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I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

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Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#211

Post by Silhouette »

jnxx wrote: post #167
rabidrat wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love desktops, but I have to admit that it's pretty great having a built-in UPS. To get the equivalent for my desktop is an extra $200+ and a big honking box that apparently will only last for 30 minutes when the power goes out.

> when the power goes out. Oh, are you from the US?

Not sure what this means. FWIW, I'm in the UK, and short brown-outs are not uncommon if, for example, the national grid is adapting to a failure somewhere during severe weather. For a while when there was a recurring equipment failure a year or two back, my whole area had several full power cuts, even lasting for multiple hours once or twice, until they finally figured out the root cause and fixed it.

The UPSes we have all our key equipment running on have been some of the best tech investments we've ever made, even if they did cumulatively cost over £1,000.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#212

Post by falcolas »

Filligree wrote: post #202
Scoundreller wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even SSDs throttle under heavy use.

Sure. The NVMe that gives you 2GB/s write may throttle to only 500 MB/s after a few seconds of writes, but-- How often is that a problem, really?

Two words: Heat Sinks

A well proven way to move heat out of a silicon package to prolong its ability to perform at its highest potential. And in a desktop, you've got room for 'em.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#213

Post by prawn »

WalterBright wrote: post #63
dmortin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. You can have these with a laptop too. At home I use my laptop with an external screen, keyboard, mouse (the latter two are wireless), because it's much more comfortable.

It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. I think I went through every keyboard on Amazon and found only one. If you use a USB wireless keyboard, well, there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop. It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on…

Connected to my 15" laptop, I have directly connected a 34", 24" and a portrait 24". Four displays total; two via DisplayPort, one via HDMI. Plus external BT mouse and keyboard. Then I have a powered Anker dock with eight external drives connected (photo and video for editing work).

At home, I have a similar setup but with a 27" colour-calibrated screen in place of the 34" curved.

When travelling, I use an unpowered four port dock which means I can connect five external drives without needing the powered dock and its power brick. The unpowered dock only struggles if I have more than a couple of platter drives (instead of SSD) connected.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#214

Post by falcolas »

auggierose wrote: post #174
Exmoor wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are obviously many ways to do this comparison, but going off Wikipedia's pricing for most recent Intel processors. Their highest end mobile processor is currently the i7-1185G7 which apparently retails for $426. Let's compare it with the closest desktop processor to that price, the i9-10900 ($438). Cores (Threads): 4(8) vs. 10(20). Base Freq: 3.0ghz (At 28w TDP) vs. 2.8ghz. Max All Core Turbo: 4.3ghz vs. 4.8ghz…

A MacBook Pro can have an i9 and 8 cores, isn't that better than the i7-1185G7?

Not necessarily. Intel is still putting out i3's with better performance than their i5 or i9 models. It's all about the specs, not the model number.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#215

Post by Sharlin »

WalterBright wrote: post #147
nemoniac wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 12. My desktop doesn't have a microphone or camera, so they cannot be surreptitiously turned on remotely. Your points are all good but this one gave me pause for thought. We're all working from home and using our microphones and cameras more than ever. I'm using my regular laptop with plug-in microphone and webcam. Are laptop makers thinking in terms of upping the specs on the microphone and webcams in their upcomi…

What they need to add is a physical electric switch to turn off the cam/mike. In any case, because of all my remote collaboration these days, I bought a decent mike on a boom to use, and my colleagues say it is much better. Still have to find a decent camera.

Many "real" camera manufacturers (at least Canon, Nikon, Sony, I think Fuji as well) have released software during the past six months that allow many of their existing system cameras (DSLR or mirrorless) to be used as very high quality webcams. Likely overkill if all you need is a webcam, but might be worth considering if you also need a camera and/or happen to already own a compatible one.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#216

Post by whatsmyusername »

geocrasher wrote: post #5

From the article: "What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending." Correction: Has Ended. The vast majority of people using computers has shifted to phones and tablets. I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. Most people are not content creators, they…

The masses run any program or punch their credentials into any phishing site you send them. I'm fine with them being restricted to the iphones and androids of the world.

That's where it's going to go, the security situation is not getting better. You already see it in a lot of political organizations where many of the workers get by with chromebooks. And for joe schmo, that's FINE.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#217

Post by 38911BBF »

I sometimes answer questions in the tech-help reddits to get a feel for the kind of IT-problems everyday users are battling with.

The amount of people asking if they can upgrade the CPU, GPU, SSD/HDD or memory in their new-ish laptops is disheartening. Most of the questions concerns the CPU og GPU where the answer is no 99.99% of the time these days. 90% of consumer grade laptops have the RAM soldered to the mainboard too now. Luckily the HDD/SSD is usually replaceable or upgradeable in case of failure, performance problems or lack of free disk space... but for how long?

From a purely ecological standpoint, the laptop producers should be forced to buy back and recycle all their shitty unupgradeable, unrepairable, made-to-fail consumer electronics. It's a shameful situation we are in.

If societies can get 99% of glas and plastic bottles recycled using bottle deposit money, we should be able to reach the same figures for consumer electronics like laptops.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#218

Post by Silhouette »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #184
jay_kyburz wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm confident that an open market will always provide for us. I don't know why you think it would not. Right now, today, it has never been easier to just go down to the local mall and buy a general purpose computer, and sure, there are lots of phones, tablets, and consoles on display as well, but there is no less computers as a result.

> I don't know why you think it would not. I don't know why do you think it would? Both software and hardware-side, there's no end of complaints that power users are being left behind. All the money is in making Fisher-Price software for the masses. Ain't nobody have time to cater for ergonomics or efficiency in computing, it's only a distraction from milking the general population. This, to me, is a clear example of…

Fortunately, businesses still have both plenty of use for general purpose computers and lots of money. PC hardware isn't going away any time soon.

The more worrying thing IMHO is that the software to make use of that hardware is becoming increasingly polarised between what's aiming for big businesses and what's aiming for consumer drones.

The thing that gives me some hope is that the geeks all those businesses rely on to build the software that makes them billions are almost all in the "lost middle" and, given enough time and inclination, are quite capable of creating open software to destroy those businesses.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#219

Post by [deleted] »

falcolas wrote: post #212
Filligree wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. The NVMe that gives you 2GB/s write may throttle to only 500 MB/s after a few seconds of writes, but-- How often is that a problem, really?

Two words: Heat Sinks A well proven way to move heat out of a silicon package to prolong its ability to perform at its highest potential. And in a desktop, you've got room for 'em.

[deleted]

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#220

Post by criddell »

Filligree wrote: post #202
Scoundreller wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even SSDs throttle under heavy use.

Sure. The NVMe that gives you 2GB/s write may throttle to only 500 MB/s after a few seconds of writes, but-- How often is that a problem, really?

Every time you recompile. Many times per day.
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