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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

#371

Post by Accujack »

ben-schaaf wrote: post #287
Aeolun wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My water cooler is noisy at the fan end. How do you evade that?

If your fans are noisy buy better fans. We had some corsair fans that came with the AIO at work, replaced them with noctuas and the computer went from mildly annoying to dead silent. Though with water cooling you might also have a lot of pump noise, especially if the radiator is mounted incorrectly.

If your fans are noisy, buy BIGGER fans.

The larger the diameter of a fan, the lower the RPM it can spin at to move the same amount of air (same cooling capacity) as a small fan. Provided you can put the air where it's needed (e.g. a 1 foot fan can't "focus" air onto a 6 inch radiator) a larger fan will just about always be quieter and more efficient.

Oh, and having a water cooled PC with the radiator and fan inside the PC itself is silly. If you run the pipes outside or into your basement, your PC is almost completely silent, plus the cooling capacity will usually be much, much higher, because not having to cram fans and a radiator into a small enclosure lets you make them bigger and more efficient.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#372

Post by FullyFunctional »

sigstoat wrote: post #354
FullyFunctional wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from Jutland which might be part of the explanation. Also, I left 20 years ago. I'm not sure what you mean by "most of these Tweets"; I'm reporting on my experience living in Silicon Valley, California, where power goes out a couple of times a month on avg. I have all servers etc on UPSes but wish I could find bigger UPSes as most can only hold up about 1 hour which often isn't enough.

tripplite and apc will happily sell you UPSes that will use external battery packs, which is the only way you’re going to get an hour. until you switch to external batteries, they keep increasing the inverter size, which is unnecessary for your use case. you could also just buy chargers, batteries and inverters separately and wire them together.

I'll go look again, but last I did I didn't find much [affordable]. I do have an (no longer in production?) APC Smart UPS which can be extended with an external battery, alas vastly overpriced.

Of note, if various online resources are to be believed, you can't just hack and extend the battery capacity for longer run-times as they likely aren't rated for the corresponding higher thermal load.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#374

Post by m463 »

curiousllama wrote: post #53

> I know that new "open" laptops are still available, but most of them--the System76's, the Purisms, etc.--are overpriced in my opinion This quote suggest to me the author is an integral part of the problem. Companies are ALWAYS trying to increase their profitability. If they can lock down the computer, they can drop the price while _increasing_ CLTV. That’s why System76 is more expensive. They’re NOT overpriced. The…

These smaller linux vendors are at two disadvantages.

One is they don't get the volume.

Second is they don't get kickbacks for bundling an operating system, or other software or make a profit collecting data. This is probably $50 per machine.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#375

Post by untog »

WalterBright wrote: post #131
bleepblorp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a lack of USB ports as a complete dealbreaker for using a laptop. USB hubs work fine to attach large numbers of lower-speed USB devices to a laptop.

Not any one thing is a dealbreaker. It's the combination. Once the laptop is festooned with hubs, external drives, cables everywhere, might as well just buy a desktop.

My laptop is festooned with a hub. It covers power, peripherals, HDMI and networking. And that’s all I need. So really not very different to a desktop, except I can also pick it up and take it with me if I want.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#376

Post by cacois »

dudus wrote: post #37
WalterBright wrote: post #16

I prefer a desktop because: 1. I like big, big monitors. 2. I prefer a full size keyboard. 3. I prefer a separate mouse. 4. I prefer big freaking disk drives installed. 5. I put the desktop under my desk, and with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, there is much less of a snarl on my desk. 6. The desktop has an optical drive I still use. 7. The desktop has lots of USB ports and they're all in use. 8. I can repla…

There's no shortage of reasons that make desktops better. But the few advantages of more mobile devices outweigh the benefits of desktops for most users.

This 100% describes me. Desktops are better in every conceivable way, except for the fact that I do most of my computing outside of the office while sitting in my living room with my family. Sure I'm SSHing into a server downstairs a lot, but I'm not willing to hide from my family just because I want to play a game or work on a side project while socializing.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#378

Post by tuatoru »

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…

> It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard.

not only is that hard, it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five. Or just give up until you re-pair it.

Maybe one of the next 20 that I try...

> How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years.

I have always thought, since Digital Research GEM, that the "desktop" in GUIs should be your desk's top. We're nearly there...

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#379

Post by nine_k »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #366
nine_k wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck getting LSD or uranium-235 on the open market. You can still buy these, but only illegally. The market is slightly less open due to laws and regulations. These regulations can easily outlaw general-purpose computing on the same grounds of being too dangerous for the society. I can remind you how encryption algorithms were considered "munitions" back in 1990s, less than 30 years ago. At that time one would p…

I did concede in my original comment that a fascist government could make them illegal. I think it's far more likely than them just not being economical to make any more and disappearing from the market. If we continue to give power to right wing extremists, all bets are off.

In this regard, left-wing extremists dislike freedom as much.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#380

Post by SergeAx »

I can't grok why people fall for laptops in the first place. Laptops are a bunch of compromises in every detail: screen size, storage volume, keyboard, sound etc etc.

I got my first PC 30 years ago and never bought a new one ever since. It was always upgrades, small or large. Even stepping up MB and CPU I've kept my drives, graphics card, most of the smaller peripherals, sometimes even RAM, so even the largest changes are always in several hundred dollars ballpark. The process is fun, interesting and makes me keep tabs with industry.

I've bought a laptop when switching to "digital nomad" lifestyle for several years, and it was my very worst experience with personal computing. I've spent about 15 hundreds bucks and never made worst investment ever since.

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