How do I make my PC obsolete?

[Papal_Stick]

Right now I'm using a PC with Intel E8400, 4 GB of DDR2 and 500 GB HDD. That thing was bought in late 2008 and it runs SolidWorks, MATLAB, KiCAD, gcc, foobar2000 just fine. However, everywhere I look, be it computer hardware stores, magazines or websites I get the feeling that one needs the latest Core i-something just to browse the web. Tell me, how to make my PC obsolete so I can really feel the need to go and buy some new fancy CPU or GPU chip or whatever it's called nowdays . There was a time, especially in 2000s when 5 years old computer was a total POS. Now, it seems that hardware evolution completly stalled, CPU from 8 years ago still does the job and does it amazingly fast.

[TorqueRanger]

Play with a SSD

[Zero999]

There's nothing wrong with it.

Add a solid state hard drive and install the OS and any programs which are slow to start on it.

[Halcyon]

Whilst not my everyday machine, I still use a HP/Compaq 6710b laptop running Windows XP. The only thing I've done is replaced the original 120GB hard disk with an SSD. I think my one has the 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

Still a good machine that runs perfectly fine. Has older I/O which comes in handy sometimes (9-pin serial port, intergrated card reader that takes some of the older type memory cards, Type I/II PC Card slot...).

The battery is long gone, lasting about 2 minutes, just enough time to unplug and move somewhere else without powering down ;-)

Specs here for any obsolete computer aficionados.

My daily machine is a desktop with 8GB RAM and a Xeon processor. About 4-5 years old now but still perfectly good for CPU intensive tasks. The video card isn't anything special, but I don't play games anyway.

[VinzC]

Install any modern game...

[AF6LJ]

Play Fallout 4

[rdl]

Yes, some games would be a problem, but just the ones that rely heavily on 3D acceleration. Fallout 4, Just Cause 3, Alien: Isolation, etc. that sort of game.

This computer I'm using now is a Core2Duo from 2008 that was built for high end gaming at the time. It is now outperformed by a Gigabyte Brix that was built for $175. However, the C2D no longer has the original whiz-bang Nvidia beast of a video card and the original speed demon memory has been replaced also.

[Papal_Stick]

Install any modern game...

Fortunately my family banned me from playing any computer games when i was a child so I'm not a gamer at all.

[rdl]

As others have already said, get an SSD. Note the difference in the primary hard disk rating (max is 7.9). The C2D has a 10,000 rpm WD Raptor, which was about as good as it got in 2008. The Brix has a $39.95 SSD.

[GekkoNZ]

Install any modern game...

Fortunately my family banned me from playing any computer games when i was a child so I'm not a gamer at all.

My sincere condolences.

Back to the topic at hand, ill add that if there is nothing that your computer does that you wish it could do faster, then the answer is quite simple:
Do nothing.

Why spend money on something you do not need that offers you no advantage in any way?

If your HDD is fast enough for your personal liking, do nothing. If it isn't, upgrade it to an SSD. The same goes for any other part of your computer.

[Simon]

How about trying to browse an Internet page full of flash adverts? I find that installing an ad blocker speeds up my browsing considerably as it removes all of the flash player staff that is drowning my processor even though I am running over 4 GHz.

Solid state drives are very nice not always as fast as they purport but certainly an improvement on a mechanical drive and if you're feeling lazy put some into a RAID array.

For goodness sake don't get an i-shit processor unless you have a specific task you wish it to perform for which it has been officially benchmarked. I was furious when I came back from my Christmas holiday to find that my work computer that has an i7 processor was suddenly slower after the IT people had been in. But after a week I realised what the problem was the BIOS had been reset to default settings and my special customisations had been reverted. This created a marked slowdown in the overall feel of the computer's speed and caused opening programs to take longer. When I realised it I went back into the BIOS and did my special customisations once again.

I disable the hyper- threading capability as this is the biggest load of bullocks in CPUs today. Once upon a time when Intel launched its emergency edition cough cough I mean extreme edition processor it may have had some use and somewhat increased the speed of the processor but these days with increased RAM speeds it is actually a bottleneck in itself as your processor is being forced to swap between two tasks when it probably has enough data and instructions to carry on with what it was already doing. Then I disable two out of the four real cores that I have (the eight cores declared on the spec sheet take into account the software hack that hyper- threading is) because while I have one of the best 3-D CAD modelling software around the stupid dumb program is still only capable of using one processing core at a time so having four cores trying to use memory bandwidth on menial tasks is a total waste of my time because I want all of the performance in the software I am using at that moment and with a 3-D mouse at my fingertips I do notice the lag.

My own machine at home which granted is newer than my work one which is also a for physical core processor on which I have disabled two ran the 3-D CAD software much faster even with all four cores enabled.

At the end of the day it's down to what you want to do with the machine. My last computer lasted me seven years and there was not a lot wrong with it when I sold most of the components on eBay as a kit for over £100 and noted that many other people were doing the same. Modern advancements in computing have not really meant a lot for us common mortals. The biggest jump seems to have been in the amount of cores in a processor but this is of little help to us because most programs are still single core programs so unless you are playing specific games or doing hard-core video processing your i7 processor is a total and utter waste of time and money.

Sorry for the rant but I'm getting fed up with companies like Intel telling us we need things that we don't and actually selling us a poorer product in the process.

[Refrigerator]

I'm using an ACER TravelMate 4100 notebook pc and it struggles with internet, Honestly i expected more from a 1.6GHz CPU.
Kinda makes me want to get something better, although the screen is pretty big and high-res too bad the hardware can't handle it.

[Halcyon]

I'm using an ACER TravelMate 4100 notebook pc and it struggles with internet, Honestly i expected more from a 1.6GHz CPU.
Kinda makes me want to get something better, although the screen is pretty big and high-res too bad the hardware can't handle it.

We use Acer desktops and laptops at work (among other brands) and they are honestly the biggest piles of steaming crap I've ever had to use. To round them up in two words: unstable and slow. They even look and feel cheap and nasty. Despite the intel processors, it all comes down to the quality of the mainboard (which is built down to a price and isn't designed to last). Notwithstanding all of that, there is the most annoying blue LED on the front chassis which is supposed to indicate network activity. It's uttely useless as it flashes in ~500ms on/off cycles (rather than a proper activity LED). So basically it just flashes non-stop even when the machine is idle due to broadcast traffic etc... All it does is distract the user.

[VinzC]

Install any modern game...

Fortunately my family banned me from playing any computer games when i was a child so I'm not a gamer at all.

Ow, well, install Windows Vista then ;-) .

[helius]

How? Simply browse to a "modern" website, which uses multiple gigabytes to display a few lines of text.
http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

[rollatorwieltje]

When you don't play games the C2D line is still very acceptable. Still using one, a 2.6GHz in a 2010 Macbook pro. Only thing I did was replace the harddrive with a good SSD, then you realize how much of a bottleneck a harddisk really is. Also get the maximum amount of ram your system will take, it's dirt cheap anyway. Modern browsers like to use stupid amounts of it.

My desktop is a bit more powerful, i5 2500k with a GTX980 graphics card. The processor is 5 years old, but still has no problems at all with the latest games. The GTX980 I bought recently because the old HD6970 card pretty much died. I looked at upgrading the whole machine but it was simply not worth it based on benchmarks, and that's coming from somebody who buys a GTX980...

How? Simply browse to a "modern" website, which uses multiple gigabytes to display a few lines of text.
http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

I once looked at the intranet website of the company I work for. It downloaded about 6MB and used about 50 connections to eventually render about 400kB worth of static data... Especially annoying when you have to use it over a limited connection like on a mobile network. These bloated AJAX garbage sites need to die out quickly. Also looking at you, EEVBlog frontpage... Didn't measure anything, but it takes several seconds to load, even on my desktop with 120MBit internet.

[Someone]

For goodness sake don't get an i-shit processor unless you have a specific task you wish it to perform for which it has been officially benchmarked. I was furious when I came back from my Christmas holiday to find that my work computer that has an i7 processor was suddenly slower after the IT people had been in. But after a week I realised what the problem was the BIOS had been reset to default settings and my special customisations had been reverted. This created a marked slowdown in the overall feel of the computer's speed and caused opening programs to take longer. When I realised it I went back into the BIOS and did my special customisations once again.

I disable the hyper- threading capability as this is the biggest load of bullocks in CPUs today. Once upon a time when Intel launched its emergency edition cough cough I mean extreme edition processor it may have had some use and somewhat increased the speed of the processor but these days with increased RAM speeds it is actually a bottleneck in itself as your processor is being forced to swap between two tasks when it probably has enough data and instructions to carry on with what it was already doing. Then I disable two out of the four real cores that I have (the eight cores declared on the spec sheet take into account the software hack that hyper- threading is) because while I have one of the best 3-D CAD modelling software around the stupid dumb program is still only capable of using one processing core at a time so having four cores trying to use memory bandwidth on menial tasks is a total waste of my time because I want all of the performance in the software I am using at that moment and with a 3-D mouse at my fingertips I do notice the lag.

Wow, slowing down your entire computer because you don't want to use application specific core affinity:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/37272/set-a-programs-affinity-in-windows-7-for-better-performance/
Those of us who do high performance computing will now have a giggle, since NUMA made its way down to desktop workstations this sort of application based control has been routine.

Core is just a marketing designation, the i series have been mainstream for more than 5 years, there is not reason to avoid them as they span all budgets and performance. Looking closely at benchmarking and synthetic performance there are often specific examples of excellent or poor performance but thats not confined to any manufacturer, less so any specific branding.

[DimitriP]

There are fast CPUs,  fast motherboards, fast video cards and fast hard drives.
Most people end up getting one or two out of the four and eventually the machine starts crawling just like the old machine.

[Someone]

How? Simply browse to a "modern" website, which uses multiple gigabytes to display a few lines of text.
http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

I once looked at the intranet website of the company I work for. It downloaded about 6MB and used about 50 connections to eventually render about 400kB worth of static data... Especially annoying when you have to use it over a limited connection like on a mobile network. These bloated AJAX garbage sites need to die out quickly. Also looking at you, EEVBlog frontpage... Didn't measure anything, but it takes several seconds to load, even on my desktop with 120MBit internet.

A lot of this is driven by marketing and advertising, they have locked into an idea that a website should have a maximum load time on a current computer and average internet connection and they fill this endlessly with more and more stuff (background as video seem to be the flavour of the month right now). You even see stylesheets being used to hide content until the page completely loads and some script releases the content to you (typically after you have dismissed ads or signed in) but still appears in search bots.

[Monkeh]

For goodness sake don't get an i-shit processor unless you have a specific task

Don't buy one of a wide variety of differing CPUs, including the best desktop and mobile CPUs (excluding Xeon abuse.. oh, right, same technology) on the market? Ohkaaaaay...

I disable the hyper- threading capability as this is the biggest load of bullocks in CPUs today.

Hyperthreading is extremely valuable in many workloads. If it doesn't work and makes things worse, blame the software, not the hardware.

Then I disable two out of the four real cores that I have (the eight cores declared on the spec sheet take into account the software hack that hyper- threading is)

They do not specify 8 cores.. and wilfully disabling half your processing power is a very.. interesting choice.

Sorry for the rant but I'm getting fed up with companies like Intel telling us we need things that we don't and actually selling us a poorer product in the process.

Meanwhile, those of us in IT are fed up with people spewing bad advice based on an utter lack of understanding.

[DimitriP]

Didn't measure anything, but it takes several seconds to load, even on my desktop with 120MBit internet.

Not to open a can of worms or rain in your parade but if it takes "several seconds" there is something wrong and it might have nothing to do with eevblog or you but everything else in between.

It loads fine over here (southern California)
Do a: tracert www.eevblog.com 

Tracing route to www.eevblog.com [104.31.75.133]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms     *        *     
  2     8 ms    14 ms     8 ms 
  3    18 ms    15 ms     9 ms 
  4    11 ms    15 ms    12 ms 
  5    15 ms    23 ms    15 ms 
  6    20 ms    17 ms    16 ms 
  7    13 ms    13 ms    16 ms 
  8    17 ms    14 ms    15 ms 
  9    11 ms    12 ms    15 ms  cloudflare-ic-301668-las-bb1.c.telia.net [62.115.32.214]
 10    13 ms    12 ms    11 ms  104.31.75.133
Trace complete.



Do a tracert www.eevblog.com 
I'm 10 hops away, no

[DimitriP]

Meanwhile, those of us in IT are fed up with people spewing bad advice based on an utter lack of understanding.

Yeah...about that....

Hardware exists for the convenience of the software,  just like IT exists for the convenience of the users.

[TerraHertz]

How? Simply browse to a "modern" website, which uses multiple gigabytes to display a few lines of text.
http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Thanks for the link! He's a very funny and intelligent writer. On a topic that is a bugbear of mine too, so it was great fun to read.

Ha ha, his source code is neat, and small. No css or js at all. Though I notice he still uses the superfluous </li>. But not </p> thankfully. It's also amusing to see his line: "<!-- What the hell are you looking at? Get out of my source. --->"
From a guy promoting open source accessible html coding... heh. He could be more welcoming.

On PCs being 'obsolete' or not - hang onto all those older machines. The way Intel and MS are dragging the platform, you may be glad you did. Here's one hint:
  http://investmentwatchblog.com/all-new-cpus-will-require-windows-10/
  ALL New CPUs Will Require Windows 10
I haven't looked into this yet, but a friend is. He tells me the intention is to close the secure boot opt-out loopholes. So systems won't allow replacing the factory installed OS (MS) with anything else. Ha ha... well we'll see...
Meanwhile, I'm keeping all my old PCs. (Please god, can you just drop an asteroid on MS headquarters? Is that so hard?)

More on the topic of glorious Microsoft master race: http://everist.org/archives/links/__Win_10_info.txt

[tggzzz]

I disable the hyper- threading capability as this is the biggest load of bullocks in CPUs today. Once upon a time when Intel launched its emergency edition cough cough I mean extreme edition processor it may have had some use and somewhat increased the speed of the processor but these days with increased RAM speeds it is actually a bottleneck in itself as your processor is being forced to swap between two tasks when it probably has enough data and instructions to carry on with what it was already doing.

Not quite. Hyperthreading isn't like that. Hyperthreading will clobber the L1/L2/L3 caches simply because more processes are competing for the cache - and that can be a real problem. Nowadays "DRAM is the new Disk, and Cache is the new RAM".

Hyperthreading does speed up some important computational loads, but it slows down others. Anybody that does HPC automatically turns hyperthreading off.

Then I disable two out of the four real cores that I have (the eight cores declared on the spec sheet take into account the software hack that hyper- threading is) because while I have one of the best 3-D CAD modelling software around the stupid dumb program is still only capable of using one processing core at a time so having four cores trying to use memory bandwidth on menial tasks is a total waste of my time because I want all of the performance in the software I am using at that moment and with a 3-D mouse at my fingertips I do notice the lag.

CAD is often an HPC workload and large datasets stress the caches.

Processor-memory bandwidth has been a principal bottleneck for quite a few years now.

[tggzzz]

Hyperthreading is extremely valuable in many workloads. If it doesn't work and makes things worse, blame the software, not the hardware.

Hyperthreading also decreases performance in many workloads. Hence it is important to specify the workload and not to make overly general statements.

Hyperthreading is beneficial where each process only has a little work to be done before it stalls waiting for an external device. Two classic examples are webservers and databases.

Hyperthreading is negative if each application can only be a single process (as with a lot of HPC and CAD, think Amdahl!) or where the cache speed/size is the determining factor (as with much CAD and HPC). If you know how to speed up HPC/CAD programs then you are going to be seriously rich; can we go into business together please