Sometimes, old hardware= better hardware

[Dick Dastardly]

Today i am happy being poor and not being able to afford Intel 13th and 14th gen cpus. My plan was to build a computer that could run GTA 6 when it comes, maybe 3 years from now, i'm not sure what the minimum specs will be and that's the reason i haven't bought the gpu yet, but 6 cores and 32 gb of ram should run any game even 3 years from now on.

Prior to the news, i had just bought the cheapest motherboard in the country, which happens to be an Asrock H310CM-DVS, socket 1151 v2. Then yesterday i ordered a used 6 core 6 threads I5 8600 for the grand total of $77 for the pair. Add a $25 white case, $65 for 32 gb of ram, $45 for a 550w MSI PSU, $15 for an rgb fan and thermal paste and so i get a brand new pc for the price of a used one. For the gpu, i'm thinking RX5700 or similar, that's a $100 video card which has all the bells and whistles necessary to play any pc game ever made at 1080p. Oh, i forgot about ssd, a 500 gb one is about $30.

I haven't built it yet because i am not home and the parts haven't been shipped even, but i look forward to it and i know it's going be good.

My main computer now is driven by an I3 6100 and i'm still happy with that two core cpu, it's very capable and it does everything i need except maybe quick video rendering. But no problems in games or multitasking, i've actually tried to see how far I can go before the system chockes, but i couldn't really, even at 100% usage during video rendering i can still open tabs, surf the web and listen to music, it's something older cpus could never do.

Anyway, my point is that we're currently in the phase where companies are trying to push for further developments in CPU manufacturing and it's getting tougher and tougher to make better cpus without cutting corners somewhere but at the same time i am questioning whether end users really need that much processing power for their home computers.

For me, software has become the major problem in the last decade, not the hardware. If any midrange computer made in the last 5 years struggles with video or photo editing, i wouldn't blame the hardware for it, i'd blame the user or software he's running.

Anyway, this is is a picture of the $25 case, not my picture, i'm just showing that even in terms of looks, cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad or ugly, i love white cases:


Segotep Axe 5 white

 

[XiaoDeer]

This is most certainly true for hardware like my 34 year old washing machine and dryer that are still going strong. They don't make 'em like they used to!

 

[Dick Dastardly]

This is most certainly true for hardware like my 34 year old washing machine and dryer that are still going strong. They don't make 'em like they used to!

That's amazing, to be honest. I' d buy that.

I sincerely wish my Windows 7 compatible hardware lasts thst long, I hope gigabyte weren't lying when they said "ultra durable".

 

[zerored]

I have a local shop build my desktops. I ask for one that will give me at least 5 years service. Been doing this for many years. Sometimes I use a desktop more than 5 years.

 

[XiaoDeer]

I have a local shop build my desktops. I ask for one that will give me at least 5 years service. Been doing this for many years. Sometimes I use a desktop more than 5 years.

My previous laptop (Lenovo Y480) gave 12 years of trusty service before it was replaced 2-3 months ago.

My sliderule from circa 1968 still works perfectly today

 

[Dick Dastardly]

I have a local shop build my desktops. I ask for one that will give me at least 5 years service. Been doing this for many years. Sometimes I use a desktop more than 5 years.

My previous laptop (Lenovo Y480) gave 12 years of trusty service before it was replaced 2-3 months ago.

My sliderule from circa 1968 still works perfectly today

You can buy 15+ year old Lenovo Thinkpads in working order any day of the week, i have 3 of them at the moment, the oldest is only 14 year old.

Actually, most of my stuff is older than 10 years, only my phones are newer, but i do have vintage smartphones that are good to go.

Because of that, warranties don't mean much to me, unless they are lifetime warranties, like they usually offer for RAM, for example.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I still have my acer aspire 7720 from 2007 and it's running current windows 10. WIll it crush video and photo editing NOPE. will it surf the internet, create documents, watch youtube? all day long.

That's why these incremental increases in performance these days are benchmark racing mostly. Unless you require every second to matter with photo/video editing, then an older system with some tweaks and modifications will work perfectly fine.

It also boils down to software (I won't name names). But software choice is more important than PC choice if you are looking at keeping older systems.

I use certain software, and it's much faster on lesser hardware than other well known software doing similar things on much newer more powerful systems. My notebook does not even have a dedicated video card, however, I denoise and upscale in seconds with it. I can edit 1080 video on it with no slow downs and export at faster than 1:1 ratio which is fine by me. It's actually faster at exporting video than an M1 air. to use that as a comparison.