My New Desk Top Computer

[MossflowerWoods]

I have been a computer hardware guy for 29 years. I've worked mainframes and laptops, data centers, you name it.

I've worked for Intel, Dell, and a bunch of companies behoind the scenes you wouldnot recognize. Mostly I've been a servers, data centers, etc. kind of guy.

I live and breathe this business every day. For home use, this is what I tell ALL my family and friends.

1st - What are you going to use it for? (Games, streaming movies, internet day trading).

2nd - Find and buy somewhere around the mid-range price wise, get the best deal you can.

3rd - Plan on throwing it away every 2-3 years SPEND NOTHING fixing it past the warranty. Figure this into your calculation when buying it. If it is still working good, GREAT donate it to your kids or Church, but DO NOT rely on it.

Reasons?
A - The marketplace and competition, and a number of factors have completely DESTROYED any profit in Desktop and most of Laptop systems.

B - The market is addicted to upgrading Operating Systems, software, and hardware, and none of them are in sync. SOMETHING will stop working, and it will be time to toss the system.

Personally right now I'm using a Costco refurb Gateway laptop. The fan is making noise. when it stops, I will wipe the drive and donate it. I try to buy the best deal, middle of the road level system I can get. I've hat this for over three years. it has earned a replacement.

Just my 2 cents.
David

 

[brin]

David....How do you wipe the hard drive to be sure all of your personal information is deleted beyond recovery by anyone...? I junked my last computer after I pulled the hard drive out and beat it with a sledge hammer...and even then I did not throw the HD away..I still have it, all bent up, in my workshop...it has all our personal info on it. Thanks..

 

[RoyJackson]

David....How do you wipe the hard drive to be sure all of your personal information is deleted beyond recovery by anyone...? I junked my last computer after I pulled the hard drive out and beat it with a sledge hammer...and even then I did not throw the HD away..I still have it, all bent up, in my workshop...it has all our personal info on it. Thanks..

Good point about the HD. I pull mine out and destroy them too.

"Formatting" does not erase data and a computer specialist (or hacker) can recover most, if not all data on a formatted HD.
There was a program called BCWipe that obliterated data...that's several years back and is no longer Freeware.

 

[Gizmo2]

I have been a computer hardware guy for 29 years. I've worked mainframes and laptops, data centers, you name it.

I've worked for Intel, Dell, and a bunch of companies behoind the scenes you wouldnot recognize. Mostly I've been a servers, data centers, etc. kind of guy.

I live and breathe this business every day.
David

Rookie!
Good post.

 

[Bird]

Many years ago, I called Gateway and asked about a catalog. The lady said she'd send me one. About a month later, I called again and got a man that time, told him about my previous call and he said he'd get a catalog in the mail right away. I never heard from them again, never got a catalog or anything else from them, haven't bought a Gateway and not likely to do so. But then I bought a Dell after hearing of their great service. It's the only computer I ever bought without paying for it at the time; let them finance it, and was sure glad I did because when it wouldn't work and after talking to them on the phone multiple times, one of their "great service" guys told me there just wasn't anything else he could do. So I told him to go ask his boss where he wanted his junk shipped to since I wasn't going to pay for a computer that wouldn't work. He got someone else on the line who finally figured out how to make it work.

My current HP (computer and printer) will be 4 years old in January and if or when it has to be replaced, it'll probably be another HP. Although I jut mght go with that one you bought, Eddie. Looks like a good deal, and I did have good luck with IBM in the past.

 

[Western]

I have been known to "soak" a HD in a five gallon bucket with Muratic acid!! Just saying

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Rookie!
Good post.

Old Fart!



Hee hee!

First computer I was paid to support had 64K of torodial core memory, and it was programmed in octal from a maint panel (no keyboard).

I had a PDP 11 in my basement for years.

How about you?

David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

David....How do you wipe the hard drive to be sure all of your personal information is deleted beyond recovery by anyone...? I junked my last computer after I pulled the hard drive out and beat it with a sledge hammer...and even then I did not throw the HD away..I still have it, all bent up, in my workshop...it has all our personal info on it. Thanks..

Brin,

With enough time and money, I've seen AMAZING things...

DEVGRU (Seal Team 6) can decode your HDD easymost. The rest of the hackers it would not likely happen.

What I do when I donate is I delete all user files, defrag the hDD, and then run the "RESTORE" CD that reloads the factory defaults.

That will stop MOST hackers.

In your case at the moment...

Acid, HUGE magnets, I bet arc welding, will destroy enough data to make it a VERY difficult issue to Hack.

Then just take it to the local scrap metal joint.

Be well,
David

 

[JB4310]

First of all, They still make desk tops???

I call that a server now :laughing:

Second, what do you guys have on your hard drives ?? I can't even find my own files, I'm not worried about personal info falling into the wrong hands from my pc.

My last desktop was a Sony Vaio it's been pretty much trouble free for 8 years.
Best customer service hands down, they only recently limited it to 1 year free customer support. until just a few years ago if you had a Sony they would give you all the help you needed, even years down the road.

The technology has stopped it's dramatic advancements in the past few years. But the big news is how inexpensive everything is, and how it's becoming more seamless and intuitive. I came home with a my first laptop (Toshiba Satellite) with new to me operating system, and my first home network hardware all on one day.
I was getting some anxiety over what I thought would be a nightmare to learn all this new stuff.

Basically just plugged it all in and was up and running in a short time.
I think the geek is not as critical a link in the technology field now, at least on the home/ personal computer front

Oh yeah, I haven't had a single minute down due to viruses etc on 3 machines in the last 18 months since I renewed Norton 360. I highly recommend it.

JB

 

[Bird]

First computer I was paid to support had 64K of torodial core memory, and it was programmed in octal from a maint panel (no keyboard).

I've never done maintenance and support for computers, but my first computer was a Radio Shack color computer with 32k memory (they had just upgraded from 16k) and for a monitor I had it plugged into a 13" RCA color TV.:laughing: