Painful tech realizations

[mao91]

I was thinking today about the things you realize with tech as it gets older. In 2011, I bought my first laptop: HP Pavilion dv6t-6000QE. I paid $1200 for it and it was a baller, with a 2nd gen Core i7-2720QM, 8GB DDR3, a 750GB HDD, and Intel HD / AMD Raedon switchable graphics. I mean, it could run Premiere Pro! The laptop that ate my old desktop for breakfast. Before putting 1080p displays in laptops was mainstream. Now it's relegated to light duty only and will soon be retired. In 2015 I build my X99 system. While it's still pretty decent, it's starting to show its age in terms of keeping up with more demanding workloads. It pains me to think that in another 5 years or so it may, one day, become a NAS. 

What are some painful tech realizations you've made?

[idwt]

3 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Nobody will run a X99 as NAS  when power cost 30cent/kWH and rising.

 

off-topic question, just curious as to where you live for price per kWH is 30¢? here in the UK average is 14.3p, so around 15-16¢

[piratemonkey]

Back when I was tech illiterate, I thought it didn't matter if I got a hard drive or ssd for my laptop. In fact, I didn't know the difference. So I suffered through a year and a half slowly (quite literally slowly). Honestly I blame the best buy sales rep for not stressing the speed difference

[Helpful Tech Witch]

3 minutes ago, piratemonkey said:

Back when I was tech illiterate, I thought it didn't matter if I got a hard drive or ssd for my laptop. In fact, I didn't know the difference. So I suffered through a year and a half slowly (quite literally slowly). Honestly I blame the best buy sales rep for not stressing the speed difference

something similar. When I used to do some vid editing, I thought that RAM was all that mattered. I though = that, because a laptop had 16gb of ddr4, it as better than a 8gb one, with s better cpu and gpu.

[LloydLynx]

My old dell latitude d620 is basically useless because I got the nvidia graphics for it. If I had just left the intel board in, it could run modern Linux and Windows 10 with working graphics drivers, and have a good battery life. Also, one day it's gonna die because mid 2000's mobile nvidia chips like to desolder themselves and warp the board. This particular chipset advertises 256mb of VRAM, it has 64mb dedicated and shares the rest with the CPU, which you can only take advantage of shared memory with the correct drivers.

[brian105]

5 minutes ago, TheJooomes said:

My old dell latitude d620 is basically useless because I got the nvidia graphics for it. If I had just left the intel board in, it could run modern Linux and Windows 10 with working graphics drivers, and have a good battery life. Also, one day it's gonna die because mid 2000's mobile nvidia chips like to desolder themselves and warp the board. This particular chipset advertises 256mb of VRAM, it has 64mb dedicated and shares the rest with the CPU, which you can only take advantage of shared memory with the correct drivers.

"good battery life" Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh... not on a business laptop more than a decade old.

[LloydLynx]

4 minutes ago, brian105 said:

"good battery life" Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh... not on a business laptop more than a decade old.

Yeah... it's 3 hours vs 2 with nvidia. Even with that monster 9cell upgrade I got that sticks out the front.

[Fatih19]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

@idwt Germany.

Renewables ain't cheap, eh?

[Haris Javed]

RTX 2080 TI ...

[Quinnell]

33 minutes ago, Fatih19 said:

Renewables ain't cheap, eh?

Shocker.

[Guest]

I used to think I would only ever use Macs. I was Apple-exclusive until last year, really. I realized that I needed two computers, a PC desktop and a portable Mac. I realized a Mac can't do everything and that I have to use Windows for some things even if I really don't like it.  (I like the computer I built and the capabilities it has, I just don't like Windows the OS). 

[Technous285]

When I was in my late teens to mid 20's, I swore I'd never buy an Apple product... Now I'm in my early 30's and I have a 32GB iPhone 6 (bought brand-new), mid-2010 Macbook A1342 (refurbished) & a 2009 21.5" iMac (refurbished) that I picked up over the past ~4 years, and I'm seriously giving consideration to buying a moderate 2020/2021 iMac for most of my daily driving, and only keeping a Windows system built to be overkill for games circa 2020 to last me a good 5-10 years.

 

I'm not gone full "Apple fanboy" or "apologist", but between macOS 10 & Windows 10, I'm honestly fairly fed up with Microsoft's shenanigans and am looking to jump ship to macOS as my full-time OS. Something I would have been vehemently opposed to a decade ago.

[Dyaets]

Long long time ago (I guess it was like 2005) I bought a 128MB USB Flash drive. For that time, it was quite a money for me (don't remember how much exactly it cost but still). That time I thought wow, I can put so many files on it. Not that long time afterwards when GBs USB Flash appeared I realized those 128MB was just ridiculous.    

[sub68]

22 hours ago, Dyaets said:

Long long time ago (I guess it was like 2005) I bought a 128MB USB Flash drive. For that time, it was quite a money for me (don't remember how much exactly it cost but still). That time I thought wow, I can put so many files on it. Not that long time afterwards when GBs USB Flash appeared I realized those 128MB was just ridiculous.    

this flash drive can't even have another FLAC album 12 songs

[mao91]

On 9/24/2020 at 1:04 AM, Kylan275 said:

I used to think I would only ever use Macs. I was Apple-exclusive until last year, really. I realized that I needed two computers, a PC desktop and a portable Mac. I realized a Mac can't do everything and that I have to use Windows for some things even if I really don't like it.  (I like the computer I built and the capabilities it has, I just don't like Windows the OS). 

 

I'll let you in on a little secret: nobody who builds PCs actually likes Windows 10. We just love hardware customization. For my work, if I could run MacOS on a custom hardware configuration, I absolutely would, as it would open up a whole world of outboard hardware possibilities. Unfortunately, my choices are limited because the audio production industry, generally speaking, worships Apple. Still, I refuse to pay those kinds of prices. 

On 9/24/2020 at 1:27 AM, Technous285 said:

When I was in my late teens to mid 20's, I swore I'd never buy an Apple product... Now I'm in my early 30's and I have a 32GB iPhone 6 (bought brand-new), mid-2010 Macbook A1342 (refurbished) & a 2009 21.5" iMac (refurbished) that I picked up over the past ~4 years, and I'm seriously giving consideration to buying a moderate 2020/2021 iMac for most of my daily driving, and only keeping a Windows system built to be overkill for games circa 2020 to last me a good 5-10 years.

 

I'm not gone full "Apple fanboy" or "apologist", but between macOS 10 & Windows 10, I'm honestly fairly fed up with Microsoft's shenanigans and am looking to jump ship to macOS as my full-time OS. Something I would have been vehemently opposed to a decade ago.

I was very anti-apple for a long, long time. Then, in 2017, when I needed a smartphone for work, a local store was giving away the new base model iPhone 7. I really was looking at a Galaxy, but free was free. Used that for a few years and now am up to the iPhone 11. I know Samsung puts out better hardware (except the camera for some reason) but now with the whole Google vs. Apple controversy showing Apple actually caring more about user privacy than Google, I'm sticking with Apple for privacy reasons.

 

9 hours ago, Dyaets said:

Long long time ago (I guess it was like 2005) I bought a 128MB USB Flash drive. For that time, it was quite a money for me (don't remember how much exactly it cost but still). That time I thought wow, I can put so many files on it. Not that long time afterwards when GBs USB Flash appeared I realized those 128MB was just ridiculous.    

 

Ooof. I remember when 256GB RAM and a Pentium 4 processor (the first Pentium 4 processor, in the 90s, not the Pentiums that came out in the 2000s) and playing games like Road Rash, Uprising, Age of Empires (the first one), Diablo (also the first one), etc. were all the rage. Then I remember my dad bringing home a 256MB flash drive saying it was going to be the future. He said "eventually you'll be able to store everything you love on something the size of a fingernail, just you watch." I thought he was crazy. I remember my first MP3 player could hold a massive ~100 songs, ran on a single AA battery, and could last at least most of the day, and thinking, "It'll never get better than this." 

 

9 hours ago, sub68 said:

this flash drive can't even have a FLAC album 12 songs

This is the way.

[sub68]

10 hours ago, B.Toast said:

I remember my first MP3 player could hold a massive ~100 songs

mine just got 500 songs

[Zodiark1593]

21 hours ago, sub68 said:

this flash drive can't even have a FLAC album 12 songs

What FLAC album consisting of 12 songs requires >8 GB? Must be some lengthy tracks or very high sample rates there?

 

My largest FLAC track is about 7 minutes long at 24/192, and weighs in at about 200 MB. Even twelve of those would fit on that flash drive. 

[sub68]

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

What FLAC album consisting of 12 songs requires >8 GB? Must be some lengthy tracks or very high sample rates there?

 

My largest FLAC track is about 7 minutes long at 24/192, and weighs in at about 200 MB. Even twelve of those would fit on that flash drive. 

sorry I meant it has no more room for another FLAC album

[vinc3nz0]

On 9/24/2020 at 9:05 AM, B.Toast said:

I was thinking today about the things you realize with tech as it gets older. In 2011, I bought my first laptop: HP Pavilion dv6t-6000QE. I paid $1200 for it and it was a baller, with a 2nd gen Core i7-2720QM, 8GB DDR3, a 750GB HDD, and Intel HD / AMD Raedon switchable graphics. I mean, it could run Premiere Pro! The laptop that ate my old desktop for breakfast. Before putting 1080p displays in laptops was mainstream. Now it's relegated to light duty only and will soon be retired. In 2015 I build my X99 system. While it's still pretty decent, it's starting to show its age in terms of keeping up with more demanding workloads. It pains me to think that in another 5 years or so it may, one day, become a NAS. 

What are some painful tech realizations you've made?

It"d be much better if you could give that old pc away to a kid from your family or someone you know who enjoys gaming but cant really afford to buy one. I'm pretty sure they'll accept it if they can't buy one themselves. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[Lord Bloobus]

2 hours ago, vinc3nz0 said:

It"d be much better if you could give that old pc away to a kid from your family or someone you know who enjoys gaming but cant really afford to buy one. I'm pretty sure they'll accept it if they can't buy one themselves. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

That's what I'm doing, my little brother gets all my old builds. He's sitting pretty with a 4770k and 780ti, both are still very relevant today at 1080p.

[Warin]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:57 PM, B.Toast said:

 

I was very anti-apple for a long, long time. Then, in 2017, when I needed a smartphone for work, a local store was giving away the new base model iPhone 7. I really was looking at a Galaxy, but free was free. Used that for a few years and now am up to the iPhone 11. I know Samsung puts out better hardware (except the camera for some reason) but now with the whole Google vs. Apple controversy showing Apple actually caring more about user privacy than Google, I'm sticking with Apple for privacy reasons.

If you only look at the spec sheet, yeah, Samsung has better hardware. But in both synthetic benchmarks and real world use, the "less powerful" iPhones routinely trounce the Samsung devices.  I 100% agree with you on privacy!  Apple has moved so much to on device processing with their secure enclave to make it impossible for them to take advantage of customer data the way Google does.  I am always amused when the Apple haters talk about privacy concerns, as a better solution is right in front of them.

[Monkey Dust]

Most painful realization; Back in ye olden days when case cable gromits were unheard of, cable management involved running cables under the motherboard, IDE cables were used for both your HDD and optical drives, and cases were full of sharp edges resulting in pain every time you opened the bloody thing up.

[Radium_Angel]

On 9/25/2020 at 11:57 PM, B.Toast said:

nobody who builds PCs actually likes Windows 10

Ain't that the goddamn truth. I flatly refuse to run it.

On 9/25/2020 at 11:57 PM, B.Toast said:

if I could run MacOS on a custom hardware configuration, I absolutely would

As would I, but the hassle of making a hackintosh, and seeing it break with every update (hyperbole to be sure, but it's not unheard of), playing "cat and mouse" to get it updated, isn't worth it.

But oh does it look good (well, IMO, it used to look great, before the "flat look" took over)

 

Personal painful realization: Windows 10 is the way forward for x86 PCs, Linux will forever be playing catch up and sooner or later, I will have no choice but to use it. Sucks.

[mao91]

20 hours ago, vinc3nz0 said:

It"d be much better if you could give that old pc away to a kid from your family or someone you know who enjoys gaming but cant really afford to buy one. I'm pretty sure they'll accept it if they can't buy one themselves. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

If the laptop wasn't in its current state, I would give it away. In 2015 I had to replace the motherboard and, instead of buying new OEM, I bought used from Ebay and there were issues right away, where it wouldn't recognize batteries, and it ended up not having the Raedon graphics built in so had to use Intel HD. I need to replace the fan yet again and it'll be coming due for an AC socket replacement again soon as well. Otherwise, since I kept Windows 7 on it and never went to 10, it still runs very smoothly. 

My current PC will actually be reassigned to another place in my studio after my new PC is completed.

18 hours ago, Warin said:

If you only look at the spec sheet, yeah, Samsung has better hardware. But in both synthetic benchmarks and real world use, the "less powerful" iPhones routinely trounce the Samsung devices.  I 100% agree with you on privacy!  Apple has moved so much to on device processing with their secure enclave to make it impossible for them to take advantage of customer data the way Google does.  I am always amused when the Apple haters talk about privacy concerns, as a better solution is right in front of them.

This is actually really good to know. I wonder how much of that has to do with software optimization. As for privacy, once I discovered the joy that is iMessage and how it works, I was hooked. And with current happenings, I've realized I don't think I'll ever depart from the Apple platform for mobile devices.

6 hours ago, Monkey Dust said:

Most painful realization; Back in ye olden days when case cable gromits were unheard of, cable management involved running cables under the motherboard, IDE cables were used for both your HDD and optical drives, and cases were full of sharp edges resulting in pain every time you opened the bloody thing up.

I remember those days. Cases really were full of sharp edges. You really had to be careful going inside of a computer.
 

6 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Ain't that the goddamn truth. I flatly refuse to run it.

As would I, but the hassle of making a hackintosh, and seeing it break with every update (hyperbole to be sure, but it's not unheard of), playing "cat and mouse" to get it updated, isn't worth it.

But oh does it look good (well, IMO, it used to look great, before the "flat look" took over)

 

Personal painful realization: Windows 10 is the way forward for x86 PCs, Linux will forever be playing catch up and sooner or later, I will have no choice but to use it. Sucks.

It is unfortunate that I need Windows for my work. Linux would run so fast on my PC. If Linux can get to a Windows 7 level of running and compatibility with current Windows software and tools, I'll consider switching.

[Technous285]

13 hours ago, Monkey Dust said:

Most painful realization; Back in ye olden days when case cable gromits were unheard of, cable management involved running cables under the motherboard, IDE cables were used for both your HDD and optical drives, and cases were full of sharp edges resulting in pain every time you opened the bloody thing up.

I mean, I got a C2Q Q9505-powered build in an old Lian Li case from 2004, only cable management holes are for the front panel ports (2x USB 2.0, headphone/microphone jacks, Firewire 800 port with it's own sheathed cable to run to the plug on a add-in card!) power/reset switches and power/HDD LED's.

With a semi-modular PSU in there, closest thing to cable management for that to hide the cables from view through the side panel is just shove the excess length in a spare 5.25" bay!