Mac Mini for me. 24” LG monitor

quote:

Originally posted by Blackmore:
I've never understood the EOL thing. I'm still running two Win7 machines and they get updates at shutdown from time to time.

Oh? End of support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

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Support for Windows 7 has ended

After 10 years, security updates and technical support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. We know change can be difficult, but we're here to help you take the next steps with ease.

I have MS-Win 7 Pro on the company laptop my employer gave me when I retired. (I never use MS-Win on it. It dual-boots that and Linux. I use Linux exclusively on it.) I occasionally boot it into MS-Win to check for updates. There haven't been any.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Blackmore:
I've never understood the EOL thing. I'm still running two Win7 machines and they get updates at shutdown from time to time.

Oh? End of support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

quote:

Support for Windows 7 has ended

After 10 years, security updates and technical support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. We know change can be difficult, but we're here to help you take the next steps with ease.

I have MS-Win 7 Pro on the company laptop my employer gave me when I retired. (I never use MS-Win on it. It dual-boots that and Linux. I use Linux exclusively on it.) I occasionally boot it into MS-Win to check for updates. There haven't been any.

I'll take a screenshot and send it to you the next time it occurs.

Sorry for the thread drift, OP. I'll delete if you deem necessary.

No worries.

I think I’ll check with a computer place I’ve used before to see what a build would be. I like that idea. I don’t really know what I do and don’t need. But I can do without all the extra bloatware.

Processors? RAM? HD size? I don’t know what I really need.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

Processors? RAM? HD size? I don’t know what I really need.

Processor: anything released by Intel, AMD, or Apple within the past four years
RAM: 16 to 64GB, the type of RAM will depend on the motherboard (mainboard) selected, prob. DDR3 or DDR4
HD size: figure out how much you are using now, and double it (up to x3/x4 if you feel constrained), SSD if you can stand the $$$$. Otherwise, a HD array with an SSD cache. More important (if speed/response is important) is the interface between the mainboard and the mass storage, you want NVMe.

Your choice of a mainboard will govern most of the supporting technologies, e.g. the CPU socket, the RAM type, and disk interfaces. This is your crucial build selection. I like mainboards from Supermicro, but have had good luck with Asus and Gigabyte as well.

Also important is your case and cooling. If you want a really fast system, you will also have to pay a premium for a well-ventilated case, and robust cooling, maybe even water cooled. Of course, this will increase the noise level and ambient heat transferred to the room, so you might have to increase the A/C in your home, or install additional cooling in your computer room.

If I were putting together anything other than a VM host server these days I would go small form factor, cool running. low power consumption rather than a studly performance-oriented box. I am currently (mostly) using a late 2015 iMac, and is is plenty of computer for my needs. Raspberry Pis have replaced pretty much all my server-based applications (DNS, e-mail, router, firewall, file sharing, etc.) without noticeable suffering of performance (be nice to have a faster/bigger/redundant disk option on these).

Which reminds me, when budgeting for your new system do not forget to factor in a backup strategy. One of the best things about building your own system is you know what and how to fix that which goes wrong. But don't count on this fix when it comes to recovering data.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

But I can do without all the extra bloatware.

Couple of us have mentioned the Mac Mini. You get no bloatware with the Mac OS. None. Zero.

When Microsoft releases a new version of Windows OS, it's generally at a fairly hefty price.

When Apple releases a new version of Mac OS, it's a free download.

I've got a giant computer leasing company near me and usually buy one of their off lease trade ins. I don't think I've ever paid more than $200.
The one I have now I've had for about 8 yrs. It can't go beyond Win 10 so I may need to upgrade in a couple of years.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

Processors? RAM? HD size? I don’t know what I really need.

Which reminds me, when budgeting for your new system do not forget to factor in a backup strategy. One of the best things about building your own system is you know what and how to fix that which goes wrong. But don't count on this fix when it comes to recovering data.

After years of trying to recover data I decided to buy another hard drive and every couple of weeks I just clone my internal SSD to it.

Try the Dell Outlet. I get my computers from there.