🚀 go-pugleaf

Once upon a time on usenet Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
> ImperiusDamian <damianbl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2017-01-07 18:15, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>> ImperiusDamian <damianbl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2017-01-02 02:06, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>>>> ImperiusDamian <damianbl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2016-12-28 03:41, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>>>>>> Ashen Shugar <death...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I think it was jam...@wizardling.geek.nz (Jamie Kahn Genet)
>>>>>>>> that wrote something like...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ...to all residents of Sanctuary, past and present! :-)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Have a most diabolical New Year!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Merry Christmas!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I haven't played D2 in years, but I did have a bit of a
>>>>>>>> rampage in D3 a few days ago since WoW had gone down for
>>>>>>>> maintenance or something. :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've not played D2 since I upgraded past OS X compatibility
>>>>>>> with the carbon version. I did try the new compatible version,
>>>>>>> but it effed up in such a way you could tell there had been no
>>>>>>> testing, and I lost interest before they sorted their shit out.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Plus the new version was going to break the Runeword mod that
>>>>>>> allows Bnet ladder gear in SP. Bugger that.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is when you set up a WinXP virtual machine and run 1.13d
>>>>>> and play Gemstone. ;)
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm still on a 4GB RAM machine *grumbles* I can and do dual boot
>>>>> to WinXP, but it's obviously not a spur of the moment thing, heh.
>>>>> Not given how slowwwww XP is to boot up.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yeah I'm on a 4GB machine too. Can't save any money. Blah. :P
>>>>
>>>> Running Windows 10 on mine. It starts up fast for various reasons.
>>>> I hibernate mine most of the time just for fast startup.
>>>
>>> I could probably afford to save for a new desktop, it's just really
>>> hard to justify all that money (for a decent one, otherwise what's
>>> the point?) when I can still do almost everything I normally do on
>>> my old one. So I put it off year after year, and tell myself I'll
>>> act when my hand is forced by hardware failure or something else
>>> serious.
>>>
>>> I wouldn't have expected my mid-2007 iMac to remain useful for so
>>> long. Or simply to last so long, given it runs rather hot.
>>>
>>> Am I complaining about my computer not dying? :-D
>>>
>>
>> Yeah mine is pretty antiquated. It's had a few upgrades in its time
>> but it's reached the limits now; I can't find non-ECC DDR2 RAM
>> that'll give me more than 4GB total so the RAM isn't upgradeable; I
>> doubt it would support an SSD even if they were affordable; and my
>> external HD died recently so I'm limited in storage space!
>
> Yuck! I'm sorry to hear that, mate :-( I've not had storage space
> limitations since I was a poor student in my late teens to early
> 20's. I lived within the confines of a 6GB HD (inside my first Mac)
> for about five years. I'm amazed it was other parts and not the
> CD-ROM drive that eventually died in my first Mac, as I lived with a
> CD-ROM (usually D1 or Starcraft, and then D2!) in the drive all that
> time, lacking the space for full installs.
>
> Once I finally started working and had money, it was a thing of wonder
> moving to HDs in the hundreds of GBs (with an upgraded HD inside my
> first Mac) and then TBs (in my 2007 iMac).
>
> Having since dealt with illness on and off, I've not been so flush
> with cash, so I still know very well how tough it can be replacing
> gear that dies. Everything is a financial juggling act.
>
> I'm actually very glad I went a bit nuts back in 2007 and spent nearly
> six grand on a top end machine. If I'd bought a lesser machine with
> the idea to upgrade sooner, illness would have ruined those plans,
> and I expect I'd never have got ten years of satisfactory performance
> for most tasks.
>
> Unless my life radically changes, my 2007 iMac will be the last top
> end machine I ever enjoy :-D It was a blast for about a year never
> feeling like I was hitting a performance wall, heh. Now all I have to
> do in 2017 is open a browser tab to experience slowdowns as virtual
> memory grinds and the CPU maxes for several seconds! Ha.

I also bought / built what will probably be my last brand new machine in 
2007. However having already been on a very tight budget and having watched 
how computer components loose value quickly I built with a top-end CPU in 
mind but started with a midrange one until a second-hand top end became 
affordable. So for about NZ$2.5K to date I got the machine I'm still running 
(with no issues at all), most of the money going on a top end motherboard 
and PSU with expansion in mind. I didn't get the QX9650 CPU that I wanted 
until 2009. It was ~NZ$1.5K new in 2007 and I got it as NOS for $300 in 
2009. :)

The machine is maxed out at 8GB RAM (bought over a few years) and was 
upgraded to a 120GB SSD for OS and programmes in 2015 for not much more than 
$100. (I think that, if I need to in future I can use the spare PCI-e x 4 
slot to fit a PCIe-to-RAM adapter.) Since the initial build no (pre-planned) 
upgrade has cost more than $150. It's on it's fourth graphics card and all 
of them were mid-range cards obtained second-hand at about a year old so 
$100 at the most. The price I quoted, $2.5K was about half up front and the 
other half includes all upgrades to date. The machine plays PoE with no 
issues at all.

<fingers crossed> Going by trends over the last 25 years it should last me 
another few years before it starts to feel like it's slowing down.  Then 
maybe I'll put up with it for another five years before having to decide if 
I'm going to buy a new one.
-- 
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy 
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)