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Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
Thanks rcentros. No, wouldn't be using it for gaming. But I've got a friend warning me off it. Says I should build my own. Thing is, like you said in your next post, I don't really need a new computer if mine's working good. I figure it's old and I should upgrade but why not wait--as several of you have said--until it makes me. I still might get it though. And if I do I'll feel much more comfortable with all the info. you supplied about it. Appreciate it.
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I used to be the kind who said "build your own computer." And, if I was interested in the latest, greatest, cutting edge, whiz bang computer I would probably still feel that way. But I simply don't need a cutting edge computer. There was a time when every hardware advance was matched by more demanding software -- but that time is gone. Modern computers -- even 10-12 year-old computers -- have so much unneeded overhead that, for most uses, the hardware just idles. I think what really made this happen was that memory got so cheap. But now the newest, cutting-edge hardware is simply not needed for day to day computing. I think that's partly why the PC market has fallen so deeply into the crapper. There's just no need to upgrade every year, or every two years, or even every five years. I think that's also why tablets had such a good run. PC owners wanted to buy something new, but their computers were working fine.
As for this particular model ... I like Dell Optiplexes because they're rugged and easy to work on and maintain. HP makes (made?) a similar business line and I liked those also. But living in Texas (now) and the fact that Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, I think Dells are (were) just more common in this area -- so that's what I've worked on are what is available. Consumer computers tend to heat up more (partly because they have bigger power supplies so they can run fancier graphic cards), they have cheaper cases, are harder to work on and seem to collect dust more readily. Besides, business class computers go off lease -- lots of them at one time -- which makes them cheaper to buy. And, if they do the job I want done, why do I need to spend more money on a custom, high end, computer?
There's another point. Optiplexes seem to last forever and, should the power supply or even mother board go out, there were so many of them made (at least during the years for the ones I'm looking at) that parts are cheap and readily available. The trade off is you don't get a gaming computer. What you do get is a solid, well built, cool-running computer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
I was simply amazed at how much faster the Xubuntu was. I mean, I was ready to toss the computer because it had XP and couldn't run Win7. Then it was like pow--Xubuntu! Brand new computer. And so fast. (XP was like molasses.) And it hasn't lost any speed in the year plus I've been using it.
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While my GX270 could run XP SP3, I also own a Dell Latitude D400 laptop (uses a 1.2 Pentium M -- which is really a modified Pentium 3). It ran XP reasonably well ... slowed down noticably with SP2 ... slowed down to a crawl with service pack 3. Literally, once I upgraded it Windows XP SP3, it would take ten minutes of thrashing the hard drive doing ... whatever Windows does ... before I could use it. By then I had already installed Linux and was dual booting. Basically I only booted into Windows to update it and update whatever anti-virus I was using at the time ... I think AVG. I finally decided it was a waste of time to do this and installed a newer version of Linux (Linux Mint 13), deleting the Windows partition and using the whole hard drive. Whenever I travel, I still use that computer. And it boots and is ready to use in about 50 seconds. I fire it up about every two months and update it. That laptop is going on 13 years old and it's basically mirrors what I have on my desktop.
Since the Pentium M is based on the Pentium 3, it doesn't have the SSE (and SSE2) features that we've (especially one of us) have been talking about so much in this thread. I think I installed Calibre on it the last time I fired it up, but I can't remember for sure. I think I'll turn it on and see ... if it's not there I'll check to see if I can install it.
Sorry to ramble.