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Part of growing up? Becoming humble in personal computer use as the years go by

computerdude92

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I've probably said in the past that I call myself a retired gamer. That has merit, I feel pretty much content playing a medley of the same old games for the rest of my life and focus on more practical things to do with my computers, which I feel can be more rewarding and worthwhile. I want to digitize my DVD's and VHS tapes to MP4 or AVI files to save shelf space, create 3D movies with software such as IClone5, or organize and shrink down my 15 year collection of files made since my teen years.

I suppose I'm either old fashioned in my way of thinking and feeling, or I'm just becoming more mature. I'm almost 30.

I've spent only about $40 on my graphics card and it works great for my needs. I think it's a waste to spend big dough on high end gaming stuff and see it go obsolete and unsupported for playing the latest games in just a few years. Plus I feel watching 1080p digital download versions of movies is more my thing. I never have to worry about upgrading in order to keep on watching movies. Also high end GPU's take up way too much heat and power. I rather save on my electric bill.

I also get tired and frustrated of the whole upgrade process in general. I don't want to lose compatibility with my favorite software or have to design a whole new complicated computer build or learn new tech stuff. Plus mostly every new tech spies on us. I don't want to buy into any of it. I'll just keep spare parts for my aging PC's. Once they don't work with modern browsers anymore, I'll just go to the public library to use the internet.

Does anyone else feel similar to how I feel, being over the hill as a computer user or geek but you don't really mind it? I now feel a simple life is the happiest life.
 
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Everybody gets burned out from being an early adapter and spending major money on PC upgrades over time. People get set in their ways over time. Some people just don't have the cash to spend even if they wanted to keep up.

Not sure why people want to shrink the space DVDs take unless you have a 1000's of them they are pretty easy to store.
 
I've spent big money on computers in the past. It was stupid. I always look for deals, even in the past. I won't and really can't spend big money these days. But I still love to tinker and put stuff together. I'm always discovering ways to get pretty damned good performance on a budget. Take the mining gpu's I've bought recently. About 40$ apiece, they're the equivalent of gtx 1060's. I haven't even gotten 1 working yet, but my understanding is they'll even work with Steam.

I was contemplating a new build this week but I'm 90% sure I'm going to pass. I've barely touched a respectable system I've built recently (really close to a year ago now). Deals are always coming down the pike. You don't have to jump on all of them.
 
I used to be a BIG collector. I brought home lots of old PCs and parts from the recycling center I volunteered at, as well as anywhere else I could receive them. At one time my hoarding disorder got so bad I had 83 computers if I remember exactly and I needed to rent a heated storage unit. I probably got hoarding disorder from my parents. (No offense to them)

I overcame my addiction all by myself by downsizing gradually for about 5-6 years. It was tough and emotional for me to part with all that stuff, but I realized I didn't need all the bloat. Everything I have needs a purpose or it has to go. I'm still not all the way done. Just a few more cases, systems, and hardware parts to let go of. I'm keeping my top favorite ones of course. I wonder if computer geeks in general are more prone to developing hoarding disorder?

I now plan to have only 3 computers with spare parts saved just for them - once I finish building them. Collecting is nice if it's manageable. I need to be able to walk into the front door of my house LOL!

All I need is my:

1. Internet/main PC

2. Win9x Pentium II machine

3. 486 DOS machine

That's all I need to be happy in PC land. Just 3 computers. I still have my old collection of vintage sound cards. I can swap them in and out whenever I want to capture MIDI music with Goldwave or Audacity, rather than having a whole bunch of old PCs laying around with different sound cards installed in 'em.
 
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. . . they're the equivalent of gtx 1060's. I haven't even gotten 1 working yet, but my understanding is they'll even work with Steam
A little more on this and what does Steam have to do with it? Also, what's broke on those cards and do they 'smell' odd?
 
I bought them new and verified that the system acknowledges their presence. Should have said haven't gotten them up and running. Nothing is broke afaik, except me. You generally have to perform a little hack to get them running. Linus did a video about it.

Kind of the point is if it plays nice with Steam, it's fully functional. People have gotten mixed results.
 
I've spent big money on computers in the past.
I've always said that if I spent as much money on wood shop tools as I did on computer equipment, not only would I have a shop that would rival Norm Abrahms, but I'd still have the tools and they'd still be useful.

Of course, I'm not a woodworker, so there's that detail to it all...
 
I use 30-plus-year-old computers on a regular basis, so I definitely don’t care about having the latest and greatest!

If computers were as interesting today as they were in, say, 1984, I would probably be much more into modern computing. That’s not to say they’re aren’t any new computers I like, it’s just most of them are pretty uninspiring compared to my old ones.
 
I've spent big money on computers in the past. It was stupid. I always look for deals, even in the past. I won't and really can't spend big money these days. But I still love to tinker and put stuff together. I'm always discovering ways to get pretty damned good performance on a budget. Take the mining gpu's I've bought recently. About 40$ apiece, they're the equivalent of gtx 1060's. I haven't even gotten 1 working yet, but my understanding is they'll even work with Steam.

I was contemplating a new build this week but I'm 90% sure I'm going to pass. I've barely touched a respectable system I've built recently (really close to a year ago now). Deals are always coming down the pike. You don't have to jump on all of them.

You are talking about headless mining GPUs that you would need to run with a specific motherboard+ CPU combo with built in video that under special hacked drivers would allow sending video out from the GPU to the monitor via PCIE bus using the built in motherboard displayport connector.
 
yes, but the Zotac cards are so basic you can, I believe, solder video connectors to the pads on the circuit board. You may or may not have to perform that hack, not sure. Their gtx 1060 product is identical, The p106-90 mining cards just don't have video connections. I suppose their could be firmware differences, but I don't think those difference can't be overcome. For 40$ I figured I couldn't go wrong. I bought 4 of them.

I'm not sure what you mean by a specific motherboard.
 
yes, but the Zotac cards are so basic you can, I believe, solder video connectors to the pads on the circuit board. You may or may not have to perform that hack, not sure. Their gtx 1060 product is identical, The p106-90 mining cards just don't have video connections. I suppose their could be firmware differences, but I don't think those difference can't be overcome. For 40$ I figured I couldn't go wrong. I bought 4 of them.

I'm not sure what you mean by a specific motherboard.

I was under the impression you were talking about the Linus tech video on youtube using mining cards made without pads for video connectors at all (nothing to solder to on the board).
 
in the one video, towards the end, Linus suggested soldering connectors to something. I want to say he was using a Gigabyte card, but can't remember exactly. When he said that, Anthony said "are the chips there" or something like that. The Zotac cards have pads on the circuit board. Can't speak to every vendor. The Zotac card is probably more generic then any of the others, and from my vantage point would likely lend itself to conversion more readily. Whether using the display port method or adding video connectors.

Tech Yes City also did a video, maybe 2. There was a post on Linus' forum that said his card worked fine. I'd have to look. He must have had a Zotac, as it turned up in a google search.

Linus wasn't using a special motherboard as I recall. These are 3gb cards mind you. 1060s are typically 6gb.

I disassembled everything but my Xeon, so I can't even test these at the moment (Linux sees them though, I verified that for each). The Xeon doesn't have on die graphics. So until I add connectors it's a no go.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08eeXcIeM14

It works to a large extent, if you're computer isn't too old (Intel 4th gen or newer), and you're nvidia driver isn't too new. As far as gaming he say games from 2019 onward will give problems. It's something I can play with, and may get into gaming a bit, it can still presumably function as a generic graphics card for whatever else. At the very least you have the horsepower of 4 gpu's if you're motherboard has enough pci-e connectors. You only need a x1 slot to tap these for mining or whatever else.
 
I use 30-plus-year-old computers on a regular basis, so I definitely don’t care about having the latest and greatest!

If computers were as interesting today as they were in, say, 1984, I would probably be much more into modern computing. That’s not to say they’re aren’t any new computers I like, it’s just most of them are pretty uninspiring compared to my old ones.


Oh yes, this. While I do have a handful of new systems - or fairly new at least - I use old systems from the 80s and 90s every day. And while these things are a lot more expensive to buy than they were, it is hard to imagine not adding to the 'collection' from time to time, even though it isn't really a collection so much as a range of 20-30+ year-old computers from which I can select the best tool for the job to be done.

For me, the basic issue with more modern systems is that they are so bloated and over-featured that I never feel I control them, they always seem to be in charge of me and the work I do. My iMac, for example, is constantly pinging and beeping with incoming emails, texts and notifications of all kinds. My Win 10 box never entirely seems to be working right and needs semi-constant attention. In both cases my workflow is disrupted.

Whether my (newly acquired) Mac Classic or Toshiba T3100e, or NEC portable, or even a PowerBook 1400 I actually forgot I still had, I can just focus on getting a task done. And even though I now have a few more old systems than I probably need, well, there's always a possibility something I don't yet have will benefit.

I started learning to program in 1979 and have spent my years since working in computing as the pace of development and change has gradually increased. It's good to get back to my roots.
 
In my opinion, 90's computers and newer are more interesting. There's so much more you can do with them compared to 80's computers. So many endless hardware/software options and upgrades to customize with. I'm a practical guy too and I like a computer I can build just the way I want to suit my wants and needs. 70's and 80's computers are boring to me no offense. There's not much hardware in them really that I can interchange and play with. I love to tinker... what can I say? I can't stand a stock box.
 
For me the biggest change in personal computing came when motherboards began integrating controllers, audio, memory extenders, and peripherals like mice, wifi, and in some cases the video. That made it more affordable to those who hanging around on the edge not really knowing what to buy. Suddenly, everyone had a chance to be an expert in a new thing.
 
For me, the 80's and 90's were the most interesting era. Part of it is nostalgia, the other part of it is that I did not have the money or age to obtain such money at the time. Everything was at the mercy of my parents who just saw computers as a "glorified game console".

The nostalgia part of it being that computers were looked at in the 1980's and 1990's by the mainstream as these "wonderous" devices that would pave the way to the future. There were mysteries there that we don't have today, and while most of those mysteries have been unlocked, that brings retro-computing in a modern context in, wiping away the nostalgia. Looking back now a lot of the propeganda around computing back then sounds more like a late night infomercial or an MLM, and every bit as cheesy, but there's some entertaining charm to be found in that.

In a modern context, people are doing things with these old machines that many never knew were possible. Ripping CD's and surfing TLS enabled sites on a 486 in FreeDOS, making new music and content by mixing old MIDI Technology with modern effects and DAWs. Creating new games around the old hardware that would have been smash hits in the machine's native time period because they look and work better than anything that might have existed in that time period.

If it were not for social media, creating videos, and streaming videos, I could probably carry on on my old computers forever without any fuss.

THat said there's another interesting thought this thread brings up and that's the maturity brought about by those of us who have been in this long enough. An LGR video comes to mind where Clint was talking about ransacking Home of the Underdogs to death back in the day before he started collecting big box software, and I did the exact same thing, and now here I am carrying a huge external drive with me through life to keep over 350 games, the most of which, I'll never play, and lots of old software, the most of which has either been replaced with much better open source FreeDOS alternatives, or that I no longer use because I'm either not doing that sort of thing anymore, or prefer the modern LInux equivalent. I've been thinking of purging that collection by doing a series of YouTube videos where I open up those old games, and then delete them if I don't like them enough, or keep them if I really like what I see and maybe get the big box equivalent if affordable enough.

And the same can be said of hardware. I used to be all about maxxing out memory and caches and HDD's. Now I'm kind of realizing having a 3GB drive in a Tandy is overkill. Having 80GB on a standalone system that has no CD-ROM titles on it I can run from virtualized ISO is overkill. I used to max out the RAM, but now I realize almost everything I run could get away with 32MB or less RAM on the vintage-side. I'm also thinking it's probably time to downsize again, I only really need at most 4 machines to run all the software I want to run, and even then there's some overlap.
 
Most interesting era spanned from the 8 bit wars (Tandy Coco, Atari 800, Coleco Adam, Commodore 64/128, MSX, Sinclair, etc) to the end of anything non Intel.

I liked all the competing 8 and 16 bit computer systems and the also the period that ended with the 486 where you had Amiga, Sun, Atari ST, Silicon Graphics, 68K/PPC mac fighting it out. Even the PC's of the era had a ton of competing standards like EISA, ISA, PCI, VLB plus multiple x86 chip makers like IBM, Cyrix, Intel, AMD, etc. Plus you had a few UNIX OS's around along with Win3/9x/NT and OS/2 to play around with plus assorted Linux. People forget Apples first Unix was A/UX followed breifly by AIX and then OSX.

Granted once Intel won prices started to drop to be comparable to what 8 bit systems used to cost.
 
I'm only chiming in to add a few cents (ok, this is turning into a full dollar ;) ) that it seems unfair to have a predefined or set mentality of what is fine or needed and what isn't as a permanent end all.

Needs change, desires change, something you may find irrelevant or useless today suddenly becomes crucial years later because you've discovered new interests or hobbies. So I don't think setting a pre-defined or "set in my ways" sort of mental guideline is ever necessary all the while the justification of either not wanting to or being able to obtain or afford the latest and greatest is also not needed. Not everyone has a bottomless bank account, most don't have one at all and that's the charm in finding great deals on hardware that can do the job well or bring joy in our lives. That in itself though is the beauty of "personal" computing, it's whatever works for you and your needs, whenever and however that may be.

I guess mostly I'm saying this 40 years in. I've missed out on a lot because I've listened to others say similar things in the past which forced me to think differently (in a non-good, non-Apple way) and I've been a collector in the past which was also a learning experience in that you don't have to (and most certainly never should) own everything to be happy and it doesn't make sense to either but now I'm a "only keep what I use" type of person (and have been for the past 10 years almost) with a few off the wall goofy things that truly make me happy to own, regardless of need, use or justification. Some things just don't need to be justified if they make you happy. I think it's important to accept that. Just as you don't need to justify why you refuse to upgrade a new build every 3 months, though it's not the late 90s anymore and computers are so insanely fast now as long as you were to build a mostly recent or modernized system, you'd be set for 5+ years easy.

But.. if it's not money related prohibiting you from adopting the future or accepting the crazy technology in front of us (at least to accept that it's changing and evolving), then there's no necessary reason to absolutely avoid it either as you're just as likely to miss out on something great now or in the near future as you may have in the past, and I speak from experience. If anything, I feel we're at one of the more interesting turning points in computer history, where monstrous GPUs, data storage and AI have basically become or exceeded anything I could have hoped for from say, the 90's looking forward. Lusting over a million dollar Cray computer and now anyone can now own a $699 video card that can do computations that even Cray would be blown away with then, or specifically in my case, rendering photo realistic images in a matter of minutes instead of something that used to take literally 3 days or more on our older machines all while still not achieving even a margin of the same results that you can now thanks to the years of software revisions, experience from thousands of people all compounded. Definitely not to be taken for granted then or now.

If by humble you mean "appreciative" then I can certainly agree to that. Having gone through countless computers during the thrift and flea market days (which I'm forever grateful for living through since it allowed us to experience all these fantastic, various hardware and software combinations, from failures to success) and growing up with little or next to nothing really (truly) makes you appreciate what you have now, have had and what's on the horizon... may that be next year or in the next 10. Nothing was better than earning some money by cutting a few lawns and then it being enough to buy a complete used system back then, sometimes with amazing accessories and more, may they have included documents, photos, software or other fascinating memories from a previous owner to explore.

TL;DR I just feel like closing your mind off completely or placing unnecessary limitations or restrictions seems to be the opposite of what would be considered a healthy relationship with technology all-around and in the end, no justification is needed either way.
 
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