Need new desktop PC advice

[Perry Winkle]

Relevant: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2857150

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

Back to a new machine, how big does a SSD need to be to get the speed performance?

How much time is spent waiting for a disk drive? Verses how much time is spent processing data already read/loaded? Your answer is clearer by watching how programs run using Task Manager (or Process Explorer) to see where the bottlenecks are. To understand the answer can be unique to what programs are doing. Even the flashing disk drive light provides a better idea.

SSD means reading the program/data from the disk is faster. And then the system takes the same time to still process and display that information.

How much faster is a machine when the DRAM memory is doubled? Another indication of what (of so many) bottleneck exists. Waiting for the disk drive to load a program is often only a tiny part of the waiting time. Those other bottlenecks are not solved by an SSD.

[footfootfoot]

get a mac

NOT

[glatt]

the computer before this one was a Mac. I kept an unbent paper clip sitting next to that piece of crap and used it daily.

[Lamplighter]

Bing/Google
Firefox/Internet Explorer
iPhone/Samsung
Chev/Ford
Coke/Pepsi
Coal/LNG
Lowes/Home Depot
UofO Ducks/OSU Beavers
Los Angeles/San Francisco **
gay/straight
Democrat/Republican
Christian/Muslim
good/evil
PC/Mac

Will Infinite Monkey please come back to give us the TRUE answer.



** For Land of Oz, Melbourne/Sydney

[classicman]

Santa got my son a laptop for Christmas with Windows 8 on it. What a frikkin PITA!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by classicman

Santa got my son a laptop for Christmas with Windows 8 on it. What a frikkin PITA!

orly?

that's interesting to me as I have considered the same plan for SonofV. You would recommend against?

[footfootfoot]

I've heard nothing but good things about NOT getting a laptop with windows 8.

[classicman]

The only thing worseworseworse than windows 8 is a mac. lol.

Srsly, I hate it - there are no programs anymore. They are all apps. Everything is an app AND they want to have your CC on file as the apps have monthly fees. Microsoft Office is like $7 a month. Instead, I downloaded openoffice.org
The battery holds no charge whatsoever & hasn't since valentines day.
Either I got a lemon or they all suck. You decide.

[Clodfobble]

I'll admit, I don't mind Windows 8 so much. But I also use it exclusively in Desktop mode, and I only use open-source office/graphics/PDF programs. Every time I reboot I am surprised to see this stupid metro screen, but then I just click on my desktop "app" and don't have to see it again for a few weeks.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by classicman

The only thing worseworseworse than windows 8 is a mac. lol.

Srsly, I hate it - there are no programs anymore. They are all apps. Everything is an app AND they want to have your CC on file as the apps have monthly fees. Microsoft Office is like $7 a month. Instead, I downloaded openoffice.org
The battery holds no charge whatsoever & hasn't since valentines day.
Either I got a lemon or they all suck. You decide.

I'd heard the new arrangement for Office, software as a service. F*ck that. Hearing that you can download OpenOffice is a huge plus, thanks for that tip, even though it moves the needle in the direction of getting a tablet/RT version.

[Perry Winkle]

I've been in San Francisco doing job interviews the last two days. Some of the conversations have been crazy.

With one pair of interviewers we talked about how we might redesign certain products (GMail, Twitter, etc). It became clear to me how much the things the people who design and build the software want differ from what the intended audience want. Not even in the same ballpark.

Even within "my" ballpark the desires aren't really in the same ballpark.

I bring this up because it seems relevant to Windows 8, Mac, Facebook, *whatever* hate. There is surely a bubble where the decisions made on those products makes a lot of sense.

Some will use a certain product because their needs align with the assumptions of those in the design bubble. Others will use certain products because they can't figure out any way but the established choices. And then there is the group where none of those products make sense and so they take a (many, really) third way.

(n.b. I've met people who unabashedly love Windows 8 and for decent reasons. I'm not sure they aren't extraterrestrials.)

[Undertoad]

You are exactly correct and I would hire you.

In the case of Windows 8, the people who designed it wanted to win the touchable screen war by instituting a unified piece of software that runs on everything. Including non-touchable screens and screens that it is inappropriate to touch. Their desire is so incompatible with what desktop users need, it is insane. Do you want fingerprints on your desktop screen? Do you want to pay $500 more for a desktop computer? Do you want to lift your hands from the keyboard and mouse all the time? It is insane.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Perry Winkle

There is surely a bubble where the decisions made on those products makes a lot of sense.

In order for 'useful' designers to have influence, the boss must understand and use the products. History is full of examples.

Largest PC software manufacturer in the world once had what we now know as Office. They had Multimate, dBase, etc. All before Microsoft did it with Word, Access, etc. And then its founder died.

The new guy did not understand or use those products. When he introduced a latest version of dBase, it was obvious in 5 minutes to all reporters that he did not know what dBase did. Therefore he also did not know his newest product had over 10,000 bugs. Eventually they would have to buy back all those dBase packages. Because the boss was ignorant of the product. Because he thought like an MBA.

Same has changed in Microsoft. Ballmer is a bean counter. Therefore useful innovation in Microsoft is stifled. For the same reasons Sculley and Spindler so destroyed Apple. Same reason why GM and Chrysler make inferior products. Same reason why Ford became productive when an MBA (Jacque Nasser) was replaced by someone who had a driver's license (William Clay Ford).

Windows 8 makes sense when using spread sheet analysis. It makes less sense to a laptop user who do not want a Gorilla Arm.

[mbpark]

TW,

Unfortunately, Windows 8 does fix the wireless bugs that plagued 7 when using it on an enterprise network. It also fixes power management bugs that my wife and I had. With a Start Menu replacement, it's really fast.

However, it takes it to the same level as where OS X or iOS were 4 years ago.

The problem is that Ballmer's taken what was once a sure bet and ruined it with Vista and 8.

BTW, most of my fellow MBA students use iPads or Macbooks (with a few Android tablets here and there) and abhor the Windows 7 installs in the labs . I have not seen a single Surface in any of my classes. I have seen 1 or 2 Windows 8 machines, that's it.