Mine's a Medion something or other, with 3.0GB RAM, a 910 megabyte hard disk and an NVIDEA GeForce G210 video card. I've been amassing music and photographs for years, but still have two thirds of the disk free. I'm not interested in games, but do a lot of writing and photo processing, for which the 19" Medion monitor is ideal. Importantly, the screen is almost square in shape, which gives me far more usable screen than a widescreen format. I'm a little bit worried that I might not be able to find one like it if it ever packs in.
When I need to I'll buy another Medion PC with the best spec available, although what I'm using currently is as good as I really need. I have two backup drives, one which slides into a dedicated port on top of the PC and another one that plugs in via USB - probably 2.0 for all I know.
I have a Toshiba laptop, but have hardly used it since I bought it about three years ago. How on earth people use their phone as their main internet browsing tool is a complete mystery to me. I tend to use about 150mb out of my 1 gigabyte data allowance on average.
I use a laptop with a separate screen and wireless keyboard and mouse for nearly everything. Though I always have a more powerful desktop as well for more intensive things. Current one is a three year old Dell which I got for a decent price.
Upgraded the graphics card in it a few months back and couldn't resist testing it -
I got totally fed up of being room restricted with my PC and now have an Acer Aspire 18.4 inch Full HD 8942G i7-720QM laptop with 6GB RAM, the ATI HD 5850, Blu-ray drive, Dolby Home Theatre, media touch controls, 5 USB ports, 2 HDDs, etc. There's no way I'd go back to a PC.
Had an interesting chat with someone the other day and wondered what other desktop users thought ?
Basically, the notion is that you buy a brand new desktop to upgrade your existing one but you find that the new one has components that aren't as good as your old one - say, for the sake of argument, the new one has a 1TB drive and you've put a 2TB one in your old machine and also, maybe, the new one only has something like a 300W PSU and you've got a 600W PSU in yours.
Do you immediately upgrade and swap your components over to the new one as soon as you get it, basically invalidating the warranty on day one ?
I never switched to Laptops or Tablets as my main system (though I own both), a desktop is much easier to maintain. If a part breaks down, it's cheap to replace that single part and easy to do so and I like to build them to my own specifications anyway. Plus, I've found that 3.5" HDDs are much more reliable than the 2.5" drives.
I'm not a gamer and as such I've severely let my main system's specs slip into the dark ages - still running an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, with the motherboard's RAM maxed to a mere 4GB (with a 32-bit Windows, PAE patched). I'm also running 7 hard drives in there at present (normally 6, but I'm in the process of backing up some files and it was easier to do that with the drives connected internally).
As far as desktops taking up space, I've got 9 of them up and running across the house, plus a headless laptop (screen broke) permanently connected to a monitor. 4 are designated HTPCs connected to a TV, 2 systems share a single monitor (1 of the HTPCs + an old PowerMac G5 used as a server), whilst the other 4 all have their own desks & monitors, keyboard, mouse etc.
Also, 2 laptops + 4 tablets make up the rest of my active collection - though they're far from main systems and the tablets are just impractical for anything other than games or light web usage anyway.
Seriously thinking about upgrading my main system though. I've built several computers for other people and I'm currently building a cheap (£300) PC for somebody with specs already about 4x times faster than my current fastest PC.
Had an interesting chat with someone the other day and wondered what other desktop users thought ?
Basically, the notion is that you buy a brand new desktop to upgrade your existing one but you find that the new one has components that aren't as good as your old one - say, for the sake of argument, the new one has a 1TB drive and you've put a 2TB one in your old machine and also, maybe, the new one only has something like a 300W PSU and you've got a 600W PSU in yours.
Do you immediately upgrade and swap your components over to the new one as soon as you get it, basically invalidating the warranty on day one ?
I never buy a ready-made system, I'd much rather build it myself with components I've picked myself. That way, I never run into problems whereby an "upgrade" is inferior to what I already have.
If somebody is capable of doing those kind of hardware swaps, surely it would have been easier to just build something from scratch?
I never buy a ready-made system, I'd much rather build it myself with components I've picked myself. That way, I never run into problems whereby an "upgrade" is inferior to what I already have.
If somebody is capable of doing those kind of hardware swaps, surely it would have been easier to just build something from scratch?
A fair point indeed, but I think you can sometimes get some decent budget systems that have the bare bones of a good system, but to keep the price down they skimp on the extra bits - I've seen a few lower end Core-i3 systems for a few hundred quid but they don't have a lot of RAM, PSU power or even decent optical drives - the one on ebuyer doesn't even come with a bloody optical drive !
If it wasn't for the fact that I use the optical drive in my system for playing DVDs/Blu-Rays, I wouldn't have bothered getting it. The films and whatever from torrent sites aren't up to my standard when it comes to picture quality and sound, so mainly for this reason, I had to get an optical drive. I obviously use it for installing Windows the odd time when I need to as well. If both of these weren't needed, I wouldn't have bothered getting one.
I got totally fed up of being room restricted with my PC and now have an Acer Aspire 18.4 inch Full HD 8942G i7-720QM laptop with 6GB RAM, the ATI HD 5850, Blu-ray drive, Dolby Home Theatre, media touch controls, 5 USB ports, 2 HDDs, etc. There's no way I'd go back to a PC.
I don't really understand that argument. You have a nice functional comfy environment for your Desktop. It has to be somewhere you rarely want to leave and for all other occasions you can use your laptop.
A fair point indeed, but I think you can sometimes get some decent budget systems that have the bare bones of a good system, but to keep the price down they skimp on the extra bits - I've seen a few lower end Core-i3 systems for a few hundred quid but they don't have a lot of RAM, PSU power or even decent optical drives - the one on ebuyer doesn't even come with a bloody optical drive !
i would never buy a pre-built system, unless it was a laptop. But a desktop I would always buy the components. My first PC was pre-built, but that was it about 17 years ago.
A lot of machines don't come with optical drives now, which is why they would be a waste of time for me.
i would never buy a pre-built system, unless it was a laptop. But a desktop I would always buy the components. My first PC was pre-built, but that was it about 17 years ago.
A lot of machines don't come with optical drives now, which is why they would be a waste of time for me.
How the hell would a factory reset be done then? I can't imagine them including a flash drive with Windows on it.
The last pre-built desktop PC I bought was 9-10 years ago. I've built a few for myself since then, its surprisingly very easy and fun.
Currently using:
Intel core i5 4670k
nvidia 770 GTX
16GB DDR3 RAM
250GB SSD for OS and programs
250GB SSD for games
1TB HDD for random storage
next upgrade will probably be the graphics card, nvidias next gen... something like 1070 or 1080 GTX (whatever its name will be). Make that last for a year, then get a whole new PC while reusing the graphics card for a year or 2.
How the hell would a factory reset be done then? I can't imagine them including a flash drive with Windows on it.
The same way as they been doing it for a few years now, a uninstalled version of windows is stored in a hidden partition on the drive and when you do a factory reset it takes the info from there.
Windows 8 don't really even need that.
This is why most computers these days gives you a back up option when you first set them up.
Built my own last year. Big screen and very fast machine. Now my daughter prefers it to her laptop which is not good news. I've never owned a computer that was so fast and quiet and gave me so few problems. I have a tablet and a notebook as well but they don't get much use.
The same way as they been doing it for a few years now, a uninstalled version of windows is stored in a hidden partition on the drive and when you do a factory reset it takes the info from there.
Windows 8 don't really even need that.
This is why most computers these days gives you a back up option when you first set them up.
That means that you need to burn the backup onto disc, unless you use a flash drive.
Never left the desktop PC for gaming. I did have a laptop as well a while ago for portability, but it couldn't be used for the type of games I generally play. Games on my Android tablet or smartphone do not interest me in the slightest.
My PC is just over a year old & pretty powerful. I have a comfortable reclining-style office chair from a Staples clearance section and a small cheap pine kitchen table from Ikea as a desk
I haven't had a desktop for many years. Laptops (and very recently a MacBook, which I am loving) are more convenient for me. I also tried the Microsoft Surface, most useless device ever made. It's not the larger screen or adaptability that desktops provide that I miss, it's the comfortable study area; large comfortable chair, books and other resources easily at hand and everything in one place. I really wish I had the room for a little study.
I've always had a desktop PC ever since my first in 1994 and would never replace one with a laptop or tablet, but do have a laptop (to use in the lounge) and a tablet (to read comics, mags, daily papers in bed), my desktops are always self-built rather than off the shelf as I like to select what components I have, my current system is (built Jan 2012. but some things upgraded since like graphics, 2Tb H/D and adding an SSD):
Intel i5 2500k CPU
Gigabyte M/B
Gibabyte ATi Radeon R270X 4Gb graphics
16Gb DDR3 RAM
256Gb SSD with Windows 8.1 Pro
2x 1Tb H/D's
1x 2Tb H/D
Samsung Blu-Ray ROM/DVD-RW
24" IPS HD monitor
I haven't bothered overclocking it yet, as it runs everything I want but the options there if I want to.
Bought a Mac Pro in sep 2011 and created a ssd / spinning disc combo - still as it was today performance wise- can see using it for 10 years or so - plan on upgrading the CPU to 6 core 3.9ghz for £200-£300 which will help!
Think pcs have plateaued - only 4k/6k video editing / playback may effect whether I have it for ever!
Spent three months in Spain just using a laptop and iphone - you do long for the speed and power of a desktop.
Current spec
Mac Pro 2010/5,1
2.8 intel Xeon quad core (upgrading to 3.9 six core Xeon)
16gb ram
4tb raid / 1tb 7200 WD black / 2tb WD green / 128gb ssd (for apps) - all drives built in
Amd radeon graphics - the weakest link but I can live with longer render times etc. option to upgrade to a 7950 amd card or most PC Cards work
I have a laptop (MacBook Air) but tend to use it as a desktop computer most of the time, connected up to my 23" HD monitor. Its great that it also allows me to have a dual screen setup while working like this. Plus I can always use it as a proper laptop as and when I need to.
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When I need to I'll buy another Medion PC with the best spec available, although what I'm using currently is as good as I really need. I have two backup drives, one which slides into a dedicated port on top of the PC and another one that plugs in via USB - probably 2.0 for all I know.
I have a Toshiba laptop, but have hardly used it since I bought it about three years ago. How on earth people use their phone as their main internet browsing tool is a complete mystery to me. I tend to use about 150mb out of my 1 gigabyte data allowance on average.
Yeah, god knows when i'll be upgrading those, just no point yet, hasn't been a worthwhile performance increase in CPUs for years, its well boring
Upgraded the graphics card in it a few months back and couldn't resist testing it -
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=24065449474
Basically, the notion is that you buy a brand new desktop to upgrade your existing one but you find that the new one has components that aren't as good as your old one - say, for the sake of argument, the new one has a 1TB drive and you've put a 2TB one in your old machine and also, maybe, the new one only has something like a 300W PSU and you've got a 600W PSU in yours.
Do you immediately upgrade and swap your components over to the new one as soon as you get it, basically invalidating the warranty on day one ?
I'm not a gamer and as such I've severely let my main system's specs slip into the dark ages - still running an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, with the motherboard's RAM maxed to a mere 4GB (with a 32-bit Windows, PAE patched). I'm also running 7 hard drives in there at present (normally 6, but I'm in the process of backing up some files and it was easier to do that with the drives connected internally).
As far as desktops taking up space, I've got 9 of them up and running across the house, plus a headless laptop (screen broke) permanently connected to a monitor. 4 are designated HTPCs connected to a TV, 2 systems share a single monitor (1 of the HTPCs + an old PowerMac G5 used as a server), whilst the other 4 all have their own desks & monitors, keyboard, mouse etc.
Also, 2 laptops + 4 tablets make up the rest of my active collection - though they're far from main systems and the tablets are just impractical for anything other than games or light web usage anyway.
Seriously thinking about upgrading my main system though. I've built several computers for other people and I'm currently building a cheap (£300) PC for somebody with specs already about 4x times faster than my current fastest PC.
I never buy a ready-made system, I'd much rather build it myself with components I've picked myself. That way, I never run into problems whereby an "upgrade" is inferior to what I already have.
If somebody is capable of doing those kind of hardware swaps, surely it would have been easier to just build something from scratch?
A fair point indeed, but I think you can sometimes get some decent budget systems that have the bare bones of a good system, but to keep the price down they skimp on the extra bits - I've seen a few lower end Core-i3 systems for a few hundred quid but they don't have a lot of RAM, PSU power or even decent optical drives - the one on ebuyer doesn't even come with a bloody optical drive !
I don't really understand that argument. You have a nice functional comfy environment for your Desktop. It has to be somewhere you rarely want to leave and for all other occasions you can use your laptop.
i would never buy a pre-built system, unless it was a laptop. But a desktop I would always buy the components. My first PC was pre-built, but that was it about 17 years ago.
A lot of machines don't come with optical drives now, which is why they would be a waste of time for me.
How the hell would a factory reset be done then? I can't imagine them including a flash drive with Windows on it.
The last pre-built desktop PC I bought was 9-10 years ago. I've built a few for myself since then, its surprisingly very easy and fun.
Currently using:
Intel core i5 4670k
nvidia 770 GTX
16GB DDR3 RAM
250GB SSD for OS and programs
250GB SSD for games
1TB HDD for random storage
next upgrade will probably be the graphics card, nvidias next gen... something like 1070 or 1080 GTX (whatever its name will be). Make that last for a year, then get a whole new PC while reusing the graphics card for a year or 2.
Yes a Dell Optiplex with a P4 and 2GB Ram, integrated graphics and XP Pro.
I'm proud of it because I've had it for a few years, it cost nothing and I've had no prolems with it.
The same way as they been doing it for a few years now, a uninstalled version of windows is stored in a hidden partition on the drive and when you do a factory reset it takes the info from there.
Windows 8 don't really even need that.
This is why most computers these days gives you a back up option when you first set them up.
Built my own last year. Big screen and very fast machine. Now my daughter prefers it to her laptop which is not good news. I've never owned a computer that was so fast and quiet and gave me so few problems. I have a tablet and a notebook as well but they don't get much use.
That means that you need to burn the backup onto disc, unless you use a flash drive.
My PC is just over a year old & pretty powerful. I have a comfortable reclining-style office chair from a Staples clearance section and a small cheap pine kitchen table from Ikea as a desk
Intel i5 2500k CPU
Gigabyte M/B
Gibabyte ATi Radeon R270X 4Gb graphics
16Gb DDR3 RAM
256Gb SSD with Windows 8.1 Pro
2x 1Tb H/D's
1x 2Tb H/D
Samsung Blu-Ray ROM/DVD-RW
24" IPS HD monitor
I haven't bothered overclocking it yet, as it runs everything I want but the options there if I want to.
Think pcs have plateaued - only 4k/6k video editing / playback may effect whether I have it for ever!
Spent three months in Spain just using a laptop and iphone - you do long for the speed and power of a desktop.
Current spec
Mac Pro 2010/5,1
2.8 intel Xeon quad core (upgrading to 3.9 six core Xeon)
16gb ram
4tb raid / 1tb 7200 WD black / 2tb WD green / 128gb ssd (for apps) - all drives built in
Amd radeon graphics - the weakest link but I can live with longer render times etc. option to upgrade to a 7950 amd card or most PC Cards work
What's its power consumption?
I bet you could buy a new PC and the savings in electricity would cover the cost of the new PC within 3 years