A Windows XP help forum. PCbanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PCbanter forum » Windows 10 » Windows 10 Help Forum
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Buying a new PC



 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #16  
Old June 19th 20, 04:11 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Big Al[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,588
Default Buying a new PC

On 6/19/20 9:19 AM, this is what Char Jackson wrote:
I'm not saying you need 64GB, of course. I only have that much because I
need to run multiple VMs simultaneously.


okay, I run VM's but only have 8 cores. So I give 4 to host and 4 to guest.
If you run multiple VM's how do you allocate the cores?

Yes, I have 8G of memory and I want 16 so each host/guest gets 8G
It's a bit thin running a VM with 4G some days.

Ads
  #17  
Old June 19th 20, 04:13 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Johnny
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 306
Default Buying a new PC

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:04:21 -0400
Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 8:53 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo


It just doesn't say what USB type they are. 2/3/3.1/3c ??
Nor is there a SD card reader.


I have that same computer. All it says is the USB slots are 3.0. Four
on the back and two on the front. There are also two USB 2.0 on the
front, and two on the back.

  #18  
Old June 19th 20, 04:23 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Big Al[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,588
Default Buying a new PC

On 6/19/20 11:13 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:04:21 -0400
Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 8:53 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo


It just doesn't say what USB type they are. 2/3/3.1/3c ??
Nor is there a SD card reader.


I have that same computer. All it says is the USB slots are 3.0. Four
on the back and two on the front. There are also two USB 2.0 on the
front, and two on the back.

That's cool. Card readers I think are kinda dead. I rarely use my DSLR anymore since I have a new better phone. Still, a cheap card
reader would suffice.

Al
  #19  
Old June 19th 20, 04:32 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Buying a new PC

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:49:14 -0500, Rene Lamontagne
wrote:

On 2020-06-19 7:53 a.m., Johnny wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 06:44:47 -0400
micky wrote:

Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

1) This time I want 16 gigs of RAM, or do I want even more?????

The reason for more than 8 gigs is that I tend to open way too many
FF tabs and the computer slows and eventually FF stops. Won't more
RAM make that take a lot longer to happen?


2) And maybe I should get a SSD for the PC??? One page said that
READing the drive over and over won't wear it out, only writing to it.
Right?

So if I had another harddrive for data, that would solve the wearing
out, except I've separated the email data and the Usenet data from the
programs, but isn't it much harder to separate the Firefox data? And
that gets rewritten all the time.


3) Brand. I suppose if I get a name brand, I'll get the latest
technology on the SSD, but a) aren't lesser brands a lot cheaper. b)
don't they use the older technology where there is a difference,
because once better is invented, the name brands like Dell generally
don't use it anymore. In practice does this make a difference for
me? Is the previous design of SSDs so much not as good as the latest
design?

I have to post this before the computer freezes.

I have an XP laptop and a win7 laptop. I'll unbury one of them if need
be.


I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo


I have never understood why someone would open so many tabs that it
would cause Firefox to stop. Use bookmarks, open everything in a new
window. I don't think I have ever had more than three tabs open.



Having dozens and hundreds of tabs open will only lead to big trouble,
And it proves that in Micky's case.


Big trouble might be overstating things. At worst, Firefox gets sluggish
and/or parts of the 'chrome' (the browser window dressing) may turn black,
but killing the task and restarting it clears things up without causing any
damage. All open tabs restored upon restart, of course. Adding RAM prevents
it from happening, or at least forestalls it.

I routinely have about 250-350 tabs open in Firefox, arranged into windows
by customer and project, and I haven't seen any slowdowns or UI issues
since I bumped the RAM to 64GB. Even when the number of open tabs climbs
above 400, the most RAM Firefox has used is about 14-16GB. That's heavily
site dependent, of course.

  #20  
Old June 19th 20, 04:40 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Buying a new PC

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:17:45 -0500, Johnny wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:10:12 -0500
Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 07:53:06 -0500, Johnny wrote:

I have never understood why someone would open so many tabs that it
would cause Firefox to stop. Use bookmarks, open everything in a new
window. I don't think I have ever had more than three tabs open.


To me, it makes much more sense to open related sites as tabs within
the same window rather than have a ton of windows open. It's nice
that we have the flexibility to do it either way.


I don't have a ton of windows open.

All my bookmarks are on my desktop as icons. I click on one, when
finished, I close it,and open another one.

Only one window open at a time. If I click on a link in the open
window it opens in a new tab.


I stopped single-tasking when I left the Commodore64 and moved to the
Commodore Amiga back in the mid 80's. I'm not about to go back to it now.

I had an older friend, now deceased, who used his computer like you do. One
task at a time, no exceptions. He'd frequently invite me over to help him
with computer questions, and it was maddening for me to see him work, but
that was the way he liked it, so who am I to say it's wrong.

  #22  
Old June 19th 20, 05:02 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Rene Lamontagne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,549
Default Buying a new PC

On 2020-06-19 10:32 a.m., Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:49:14 -0500, Rene Lamontagne
wrote:

On 2020-06-19 7:53 a.m., Johnny wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 06:44:47 -0400
micky wrote:

Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

1) This time I want 16 gigs of RAM, or do I want even more?????

The reason for more than 8 gigs is that I tend to open way too many
FF tabs and the computer slows and eventually FF stops. Won't more
RAM make that take a lot longer to happen?


2) And maybe I should get a SSD for the PC??? One page said that
READing the drive over and over won't wear it out, only writing to it.
Right?

So if I had another harddrive for data, that would solve the wearing
out, except I've separated the email data and the Usenet data from the
programs, but isn't it much harder to separate the Firefox data? And
that gets rewritten all the time.


3) Brand. I suppose if I get a name brand, I'll get the latest
technology on the SSD, but a) aren't lesser brands a lot cheaper. b)
don't they use the older technology where there is a difference,
because once better is invented, the name brands like Dell generally
don't use it anymore. In practice does this make a difference for
me? Is the previous design of SSDs so much not as good as the latest
design?

I have to post this before the computer freezes.

I have an XP laptop and a win7 laptop. I'll unbury one of them if need
be.

I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo


I have never understood why someone would open so many tabs that it
would cause Firefox to stop. Use bookmarks, open everything in a new
window. I don't think I have ever had more than three tabs open.



Having dozens and hundreds of tabs open will only lead to big trouble,
And it proves that in Micky's case.


Big trouble might be overstating things. At worst, Firefox gets sluggish
and/or parts of the 'chrome' (the browser window dressing) may turn black,
but killing the task and restarting it clears things up without causing any
damage. All open tabs restored upon restart, of course. Adding RAM prevents
it from happening, or at least forestalls it.

I routinely have about 250-350 tabs open in Firefox, arranged into windows
by customer and project, and I haven't seen any slowdowns or UI issues
since I bumped the RAM to 64GB. Even when the number of open tabs climbs
above 400, the most RAM Firefox has used is about 14-16GB. That's heavily
site dependent, of course.


I guess having sufficient memory as in your case really makes more tabs
viable, But with only 4 or 8 GB it would be best to hold the number of
open tabs to a reasonable level.

My needs are very small so my set usually has about 6 or 7 open and I
have an i7 8700 and 16 GB of ram so everything runs really good,

Rene
  #23  
Old June 19th 20, 05:22 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Buying a new PC

micky wrote:
Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

1) This time I want 16 gigs of RAM, or do I want even more?????

The reason for more than 8 gigs is that I tend to open way too many FF
tabs and the computer slows and eventually FF stops. Won't more RAM
make that take a lot longer to happen?


2) And maybe I should get a SSD for the PC??? One page said that
READing the drive over and over won't wear it out, only writing to it.
Right?

So if I had another harddrive for data, that would solve the wearing
out, except I've separated the email data and the Usenet data from the
programs, but isn't it much harder to separate the Firefox data? And
that gets rewritten all the time.


3) Brand. I suppose if I get a name brand, I'll get the latest
technology on the SSD, but a) aren't lesser brands a lot cheaper. b)
don't they use the older technology where there is a difference, because
once better is invented, the name brands like Dell generally don't use
it anymore. In practice does this make a difference for me? Is the
previous design of SSDs so much not as good as the latest design?

I have to post this before the computer freezes.

I have an XP laptop and a win7 laptop. I'll unbury one of them if need
be.


https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

https://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/cpu-z_1.92-en.zip

Unpack the ZIP and run it. It gives a summary
of some parts of your PC. In this example, I posted
an image so you can see my machine details.

(Use "Download Image" to see details...)

https://i.postimg.cc/NG6s4MDn/CPUZ.gif

This kind of picture, if you make one, will give
some idea what you're currently driving,
and we can compare when selecting a desktop.

********

If this was a memory problem, we can try some stuff.

Maybe this is how the DIMMs are currently set up.
Dual channel, one stick per channel, some slots left blank.

These options are *only* worth considering if your desktop
has four DIMM slots. If your machine has two DIMM slots,
well, you can pretty well stop here.

Channel 0 Channel 1

| |
2GB#1 2GB#2
| |
X X

If you're on a dessert island (ice cream!), and can't get
replacement DIMMs, you can *reconfigure* the memory, with
all power removed from the machine. Using antistatic precautions
and with the *power cord pulled*, these are alternate configs.
(You don't want power in the slots, when inserting or
removing RAM.)

Channel 0 Channel 1 Single channel mode
"bad memory down low"
| |
2GB#1 X
| |
2GB#2 X

Or like this.

Channel 0 Channel 1 Single channel mode
"bad memory up high"
| |
2GB#2 X
| |
2GB#1 X

The reason for continuing to use *two* sticks in this case,
is so you can move the bad memory locations so they don't
bonk the OS on the head. One of the two configs will be
more stable than the other.

*******

On a machine with only two DIMM slots, if you had
two DIMMs installed, run with just one of the DIMMs
inserted and retest.

Channel 0 Channel 1 Single channel mode

| |
2GB#1 X

Then try the other stick, if necessary (if previous config crashes).

Channel 0 Channel 1 Single channel mode

| |
2GB#2 X

Those are some things to try
(for some value of "fun").

HTH,
Paul
  #24  
Old June 19th 20, 05:47 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Buying a new PC

Johnny wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:04:21 -0400
Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 8:53 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo

It just doesn't say what USB type they are. 2/3/3.1/3c ??
Nor is there a SD card reader.


I have that same computer. All it says is the USB slots are 3.0. Four
on the back and two on the front. There are also two USB 2.0 on the
front, and two on the back.


The two blue on the back are USB3.

The four black on the back are USB2.

https://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIm...97-746-V03.jpg

Sometimes they adhere to color standards,
but not always. Those colors are pretty
consistently used here (for mobos and addin
cards).

Paul
  #25  
Old June 19th 20, 05:48 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Buying a new PC

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:11:09 -0400, Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 9:19 AM, this is what Char Jackson wrote:
I'm not saying you need 64GB, of course. I only have that much because I
need to run multiple VMs simultaneously.


okay, I run VM's but only have 8 cores. So I give 4 to host and 4 to guest.
If you run multiple VM's how do you allocate the cores?


Extreme oversubscription. My CPU is an i7-8700, so 6 cores and 12 logical
processors.

The Linux VMs each get 2 cores, except for some of the specialty stuff like
virtual routers (dd-wrt) and firewalls (pfsense) that need only a single
core. The Windows VMs each get all 6 cores, except for the older stuff: XP
gets 2, 2000 and 98 get 1 each. I also heavily oversubscribe the RAM and
just let VMware figure it out. It's the lazy way to do it but it works very
well.

Yes, I have 8G of memory and I want 16 so each host/guest gets 8G
It's a bit thin running a VM with 4G some days.


Agreed, but it depends on what it is and what you're doing with it. My VMs
don't do any heavy lifting, but I frequently need to have 12-20 running at
the same time to model a customer's network so I can demo a solution to
whatever they hired me to do. I sling some traffic around within my virtual
lab to show proof of concept, but that's about it.

  #26  
Old June 19th 20, 05:50 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Buying a new PC

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:23:24 -0400, Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 11:13 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:04:21 -0400
Big Al wrote:

On 6/19/20 8:53 AM, this is what Johnny wrote:
I recommend this one:

https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...scrollFullInfo


It just doesn't say what USB type they are. 2/3/3.1/3c ??
Nor is there a SD card reader.


I have that same computer. All it says is the USB slots are 3.0. Four
on the back and two on the front. There are also two USB 2.0 on the
front, and two on the back.

That's cool. Card readers I think are kinda dead. I rarely use my DSLR anymore since I have a new better phone. Still, a cheap card
reader would suffice.


My laptops have SD card readers. One was most recently used about 5-6 years
ago and the other has never been used. I thought I might use them when I
added microSD cards to my phones, but nope.

  #27  
Old June 19th 20, 05:56 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Buying a new PC

"Char Jackson" wrote

| Only one window open at a time. If I click on a link in the open
| window it opens in a new tab.
|
| I stopped single-tasking when I left the Commodore64 and moved to the
| Commodore Amiga back in the mid 80's. I'm not about to go back to it now.
|

But you said you have to have 64 GB of RAM because not
only are you not bothering to close unused windows.
You're also running multiple OSs in VMs. There's no
such thing as multi-tasking. There's only serial tasking.
If you switch between programs a lot then it makes
sense to leave windows open. If you use your computer
for testing software across OSs and not for actual
work, then it makes sense to have VMs. Otherwise,
you're just wasting money on top-level gamer machines
to support your bad habits.

I'm using Firefox and New Moon on Win32, where I'm
limited to 3 GB RAM. I also sometimes run Visual Studio
6 at the same time. Maybe Paint Shop Pro. Probably
several instances of Notepad. Outlook Express. I don't
get anywhere near hitting the RAM limit, and I won't,
unless I editing very large images. What do I have open
now? OE. Because I'm reading newsgroups. Why be a
slob and leave this morning's browser windows sitting
there?

I suspect that throwing RAM at the problem is probably
also a limited solution. Browsers seem to gauge their usage.
I suspect a dozen instances of FF on my box will probably
use a lot less RAM than the same thing on your box, simply
because the system is not going to give it that much. And
maybe Mozilla have programmed in some intelligence about
resource hogging.
That... and I don't normally enable javascript or forced
refreshing or embedded videos. That alone could save a
lot of load just on a single page.

So there's no reason you can't be a slob, if that's the
way you want to work, but that's hardly "modern" computer
use. It's just being a slob. And it costs you because you
need jacked up hardware to pull it off.


  #28  
Old June 19th 20, 06:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Buying a new PC

"Rene Lamontagne" wrote

| I routinely have about 250-350 tabs open in Firefox, arranged into
windows
| by customer and project, and I haven't seen any slowdowns or UI issues
| since I bumped the RAM to 64GB. Even when the number of open tabs climbs
| above 400, the most RAM Firefox has used is about 14-16GB. That's
heavily
| site dependent, of course.
|
|
| I guess having sufficient memory as in your case really makes more tabs
| viable, But with only 4 or 8 GB it would be best to hold the number of
| open tabs to a reasonable level.
|

I think the trick is just not to live with someone like
that. They're the people who leave the sink full
of dishes, the driveway full of wrenches, coffee cups
in their car back seat, and a dried paintbrush on
the kitchen table from that little odd job they did
last month.


  #29  
Old June 19th 20, 06:14 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
micky[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 222
Default Buying a new PC


I should have said that I was talking about a desktop.

But whatever was said about laptops was useful too, because I was
thinking about getting another one. I'll start a new thread about in a
few months.

Last time I looked about six months ago I saw probably 8 Gig, probably
no SSD, maybe refurbished for 300, 400 at most, at Microcenter. This
time when I search for 16 or 32 gig, I still get mostly 8gig. I have to
search some more, and the newegg ones you suggested. .


In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 06:44:47 -0400, micky
wrote:

Well, the computer has continued to crash, mostly with the same 4
problems. Other times, it's frozen.

So I need a new one. I haven't had a new one since the PCJr.

1) This time I want 16 gigs of RAM, or do I want even more?????

The reason for more than 8 gigs is that I tend to open way too many FF
tabs and the computer slows and eventually FF stops. Won't more RAM
make that take a lot longer to happen?


2) And maybe I should get a SSD for the PC??? One page said that
READing the drive over and over won't wear it out, only writing to it.
Right?

So if I had another harddrive for data, that would solve the wearing
out, except I've separated the email data and the Usenet data from the
programs, but isn't it much harder to separate the Firefox data? And
that gets rewritten all the time.


3) Brand. I suppose if I get a name brand, I'll get the latest
technology on the SSD, but a) aren't lesser brands a lot cheaper. b)
don't they use the older technology where there is a difference, because
once better is invented, the name brands like Dell generally don't use
it anymore. In practice does this make a difference for me? Is the
previous design of SSDs so much not as good as the latest design?

I have to post this before the computer freezes.

I have an XP laptop and a win7 laptop. I'll unbury one of them if need
be.


  #30  
Old June 19th 20, 06:52 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
😉 Good Guy 😉
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,483
Default Buying a new PC

On 19/06/2020 13:16, Big Al wrote:

And lastly you could build your own if you can.Â* But that's takes a
level of expertise to do.



And you thought that somebody who is struggling to buy a new computer
will have this expertise to build one for himself!!

The only expertise required is to be able to handle nutters and idiots
on these newsgroups and you lack that expertise and unlikely to gain
that in your old age.



--
With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off






All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:04 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PCbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.