New computer rambling

[Tin Can]

I'm buying a new computer. My laptops are 6 years old and I worry they will die soon. My SONY VAIO are long gone. They were wonderful 15 years ago.

I will keep using my AIR 11, and will retire the HP 17", both have been great.

I wanted to buy an upgraded MAC Mini, but Apple made the new model a lesser box. Goodbye Apple.

So I am upgrading a low end Costco HP Envy 700 tower, that has 32 GB ram. I will add 500 GB SSD, a better Video card and move to RAID external NAS later this year.

This should be a good box for big scans, video editing, 2 monitors and modular enough to keep it going until we reach a computing breakthrough.

I wonder about storing the HP laptop, as I had it offline and powered off for several months this summer and it did not like reentering the world. Needed a ton of updates.

I find both IOS Mavericks and WIN 8.1 work fine. I worry about Apple's commitment to computers beyond handheld.

Amazon will deliver the upgrades Monday, the new box is still somewhere else.

Kinda antsy to get it running....

We can't live in our digital and film world without a better box every 5 years...

[Corran]

Just curious, but if you are already putting in several upgrades like that, why not go whole-hog and build it from scratch?

Good call on the NAS. I just last week had a sudden catastrophic HDD failure of my work drive, but of course all my data was safe on an external NAS. No data loss, just a bit of productivity/monetary loss. Bought another 4TB work drive and copied 2TB of data onto it (multiple backups, of course!).

[HMG]

Don't forget to allocate some time to remove the bloatware that HP probably installed. All the other's do the same.

It's hard to beat the costco price on desktop, even by building your own machine (unless you're installing Linux).

[Preston]

There's a nice little program called PC DeCrapifier that will uninstall the bloatware. It gets good reviews.

Congrats on the new box, Randy. Sounds like it should get the job done. Be sure to download and install the latest version of the driver for your new video card.

--P

[Luis-F-S]

I worry about Apple's commitment to computers beyond handheld.

Yup, I bought my first Mac in 1987. Currently have eight Macs. Guess they're still committed to computers other than handheld.

[Tin Can]

I think the Costco deal was cheaper than self build. I'm not a gamer, so I don't need the absolute best of everything. I wanted max ram, and SSD is the way to go as my AIR 11 proved to me long ago. $200 for 512 gb SSD!

Yes, stripping out all extra software will be first. I try to get ahead of failure (a losing battle).

Linux has been a problem for me, not ready for the way I want do things. imho

I find using the latest WIN or IOS is fine. Ubuntu drove me crazy about 7 years ago. GIMP is a Gimp!

I use Adobe a lot, Open Office and Google apps do all the rest. I gladly buy 100 gb of Google cloud for $2 a month.

After I get up and running with NAS, I need to get all my old hard drives data onto it. I have every hard drive (about 20) since I started with modern computers in 1997, when my Compaq laptop cost $3500. It was dog slow at Photoshop, then the Vaio's which beat any Mac for years in video editing. Sony camcorders with Firewire and a Vaio was a great combo.

I'm a gear head...

[Tin Can]

Yup, I bought my first Mac in 1987. Currently have eight Macs. Guess they're still committed to computers other than handheld.

I'm not going to dispute Macness.

What are you doing with 8?

[Tin Can]

There's a nice little program called PC DeCrapifier that will uninstall the bloatware. It gets good reviews.

Congrats on the new box, Randy. Sounds like it should get the job done. Be sure to download and install the latest version of the driver for your new video card.

--P

That will make it easier. Have you used it? I always worry these things install their own dangers.

Thanks for the tips!

[Preston]

Randy, I haven't used it, but know others who have, and they give it a 'thumbs-up'.

Here's an article at How To Geek about the program.

My current computers (workstation and a laptop) were built by Puget Systems. They don't put any of that junk on their machines.

--P

[Tin Can]

Randy, I haven't used it, but know others who have, and they give it a 'thumbs-up'.

Here's an article at How To Geek about the program.

My current computers (workstation and a laptop) were built by Puget Systems. They don't put any of that junk on their machines.

--P

Thanks for the 'How to Geek' link. The Puget systems look great, but are nearly double the price of what I am doing.

I have to keep some money for FILM!

I'm going to run 'De Crap' on this box tonight.