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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

#301

Post by nikau »

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.

Best way I found to reduce pump noise is to insulate it.

In my case I have a DDC style pump, and its very quiet after I got a car wash sponge and cut a square hole in it and put the pump inside. It looks ghetto but its inside a case so who cares.

At first I was worried about heat, but its lasted 10 years so far.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#302

Post by incompatible »

tartoran wrote: post #279
incompatible wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Curious, I plugged it in again and the fire started again" This reminds me of an old joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/46sere/a_p...

I once turned on my crt monitor and smoke started coming out so I freaked out and immediately unplugged it. My uncle, an electronist, was passing by and told him I screwed my monitor and wanted him to take a look. He plugged in, turned it on it worked just fine. I don’t remember ever having problems with that EGA monitor again. I could never explain that white smoke

Maybe it was a literal bug.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#303

Post by aksss »

marmaduke wrote: post #77
aksss wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can of course leave secure boot disabled in UEFI, but you can’t run secure boot with BIO, to my knowledge. That’s why the association - if you want SB, use UEFI.

> if you want SB, use UEFI Not sure I've ever seen anyone wanting secure boot. what is it actually good for aside from generating searches for Google when you have to figure out how to circumvent it?

I wouldn’t run any laptop without it and drive encryption. The combo are really tough for a bad actor to bypass. In terms of things that make me worry less about having a laptop stolen, SB&DE are tops.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#304

Post by nikau »

Spooky23 wrote: post #242
nvarsj wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trend in laptops has been for longer battery life and less heat. Since there haven't been any major breakthroughs in battery technology or mobile processor power (at least from Intel), this means lower power for processors and generally lower performance in general. Almost all laptops are using ultra low voltage Intel chips. And even the ones that don't, except for high end gaming laptops, thermally throttle ALL…

Also, many laptops have non-replaceable batteries, and a significant percentage fail in 24-30 months.

FYI Lenovo and probably others have an option to limit max charge which will greatly extend battery life.

I have mine set to 80% and only set it to 100% if I know I'm going to be away from AC for a while.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#306

Post by Guthur »

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…

I've doggedly stuck to my desktop over all this time for many of the same reasons but also because the only time I've actually found a laptop useful is when travelling which I don't really do a lot of, maybe once or twice a year and even then I should be relaxing and not using a computer :)

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#307

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

aprdm wrote: post #34

If your place of work is static, like an office desk at your company or at your home, why would you not want to use a desktop for work?

Meetings. Working in different areas. Even at home I won’t stay in one place.

All the pro desktop vs laptop arguments are funny. No one wanted less performance at higher prices. We want to take the machine with us and use it in different places.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#309

Post by Symbiote »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #225
Silhouette wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

I’m from Denmark and when power went out I was television worthy news. I don’t actually recall it happening more than once. I never experienced a power loss in the five years I lived in France. Now I’m in silicon valley, the tech hub of the world - with 3rd world internet and power that goes out every time the wind blows. Just reporting facts.

There was a ~45 minute power cut in the centre of Copenhagen last month, starting at about 1:30am. There was another (several hours) in 2018, which I think is the one that made the news. (I was at home, awake, for both.) They're a bit more common than you remember, but I suspect most of these Tweets are affecting fairly small areas, e.g. construction work cutting cables etc: https://twitter.com/radiuselnet

I have some servers in Copenhagen, and from their logs they've lost mains power about every 2-3 years. They have a UPS, but I certainly don't bother for a desktop computer.

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