is the only time I have encountered a slight issue. I typically use Thunderbird for my emails but I was only getting half of my emails for whatever reason. If I log into my email account via my web browser I can get all my emails. I'm just using the web browser for now until I either straighten out Thunderbird or just download another email program to use.

 

Windows just plain sucks in my opinion and costs too much. You may even be able to get a free computer if someone lost their operating system and just went out an bought a new computer. Just re-format the hard disk and check it for corruption. If the HD checks out then just install Ubuntu from a dongle drive or via DVD with the iso burnt onto it.

[captainbeefheart]

16 hours ago, Marvel said:

Not steep at all if you get the right flavor. I could tell you which one, I've tried a lot of distros.

 

I have some older folks in their late 70's and 80's that don't know anything about computers except for how to use them for internet and music/photos etc.. that I switched them over to Ubuntu and they have no problems. For their purposes it works the same; open Firefox and use the internet is the extent most of them know.

[Racer X]

Forgot what this thread was originally about, but here's my take:  Suffered the MS DOS and then the Windows because you know, the office.  Early adopter of the Chromebook ( you're probably using a Chrome browser now, right ? ) and could not be happier.  With the AdBlock, seldom see any ads, sometimes websites say we see what you're doing, whitelist us, just walk away from that. 

 

What really set me off the Windows was the impenetrable update process, rendering my computer useless and taking forever, and very vague useless descriptions about what the patches were for.  The Chromebook update is once monthly and totally transparent, both in effect on your computer and in documentation of what the update is adding.

 

Criticism of the Chromebook puzzles me:  I can easily open new spreadsheets and docs offline, and I can compose email offline.  And if one wants to get fancy they can dual boot to Linux or Ubuntu or Mint or whatever.

[captainbeefheart]

11 minutes ago, Racer X said:

 

Criticism of the Chromebook puzzles me:  I can easily open new spreadsheets and docs offline, and I can compose email offline.  And if one wants to get fancy they can dual boot to Linux or Ubuntu or Mint or whatever.

 

I am not sure if they are all the same but Linda's Chromebook will not allow you to install third party software. When my desktop got destroyed I was in a panic to test some stuff and tried to install my test software onto it and was baffled why they don't allow this. For me this is a deal breaker but for most people looking to just surf the web and use email then it's probably not a problem.

 

I believe Chromebooks OS is a form of Linux Kernel which is why it's so stable and rare to get a virus.

[Racer X]

Yes, believe this can be bypassed by using Linux instead of Chrome OS, but have not tried, just heard about it.  Some of us are pretty simple and have no need for third party executables.  For most just surfing the forum or gmail or whatnot, it is the way to go.

 

Surprised the Apple fanbois have not yet chimed in....

[Myth843]

On 8/17/2022 at 11:45 PM, Racer X said:

Forgot what this thread was originally about, but here's my take:  Suffered the MS DOS and then the Windows because you know, the office.  Early adopter of the Chromebook ( you're probably using a Chrome browser now, right ? ) and could not be happier.  With the AdBlock, seldom see any ads, sometimes websites say we see what you're doing, whitelist us, just walk away from that. 

 

What really set me off the Windows was the impenetrable update process, rendering my computer useless and taking forever, and very vague useless descriptions about what the patches were for.  The Chromebook update is once monthly and totally transparent, both in effect on your computer and in documentation of what the update is adding.

 

Criticism of the Chromebook puzzles me:  I can easily open new spreadsheets and docs offline, and I can compose email offline.  And if one wants to get fancy they can dual boot to Linux or Ubuntu or Mint or whatever. Check a guide about xx mean in a text.

Hm... Sincerity dictates that I might not be able to offer you a positive assessment of this. I don't know a lot about chromebooks because this is my first one. I've typically spent over $1300 on laptops. I've only recently discovered that I use my laptop nearly completely for web browsing and streaming, which is why I'm trying out a Chromebook.

I mainly enjoy it thus far. Despite feeling rather rigid, the keyboard has a lot of give (compared to MBP and previous Yoga). It feels a little cheep because of little things (bottom pads is long lines as which annoy me when I have it on my lap). There is a fan, and it does turn on occasionally. It turns out that 1080p is sufficient for my daily needs.

[Marvel]

So... one linux family tree goes like this:

Debian > Ubuntu > Mint

 

Mint comes in three flavors (see what I did there...), Cinnamon, MATE, xfce. Cinnamon is a bit more modern look, MATE will remind you of Windows 7, and xfce is a bit more bare bones.

 

We use MATE at work. I installed the current version, 21, on a Lenovo i5 laptop this weekend. With a 240G SSD, the install took THREE (3) minutes. That included the OS, utilities and the free office suite, Libre Office. I then installed my DAW, digital audio workstation, which probably took 10 minutes. Everything works fine, wifi recognized all the area connections, including including my 5G router.

 

No bloatware to speak of. If you have Windows installed and have room, it will ask if you want to set up a dual boot system. Or, if you have a Windows desktop, you can pretty easily log on to it and use the linux pc as a terminal, working on your Windows computer like you wee there.

 

Updates (not often) are usually quite painless

[tigerwoodKhorns]

4 hours ago, Marvel said:

So... one linux family tree goes like this:

Debian > Ubuntu > Mint

 

Mint comes in three flavors (see what I did there...), Cinnamon, MATE, xfce. Cinnamon is a bit more modern look, MATE will remind you of Windows 7, and xfce is a bit more bare bones.

 

We use MATE at work. I installed the current version, 21, on a Lenovo i5 laptop this weekend. With a 240G SSD, the install took THREE (3) minutes. That included the OS, utilities and the free office suite, Libre Office. I then installed my DAW, digital audio workstation, which probably took 10 minutes. Everything works fine, wifi recognized all the area connections, including including my 5G router.

 

No bloatware to speak of. If you have Windows installed and have room, it will ask if you want to set up a dual boot system. Or, if you have a Windows desktop, you can pretty easily log on to it and use the linux pc as a terminal, working on your Windows computer like you wee there.

 

Updates (not often) are usually quite painless

 

I tried Mint years a go without success.  Hopefully it is much easier to use now.

[Marvel]

14 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

 

I tried Mint years a go without success.  Hopefully it is much easier to use now.

You can boot the os from a usb and play with it/try it out.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

8 hours ago, Marvel said:

You can boot the os from a usb and play with it/try it out.

I used Mint because it was lightweight.  Why do you prefer Mint over Ubuntu?

 

My issue was that if you needed anything, the learning curve was steep to figure it out.  I'd liek to keep my computers going after MS Win 10 is done. 

[Wrench]

On 11/21/2022 at 6:32 AM, NickB33 said:

Some of my freinds switched to Linix and like it, I haven't tried it yet. 

And I'm also suprised that MacOS hasn't been discussed yet

MacOS 🙂    I have been using an iMac 2015 5K display everyday for hours at a time.  I just leave it on and put it to sleep.  No fan noise,  just bliss.  One piece computer unit, built in display and speakers.  No more " blue screens" and wasting time and money in repairs and issues configuring software or devices for me.  I also have setup seven desktop spaces with different apps running on each one that I can scroll, switch, to.  Apps can be assigned to different Desktops.  Each Desktop has its own background.  Another nice feature is that I can shut down the computer, restart it and continue where I left off without having to reopen the apps and files.  It does it for me.

[Marvel]

6 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

Why do you prefer Mint over Ubuntu?

I think it's more refined.

 

Any OS has a learning curve. The MacOS does, it's strong point being the rather closed hardware it runs on. Also makes it cost more. The OS was pretty much a modified version of BSD Unix with a pretty face.

 

Many linux distros, to me, are made different because they can be and people want to experiment. I want it useful, and have found Mint to feel very familiar. All the software I use pretty much installs easily, most with a simple run command. It's elegant enough, pretty enough, and does what I want it to do. 

 

Like Windows 10/11, you usually don't need to install special drivers for the hardware. It has gotten beyond what I call 'user surly software'. Windows 10x has too much it installs that you can't get rid of if you want to.