Computer upgrade

[Darkrider]

The last time i did much with Linux was when i upgraded my old Thinkpad t60 to Mint 19 as part of a project of upgrading it to be a themed build. Between maxing its memory as well as a 128 gb (Might have been as 240 gb..been awhile) SSD that old Thinkpad woke right up. However that particular laptop is down due to a cooling system problem. I do have an old Dell Inspiron 530 PC tower i could dump the Windows 10 install on and replace it with Linux to wake it back up.

[XLsior]

I'm using an AMD 5700g apu (cpu+intergrated gpu) after selling my old 3600 cpu and RX580 GPU during the crypto mining peak and all graphics cards were being price gouged...

The graphics card market is still a mess...I lost interest in modern gaming for a number of reasons, but the current state of the graphic card market pushed me over the edge. GPU's pricing is ridiculous now the high end is $3000+AUD for a 4090 and low budget end is 300+ for a RX6600.

If I needed a gpu right now it would probably be a used 3060ti or RX6800.

I've gone back to the 8 and16bit Nintendo/Sega era along with retro/indie games with much lower system needs.

Solid state hard drives (SSD/M.2) and RAM have improved and are relatively cheap upgrades.

Building a new desktop used to be a fun activity for me...But with the way the market is I'd say there probably better value in the laptop/notebook space.

[TominMO]

Looking at picking up this refurb HP tomorrow, for about $230 OTD. I don't need it at all, but it would be fun to play with a bit. I would install Ubuntu on it to have a dual-boot with Windows 10. And probably Win10 will recognize my printer.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...r-(refurbished)

[buzz]

Thanks and got mine on ebay 50 dollars, works great.

[Mudflap]

Don't know why I bother asking since I know more about computers than anyone . Can't figure out why my Android tablet (Fire 10 with Amazon stuff removed and running Android 9) won't work with my Samsung T7 1 tb SSD. The pop-up says it's the wrong size, or wrong format, but just goes on and on when I try to format. Works fine on 3 other Android phones. Any ideas?

[Thumper]

A couple of years ago, I built a computer with a dual CPU server motherboard (ASRock rack). I found a matched pair of 10 core xeon CPUs used, system pull, and went from there. The board has 4 x 4 (16) memory slots, and I found cheap 8Gb sticks and populated them all (128Gb ram). The purpose was to run MaxQuant proteomics software, which is written/compiled to use ALL available processors. I put Bionic Beaver on it (Ubuntu 16 something, I think). It was my first foray into linux. I am definitely still a linux noob, but I was able to get it running. The folks at Ubuntu had excellent advice for setting up a bootable USB drive with the OS to jump start the build and install the OS.

Maxquant runs from the command line, but opens a GUI. I had to load the linux implementation of .NET Framework (Mono), which was a bit of a challenge. Maxquant requires a .NET Framework environment to run. The command to start Maxquant begins with "mono..." There is a resource monitor available for Linux. I loaded it, and it is amazing to see all 40 processors (hyperthreading) running at near 100%. I put a 1000 Watt power supply in there for these searches. The lights might dim a little in the basement when it is running a database search!

I tried to get my son interested in it, but he is in a cyber security program that focuses on Windows, of course. So I have this server beast in the basement that can really handle a heavy load, but isn't doing much!

Once the preprocessing is done, the thing maxes out during the actual search. Notice that CPU #29 is sandbagging at just 98%

CPU29sandbags-at_98smaller.jpg

[TominMO]

Decided not to buy the new unnecessary toy. I have two good computers and a third as backup, so good sense prevailed.

I hate it when that happens.

[Darkrider]

Originally Posted by TominMO

Decided not to buy the new unnecessary toy. I have two good computers and a third as backup, so good sense prevailed.

I hate it when that happens.

There are times i wish i had not done that, Yet here i am in a full on dedicated studio with 3 different workstations within it lol

[TominMO]

Upgraded my 2008 Dell Inspiron 530 today with a Samsung 500GB SSD. This was originally a Windows XP machine and only has the original slow 2 GB of memory, apparently enough back then. I did nothing to it except install Ubuntu 14.04 onto the original HDD to dual-boot with XP. Then last week I upgraded the Ubuntu side to 22.04.

With 22.04 on the SSD, it moves along pretty quickly on startup. Not the near-instantaneous result with my Powerspec and its 2015 Intel i3 CPU, but pretty nice. I think even with just 2GB of memory this would do fine for the average user doing word processing, surfing YT and other light usage. 2GB was fine for older Ubuntu versions, but now they recommend a minimum of 4GB. But not necessary to function, that's for sure. File-swapping onto the drive (to make up for insufficient memory) with an SSD is so much faster than with an HDD that any lag is pretty irrelevant.

[clash 168cc]

Originally Posted by Mudflap

Don't know why I bother asking since I know more about computers than anyone . Can't figure out why my Android tablet (Fire 10 with Amazon stuff removed and running Android 9) won't work with my Samsung T7 1 tb SSD. The pop-up says it's the wrong size, or wrong format, but just goes on and on when I try to format. Works fine on 3 other Android phones. Any ideas?

Is there an easy way to make my Fire table work with Android apps? I didn't know how restrictive it would be.

[Texas Pete]

Originally Posted by clash 168cc

Is there an easy way to make my Fire table work with Android apps? I didn't know how restrictive it would be.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/w...v30-2.3889604/

Debloat and disable Amazon apps.
Side load Google Play store and support library and then install all the official android apps you want.
Replace Amazon launcher with a better one.
Get rid of ads.
The features are endless.

[clash 168cc]

Originally Posted by Texas Pete

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/w...v30-2.3889604/

Debloat and disable Amazon apps.
Side load Google Play store and support library and then install all the official android apps you want.
Replace Amazon launcher with a better one.
Get rid of ads.
The features are endless.

I'll try that this weekend. Wanted to use it for my Spark Guitar amp that uses a Google play app to bring in music to play to. Can use my Android phone but the screen is small and using up my data fast.

[Mudflap]

Originally Posted by Texas Pete

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/w...v30-2.3889604/

Debloat and disable Amazon apps.
Side load Google Play store and support library and then install all the official android apps you want.
Replace Amazon launcher with a better one.
Get rid of ads.
The features are endless.

That is what I used to change my Fire 10, worked great. Made the change the day I got the tablet. Don't know if that has anything to do with it not working with the 1T SSD.

[Thumper]

I have a few old cases, one working. It is a build from about 10 years ago, maybe more. ASUS P5G41T with a dual core 3GHz processor and 8Gb ram. It has a 1Tb spinning drive and a 160Gb secondary drive and an ASUS Geforce 2Gb video card.

It was my business computer, but it also does well with Descent 1 Rebirth at original low resolution !!

Thing is, it works fine, even has a wifi card and is perfect for browsing and typical home business stuff.

But I don't need it now since I built a more modern system with a SSD boot drive and better video card, and my sons bought their own modern gaming systems. I wiped the drive (write zeros) and installed OS. It is ready for a new owner. The thing is going onto Craigslist. I will make the buyer take the old cases with an assortment of parts, as a package for $150.

[cheesy]

The new SSD showed up today, along with the SATA cable. I'm still waiting on a new power jack as that seems to have gone south now. Sunday project.