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Re: Computer repair/upgrade (was RE: A data point on offshoring
Subject:Re: Computer repair/upgrade (was RE: A data point on offshoring From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 Nov 2003 12:56:09 -0500
MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com wrote:
> b) unless you are a die-hard hobbyist,
I guess that would be true if I were a gardening writer or something and IT
wasn't my core business. But as an IT tech writer, it's my profession, not a
hobby. I really feel I need to know how this stuff works. The experience of
building and upgrading your own PC pays off when it breaks in the middle of
the night, and you just fix it and keep going on your deadline. It also adds
to your general IT comprehension, which comes in handy on the job in a
number of ways. And it pays off literally, because once you build and
configure your own PC you never need to pay a repair guy again.
Besides, there is a certain amount of retro/geek chic in making the old
systems sing :-)
> it's not worth
> updating a computer that's more than three years old
> -- you'd do better to just buy a middle-of-the-line
> complete new box, as you'd be getting more for your
> money than if you spent the time and money to insert
> a bunch of upgrades into an aging carcass.
Normally I'd agree with you... but right now the technology is in a weird
stasis point where:
...the new hardware keeps getting faster and cheaper
...which makes the used systems even cheaper,
...but the new software still runs fine on the old systems.
This stasis is likely to persist until some new software comes out that
needs faster hardware. I do most of my work on a P3-500. In fact, I'm
running a Windows PC and two Linux boxes that cost me a total of about
~$900, including four nice 17" monitors I picked up for $35 each. I really
don't need anything faster right now, although I'm sure there are tech
writers out there who do. I probably won't need to upgrade my hardware
until I need to do video encoding, or install a 64-bit OS.
I've used plenty of higher-spec systems at my clients' sites, and it really
doesn't seem to run any faster than my system. The main bottlenecks these
days seem to be on the network or on Windows itself.
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