One step closer to the goal
Apr. 7th, 2011 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerJan has a new computer. As well as the necessary USB 2 sockets (about ten of them, as far as I can see) it has an Intel Core i3 processor, 3Gb of memory and half a terabyte of hard drive, which I think should be more than enough for at least a few years or so*. Windows 7 and Office 2010 seem to run, and should be easier to see than Office 2007 on XP was.
We're not sure yet what we will do with the previous thinkybox once I'm sure everything's been reclaimed (though dusting it leaps to mind as a short-term possibility). As far as I know it's in reasonable working order, but is quite old as computers go.
*It's been said in my hearing that the speed of technological advancement in this field is increasing exponentially. I take leave to doubt this--I don't think there will ever come a time when a new computer is being released every ten seconds, or even every day. Zeno rears his Grecian head. I think there will be a point when computers do all we want them to do as fast as it's convenient to us for them to do it, and if we've got any sense we will then turn our inventive zeal to other directions, like a workable real-time FTL drive.
We're not sure yet what we will do with the previous thinkybox once I'm sure everything's been reclaimed (though dusting it leaps to mind as a short-term possibility). As far as I know it's in reasonable working order, but is quite old as computers go.
*It's been said in my hearing that the speed of technological advancement in this field is increasing exponentially. I take leave to doubt this--I don't think there will ever come a time when a new computer is being released every ten seconds, or even every day. Zeno rears his Grecian head. I think there will be a point when computers do all we want them to do as fast as it's convenient to us for them to do it, and if we've got any sense we will then turn our inventive zeal to other directions, like a workable real-time FTL drive.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 09:17 am (UTC)I am also lagging far behind now, having got my shiny new Pentium 4, as far as I can tell, the very week before some bright spark said "what would happen--no no, I'm being serious now, serious--what would happen if we put two of these in here?" But the machine does what I want of it, so I'm content.
For the moment. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 09:30 am (UTC)"the machine does what I want of it, so I'm content"
Exactly. The only things which are worth upgrading IMO (unless you want to do serious raytrace rendering or something really high-CPU load like that) are as much memory as possible (or as your OS will handle) and as much disk as you can afford (or justify the cost, remembering that disk price/MB will be coming down every month for the forseeable future). Oh, and I/O ports (like USB and occasionally display).
My 'big' server (running 64 bit Linux), with a dual-core processor and 8GB of RAM, sits at close to 1% processor load and under 20% RAM usage for 99% of the time. Of course, the other 1% is when the extra capability is useful. But I don't expect any reason to upgrade it from that for many years.