Topic: Time for a New PC

[WheatonRon]

I was building a gamer at the time. Seems 16 was faster at the time and beyond that it was waste because nothing used the additional ram.

I have a gamer with 12G of RAM and it does fine. Anything more than that you are probably wasting money. Get 8G of DRR4 and see how it performs. You can easily upgrade thereafter if necessary.

[Jumpin Joe]

You guys have convinced me.... 16G is it and better price than 12.

Thanks,
Joe

[WheatonRon]

You guys have convinced me.... 16G is it and better price than 12.

Thanks,
Joe

Great decision. By the way, your weather page deserves an A+. Well done!

[WheatonRon]

If you haven't decided on a SSD yet, there is a great article (including reviews) in the August 2016 edition of Maximum PC that I just received today. The winner is the Samsung 950 Pro M.2 512GB. But as others as pointed out in this thread, if you just want a computer to post your PWS to CWOP and WU, etc., you can get by with a laptop costing about $200 or so. Since you seem to want to venture beyond this, think the moon and this SSD! It does require a motherboard that supports the M.2 port.

[SpringHillWeather]

Since you mentioned weather programs and video capture I would recommend 16gb memory.  ALso for storage since you have videos I would go with a 4+TB sata HD, also good as a system backup drive,  they are going for around $100 now,   Amazon

[cospringswx]

I buy all my PC parts from Newegg. Love the email deals and shell shocker.

[AWL]

Remember you need to run a 64 bit operating system to utilize more than 4G ram.

[SpringHillWeather]

Remember you need to run a 64 bit operating system to utilize more than 4G ram.

Joe did you decide on what OS your going to run?  I'm not sure you mentioned that.

I'm still using Win7-64 and won't upgrade to Win10 for many reasons

[Jáchym]

Remember you need to run a 64 bit operating system to utilize more than 4G ram.

Joe did you decide on what OS your going to run?  I'm not sure you mentioned that.

I'm still using Win7-64 and won't upgrade to Win10 for many reasons

 

or

[WheatonRon]

Remember you need to run a 64 bit operating system to utilize more than 4G ram.

Joe did you decide on what OS your going to run?  I'm not sure you mentioned that.

I'm still using Win7-64 and won't upgrade to Win10 for many reasons

Windows 3.1, maybe?

 

or

[ValentineWeather]

I'm still using Win7-64 and won't upgrade to Win10 for many reasons

Same here, anyone I personally know who went 7 to 10 regrets it.
As far as 7 not being supported past 2020 I've never used windows support and rarely do patches.  By then its possible windows 10 will be more user friendly and give control back but somehow doubt it.
Its like big government trying to shove crap down my throat and getting into my business because they know best.  I refuse to play by these rules.

[Jáchym]

Though I do undestand and think upgrade to Win 10 definitely makes sense in case of people using Win 8. I never used that OS, but I have worked with it several times and the more i did, the more I hated it. I still find it hard to believe they ever released something as bad as that. Though Vista probably wasnt much better.... but that OS was just slow and not optimized, but Win 8 is just so hard to work with. I never knew where to find stuff, where to click... it tries to do everything automatically, I guess it is great for an absolute beginner, but as soon as you want to make any advanced setting or customize it you feel completely lost.

[WheatonRon]

Though I do undestand and think upgrade to Win 10 definitely makes sense in case of people using Win 8. I never used that OS, but I have worked with it several times and the more i did, the more I hated it. I still find it hard to believe they ever released something as bad as that. Though Vista probably wasnt much better.... but that OS was just slow and not optimized, but Win 8 is just so hard to work with. I never knew where to find stuff, where to click... it tries to do everything automatically, I guess it is great for an absolute beginner, but as soon as you want to make any advanced setting or customize it you feel completely lost.

Yes, Windows 8 was a disaster. As for Windows 10, I haven't heard of a single user that did a clean install vs an upgrade that isn't happy! The Edge browser is much better than Internet Explorer and the shortcut keys available in 10 are great.

[ValentineWeather]

My son is head of IT department over a large chain of hospitals and clinics in Arizona/Utah and prefers 7. I'll go by what he knows.

[WheatonRon]

Sounds like you have a reliable source vs. chatter on the Internet!

[ValentineWeather]

Yes, they are in the process of switching over 7 to 10 for the very reason of support after 2020. They do need the patches with a huge network of clinics and hospitals.

[Jáchym]

That comment you made about Edge made me laugh

Yes, it is miles better than IE (hate that browser, even more so as a developer), but it is still miles behind Chrome and FF... I really had to laugh when some time ago MS so happily announced Edge will now support browser extensions.... I mean there is no way they are ever going to make that browser more popular, if everytime they introduce something "new" is just going to get them closer to FF and Chrome. If their new features are only introducing whatever already exists, there is never going to be any reason for anyone to use that browser. I guess it is mostly used only by those who have very little knowledge of PCs and have it preinstalled. But I dont know anyone who would use FF and Chrome and then changed to Edge.

Not to mention the fact that I also really dont like it because unlike the other browsers you can only run it on Windows 10 - in other words if someone tells me something in my template does not work ideally in Edge, all I can say is - use a different browser because there is no way for me to test it.

[WheatonRon]

That comment you made about Edge made me laugh

Yes, it is miles better than IE (hate that browser, even more so as a developer), but it is still miles behind Chrome and FF... I really had to laugh when some time ago MS so happily announced Edge will now support browser extensions.... I mean there is no way they are ever going to make that browser more popular, if everytime they introduce something "new" is just going to get them closer to FF and Chrome. If their new features are only introducing whatever already exists, there is never going to be any reason for anyone to use that browser. I guess it is mostly used only by those who have very little knowledge of PCs and have it preinstalled. But I dont know anyone who would use FF and Chrome and then changed to Edge.

Not to mention the fact that I also really dont like it because unlike the other browsers you can only run it on Windows 10 - in other words if someone tells me something in my template does not work ideally in Edge, all I can say is - use a different browser because there is no way for me to test it.

Great points. However, I find Chrome awkward to use (I am not a developer), and like the cleaner look to Edge.

[Jáchym]

I think it is only a matter of time before they officially admit they lost the battle.... also in case of mobil OS. The Windows mobile OS was so badly optimized that people didnt want to use it. Now it is probably better, but they are already in a vicious cycle. Because it was so badly optimized, crashing, freezing, not many people used it. And because of that, not many developers developed apps for it. And apps are everything. Now it is the case that even more companies officialy deprecate apps for Win OS - just recently Here maps and I think instagram too. And that causes even more people to abandon it or not consider it at all.

[WheatonRon]

I think it is only a matter of time before they officially admit they lost the battle.... also in case of mobil OS. The Windows mobile OS was so badly optimized that people didnt want to use it. Now it is probably better, but they are already in a vicious cycle. Because it was so badly optimized, crashing, freezing, not many people used it. And because of that, not many developers developed apps for it. And apps are everything. Now it is the case that even more companies officialy deprecate apps for Win OS - just recently Here maps and I think instagram too. And that causes even more people to abandon it or not consider it at all.

Yes the Windows mobile OS was a disaster and probably still is. Are you saying folks are going to abandon Windows on their computers making Microsoft a dinosaur except for its Office program, or is that application on the ropes too?

[Jáchym]

MS Office is IMHO also slowly going to "die". The future is in cloud platforms, I already use Google Docs most of the time and except for some very complicated graphs which I have to do for my job, it would be able to everything I need. And there are alternatives. Not to mention all the other advantages such as having the data backed up all the time, access from anywhere... yes there are of course disadvantages and some documents will be better to create offline and as I mentioned, there are situations where it isnt enough yet and you need the advanced feature MS Excel offers, however, the majority of people use Word for just some simple typing and Excel for some simple tables, so for them it will be enough. And in the future I am sure the browser alternatives will be able to do just as much as the offline counterpart.

And if they also work on the security, having it encrypted, using VPNs etc. then even companies might migrate to it. Office also has its online version, but I dont think it is as good.

However, that said I still dont think MS is doomed. Remember that even today, majority of their profit is not from Windows, which is also why they now offer it as a free upgrade. We must not forget about their server solutions. MS Azure etc. Most people probably dont even know about this, but so many companies use this and the profit this generates is much bigger. As their competitor I see especially Oracle, VMWare etc. Companies pay billions to MS for support, maintenance, licenses etc. The home licenses for Windows are really nothing.

[WheatonRon]

MS Office is IMHO also slowly going to "die". The future is in cloud platforms, I already use Google Docs most of the time and except for some very complicated graphs which I have to do for my job, it would be able to everything I need. And there are alternatives. Not to mention all the other advantages such as having the data backed up all the time, access from anywhere... yes there are of course disadvantages and some documents will be better to create offline and as I mentioned, there are situations where it isnt enough yet and you need the advanced feature MS Excel offers, however, the majority of people use Word for just some simple typing and Excel for some simple tables, so for them it will be enough. And in the future I am sure the browser alternatives will be able to do just as much as the offline counterpart.

And if they also work on the security, having it encrypted, using VPNs etc. then even companies might migrate to it. Office also has its online version, but I dont think it is as good.

However, that said I still dont think MS is doomed. Remember that even today, majority of their profit is not from Windows, which is also why they now offer it as a free upgrade. We must not forget about their server solutions. MS Azure etc. Most people probably dont even know about this, but so many companies use this and the profit this generates is much bigger. As their competitor I see especially Oracle, VMWare etc. Companies pay billions to MS for support, maintenance, licenses etc. The home licenses for Windows are really nothing.

If I recall correctly, you live in the Czech Republic right? Wow! Great insights for someone living outside the US, but I guess the Internet has basically torn down geographic borders! As a retired accountant, my lifeblood was Excel--probably the most powerful program I have ever used. I hope it survives and does even better in the future!

[Jáchym]

Sometimes I have a feeling MS does things that are only losing money and they do it more or less just so that they have some kind of that service being such a huge company. The mobile OS is a great example. Remember how Balmer laughed at iPhone, they never intended to make touchscreen devices and only when they saw it was so popular (which was of course too late) they started developing. The quickly realized there is no way they can ever catch up with Android and Mac OS and the smartphone manufacturers. But because they are such a big company, they bought Nokia. And look where Nokia is today... even that didnt save them. Really,I think they are right now well aware of the fact they will probably never be able to catch up with Android and Mac OS. And similarly with the browser. IE/Edge market share is declining all the time and they only have it because being such a huge company, they "have to have a browser of some kind"

[Jáchym]

MS Office is IMHO also slowly going to "die". The future is in cloud platforms, I already use Google Docs most of the time and except for some very complicated graphs which I have to do for my job, it would be able to everything I need. And there are alternatives. Not to mention all the other advantages such as having the data backed up all the time, access from anywhere... yes there are of course disadvantages and some documents will be better to create offline and as I mentioned, there are situations where it isnt enough yet and you need the advanced feature MS Excel offers, however, the majority of people use Word for just some simple typing and Excel for some simple tables, so for them it will be enough. And in the future I am sure the browser alternatives will be able to do just as much as the offline counterpart.

And if they also work on the security, having it encrypted, using VPNs etc. then even companies might migrate to it. Office also has its online version, but I dont think it is as good.

However, that said I still dont think MS is doomed. Remember that even today, majority of their profit is not from Windows, which is also why they now offer it as a free upgrade. We must not forget about their server solutions. MS Azure etc. Most people probably dont even know about this, but so many companies use this and the profit this generates is much bigger. As their competitor I see especially Oracle, VMWare etc. Companies pay billions to MS for support, maintenance, licenses etc. The home licenses for Windows are really nothing.

If I recall correctly, you live in the Czech Republic right? Wow! Great insights for someone living outside the US, but I guess the Internet has basically torn down geographic borders! As a retired accountant, my lifeblood was Excel--probably the most powerful program I have ever used. I hope it survives and does even better in the future!

LOL

Yes I am from the Czech Republic, but you know I dont think these days it makes any difference. If you went to a shop with electronics here, you would see the most recent models of all the major manufacturers of smartphones, PCs, audio, video etc etc. In my work we use all the SW such as Office, GIS, Windows (though we do use 7 Pro ), we have a 1GBit connection, my office PC is a i5 8GB RAM PC with a 256GB SSD, which actually is by far not the best we have, but Im not the one who needs very powerful machine. But there are guys who use GIS and other similar SW, who have much better PCs. It is true that at home where I do Meteotemplate and other stuff, I have a very old 1GB RAM laptop which can only run Lubuntu, I also dont have a smartphone or tablet, but I do like technology, so I read about it a lot, I watch webpages such as ubergizmo, digital trends, technology sections of major newspaper etc. More and more you also find services that were formerly available only in the US, entering the European market - one example - since January this yr you can use Netflix here. I personally have never seen or used it myself, but I know many people now use it here, it is still quite expensive, but it is available, just like others - Spotify, Apple Store, Deazer, all Google services, MS services etc etc.

[Jáchym]

Oh and one last example, if you look at overall statistics, in some technological aspects Europe surpasses the US.
I remember when I was developing the plugin for country details for my template, I was surprised to find that here in the Czech Republic, we have twice as many smartphones per 100 people than in the US. Or the average internet connection speed is also higher.

This is not to say US sucks of course, just that you should not think we are like living in stone age LOL