Computer experts... opinion please.

[richieb]

I have a year old Dell w/MS 11. Only use it with an external hard drive to feed a dac. About three weeks ago machine goes into BitLocker security mode. No way, no how have I been able to obtain the security key required to open my own machine. At this point I own nothing more than a folding plastic panel. The frustration level is beyond explanation - 

[avguytx]

There are schools, medical practices, and businesses out there still running Windows 7 because they don't care to upgrade.  With all of our current city computers, there will come a time we will do the upgrade but that's a ways out still and some are ready for 11...but programs aren't.  The crappy part will be having to update all of the police car and fire rigs to Windows 11 and hope that all their programs work.  That's the main issue.

 

Other than that, my house PC's are a mix of i3, i5 and i7 quad core computers that I'm not really worried about any time soon.  Most range from 8 to 16gb of memory and all use solid state drives.  I think a couple could go to Windows 11 but not in a rush.  No one in our house are hard core gamers.

[Invidiosulus]

1 hour ago, richieb said:

I have a year old Dell w/MS 11. Only use it with an external hard drive to feed a dac. About three weeks ago machine goes into BitLocker security mode. No way, no how have I been able to obtain the security key required to open my own machine. At this point I own nothing more than a folding plastic panel. The frustration level is beyond explanation - 

Ouch, when you enable bitlocker you are supposed to save a copy of the recovery key somewhere else.

 

On some of the older Dells I’ve had, changing which USB devices were plugged in would cause the TPM to think there was enough of a change in hardware to trip the recovery mode.

Unfortunately sometimes a bios update will do the same thing.
 

If whoever enabled bitlocker didn’t save the recovery key, you are looking at a fresh reinstall.

At least win11 is an easy download onto a flash drive and the windows license is actually built into the motherboard on recent dells.

Assuming of course you or someone you know has access to a working computer and a spare usb flash drive.

[richieb]

There in lies the problem, I was not aware I enabled BitLocker. So, to my knowledge, I never knew of a key to save. I’ve been chasing my tail trying to log in to my account (account doesn’t exist) start a new account using my email or phone number where an account already exists or the code sent to access the BitLocker won’t verify. And of course there is not a human to assist. How it’s acceptable for a company to lock you from using your own property is beyond me. I’ve basically given up but know I will Never buy a machine with MS software again.

[Wrench]

Why not get a Mac or MacBook Air?  Quiet, cool, well built, quick M1 or newer M2 chip set, solid and smooth video display, and reliable ;).  I got tired of wasting my time and money on trying Asus, Dell, HP, Windows based products.

[Schu]

No apple products...

 

[Schu]

Those are the two choices I am considering right now...

 

Unfortunately the research I have done is that the dells can get a little loud when pressed.

[Marvel]

8 hours ago, RealMarkDeneen said:

@Marvel

What DAW is that? What sort of recordings are you making?

 

I'll send a pm later, or start a thread on the DAW and other fun stuff. It's been a busy day.

[Schu]

Ordered this one for 2500 shipped.

I tried to get a Ryzen 9, but I couldnt config it like I wanted it.

 

 

Processor

12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900 (30 MB cache, 16 cores, 20 threads, 2.40 GHz to 5.10 GHz Turbo)

Operating System

Windows 11 Home, English

Video Card

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3080, 10 GB GDDR6X

Chassis Options

1000W Platinum Silver Bezel Chassis including optical drive

Cooling Option

Performance CPU liquid cooling

Memory

32 GB, 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 4400 MHz

Hard Drive

2 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

CD ROM/DVD ROM

Tray load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD)

Wireless

Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 1675 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless and Bluetooth 5.2

[tigerwoodKhorns]

On 10/3/2022 at 1:26 PM, avguytx said:

There are schools, medical practices, and businesses out there still running Windows 7 because they don't care to upgrade.  With all of our current city computers, there will come a time we will do the upgrade but that's a ways out still and some are ready for 11...but programs aren't.  The crappy part will be having to update all of the police car and fire rigs to Windows 11 and hope that all their programs work.  That's the main issue.

 

 

 

The thought of 'upgrading' to the latest MS software does not make me happy.  I hate it and lose so much time and money in my business every time they force this on us, but the other option is no security updates, so they win. 

 

[Schu]

I changed my Mind... I canceled my Dell order and I am just going to build (assemble) my own desktop, like I have done for the last 35 years

[JohnJ]

22 minutes ago, Schu said:

I changed my Mind... I canceled my Dell order and I am just going to build (assemble) my own desktop, like I have done for the last 35 years

Check out SPCR dot com

Silent pc Review

Learned of Yate Loons then Noctua cooling fans later on. The Silverstone inverted cases... my RX Vega flows upwards instead of horizontal... every little bit helps. It was sorbothane surrounded Raptors in Raid O when I joined their long ago.

[JJkizak]

On 10/3/2022 at 4:26 PM, avguytx said:

There are schools, medical practices, and businesses out there still running Windows 7 because they don't care to upgrade.  With all of our current city computers, there will come a time we will do the upgrade but that's a ways out still and some are ready for 11...but programs aren't.  The crappy part will be having to update all of the police car and fire rigs to Windows 11 and hope that all their programs work.  That's the main issue.

 

Other than that, my house PC's are a mix of i3, i5 and i7 quad core computers that I'm not really worried about any time soon.  Most range from 8 to 16gb of memory and all use solid state drives.  I think a couple could go to Windows 11 but not in a rush.  No one in our house are hard core gamers.

I still like Windows 3.1.

JJK

[Schu]

I tried for a rtx 4090 this morning... ugh

a ryzen 7950 is going to be lonely with out one.

[Thaddeus Smith]

2 hours ago, Schu said:

I tried for a rtx 4090 this morning... ugh

a ryzen 7950 is going to be lonely with out one.

 

Yeah? For all that next-gen gaming you do, eh?

[Invidiosulus]

8 hours ago, Schu said:

I tried for a rtx 4090 this morning... ugh

a ryzen 7950 is going to be lonely with out one.

I have a Ryzen 9 5900hx and an RTX 3050ti in my work laptop.

I don’t think I’ve made it break a sweat with day to day stuff.

[Schu]

8 hours ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

 

Yeah? For all that next-gen gaming you do, eh?

I'm gonna ray trace my arse off...

[Gilbert]

On 10/2/2022 at 10:51 AM, Schu said:

I am wondering if it's time to consider buying a new desktop tower?

 

it's been SEVERAL years, if not a decade or more, is it time to upgrade my CPU and operating system... the computers runs perfectly right now.

 

1.8TB standard HD about 20% capacity.

 

and if so, what are the recommendations for replacement... Current is HP and I think I want to move to a super wide (41") monitor.

 

 

 

 

 

IMO, the best retail PC's can be purchased from "Maingear".

 

I have 3,....   purchased a laptop and desktop for my college bound daughter. I have one of their workstations. Their PC's are durable, reliable and solid performing. Fast, fast,.... fast gaming PCs that don't necessarily have to be used for gaming, but it is the Gaming World drives the market.  If you get a Maingear, you'll not regret it.