[NBLUG/talk] new computer (alas!)

[Jordan Erickson]

Just playing Devil's advocate (No Zack, not BSD ;} ).. About a year ago
I purchased a brand new motherboard+cpu combo for a client of mine.
Turns out the CPU was a bit *too* new for the motherboard (even though
it was listed as supported in the manual) and the mobo required a BIOS
update for the CPU to work. So buying not-so-tested-by-the-masses
components or systems may also render inconveniences.

Personally I've always purchased components (and software) that have
been well tested (i.e. not too new, not too old, maybe give it about
year or so after release). A generation below the brand-spanking-newest
usually gives you much better price point for the hardware since vendors
will be trying to clear their stock to make room for the newest stuff
that's always marked up waaaaay more.


Cheers,
Jordan

On 10/19/2015 11:38 AM, Zack Zatkin-Gold wrote:
> In my experience, if you underdog your price range, you're going to
> have inconveniences.  I saved up and bought a $2,200 machine with good
> tech specs and I haven't had any issues.
>
> On Monday, October 19, 2015, Steve S. <northbaygeek at gmail.com
> <mailto:northbaygeek at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     It's "alas" because I've found for some years now that mostly I
>     just want my computer to WORK, appliance-like.  My fsck'ing
>     can-opener never throws bad blocks...  :P
>
>     Though I  _used_to_  enjoy getting a new computer, setting it up,
>     etc, I mostly experience it these days as a massive inconvenience.
>      
>     Anyhow... rant over (at least for now).  My question (likely the
>     first of several) is if there's a general consensus as to the
>     price/performance "sweet spot" for CPU's?  Probably my most
>     compute-intensive chore is running Photoshop on 24MP raw images
>     (though I love me some complex 4X games in the Civ/AoE/MoO model,
>     and late-stage/large-map sessions DO take a while to calculate.). 
>     I was rather startled by how cheap i7 systems have become!  But
>     then again, I see that other considerations (Haswll, Broadwell,
>     Skylake, yadda yadda yadda) seem to be where much of the
>     differentiation is happening...  so there's quite a HUGE  range of
>     price and performance under the "i7" umbrella.
>
>     And then there's AMD...
>
>     I'm sure I could figure it out for myself, in time, but...  Well,
>     per the Rant above, the geeky joy's just not there...  I'm hoping
>     that my (admittedly-incomplete) assimilation into the nblug
>     collective might give me some quicker insights...
>
>     Any advice/etc gratefully received!
>
>
>     -  Steve
>      
>
>
>     -- 
>     "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the
>     fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."      -CS
>     Lewis
>
>
>
> -- 
> Sent from my mobile device
>
>
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