quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
A bit of an ironic statement considering how sophomoric the default Win10 interface.

Were you in charge of Netware's UI? I can see where you got your UEX expertise Sorry, Sigcrazy, I couldn't resist. Take care.

Haha touché. I actually didn’t work in product, but did internal development for accounting, spending most of my time mining data, SQL, 3D data modeling. That kind of thing.

Funny how the NLM architecture was supposed to be a better user experience from the NetWare 2 days.

All things in perspective, though. It was 1992. NetWare, a 3Com card, and a 386 PC were the cat’s pajamas (cost wise) compared to the alternative. A server could be built for a fraction of the cost of an AS/400 or SPARC system, and brought powerful file-serving services to smallish business. It was this same model that allowed MS to bury Novell with the networking capabilities built into NT, but I was gone by then. (Nod to IBM’s OS/2, aka Windows NT).

What a trip down memory lane. I remember buying a 386DX and having people amazed at its abilities. I set it up next to my PC-XT and was blown away. Three months later and it was obsolete. One thing I miss about the old days; computers were for producing, not consuming. If you had a computer, you needed it to get something done, not just to stare at videos. Well, except maybe for the occasional Leisure Suite Larry diversion.

Since all the PC big hitters are in this thread, can you guys offer your insights on how long I should expect my new PC to be useable? I wanted a ready built one, so I purchased what seems to be a gaming rig. I don’t need it for that, but I figured it should handle office tasks ok.

Basic specs:
I5-8400
8gb DDR4 ram
AMD RX580 w/4gb ram
WD Blue 1TB HD
Win10 Home

I ordered a 512gb Samsung EVO 970 M.2 SSD as well to supplement the spinning disk. If I need to, I could also add some ram if it needs it.

How many years are PCs remaining usable nowadays? Should this be able to still carry water in five years, or will I need to replace a PC sooner, like in the old days? Also, will Win Home be ok, or will that need an upgraded version to pro? What does a pro version do for me anyway?

Thanks

sigcrazy7,

You have no worries with that set up. You did well. Decent CPU and 8Gb RAM is really all that's needed. You're not a gamer so that graphics card is a nice step up from Intel's integrated graphics and will support some nice monitors. Win Home is just fine. I previously ran Win7 Home Premium and am running Win10 Home now.


For perspective here's mine that I bought 5 years ago. And FWIW at that time it wasn't top of the line at all. But it continues to deliver and is expected to remain relevant for a good number of years to come.



The SSD is my boot drive and both the internal and external 1Tb drives serve as back up and archival data storage.

My system has a basic 300w PSU and I would suspect yours is no bigger than 500 watts which supports that Graphics card, etc. You'd have to add some heavy duty stuff to require a bigger PSU.

My 24" monitor gives a resolution of HDTV. Today's models are capable of much much higher resolution but not being a gamer, graphics designer, pro photographer, etc., I'm good to go with what I have. As said your RX580 can support most all the big boys as well as multiple monitor set ups.

About the only nit I've had is with the number and speed of USB ports. I use an external 2.0 hub but can see the need to expand the dual 3.0 ports I currently have as more and more devices support 3.1 and 3.0 although backwardly compatible with the 2.0 standard.

Ok thanks. It wasn’t an overly pricy setup, so I was worried it wouldn’t last. Out the door, this ran me a little over $900, including the added SSD. BTW, those PCIe M.2 SSDs are smoking fast. They’re about 20% more expensive, but seem to advertise four times the performance. Nice.

It has 4 3.1 USB ports, 2 3.0 USB ports, 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort (on the graphics card). That seems like a lot of ports. Maybe gamers use lots of ports. I’ve heard VR uses a lot.

Anyway, thanks for responding. I didn’t mean to hijack your thread.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

Anyway, thanks for responding. I didn’t mean to hijack your thread.

No harm, no foul!

And yeah those M.2 jobs look great. But my 'puter isn't equipped to handle that technology. Only SATA SSDs. That's where machines can start being long in the tooth. New technology isn't compatible.

A caveat from my Win10 installation experience.

Seems that if you change your BIOS settings to enable AHCI for your SSD drives AFTER installing Win10, you're gonna to have major boot start issues with hardware changes, etc. An example I experienced was with changing SATA cable connections and associated hardware.

There is a fix but it is complicated and risky.
Here's an example (half way down the page) of a fix: https://hetmanrecovery.com/rec...stalling-windows.htm

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bald1,

quote:

A caveat from my Win10 installation experience. Seems that if you change your BIOS settings to enable AHCI for your SSD drives AFTER installing Win10

Not a caveat of any sort.
When your HAL changes there are going to be issues.
Nothing that can't be fixed.

Normally AHCI is a default installation for almost all hardware these days.
If you are still using IDE drives today then the hardware is most likely too old to benefit much from W10.
However, it is easy to make mistakes in the initial installation if you are not paying attention.
Yes, it is not a easy configuration adjustment but one that can be done nevertheless.

smschultz,

No IDE. I was running a 5 year old 1Tb 7200rpm Toshiba DT01ACA100 but replaced it with a Samsung 860 EVO 1Tb SSD after it showed flaky tendencies in HDTune. The default BIOS boot option was "Legacy" (which does handle MBR and is basically ATA) and when going to the SSD we changed it to "UEFI."

bald1 .. I understand, not many IDE actual drives are in play anymore.
However, UEFI is not exactly the same as AHCI vs IDE (mode).
There are some overlap in configurations and it does get quite complicated.
Nevertheless boot issues and some performance issues can arise if not properly optimized.
Especially if you are cloning an old spinner SATA to be replaced by a SSD.
If you do an install with the wrong settings it is generally best to correct the settings (UEFI for GPT) and reinstall.
Then when correct install your other apps and move your data if any over.
I've had to fix my mistakes more than once.