rant about specs for casual use...

[Ryujin2003]

7 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

What the average casual user believes they need is very different from what they actually need. So much money could be saved by installing an SSD in an older, yet still very capable PC instead of buying yet another new pre-built with another slow-ass HDD. Sadly most people don't realize it's the HDD that's slowing the machine way down.

Although I do believe upgrading to SSD can make a difference, the issues I've experienced are mostly negative in Windows 7 machines. Sometimes it can be very hard to get drivers for some OEM hardware, specifically the wireless NIC. I sometimes don't recommend upgrade unless a clone is a viable option because of lack of drivers for these machines. 8.1 and W10, go for it!

But even some W7 machines don't have the support for W10 either. OEM laptops are the main culprit with compatibility issues.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

6 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Although I do believe upgrading to SSD can make a difference, the issues I've experienced are mostly negative in Windows 7 machines. Sometimes it can be very hard to get drivers for some OEM hardware, specifically the wireless NIC. I sometimes don't recommend upgrade unless a clone is a viable option because of lack of drivers for these machines. 8.1 and W10, go for it!

But even some W7 machines don't have the support for W10 either. OEM laptops are the main culprit with compatibility issues.

Yeah. My old pc doesn't have windows 10 drivers for the PCI controller. So the normal PCI doesn't work.

[mr moose]

Never expect tech enthusiasts to understand the casual non power user.    There is a reason $300 laptops and HP desktops sell. 

[ProjectBox153]

11 hours ago, edward30 said:

So you meant to say that ALL your computers together do the work you described before, rather than each one being capable of running all of that simultaneously?

No, each one is capable of that kind of workload. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

57 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

No, each one is capable of that kind of workload. 

yeah, i once had a core 2 duo system that ran at 2.6 ghz, with 6gb of ram and 2 gpu's, and that thing was an absolute beast. 

[Bananasplit_00]

P4 ~3GHz

SSD

4GB of RAM

GPU that can support DX 11

 

thats about it, works fine. you could step it up to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad if you want too but  a P4 will work OK if all you are doing is browsing the web

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

38 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

P4 ~3GHz

SSD

4GB of RAM

GPU that can support DX 11

 

thats about it, works fine. you could step it up to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad if you want too but  a P4 will work OK if all you are doing is browsing the web

a Pentium 4 in my experience is too slow. if for example you are listening to music via spotify and are browsing it will stutter. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

a Pentium 4 in my experience is too slow. if for example you are listening to music via spotify and are browsing it will stutter. 

not the ones running more then 3GHz, they work pretty good from my experience. a dual core is ofcource much better at basically everything but a P4 will work

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

53 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

not the ones running more then 3GHz, they work pretty good from my experience. a dual core is ofcource much better at basically everything but a P4 will work

i had a 3.2 ghz or something, and overclocked it to 3.8, and it still struggled with 1080p youtube, spotify while browsing etc. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

i had a 3.2 ghz or something, and overclocked it to 3.8, and it still struggled with 1080p youtube, spotify while browsing etc. 

the initial toaster prodject PC had no problems with that that werent caused by the 2GB of RAM or the shitty harddrive, thats why i put 4GB of RAM and an SSD in there

[SpaceGhostC2C]

20 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

 

if i can browse youtube, type up documents etc on a machine from 2008, why are people paying $500 for machines that are way overkill for that stuff.

 

How much did you pay for it in 2008? 

Maybe they will be using those i5 machines just fine 9 years from now...

[MEC-777]

12 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Although I do believe upgrading to SSD can make a difference, the issues I've experienced are mostly negative in Windows 7 machines. Sometimes it can be very hard to get drivers for some OEM hardware, specifically the wireless NIC. I sometimes don't recommend upgrade unless a clone is a viable option because of lack of drivers for these machines. 8.1 and W10, go for it!

But even some W7 machines don't have the support for W10 either. OEM laptops are the main culprit with compatibility issues.

I would not recommend anyone stay on windows 7 these days. Either upgrade to windows 10 or make the switch to Linux - which can often run much better on older hardware due to requiring far less system resources. 

[KenjiUmino]

21 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

if i can browse youtube, type up documents etc on a machine from 2008, why are people paying $500 for machines that are way overkill for that stuff.

why?

 

because misleading advertising and not knowing better. 

 

really, no other reason.

 

appealing to casuals is all about big numbers.

 

it's about tricking them into thinking they made a good deal because they bought a computer with THIS much gigahertz and SO much RAM and THAT large of a harddrive.

 

casuals do not know that this "awesome" high gigahertz CPU only is a crappy quad core with no hyperthreading. (if it even is a real quad core)

 

casuals do not care that the "huge" amount of RAM is on a single stick and that spliting the same amount over two modules for dual channel operation would make the system even faster.

 

and nobody told them that their "insanely large" HDD is a 5400 rpm with access times from hell and that a SSD paired with a HDD would have been the wiser choice.

 

then again, hardcore casuals also have a habit of not caring where they put their files or install their stuff so they would fill up the bootdrive in no time but leave the second drive untouched and then complain about running out of space.

 

anyways, a system this bad really needs to be $500 to get anything done at all. and people buy $500 systems like that from time to time because their last computer was also this bad and is now so painfully slow that it can not even handle web browsing any moar. (when all that wold have been needed to bring the old system back to a useable state would have been a SSD)

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

22 minutes ago, edward30 said:

I find that extremely hard to believe. I mean, assuming you're dedicating one core to your Win 7 VM, are we to believe that a single 10 year old core is running the rest of it?

 

I don't think it could do all of that without some slowdown. It doesn't pass the smell test. If yours does, then either I'm not understanding what you're actually running and your use case, or you really do have a magic Core 2 Duo from outer space.

a vm only uses cpu time if it's doing something. if his vm stares at the desktop all day, then it won't use cpu time. and core 2 duo's multitask pretty well. my e8400 runs spotify, a few tabs and a ubuntu vm quite nicely. i could handle more stuff, but i don't have the ram for that. 

[Mihle]

 

6 hours ago, mr moose said:

Never expect tech enthusiasts to understand the casual non power user.    There is a reason $300 laptops and HP desktops sell. 

I know quite a bit that casual people that got a around 300 $ laptop and then complain because it is slow.... mostly because they dont have SSD.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, Mihle said:

 

I know quite a bit that casual people that got a around 300 $ laptop and then complain because it is slow.... mostly because they dont have SSD.

most laptops at that price have single channel ram and integrated graphics as well... not good...

[Brennan Price]

Most 'casual' users are people that buy laptops or tablets rather than desktops since they are more convenient for things such as movie streaming. It's just how most 'casual' gamers buy consoles rather than PC's because of the ease of use and set-up. However both of these things can relate to the person often having little knowledge about which is the best to buy and how to set them up etc. Because of this, people often pay more for the premium of someone else to have set it up for them, therefore getting less for their money spec wise. If they knew how to build a decent desktop they wouldn't need to spend £500 or more and in which case, they probably aren't the 'casual' user since they know more than simply buying the product.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, Brennan_Price said:

Most 'casual' users are people that buy laptops or tablets rather than desktops since they are more convenient for things such as movie streaming. It's just how most 'casual' gamers buy consoles rather than PC's. However both of these things can relate to the person often having little knowledge about which is the best to buy and how to set them up etc. Because of this, people often pay more for the premium of someone else to have set it up for them. If they knew how to build a decent desktop they wouldn't need to spend £500 or more and in which case, they probably aren't the 'casual' user since they know more than simply buying the product.

that seems logical... i'm just amazed by the amount of people in this day and age that aren't tech-savy...

[Brennan Price]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

that seems logical... i'm just amazed by the amount of people in this day and age that aren't tech-savy...

Haha yeah same, despite ICT being taught as a compulsory subject since 2000(?) there really aren't that many people that truly know how to do 'techy' stuff without help from the internet or from others around them.

 

However, it is funny when you know about the majority of 'techy' things asked in a group chat and you can be like "I told you so". Never gets old, especially when they ask for your advice and they think you're wrong 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Brennan_Price said:

Haha yeah same, despite ICT being taught as a compulsory subject since 2000(?) there really aren't that many people that truly know how to do 'techy' stuff without help from the internet or from others around them.

 

However, it is funny when you know about the majority of 'techy' things asked in a group chat and you can be like "I told you so". Never gets old, especially when they ask for your advice and they think you're wrong 

yeah, that never gets old 

[Sir Balbador]

23 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

if i can browse youtube, type up documents etc on a machine from 2008, why are people paying $500 for machines that are way overkill for that stuff.

 

 

 

If a 1k 2000 honda civic will get you from point A to point B just as reliably as a brand new Audi S8 why would anyone spend over 100k on a car?

 

pretty much the same reason

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

If a 1k 2000 honda civic will get you from point A to point B just as reliably as a brand new Audi S8 why would anyone spend over 100k on a car?

 

pretty much the same reason

yeah, but an s8 is actually more comfortable etc. my 2008 machine is faster then most consumer laptops....

[Sir Balbador]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

yeah, but an s8 is actually more comfortable etc. my 2008 machine is faster then most consumer laptops....

ok ill switch it around I think used audis are a good bit cheaper than a brand new civic. they will be more comfortable, faster, better looking

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

ok ill switch it around I think used audis are a good bit cheaper than a brand new civic. they will be more comfortable, faster, better looking

there you go. that was the whole story of my rant. why do most people buy the brand new civic?

[Sir Balbador]

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