[ale] upgrading desktop

[Jim Kinney]

Just for fun, make a live cd of your fav os and desktop. Run that on your current gear. Go to microcenter and test it there. Then retest at home. Now you can see the difference in hardware. Plus the microcenter peeps are pretty cool about testing a systems with a live cd/thumb drive. Manager at Duluth used to add a sticker noting the distro version and sound, wireless pass/fail notes. 

On August 3, 2020 9:24:27 AM EDT, Bob via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>Hi David,
>
>Has anyone told you that you write well?
>
>
>On 2020-08-02 10:45 p.m., David Jackson wrote:
>> I tend to build a lot of systems, so my perspective is influenced by
>this
>> bias.  But I'm unclear about your priorities.
>> 
>> If you were doing something demanding (say rendering videos or doing
>heavy
>> computation or competitive gaming or whatever), you would be well
>beyond a
>> 3rd gen i5 cpu.  Since 3rd gen Intel level of tech seems to suit you
>fine,
>> it seems to me your performance requirements are rather low.  Another
>thing
>> I'm curious about is how much change are you willing to tolerate. 
>Would a
>> lot of added performance be a bad thing or a good thing?
>
>My performance requirements are fairly low.  On the rare occasion that
>I 
>wish to simulate a system for a long time, I just let the simulation
>run 
>on the laptop.
>
>A lot of added performance would be a good thing.
>
>> 
>> I think you might be missing how easy it would be to get a *massive*
>> performance upgrade with a relatively slight effort or cost by
>upgrading
>> all your whole architecture.  A LOT has changed since 3rd gen Intel
>was
>> current.  For about the cost in difficulty and dollars in upgrading
>your
>> 3rd gen architecture, you could probably find a more current Ryzen
>system
>> that would give this massive upgrade.   What has changed a lot very
>> recently is that AMD Ryzen normally beats Intel in terms of
>performance per
>> dollar (bang for the buck) nowadays.  (I'm trying to keep it simple
>here.)
>> And the surrounding architecture has massively improved as well. 
>Current
>> gen platforms are much more efficient and performant overall than a
>3rd gen
>> i5 was.
>
>I agree with you:  I am not aware of how much better a new system would
>
>perform.
>
>> 
>> If you really prefer to "tough it out" on your current architecture,
>I
>> would have to infer that your priority has more to do with
>"optimizing the
>> last electron out of a potato" as I call it.  There's a certain level
>of
>> pride geeks sometimes get over "doing the most with the least"
>technology.
>> If that's you, then nevermind.  But it would help to know that
>"getting the
>> last ounce of performance out of your potato" is in fact a priority. 
>If
>> that's true, there are other layers of complexity that might be of
>> interest, such as over clocking and water cooling, but cost and
>complexity
>> quickly become factors here.  But if that seemed attractive to you,
>my
>> guess is your questions would have been very different.
>
>I'm not interested in getting the "last ounce of performance out of a 
>potato."  For example, I generally drive a car until it must be 
>replaced.  OTOH, if I think that there's something that would be a big 
>improvement over what I currently have, then I'm willing to spend some 
>money for the better item.  For replacing my desktop, I think it's more
>
>a case of not knowing what I'm missing.
>
>> 
>> I tend to think the most "bang for the buck" system today (in my
>mind)
>> would be a B450 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16G RAM at about
>3200 or
>> faster, and I would go for an NVMe M.2 SSD at around 500G.  You can
>use a
>> cheap video card (about $35) and the case and power supply as your
>budget
>> and preference dictates.  Power supplies and cases are a bit more
>expensive
>> these days, thanks to COVID-challenged supplies, but memory, ssd's
>and CPUs
>> are relatively cheap.  This system would cost you about $550-600 or
>so,
>> depending on your choices.  One example:
>> https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C
>> I wager this system would make you grin each time you sit down at
>your PC.
>> I'd also wager that the "grin factor" would quickly offset the dollar
>> damage.
>
>Is there a reason why you suggested the msi B540 mobo (along with the 
>same cpu) instead of the asus b450 mobo + same cpu bundle at 
>microcenter.  The bundle seems a little $60 cheaper.
>
>> 
>> I would imagine your existing system might fetch $100 on ebay,
>possibly?
>> 
>> Hope this helps.
>
>This helps a lot.  Thank you!
>
>--Bob
>
>
><snip>
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