PC Tech Thread

My desktop and laptop both have 16GB but that's just overkill (RAM was cheap when I built the desktop, I got the laptop second hand from someone who'd specced it out to the max), I rarely come anywhere near that.

My desktop has a four year old i5 that is probably a little faster than your i3 (was only £150 four years ago) and it's never struggled.

Maybe log CPU usage for a while and see what maxes it out and whether it's noticeable https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

Thanks for the info.
I read up a fair bit on CPU when I bought mine and from what I could gather there wasnt really a massive dif in mine and the i5 4670k or whatever in most games.
I'll stick with 8GB for now then, annoyingly I have 24GB in my iMac which I could prob spare a bit from but none of it's interchangeable.
I'll grab a new PSU to clean things up a bit, currently I have to mount the drives on their sides due to the connectors on the PSU (they are meant to sit flush on the bottom of the case).

The OS uses spare RAM to cache frequently used files, the more spare RAM you have the more files it can cache and the faster it will run.

SSDs may be an order of magnitude faster than HDDs but memory is still an order of magnitude faster than SSD so you will get a reasonable gain from having lots of free memory.

It also makes it much easier if you ever want to have some VMs running (maybe to play with Linux or for an older version of Windows for some legacy apps).

If you can get it to me in 30min I'll have it. :P

Where are you based?
I'm not actually using it atm...

I'm out west but I was only joking.
I really just need to finish working then I'll spend the night transferring stuff, installing, etc.

Anyone used Virtual Box before?

I knew that, I knew that... it would suit that silver beast though... built in camera and speakers too.

Yes, used it for some stuff I did in Linux. Not much in depth knowledge but I got it working well enough. What do you want to know?

You like to watch, don't you?

I found a spare cable so I'm running this monitor with dual input.

I was going to use it to run my Win dev stuff - SQL server and Visual Stupido. Friend said it was better than Hyper V and it's free so, why not?

That's me told :P

I think you should just treat yourself to the fancy new monitor of your choice. Having splurged all that cash on a PC it seems daft to hold back on the monitor.

I want to kill this monitor first.

New machine is fucking quick. Kinda loathe to fill it up with shit now.

I've upgraded the RAM in both my laptops. Is there anywhere that will buy or recycle my old RAM? Like Music Magpie but for RAM.

EBay...

Thanks for all the disk cloning recommendations. I used Chromium Reflect in the end - super easy, it just worked. Impressive for a free program, so thanks @Scilly.Suffolk

Another conundrum for you. The internet on my Dad's computer has broken, completely. I normally remote in using Chrome Remote Desktop to fix it, but I can't because there's no internet.

He wants to buy a new PC tower to fix the problem. I've managed to persuade him this is a bad idea as there's no guarantee something similar won't happen again. My Mum has a Chromebook and is very happy with it, plus the boon for me is no maintenance required, so I have suggested a Chromebox. Samsung Series 3 seems to be the one to go for as it has 4Gb of RAM and an i5 processor.

Any alternative suggestions though? I'm not an expert in this area but Chrome OS would do everything he wants to do and he basically finds PCs too complicated/too much maintenance.

Why not fix the computer?

How? I am in London, they are in Warwickshire, my Dad is desperate for a working computer. I can't talk him through all the steps for a possible fix, it's too complicated.

This keeps happening, there is always something, normally easy to fix but I'm like constant tech support :(

My Mum loves her Chromebook because it just works.

If you can't make it, can't he get a local computer repair type to have a look?

Maybe, I have just remembered there is a chap who advertises in their village's Parish News.

But could easily end up costing as much as a Chromebox and end up being good money after bad...

And the Chromebox could provide all new problems.

Why does his internet connection keep breaking? Does he fiddle with stuff? What needs to be 'fixed' each time?

And the Chromebox could provide all new problems.

It wouldn't though. They just work. For years. With no intervention needed.

His internet connection doesn't keep breaking, it has this time, but there's always something. He is over 70 and doesn't understand how computers work. PC's are a pain to maintain even if you know what you're doing, he has no idea.

Ahh,no. Can't be bothered with eBay but thanks.

They just work. For years. With no intervention needed.

So have all my PCs... which begs the question: what the hell are they doing to them to break them?

Get him a Chromebook if he keeps breaking shit. Or a tablet. Let us know how long it takes before it's no longer connecting to the web. Then we can work out the support costs of PC vs. chrometabbook

Get him a Chromebook if he keeps breaking shit.

You know a Chromebox is just a Chromebook minus a screen, right? :)

A what now? I'm saying if he's fiddling v with shit and you can stop that with a different device v then do it.