[gcutler]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,484841,00.asp

 

[razorbackfan]

That make my 700mhz Dell sound like an old Packard Bell!

 

[gcutler]

Yes my 700MHz dell (in a Mini Tower to boot) pines to be a Midtower 2.66 or 2.80GHz.

I went to the web site and just picked top of the line for most things on a Dell 8200 that I might wish for and it was $3400 (Including 19" Flat Panel LCD screen).

 

[Rick_EE]

Someday we'll be snickering at you for having only a 2.8 Ghz machine. I remember paying $700 for a Pentium 90 screamer mobo/cpu combo. Another $700 for 16mb of ram. That was in '94, i think.

 

[gcutler]

Wasn't there supposed to be a Theorhetical limit at 2GHz. I remember the question of 1GHz causing interference with Radio transmission? But then again aren't we supposed to have flying cars by now

 

[razorbackfan]

I'll wait to upgrade when we get a voice recognition mega puter like on Minority Report. Hope I'm still alive...

 

[Russell R]

A couple of months ago I replaced a 4 yr old DELL and a 3 yr old IBM with two new DELL 4500s. I now have 7.5x the processor speed, 8x the memory, and over 3x the HD space.

The point is: the two new DELLs cost the same as the one old DELL did four years ago. The cost of performance is still dropping!

 

[Steve Mehs]

My 700MHz Compaq, seems slower everytime I hear news of new faster processor. But, I really don't want another desktop, when I can afford it, I'm going moble with a laptop.

 

[gcutler]

Well even the Laptops are dropping in price. It shocks me how inexpensive they are becomming. Obviously more expensive than a desktop but not out of the ballpark on price. Our corporate policy has pretty much changed from "We will get you a Laptop if you can justfy your travel needs to us" to "If you think you might take it on a trip anytime in the next 3 years, here's a laptop".

And with a docking station, your non-travelling time can be totally Desktop like.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I when my mom asked me what I wated for Christmas a few years ago I said a new computer, she asked desktop or laptop. While it killed me I said a desktop. At the time Laptops were still at P2 400MHz and I wanted much faster, which was at the time 700MHz, my mom could have ordered a 733 but Circuit City didn't know if they would get it time for christmas. Do I regret not asking for a laptop, a little but the extra 300MHz of processing power is more important to me. But if I would get a laptop, it would be totaly state of the art, so I can say for a second, I have the best laptop. My desktop has all the state or the art features of a Compaq Presario from 12/99 with 1 exception, the graphics card, The best offered was some nVidia card, but my mom went with the second best, which was a Voodoo, not that I really care though. Another, well kinda was harddrive. 7200RPM HDs were just arriving and the only 7200RPM drive Compaq offered was 13 gig, the biggest harddrive was a 5400RPM 40 gig. But I would rather have the faster one. No way will I ever use 13 GB, let alone 40. I have 6 GB used right now, that includes 1 gig worth of MP3s.

 

[gcutler]

You know there are certain laws of computer usage, that says no matter how much drive space you have, it will fill up 75% (assuming you try to keep it down). When I had a 20GB drive, it was MP3s that filled it up. When I got the 80GB drive, I just got into Morpehus type places where you can download entire episodes of TV shows, I wonder what it will be next PC. Perhaps 3-D holographic projections

 

[Mike123abc]

What is annoying is that motherboards go out of date so quickly. P4 2600 is the end of the line for 100MHZ Front side bus motherboards.

At 3GHZ you need a new motherboard again because they are changing the power requirements for the P4 past 3GHZ.

Well I just bought a new CPU 2.4 GHZ since they dropped a bunch (about $200) in price and will be a nice upgrade from 1.8GHZ. But, when I want to upgrade again I will have to buy a new motherboard.

 

[MarkA]

"I remember the question of 1GHz causing interference with Radio transmission?"

Any computer will cause interference with radio transmission, as they all fall in a radio band. The question is how much? Not a significant amount, which is why computers remain (for now) legal in FCC law. It is possible that stricter guidelines in the future may outlaw computers as we know them (that is, individual boards being FCC approved. In the future, it's possible the the FCC will only approve complete systems. I've heard it rumoured enough times. I doubt it will be true in the relatively near future)

 

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Zac
In the future, it's possible the the FCC will only approve complete systems. I've heard it rumoured enough times. I doubt it will be true in the relatively near future)

Whatever shielding they use (if any) seems to be pretty good as sitting next to a PC while wearing a radio/walkman dosen't seem to do any damage (at least to the stations I listen to)

As usual the discussions were worse than the reality. I remember people taking about how we would have to stop at 999MHz and we would be stuck forever

In 1990 I worked for a financial company that had all those "Stock Trading Computers" that you see when they show a "Wall Street Trading Room" in a movie or on TV. Those things put out so much interference it was amazing. Could not listen to a radio anywhere near the room. And one time a printer was printing garbage all of a sudden, turned out that the sheilding had worn off and the radio signals from the computers were sending signals the cable was not shielding against (the cable worked perfect in the regular office area so it was strictly the amount of interference no longer shielded). Definately not Class "B" equipment in that room.

My first VGA monitor in 1988 would make all the TVs in the house freak out when it was turned on. Gotta love Class "A" equipment/

 

[Jacob S]

I think with the advancement in computers that each advancement will be even greater and greater in that compared to the past where going from 500 MHZ to 566 MHZ was their advancement, now they have an advancement 3 times that at a time if not more now. I have heard of the release of a 3.0 GHZ and it was just a year or two ago I heard of the release of the 1.0 GHZ. It wont be long before 4 GHZ and 5 GHZ will come out and then the new wave of computer technology using molecule and atom sized chips that I have heard about a little while back where they compact the space and use less and less power.

 

[MarkA]

"Whatever shielding they use (if any) seems to be pretty good as sitting next to a PC while wearing a radio/walkman dosen't seem to do any damage (at least to the stations I listen to)" A good, commercial computer case by a reputable company does not allow any significant radio interference out. Even if it did, do note your test would be insufficient (as the frequency emitted would most likely NOT be that of the AM/FM radio bands). Where you start running into problems that could ruin the fun for everyone is people who think it's cool to build a computer in a plastic case (there's even a commercial plastic case - the Nikao Submarine), or in a cardboard box (I've seen it), or making plexiglass "windows" in their case. Or just hanging everything together and holding it with duct tape and masking tape (a school project I saw with old parts (AMD K6)... Amazingly to me, it worked!). It's these people who might ruin it for everyone. All it would take is one time one of these boxes interferes with critical communications (especially military) and the FCC will really start increasing regulations.

 

[gcutler]

I'm hoping that the interference would be short range enough. I'm about 5 miles from a Naval Air Station I assume that my worst case scenario would not interfere (even with those low flying c-130s and F-18s). Now the edge of the runway is on a busy road with lots of stores, potenitally one of those stores could be close enough?