Low cost new desktop

[Tin Can]

All New Recent

$150 Computer eBay Tiny!
$150 Keyboard & Mouse LOGI
$70 32" Screen Amazon sale
$20 Speakers


I have plenty of storage

Last system 10X 9 years ago

[Kodak]

Yes, that stuff gets cheaper all the time.
Depending on what you wants do with it, but if you use it only for surfing email and text writing a raspberry pi is even much more affordable for this kind of work.

[Jim Andrada]

I actually do have a Raspberry pi driving a small display. I'm really planning to use it as part of a UV LED exposure box for alt-process, but I fell into the typical nerd trap and decided that I needed a GUI to set the time so I started playing with GUI authoring tools like Tkinter and even got hold of a community (ie free) version of QT, which might be a bit of overkill considering that it's used to develop the GUI's for automobiles, and dived down the rabbit hole.

Oh well, it's all a learning experience I guess. But the R Pi does indeed make a fine net surfing system.

Not sure when I'll actually build the exposure box.

[Tin Can]

It runs Photoshop

V700 next

[Kodak]

I actually do have a Raspberry pi driving a small display. I'm really planning to use it as part of a UV LED exposure box for alt-process, but I fell into the typical nerd trap and decided that I needed a GUI to set the time so I started playing with GUI authoring tools like Tkinter and even got hold of a community (ie free) version of QT, which might be a bit of overkill considering that it's used to develop the GUI's for automobiles, and dived down the rabbit hole.

Oh well, it's all a learning experience I guess. But the R Pi does indeed make a fine net surfing system.

Not sure when I'll actually build the exposure box.
I think we are somehow on the same track. My idea is to build a user friendly f-Stop timer.

Photoshop will be to much for this tiny computer.

[SergeyT]

Were these really necessary? Do they work faster ?
$150 Keyboard & Mouse LOGI
$20 Speakers

[Graham Patterson]

I have a laptop-screen sized mini-tv with HDMI input, sound, and a built-in battery (plus it can do over the air TV) which I used with a Raspberry Pi 400 on a trip recently. Actually lighter than my laptop. Fast enough for email, web updates, some basic GIMP image work, and writing documents. Couldn't set it on my lap, of course!

[Tin Can]

When McDonalds gave us free WI-FI I used Apple Music thing as my only phone. I hate phones as phones

They are great cameras!

[ericantonio]

I use a Beelink for Adobe, scanner, and all that stuff. As big as 2 computer mice, mouses?, mices?

[Tin Can]

I use similar not perfect

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNJ34JBK/ref=emc_bcc_2_i

Paid $160 3 weeks ago on eBay

Selling fast as ice cream

[axs810]

I use similar not perfect

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNJ34JBK/ref=emc_bcc_2_i

Paid $160 3 weeks ago on eBay

Selling fast as ice cream



If you like those I would recommend checking out Intel NUC's (for future reference, not that you need it now)

[Jim Andrada]

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/nuc.html

https://www.pcworld.com/article/1989175/intel-kills-its-nuc-line-but-the-tiny-pc-will-live-on.html#:~:text=Intel%20has%20decided%20to%20stop,PCs%2C%20the%20company%20said%20Tuesday.

I thought about one of these a couple of years ago. IIRC there was also a largish USB memory stick sized system that ran Win 10.

[Tin Can]

I had to upgrade my monitor. Got it today. TV was not great.

Bought same ASUS Pro Art as 10 years ago

Great improvement and no heat!

[jp]

If you don't want the low end of new machines, there are many excellent mid-range pint sized computers available for <$200 ready to go with SSD and plenty of ram. They used to sell for big money as business computers. Lenovo still has drivers and BIOS updates available as needed.

Lenovo ThinkCentre m900 i5-6500T 8GBMem I bought an ebay lot of these for $50/each. I will add charger, more ram, and SSD and have some nice computers.
They have DP out, perfect for better quality monitors. HP makes some similar too for small money.

[Tin Can]

I am set

Thank you



If you don't want the low end of new machines, there are many excellent mid-range pint sized computers available for <$200 ready to go with SSD and plenty of ram. They used to sell for big money as business computers. Lenovo still has drivers and BIOS updates available as needed.

Lenovo ThinkCentre m900 i5-6500T 8GBMem I bought an ebay lot of these for $50/each. I will add charger, more ram, and SSD and have some nice computers.
They have DP out, perfect for better quality monitors. HP makes some similar too for small money.

[Jim Andrada]

I bought a 2U Dell dual processor server with 64 GB of memory for around $300 delivered a couple of years back. Runs great as a backup server. Doesn't have much in the way of graphic support though since it's intended to run without a dedicated monitor. I'm running Win 10 on it, although they more commonly run Linux etc.

[Jim Andrada]

I think we are somehow on the same track. My idea is to build a user friendly f-Stop timer.

Photoshop will be to much for this tiny computer.

Not sure PS would be too much for the larger R Pi's. Haven't tried it so can't say with any certainty, but I know that you can run Windows apps on them under WINE. Maybe I can get my wife to buy me a few more R Pi's for my 83rd birthday in a couple of months. All kinds of neat computer sh*t to keep myself too occupied to ever build the exposure unit. I started programming for pay in 1959 but haven't done much tech stuff for a few (?) years now, so this is all for fun.

[wclark5179]

I still use CS-4 on an iMac.

If I were to change I’d get an app for my iPad.

[linhofbiker]

I still think, for my purposes, the Mac Studio with 4 terabytes and some software for about $3500 is best for the long term (i.e. my last computer). The monitor can be anything else that uses HDMI. I want to take my computer to the hotel room and hook it up to a smart TV when traveling.

[wclark5179]

I didn’t put all my eggs into one basket, instead using a one terabyte hard drive and, when near full, hookup another. I would number each and have a paper listing the contents.

[tundra]

I actually do have a Raspberry pi driving a small display. I'm really planning to use it as part of a UV LED exposure box for alt-process, but I fell into the typical nerd trap and decided that I needed a GUI to set the time so I started playing with GUI authoring tools like Tkinter and even got hold of a community (ie free) version of QT, which might be a bit of overkill considering that it's used to develop the GUI's for automobiles, and dived down the rabbit hole.

Oh well, it's all a learning experience I guess. But the R Pi does indeed make a fine net surfing system.

Not sure when I'll actually build the exposure box.

I know the feeling. I have several pent up photography RPi projects in mind but: A) Haven't had time and B) Pi's have been very hard to get.

I did manage to get this one done a while back though:

https://gitbucket.tundraware.com/tundra/devtimer

[linhofbiker]

I didn’t put all my eggs into one basket, instead using a one terabyte hard drive and, when near full, hookup another. I would number each and have a paper listing the contents.

I will put all my eggs in one basket by using the best long-lasting solid state device rather than rely on a mechanical hard drive. Then back up the backup (Time Machine).

Some people think I have the wrong idea, like for instance I am prepared to spend $60k on the best hurricane windows for my house. Why they say, that is why you have insurance. But say I if my house and contents are destroyed I loose all my memories which can't be replaced with insurance money, so I will take the best defense available to ensure my memories are not lost. Maybe this attitude is only good for us 79 year olds.

[jp]

I have too many photos for purely SSD storage at this time.

Rasperry Pi are fun, but it's more practical to buy a pint sized used PC like the Lenovo I referenced for similar money. Unless you need to use the special hat boards for a creative purpose.

[Tin Can]

I really like my new ASUS ProArt Display PA248QV 24.1” WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 16:10 Monitor, with vertical and tilts

No heat

Rez is better than their bigger one

[angusparker]

Intel NUCs are great for cheap and small window systems. If the purpose is backup - low cost slow cloud storage like Backblaze B2 is a good option, but ultimately storing scans on an M-disc is more archival. I back up locally, in the cloud, and have remote M-disc storage in case the house burns down. As for image processing, the new M-chip MacBooks are amazingly fast and will eat up even the largest LF scans.

[Jim Andrada]

[QUOTE=linhofbiker;1688248]I will put all my eggs in one basket by using the best long-lasting solid state device rather than rely on a mechanical hard drive. Then back up the backup (Time Machine).[QUOTE]

When I worked for IBM''s storage products division in San Jose I was surprised to find out that the vast majority of HDD failures were due to the electronics, not the spinning disks. For real backup, use tape drives. The media is specifically designed for long term data retention. IIRC all of the major cloud services back up to robotic LTO tape libraries. The major oil companies record seismic data to tape on the ships and put the tapes in an archive and often go back and re-process 30 or 40 year old tape with better algorithms and faster computers and often find oil deposits that were missed in the initial processing. One major key to longevity with any magnetic storage device is to keep the media quite cool. Some of the large tape libraries actually have their own air conditioners so they can keep the media at lower temperatures than the server rooms themselves.

[axs810]

[QUOTE=linhofbiker;1688248]I will put all my eggs in one basket by using the best long-lasting solid state device rather than rely on a mechanical hard drive. Then back up the backup (Time Machine).[QUOTE]

When I worked for IBM''s storage products division in San Jose I was surprised to find out that the vast majority of HDD failures were due to the electronics, not the spinning disks. For real backup, use tape drives. The media is specifically designed for long term data retention. IIRC all of the major cloud services back up to robotic LTO tape libraries. The major oil companies record seismic data to tape on the ships and put the tapes in an archive and often go back and re-process 30 or 40 year old tape with better algorithms and faster computers and often find oil deposits that were missed in the initial processing. One major key to longevity with any magnetic storage device is to keep the media quite cool. Some of the large tape libraries actually have their own air conditioners so they can keep the media at lower temperatures than the server rooms themselves.


Very good recommendation!

Also, this is a good video to learn how much longer your SSD will last.

https://youtu.be/hyHMuAdjzfI

[Jim Andrada]

Disclaimer of sorts

I was involved with the development and marketing of the IBM/NEC LTO tape drives for almost 25 years. I think they're the last companies making them and business has been booming the last few years as all the cloud companies have come to realize that tape is the best long term archive technology. Facebook was working with Sony on a huge DVD-based archive system, but IIRC Sony gave up on being able to grow the storage capacity as fast or as far as LTO. I used to attend the meetings of an ad-tech magnetic storage consortium and Sony presented a paper on a 10 layer system, but I don't think it ever came to fruition.

[Torquemada]

[QUOTE=linhofbiker;1688248]I will put all my eggs in one basket by using the best long-lasting solid state device rather than rely on a mechanical hard drive. Then back up the backup (Time Machine).[QUOTE]

When I worked for IBM''s storage products division in San Jose I was surprised to find out that the vast majority of HDD failures were due to the electronics, not the spinning disks. For real backup, use tape drives. The media is specifically designed for long term data retention. IIRC all of the major cloud services back up to robotic LTO tape libraries. The major oil companies record seismic data to tape on the ships and put the tapes in an archive and often go back and re-process 30 or 40 year old tape with better algorithms and faster computers and often find oil deposits that were missed in the initial processing. One major key to longevity with any magnetic storage device is to keep the media quite cool. Some of the large tape libraries actually have their own air conditioners so they can keep the media at lower temperatures than the server rooms themselves.

THe drives can be cut open, and each individual disk be installed into a new drive... voilla life continues.

However the REAL issue iwth HDD is when they are MOUNTED VERTICALLY... vertical mounting kills the holes in them, so eventually they fail when the shape goes and they skip.

[domaz]

[QUOTE=linhofbiker;1688248]I will put all my eggs in one basket by using the best long-lasting solid state device rather than rely on a mechanical hard drive. Then back up the backup (Time Machine).[QUOTE]

When I worked for IBM''s storage products division in San Jose I was surprised to find out that the vast majority of HDD failures were due to the electronics, not the spinning disks. For real backup, use tape drives. The media is specifically designed for long term data retention. IIRC all of the major cloud services back up to robotic LTO tape libraries. The major oil companies record seismic data to tape on the ships and put the tapes in an archive and often go back and re-process 30 or 40 year old tape with better algorithms and faster computers and often find oil deposits that were missed in the initial processing. One major key to longevity with any magnetic storage device is to keep the media quite cool. Some of the large tape libraries actually have their own air conditioners so they can keep the media at lower temperatures than the server rooms themselves.

Tape drives are definitely still the gold standard for backups. For personal use though last I checked it was very expensive unless you wanted to throw the dice with surplus server equipment which tends to be complex, heavy and loud.

[Jim Andrada]

Yeah, LTO tape drives aren't cheap by any means. The problem with using SSD's or HDD's is that the controller is always scanning the media and repairing dropped bits by use of error correction codes written onto the media and when you store the media on the shelf you lose this capability. One installation I'm familiar with ran 3 backup sites and could cross copy lost data as needed. They were seeing a few bit drops a week that required data repair. The error correction codes used on LTO etc. are much stronger and the algorithms are also more sophisticated IIRC.

Can't emphasize enough the need to keep your media cool. Not refrigerated or frozen though) Not sure if the technology has actually been deployed since it's (quite) a "few" years since I was involved, but they were discussing a technology referred to as HAMR for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording. As the density increases and the size of the magnetized "spots" gets smaller, the power available to force the magnetic domains to "flip" decreases, so they were looking at using a laser to heat the region just before the write head did it's thing, thus reducing the write power requirements. And if the media gets warm enough there will be bit drops - or worse as some of the magnetized regions revert to their prior unwritten state.

[linhofbiker]

Some people think I have the wrong idea, like for instance I am prepared to spend $60k on the best hurricane windows for my house. Why they say, that is why you have insurance. But say I if my house and contents are destroyed I loose all my memories which can't be replaced with insurance money, so I will take the best defense available to ensure my memories are not lost. Maybe this attitude is only good for us 79 year olds.

Update: the $60K was a quote from Anderson Renewal, but I decided to go for the $38K price given by NewSouth Window Solutions for my 17 windows. The windows will be installed in Oct/Nov 2023 timeframe. Hopefully this will before a bad hurricane hits my part of Florida.

This week I went to the local Historical Society and they were glad to receive, as a donation, a collection of about 50 years worth of architectural images taken on 4x5 E6 and C41 and on 120, and a few prints from negative I was unable to locate. There was a total of about 5-600 images. These memories will still be available to me to copy and/or reproduce for my own use.

[Tin Can]

I trust no one to save my images, prints

and my huge cameras

winter is coming

duck and cover does not work

[Torquemada]

I honestly believe that Ipad is becoming the new go to system for photo editing. They have some impressive capabilities if you get the modern ones with M1 chips,, and if you get the version with an M2 chip, you basically have an apple laptop at a lower cost.

And Affinity seems to be the new program to go to.. it seems to work so far. It can actually convert to multiple file formats.. but i have no idea as to why a 5600 x 3728 nikon NEF file at 28 MB becomes a 5600 x 3728 PNG at 101 MB size