@freemo @Surasanji I don't know when this is happening, but this is sort of related. I'm actually thinking of getting myself Adele precision 3630 workstation. Probably next year, but the funny thing is, even though Dell doesn't advertise it. You can actually game using one of those things. I'm unfortunately limited as to which games I can play, but that's something totally different.

@cambridgeport90 @Surasanji I havent really looked into that model. I usually do custom builds.

@freemo I'm as hopelessly addicted to #Dell as can be. I won't buy anything else if I can avoid it LOL. Then again, I'm used to how those things work. I'm sort of in the enterprise/monitoring mindset, so how does one monitor a custom build for hardware failure? For Dell it's called OpenManage, and for HP, it's called iLO. Do most of the custom build manufacturers have similar sensors built in?

@cambridgeport90 yI'd have to investigate how and what those sensors detect to give you an answer t that. Most server monitoring i use tends to be software based and really depends on what you monitor. Kubernetes is the goto commercially right now but that is mostly focusing on monitoring the software infrastructure not non-critical hardware failures, there is different stuff for that.

@freemo Dell and HP have systems that can monitor for hardware failures, temperature changes (not such a big deal, considering my apartment's already freaking cold anyways), and stuff like RAID rebuilds if needed. For instance, my current little server, he's adorable, but the only way I could get any insight into his RAID degradation (he has some, considering he's got two eight-year-old hard drives inside him), is through the actual BIOS interface, which would require a technical sighty to read for me. Hence why that sort of thing matters more so than it might for others. Those are actually coming from the board itself.

@cambridgeport90 All of those monitoring capabilities are availible in linux userland. mdadm monitors raid failures and rebuilds and can notify you when it happens, other software for other types of failure and even some suites to do it all in one. Lots of foss options as far as that goes.

@freemo I guess it's what you're used to. Even my very techie friend is now staying away from custom builds. A friend of ours just gave him a HP Z420, actually. Haven't gotten a chance to check it out, though. He'll probably sell it for a Precision, though, knowing him.

@cambridgeport90 Well less to do with what im used to and more to do with the fact that it is as good as the best you can buy, and at a fraction of the price. I will always pick the solution that is cheaper and functionally equivalent even if I need to get used to new software. In
fact I rarely "get used to" anything in my business as the software changes from day to day and client to client. So I just never get the luxury of getting used to anything. So if i get to pick i usually just pick what is practical.

@freemo Point. I always tend to stick to the secondhand markets or the outlets. there's always some poor sap who thinks that it isn't moronic to sell a fully loaded workstation or server for a steal. Idiots probably don't even realize what they end up with and just want to get rid of it. And on the odd paranormal side, me and computers. Only get me started on that if you're in for some stories, though ...

@cambridgeport90 I have very specific needs for the stuff i buy for my own R&D work for my company. The specs are high;y specific to the type of algos i run. Something prebuilt to handle it either doesnt exist or would easily cost 10x the price.

@freemo Ah. My day job, I run into that sort of thing all the time. Not so much for the stuff I do outside of it, though.

@cambridgeport90 I enjoy doing a new build. Plus linux runs on damn near anything really well these days. So just double check compatibility and builds are usually solid as a rock most of the time. Takes most of the pain out of it for me.

@freemo Interesting. I have to figure out which Linux OS I ought to put on the Latitude D630 I have. I took him out of the pile of stuff no one wanted at a volunteer session. I can get Ubuntu to sort of work, though, it kinda cops out when installing certain stuff on it, PowerShell, for instance. I tried OpenSUSE, as well, but that is too laggy. Debian, you think? Could work, and I could run OpenSUSE over in a Hyper-V environment over here with XRDP.

@cambridgeport90 @freemo I'm pretty happy with my MSI and it's 950 mobile series Nvidia. I can play games on it, often with odd settings. I can only barely tell the difference bettween a game running at 30-45 FPS vs 60+ FPS.

Most of the games I play are of the 4X type, with a few first person shooters. It works well enough.

I do, of course, have a dream rig with bells and whistles and wholly silly RGB lighting, but I'm fairly content for it to remain a dream for now. :P

@Surasanji @freemo that's pretty awesome. Not many things the juice that could have an output, I don't think.

@Surasanji For your use case sounds like you have more than what you need. I would never recommend the computer for anyone other than research scientists who can use it.

But i must admit having a use for such a beast as my every day computer is a pretty sweet perk.

@cambridgeport90

@freemo @cambridgeport90 For me, yeah. It works well enough for what I want to do.

That being said, if I could easily afford a toy that could do more I would get said toy. I mean, who doesn't like toys?

I don't have the physical space for a proper desktop, so laptops is what I use and that naturally limits what one can do as far as raw power goes.

Could I use more? Absolutely. Do I really NEED more? Not really.

What I need to do is open that mofo up and clean her out, and MAYBE upgrade the ram. I haven't checked if it is running dual channel or single. If it IS running single channel, it's a super easy upgrade to get a pretty good performance hike just by buying a second stick of ram.

@Surasanji I am forced to use a laptop a lot. I dont like it i really need big high res screens and preferably two of them. Not to mention i really le to be able to easily service them.

@cambridgeport90

@freemo @cambridgeport90 I use a dual screen setup at work. I can't work with a single screen.

Once I get the space for a desk and chair and all that, I will buy a desktop and my laptop will likely also be on the desk, but only because I like the idea of having a 'Battle Station' setup with extra computers.

The concept makes me giggle a little. It's silly, and it's dumb, but I love it.