What hardware are you using?

Discussion of hardware related issues
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

Worst I ever used was the Packard Bell desktops towards the end of that companies existence. But yes, the Compaq's were quite horrible until they were taken over by HP and became HP's in a REALLY ugly case. Also Gateway had some REALLY bad dekstops, but the couple of laptops I had of theirs were actually really well made, if ugly.
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11100
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

I use to do Packard Bell servicing and between the crappy cases and the many issues, simply the worst desktop Ive ever experienced. Compaq was almost as bad with Gateway next.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11100
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

7270 should get dropped off on Thursday and ended up getting a 512gb WD Blue SSD similar to what I used on my other two laptops.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11100
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Gotten hooked on the SSDs and when I go back to my E6440 with a standard drive its horribly slow. Only my Ryzen 5 system is the standard HD running at a decent speed. Will be looking at upgrading drives overall down the road.
Site Moderator
wove
Posts: 1188
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

I noticed the other day that my big storage drive an old Seagate Baricuda 7200 rpm, 750GB drive had some bad sectors and the smart test was saying it was near the end of life. I found a new Toshiba 750GB for $23 shipped. So I guess I will be replacing my last spinning hard drive with another spinning hard drive. It will go into an external case that connects via USB 2 so the speed of the drive does not really matter.

The drive holds all my ebooks, pictures, movies, music and documents. It is used to transfer content to my various devices when needed. This allows me to pick up old/small/inexpensive SSDs to install in my devices.
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I still have 4 spinning drives, but since they're in RAID-5 in my NAS, the performance actually isn't too bad. Also, I don't really NOTICE the performance unless I'm doing some HUGE transfers to/from the NAS.
wove
Posts: 1188
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

I tend to use things until they die. All my computers now have SSDs. I still have a number of spinning hard drives even a few old IDE/ATA drives that hold copies of items I wish to save. It is actually quite impressive how long these drives last. It is also impressive how fast new storage devices and storage interfaces have become.
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I rarely use something until it dies myself. I like to constantly try new things, so am almost ALWAYS selling something technology related to get something new. The exception is phones. I DO tend to keep phones either until they die, or until the cost to get them working properly again is prohibitive (new screen + new battery) compared to the cost of an entirely new device. I switched to SSD's quite a few years ago (circa 2014 I think). After I got my first laptop with an SSD in it, and saw just how much faster it booted, how much faster apps launched, and just how much more responsive they made it feel, I had switched to all solid state storage within about 6 months on everything. I did keep a single spinning rust drive as a backup to the NAS for a couple years, but eventually the enclosure died (it was old, the original drive had died already and been replaced), and I didn't bother replacing it.
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11100
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Just picked up two 256gb SATA SSDs for the E6440s and was intrigued as they are Hyundai/Sapphire SSDs. They appear to use the same PCB as the PNY SSDs with the Toshiba NAND chips. Its a good performing drive and the price was low though higher than last years prices. Ill report back once they show up and I install them.
Site Moderator
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I had never even HEARD of the Hyundai Sapphire SSD. Had to look it up, it was one of the (at the time) newest controllers, dual-channel and DRAMless. However, this was one of the controllers SPECIFICALLY designed for this, so the controller was capable of much higher bandwidth than the older 4 channel thus offsetting the loss of 2 channels, and it had some built-in SRAM, thus partially offsetting being DRAMless. Apparently they also have variable BOM which means that you could get different NAND on 2 identically marked drives depending on who they were able to get best price from at the time that drive was manufactured. While on high end drives this is MASSIVELY frowned upon, on entry level drives who's price isn't as dependent upon a certain performance, this is just fine since they're USUALLY pretty good about rating them at a performance rate that ANY NAND they get ahold of will easily suffice.
Post Reply