OT Building new computer (DIY)

[clare]

I worked 5 years for a computer manufacturer - and the combinations that did NOT work were much more numerous than those that did.

The research that goes into assembling a properly configured computer can be quite extensive. I have just about finished instaling 50 off-lease Lenovo Think Stations to replace old terminals and PCs at a small industrial concern where I spend 2 afternoons a week - excellent fit for the job at extremely good pricing - and as noted, no searching for "orphan" drivers.

With QC in the tank like it is with so many Chinese manufacturere, assembling a system from parts can be a lot of "fun". When it doesn't work, which part is causing the problem? Is it defective or just incompatible? Without having at least 3 of everything on hand you cannot troubleshoot by substitution with any confidence.

[trader4]

Yes, I agree. Laptops are great if you make use of the fact that they are portable. If you don't value that ability, then a box system has advantages. Clearly there are tradeoffs in a number of areas that have to be made to get everything to fit into a small form factor. For the same $$, you generally wind up with a smaller screen, less CPU power, no system expansion capabilities, etc. The same is true of the Apple and similar computers where everything is in the display. If a component fails in a mini-tower sitting on the floor, I can fix it. If that same component fails in a laptop or the Apples, good luck figuring out how to get at it, fix it or where to get the part.

[krw]

Interesting. Lenovo's ThinkVantage updater is OK but it doesn't want to deal with my WiFi drivers. There are newer drivers available but the installation process looks to be a mess. I'd really like to be able to log into a WPA-2 network (like my phone - I'd rather not go naked).

[krw]

I have docking stations and port replicators for that. Monitor, keyboard, mouse, and assorted disk drives stay with the docking station. When I go mobile, all that stuff stays behind. I also bring my software, at the same level, with email and NG bookmarks with me. It's much better than having a desktop.

I don't see how there is a difference. I have my laptop and dock on a small shelf next to my main monitor so both are at the same level. It works fine.

How often does your hardware fail? Other than catastrophic failures (monitor) and disk drives, I don't recall the last time I had a hardware failure. Laptop "monitors" aren't reasonably replaceable but disk drives are trivial.

[Jim Yanik]

Ed Pawlowski wrote in news: [e-mail]:

you get more processing power from a desktop,they last longer,and don't need pricey new batteries every so often. Laptops are more prone to damage from traveling,so they don't last as long. Plus,you can configure a desktop or tower PC to be a DVR and record several TV channels at the same time. you can do audio processing,converting CDs to other files,or vinyl records to digital files.

[krw]

Batteries need to be replaced, perhaps, once during the life of the laptop. After market batteries aren't terribly expensive. I've had this laptop five years and replaced the battery six months back - $40. I certainly don't expect to have this laptop in another five years.

Desktops don't travel. So?

Not if you have digital cable. Besides, that's what the DVR is for.

...and that can't be done on a laptop? Shhh! Don't tell mine.

[Duesenberg]

Western Digital has a perceived lower failure rate than Seagate the last few years from the websites I buy from.

[The Daring Dufas]

The only time I've ever had a modern hard drive fail was due to overheating caused by extreme numbers of dust bunnies plugging up the air vents in a case. O_o

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I often read the chip numbers on the board then search for the manufacturer and have found drivers that way. I would recommend software like Speccy witch will give you info down to a chip's part number and serial number. ^_^

TDD

[gregz]

I can build a system for him as I WOULD want for

I do 95% stuff on iPad. Laying on couch. Thank god. I had a acer vista laptop I gave away. I hated vista. Occasional boot problem. I bought a hp laptop. Hp assistant has done some good things, but it's a pain. Especially when you say no, and it does it anyway. Between Microsoft and hp support, I go crazy. It screwed up the computer after one update, but recovered somehow.

My last desktop from tiger. Amd quad core, no problems. Probably $250. No software included except drivers. I loaded XP, also had Symantec end point. It's great, except like my laptop, just set back for a while while everything settles down, scanning, loading, connecting,

Greg

[gfretwell]

You can buy a digital TV card for a PCI machine.

[The Daring Dufas]

Back in 93 I paid $549.00 for my first 17" CRT monitor, the price was low because I got dealer pricing. Remember when a 20mb hard drive was cheap at $250.00? O_o

TDD

[gfretwell]

I have magnets from a couple dozen bad hard drives from various sources, usually "dead" machines I was given.. several were drives I bought. Most were from W/D Caviars. Certainly more than every other brand combined. I won't ever buy one again. Unfortunately there are only a couple companies making all the brands these days.

[The Daring Dufas]

Do you keep the dust bunnies, elephants and rhinoceroses out of your machines? ^_^

TDD

[gfretwell]

Thinkvantage cleared 3 of the 4 mystery yellow boxes I had. One just will not go away. None of those drivers TV fixed were on the X61 driver page. Lenova has really screwed the pooch on this one. I was able to get all the drivers in one click on the old IBM.COM site for all of the Netvistas and Aptivas I had, simply by putting in the type and model.

[gfretwell]

I have a Compaq P4 in a drawer in the end table next to my Lazboy. A monitor on the table and a wireless keyboard and mouse makes for relaxes browsing.

My wife has a similar setup near her chair with the system unit behind the chair and the monitor on a wall bracket.

There is also the same model Compaq in my entertainment center for the TV ( got 4 of them for a tad under $200 shipped).

The grandkids have the other one out in their play room.

I have a few more machines running around here doing other things.

[krw]

Does it do the DRM stuff?

[notbob]

Yep. My first job provided PC, an old XT clone running MS-DOS 2.0. w/

20Mb HDD and token-ring card to connect to company's mainframe HP-UX database network. It was the most outdated pass-me-down box in the company, but I was stoked and ended up becoming the Harvard Graphics pareto chart guru of the dept. ;)

nb

[gregz]

My first 15 inch monitor was $400. First 17 inch was $400. Still have it, Gold Star. it was around 1993 when I broke down and bought my first personal computer.

I saw monitors way back working at DEC in 1969. They were just starting to get into desktop monitors, vs the big rack mounted devices, using light pens.

At another workplace $2000 monitors were common in the 90's I worked on the worlds highest resolution monitor, something like $15k. Sony bought the company started by IBM, to stop making the product. I remember buying a high speed hd, $2000 for something 1-2 gb. Thing ran too hot to touch. Hitachi.

I'm glad I don't have to play much with hardware anymore, but the software will kill you.

Greg

[gfretwell]

They have "cable cards" in them that you get authorized like a cable box. I haven't done anything with that but the guys at AVS forum can tell you more than you want to know about it. I still use my ReplayTV and I have a DVR from Dish.

I use the PC I have connected for music and streaming content directly from the net. (Hulu, HBO-Go etc)