Hardware

Used dual-cores are coming! Used dual-cores are coming!

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , ,
Used dual-cores are coming! Used dual-cores are coming!

All this talk about new computers got me looking to see what’s out there in the channel. And it looks like the glut of Pentium 4s is finally clearing, making way for the 2-core revolution. Prices are low–I’m seeing dual-core systems, both Intel and AMD, with Windows licenses, for anywhere from $180 to $280 depending on configuration and some other factors that aren’t exactly clear to me.

Sound good? Here’s what to look for in an off-lease/refurbished computer.
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Tradeoffs at the low end: Cores or Cache?

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , ,

I’m looking at building myself a new PC for the first time in years. That’s a little bit of a misnomer though. Today, building a PC can mean bolting as few as two components into a case and connecting four cables. Building PCs in the 1990s was a lot more difficult. I remember in 1994, during one of my first builds, someone walking past in the hall, looking at the mess of cards and cables, and asking, “How do you know which one goes where?”

Today, the assembly is pretty easy. Figuring out what to buy is harder. In 1994, the differences between the various flavors of 386 and 486 chips available was confusing, but it all fit on an index card. Mainly the difference came down to the amount of memory the chip could address (386) and whether it had a math coprocessor (486). Beyond that all you really had to worry about was clock speed. Back then the research took 30 minutes and the system took hours to build.

Today there are two chip manufacturers (down from four) but they both have half a dozen product lines. And nobody really talks about clock speed anymore. That’s fine because clock speed was a crude measure of performance, but is throwing numbers like 560 or 840 or 965 on the chips really any better? Today the research takes hours (if not days) and the system goes together in about 5 minutes. Shake the bag right and it could just come out of the bag fully assembled.
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What I would do to fix Dr. A’s computer

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Software, Windows , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I left my conversation with Dr. A nearly convinced he doesn’t really need a new computer. The local store is pitching him a new $700 Dell Inspiron with a 1 TB hard drive and 6 GB of RAM and a 17-inch screen. But he could upgrade to a 1 TB hard drive for less than $125. If he doesn’t want to switch to Windows 7, his current Windows XP Professional will only use 4 GB of RAM anyway. Upgrading to 4 GB of RAM will cost less than $40. And looking at the new system, I don’t know that its CPU is all that much more powerful than what he already has.

To me, the clincher was this. I asked myself the question whether, if I were offered a machine exactly like his for $200 or $300, would I buy it. And it was an easy answer. I would.

I haven’t done a thorough analysis of the machine, but I’ve seen enough to have an idea what it needs. Much of it will seem familiar, if you’ve been reading me a long time.
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HP or Dell?

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , ,

Dr. A is disenfranchised with his Dell. Seeing it, I understand why. It frequently interrupts his work with Dell-branded system optimization programs that scour his hard drive for shortcuts to fix and other mundane things that only need to be done once a year, if ever. It does no harm–other than interrupting him of course–but who wants an OCD laptop? So he said he’s considering switching to HP. The only problem with that is that if you’re not careful, you can end up with an HP bundled with similar stuff.

So is there a difference? Read more

Questions to ask when buying a computer

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,
Questions to ask when buying a computer

I had a conversation with someone having computer issues, so he’s thinking about buying a new one. He went to my favorite store, but one thing he said got me thinking about questions to ask when buying a computer.

“I’m not convinced all the people there know what they’re talking about,” he said.

Fair enough. And that doesn’t matter when I’m doing the shopping, but not everyone is me. So here’s what you need to know if this isn’t what you do for a living.

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Why you should align your SSD

Dave Farquhar Hardware
Why you should align your SSD

Aligning an SSD is the process of ensuring that your filesystem’s logical blocks begin and end on the same memory boundaries as the SSD’s memory blocks. Doing this improves speed and longevity. Not doing it can roughly halve your drive’s life expectancy.

It’s not as mysterious or weird as it may seem. I’ll try to take the mystery out of it.

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The amount of system memory has changed – Dell

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , ,

I added some memory to a Dell Inspiron E1505, an aging but serviceable Core 2 Duo-based laptop. And it greeted me with this: THE AMOUNT OF SYSTEM MEMORY HAS CHANGED .

IF YOU DID NOT CHANGE MEMORY
TO RESOLVE ISSUE RESEAT MEMORY..

And then it appeared to freeze. The problem is, I did change the memory! And it was Kingston memory, straight out of another working machine, so I knew it was good stuff.

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Be careful when buying previous-generation hardware

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , ,

So I was hoping I could score a bargain on some older Socket 775 hardware, being previous generation and all. And sometimes you can. But sometimes you can just think you’re getting a bargain.

Here’s an example.

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Approaches for home network storage

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Servers and Networking

I put together a plan to update my home computer setup over the course of the next 12-18 months. You don’t want to know what I’m using as my primary desktop right now. You just don’t.

One of the things on my to-do list is centralized storage. As the kids get older, I’m pretty sure I’m going to need that. I looked at a Drobo, but the price tag scares me off. So I’m weighing some alternatives.
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Android modding gets just a little more mainstream

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , ,

Infoworld published a piece on using Cyanogenmod to upgrade an orphan Android phone, the Motorola Cliq XT, beyond the officially supported Android 1.4.

It’s not a detailed how-to and has a lot of generalities, and someone wanting to do the same thing will still have to do a lot of Google searching, but we’re talking a short-ish (I’m guessing 1,500 words or less) Infoworld piece here. It’s a magazine that’s always been more about trends than details.
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