raymac46 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 It's been nearly 4 years since I built this desktop PC I'm using right now - my second "all Linux, all the time" desktop. And of course I haven't just stayed in one place with it. You hardly finish your build when you start thinking - Hmmm, could I have done a bit better for a bit more? And so I've done some upgrades - some things of better value than others. This is my list - strictly personal - you may not agree and as always YMMV. What I haven't upgraded: Motherboard and CPU - the motherboard is a Gigabyte - it had a top shelf AMD chipset, lots of SATA 3 and USB 3 capability and it's an Ultra Durable board. The CPU is a quad core A8 and up until the Zen release AMD hadn't really made anything significantly better. Case - Cooler Master K280 - I love it. Just the right size and easy to build in. Wifi adapter - what can I say, it's an Atheros N chipset and it works. DVD burner - no point really. Hardly use it any more with USB sticks. Initial HDD - it's still trucking along - a Toshiba 1 TB. Audio - I have an old Logitech 2:1 system that I've had for years and it's a keeper. What I have - and it's been OK but no significant benefit to speak of: The RAM - I had an 8 GB stick and went to 16. I still have room for 16 more in the case. I got dual channel with two sticks of RAM and for sure I will never need swap - but even with VirtualBox I rarely use more than 2.5 GB at any time. Right now I'm at "only" 1.5 GB. The video card - I went from the built in APU to a discrete AMD card - this freed up some memory that I didn't really need to free up, and it is a quicker system now to respond - but I had many problems with video compatibility that just recently got sorted out in Linux. Case fans - I added a Corsair fan and replaced the stock fan with a BitFenix I got on sale. The case is super cool but I think it would have been OK without the higher quality fans. I did not upgrade the CPU cooler and I think the extra case cooling has helped a bit there. What I think are significant improvements - almost must haves: SSD - these are getting cheaper all the time and putting in a 128 GB SSD for Linux and leaving the data on my HDD made a tremendous improvement - a new desktop really. Mine is a Toshiba I got on sale at Newegg and I would really recommend it. A high quality 1080p monitor - I had an old TN monitor that was low contrast and hard to read unless you were right in front of the screen. The new BenQ VA monitor I got with my Christmas cash has been one of my favorite upgrades ever. It's easy on the eyes and has great contrast - black is now black. So to recap my favorite upgrades - the ones that made a real difference - were the SSD and the monitor. I doubt I'll ever build a new system without an SSD, and the monitor I enjoy every time I switch this unit on. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Nice. My main rig has been through a continuous upgrade for probably the last 10 years and every piece of it has been replaced multiple times. The oldest part of my system is probably one of the harddrives, a WD Caviar Black 1tb. Out of all that, I have to agree, the biggest improvement overall was probably the SSD drive. I do something similar to what you do.. I just use a small 120gb SSD for the installation and basic file structure (with /home) and then populate my /home with symlinks to folders on my sata drives. That way they appear to be in my /home partition but actually exist on a terabyte spinning drive. I know SSDs are getting cheaper but I would still rather buy a 5tb 7200 drive for a hundred bucks instead of a 250gb SSD. As long as you have a drive big enough for your installation, you really do not need to spend the extra money for storage. Even media drives are good enough at 5400 rpms 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 I've moved to laptops as my main computer. Is that bad of me? I dunno, but I got me one of those nice ASUS ROG gaming rigs this summer when my last laptop started to show signs of senility (I figure after 5 years of use it was time to move on). It has easily accessible expansion slots for memory and NVMe SSD drives. Heck, it's even got two M.2 slots, plus a SATA 2.5" HDD! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 I've moved to laptops as my main computer. Is that bad of me? I dunno, but I got me one of those nice ASUS ROG gaming rigs this summer when my last laptop started to show signs of senility (I figure after 5 years of use it was time to move on). It has easily accessible expansion slots for memory and NVMe SSD drives. Heck, it's even got two M.2 slots, plus a SATA 2.5" HDD! Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 14, 2017 Author Share Posted March 14, 2017 Those very high end laptops are almost like desktops anyway. You can upgrade memory and storage which go a long way towards making things last. If I needed portability and performance I'd certainly consider one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Those very high end laptops are almost like desktops anyway. You can upgrade memory and storage which go a long way towards making things last. If I needed portability and performance I'd certainly consider one. Of course most of them weigh so much that it is not feasible to carry them around all the time. I have a workstation series 17" laptop at work (i7 with 32gb ram) that weighs almost 9lbs but it is a high technical mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 14, 2017 Author Share Posted March 14, 2017 Of course most of them weigh so much that it is not feasible to carry them around all the time. Reminds me of those Compaq units I worked with in the 1980s. We called them "luggables." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Heh! My first computer (if you could call it that) was a Commodore SX-64 "briefcase" computer... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 Heh! My first computer (if you could call it that) was a Commodore SX-64 "briefcase" computer... We have oscilloscopes at work that look exactly like this sans keyboard but running an embedded version of Windows 3.1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/retailers-bush-internet-tv/128838 My first was a Bush TV Internet Box. I got the handset and a small box that you plugged into any tv with a scart socket and your telephone socket. It was painfully slow but I used it to buy a second hand pc from e-bay or some similar site way back in 2003 I think. Bought it for a laugh as I had bought a hoover from a catalogue company and when they sent the hoover they included a coupon to buy the Bush TV Internet Box for a penny which had to be used with a second order. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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