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Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

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Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#111

Post by tuyenhx »

grupthink wrote: post #105

I grew up poor. I was raised to use things until they break. Even then, I'll fix them if I can. I'm still rocking a 2007 custom built desktop w/ an overclocked Intel E8500 Core2Duo. In 2012, I upgraded the hd to an SSD and the GPU with an Nvidia GT640, and converted it into a rock solid Hackintosh. My other computer is a 2013 15" Macbook Pro with maxed-out specs that was purchased for me by my company. Both systems a…

I used to have the same thought, and had the same setup with you. Coding with sublime text, training ML via Colab Pro.

But one day, when I had to render 1.7 GB photoshop file for my work. It was just too different. My 2015 Mac Pro took me 2h15m to render, and Mac Air M1 just 17m.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#112

Post by kiwijamo »

Nition wrote: post #67
dijit wrote: post #8

I would have kept the same hardware forever too, but for some reason my tools seem to take more and more resources every year. Silly example is gmail, which loaded in 1s on my 2011 MacBook Pro when new, if it load it again today (I just tried) it takes 35 seconds before I can click anything. Another might be everyone’s favourite software to hate on: Teams. On my 2011 MacBook Pro: fans squealing, UI of the OS becomes…

I know this isn't your main point, but for GMail there's always "Basic HTML view": https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1pq68r75kzvdr/?v%3Dlui

The fact is the normal view used to be very fast even on the hardware of the era. Nowadays normal view has the same functionalities but is much slower even on modern hardware.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#113

Post by paulryanrogers »

In college I worked for the IT department. They had a surplus department we had to wipe the HDDs, so I bought a few pallets of heavily used PCs. They were in rough shape. So I pieced together a collection for a LAN party. Then sold the best one and donated the rest to a school in need.

It was a fun summer project. Kind of burned out on that work later when I volunteered for a thrift store. Still fun to see retro PC gaming coming back around to that era of equipment.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#114

Post by captn3m0 »

harha wrote: post #42
dijit wrote: post #8

I would have kept the same hardware forever too, but for some reason my tools seem to take more and more resources every year. Silly example is gmail, which loaded in 1s on my 2011 MacBook Pro when new, if it load it again today (I just tried) it takes 35 seconds before I can click anything. Another might be everyone’s favourite software to hate on: Teams. On my 2011 MacBook Pro: fans squealing, UI of the OS becomes…

My first iPad, I believe it was the third generation: I would have never used it if it were as slow as it has become today. It also lost some synchronization options, though I don’t recall what it was. That being said: I kept my 2013 MacBook Pro retina until a few months ago, one year after a battery replacement which ended up breaking other parts and becoming to expensive to fix. Otherwise it ran perfectly fine and…

I have the second gen iPad (iPad 2 3G) and I still use it for reading books and comics. The battery is still reasonable for the little usage it sees.

Unfortunately, upgrading to iOS9 makes it utterly unusable so I have it still running iOS8. The only issue is Apple doesn’t let you download older versions of apps unless you’d bought them way back.

I really wish Apple let alternate firmwares on these devices, I would love to run KOReader on my iPad over Linux.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#115

Post by captn3m0 »

rpgbr wrote: post #66

I'm a likeminded fellow Brazilian, and I would love to keep my gear forever and never have to deal with choosing and spending on new shit, but software keeps getting worse (slower) and you really feel the difference after a major upgrade. Last week I got a new iPhone SE 3rd gen to replace my almost-five years old iPhone 8 due to its battery gone wild (76% of original capacity, randomly dropping to 1% from 70~80%). Th…

Felt similar after my SE(1) to 13 Mini upgrade.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#116

Post by chrismorgan »

hedora wrote: post #84

My desktop is mostly from 2011. The GPU is only about 4 years old, but the case and many of the fans are at least 15. The newest drives are new SSDs. I ripped my whole CD collection with the current optical drive (DVD?) and a now-defunct one in 2001 or so (different case). The build started out as an Athlon XP, and then was a 64 bit AMD for a while. These days, it's fine for 4K linux gaming. CPU performance really st…

> CPU performance really stalled out over the years.

It can be fun to look through https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html. In single-threaded performance, the cheapest retail processor I could find at a glance just now (the Intel Pentium Gold G6405) is about 1.4× as fast as the fastest processor of a decade ago, the i7-3960X. The i3-12100 is about 2× the i7-3960X. The i9-12900KS is about 2.4×. (And all this disregards memory performance improvements which I believe will make typical loads much fasterer still.) Then multithreaded performance, well, there you’re looking at more like 5× increases on high-end SKUs of both eras.

(As for the Athlon XP 3000+, well, the i9-12900KS is around 10× single/170× multi on it.)

Simple simplified simplistic summary: a similar grade of processor now is probably at least 2–4× as fast as the one of a decade ago for practical tasks, even ignoring other related improvements.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#117

Post by captn3m0 »

birdfood wrote: post #93
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also have the original iPhone SE as my phone which I will probably get refurbished soon instead of getting a new one - all the new phones are too big. Have you looked at the iPhone Mini? It is a bit bigger than the original SE but not by much!

I did a size comparison of the 13 mini when I was last in an apple store, and it was like 10mm bigger all around. A small phone by comparison but I like the SE better

The SE is losing support this September with iOS 16

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#118

Post by sgtnoodle »

originalseries wrote: post #11

Personally most of my computers are Ivy Bridge (3rd gen Intel). I do not use anything past that, I do not see any improvements in technology that make it worth upgrading, and there are many annoyances to the new stuff, I don't like USB-C at all. I can still run DOS and Windows XP on a 3rd gen Intel. I prefer using old 5:4 1280x1024 monitors. I can't stand 16:9 or 16:10. I use three monitors with integrated graphics o…

My sandy bridge 2600k from 2011 is still perfectly fine for gaming and stuff. I can overclock it easily, but there's not even really a need to.

I did build a new desktop when zen3 came out at the end of 2020, but that was a spare-no-expense splurge on my part a few months after I spent 5 days in the hospital ICU with a surprise heart problem. Because of the supply issues, I didn't get the 5950x until 2021. I finally just got a "new" GPU about a month ago for a reasonable price on eBay, a 6800xt. I used a Corsair PSU from probably 2007. I figure I should be good for another decade!

My daughter is 3 right now. Maybe the 2600k based system will be her first computer in a few years. A step up from the Apple II my dad set up for me!

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#119

Post by w10-1 »

Give yourself extra life. Buy the best tools you can.

Don't let virtues learned by necessity become the vices that suck up your lifetime. You'll never get the time back that you spend working on unimportant projects, sustaining old builds, placating unhappy people, working on slow computers, etc. Unless it's the fastest way for you to deliver whatever good you have to the world, put it aside, especially if you've invested time to get good at tending it. There's no deeper hole to lose your irreplaceable lifetime.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#120

Post by manuelmoreale »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #86
jquery wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m still using my 2013 MPro Retina as a nice backup computer (when I need to do MacOS things), I refuse to sell it. It had the last good keyboard before the butterfly came along.

> It had the last good keyboard before the butterfly came along. Wasn't the last of those the 2015 Macbook Pro?

It indeed was the 2015 model. I have an early 2015 MBP sitting in my desk as I’m typing this which I use primarily as a slack machine and it still has the old good keyboard.
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