Decided to treat myself for the festive season

I used to hate computers. I used 'em 'cause I had to. They didn't do what I needed them to do, so I had to make 'em do what I needed. They were slow, awkward, and difficult.
Yo! Me too - but just a correction - Ye olde CAD tower workstation running XP-Pro 3D CAD-CAM Solidworks v10 is still wickedly fast.

If we look back over computer history, we've had some vast improvements in the tech. Some of it in ways I'd have never imagined.
Never imagined we would go from 10W to 180W power supplies - how inefficient can you get for everyday workflow..? Vast regression IMHO :eek:
My old girl (2008) is probably too old for this tech but after 823 hours run time I am well pleased with the speed – LO Writer loads in 2.5sec with Gimp taking 4.5sec – obviously small fry in your workflow but still noticeable over old HDD.
Do you mind waiting 2.5 secs (old HP) or less on old Dell i7...?
Don't amount to a hill of beans - in a day..;)
 


Ye olde CAD tower workstation running XP-Pro 3D CAD-CAM Solidworks v10 is still wickedly fast.

I found desktops (workstations ideally) to be 'fast enough' at about the 1.2 Ghz range. Once they got that fast, I was less annoyed. Right around that range, with 4 GB of RAM (at the time) was when I was no longer all that annoyed.

It's not the startup time that bugs me. I could care less if the computer took ten minutes to start. It was the constant waiting that bugged me. I remember applications taking *hours* to compile and the computer was pretty much useless while doing so.

I have a 'mobile workstation' that's getting a bit long in the teeth, but I haven't parted with it yet. It's from Titan. It's still a beast. It's still plenty efficient so I will probably replace it in the coming year and get something new. The neighbor's kid will enjoy it.

If you want to splash some cash on a modern laptop, Titan make lovely stuff. They appear to make great desktop workstations as well, but I've never purchased one from them.

 
yep my first propper desktop was what we call an IBM compatible,[for-runner of the 286] a single 5" floppy drive you had to install the os to minimal ram then use the floppy drive to store your files

My first was a TRS-80. It was paid for via the GI Bill. I had the expansion port and the cassette tape which was my storage for larger files. I even had a dot matrix printer. I'd actually write the software I needed on paper, type it in, print it out, and take it to school with me for review.

I eventually saved up enough money to buy a MODEM (MOdulate and DEModulate). It was a cradle modem, an acoustic coupler, that you'd set the phone receiver in. One way we'd pirate software was to use the device's acoustic feature to play a tape over the phone while it recorded at the other end.

This was another era... Phones were expensive in the US. It was like a few dollars *per minute* to call just a state or two away. That was what first got me interested in what we'd call 'hacking' today. You could do things like dial into the local phone exchange and then use that to dial out to another number and you were only making a local call.

From there, you'd dial into a company - not using some URL. You'd dial into the mainframe at IBM and root around in there. I'd dial into the school's computers as well - but that was a local call as I lived right there in Cambridge.

Man... Those are memories I've not thought of in a long time... They didn't even have laws on the books to really do much. So, you weren't really committing a crime - other than the free phone calls.
 
Right around that range, with 4 GB of RAM (at the time) was when I was no longer all that annoyed.
Intel Quad core Q8300 @ 2,500MHz and 4GiB RAM back in 2009 might have been quick but for me, just a place for SolidWorks to reside and earn me money and realize inventions. Finite Stress Analysis calculations could take 24 hours at which point I would pull the plug and try another mesh.

It still is fast and a decent movie maker and DTP too. Tempted to fit SSD for internet and Linux even though buying another 3.5” would be simplest solution to keep old HDD data completely safe.

The old HP G60 laptop made SolidWorks portable for client demonstrations but rapidly declined due to WinVista Home Premium and AV software.
 
Intel Quad core Q8300 @ 2,500MHz and 4GiB RAM back in 2009
My dell is a 2010 twin core, 4gb ram and now an SSD, it is still a perfectly usable machine for daily use, I don't need anything faster or newer as I am no longer a teenager and have no interest in playing games
 

That'd be the last Windows OS I used. 7 was out, but I never upgraded. I sold my company, retired, and pretty much immediately moved everything to Linux as I no longer had to worry about interoperability.
 

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