I've been using computers since the mid-1980s, and since there weren't very many people using PCs back then, there weren't people around to do any of that stuff for you. When I lived in Los Fresnos, I only knew of one other person in the city who had a computer, and he was a friend of mine. He had an Apple II and I had a Coleco Adam, a TRS-80, and a Tandy-1000. Later, I bought a string of other PCs because I needed at least three of them to run a BBS. Upgrading memory, adding hard drives, and replacing other parts were things that I did myself. Once I started the BBS, I had access to other people, some of whom I could go to for advice or even help sometimes, but there were no local computer shops to take my computer to get stuff done. Oh, I was no genius when it came to computer hardware, and there were a couple of times when my memory upgrades didn't work because I was afraid to slam them in hard enough to seat them. If you remember, memory chips had things like cockroach legs that had to be fitted into the slot and seated firmly. Since memory chips cost almost as much as the computer did, I was sometimes afraid to treat them as harshly as they needed to be treated. I can say that I built my own computer once and that it did work, although it was obsolete by the time I finished it. It was one of the earlier Pentiums. My biggest fault during this project was in assuming that a new part would actually work when some of them didn't. The worst computer that I ever bought new was an Acer. It was an absolute piece of junk, so I didn't have it for more than a few months before I started robbing it for parts. However, these days, I don't do any of my own work when it comes to computer hardware. For one thing, nothing ever goes wrong with a Mac, except that they become obsolete after ten or twelve years. They still work but can no longer accept an OS upgrade. Unless the problem is something minor that I can get fixed, I'm more apt to buy a new one. Then again, I don't even change my own tires anymore.
No hardware upgrades but I do upgrade software, reload OS, etc. I used to be more hands-on but now I have no interest in it.
I got my first IBM XT desktop clone in 1983. I was in purchasing and negotiated a deal for a bunch of us at work. Part of the deal was that I bought the guy's demo machine that had a hinged top on the case for showing people the guts. It made upgrades & repairs real easy. I've "built" (meaning "assembled") 3 desktop computers from the ground-up. I've never really opened a laptop (I'm not even certain how far into it you can get) except to upgrade memory.
I got my computer case and my ssd over the holiday and picked them up the 5th. This morning I had everything ready to do a good assembly without hurting my back and things went very well. I had it online downloading win 10 updates 20 minutes after the first startup. I still have two items to purchase before using it full time,. a good hard drive for the programs and the 3600 RAM which I did not have on hand, I used 3200 from one of my other new builds until I can order RAM at the end of this month and that should take care of all the major things. I do plan on buying some good large storage for all the computers and more important I need to redesign my desk. I have a longer wall which my TV stand sits against and a couple pieces of junk that can go, so I think I will makeup a custom plan for a heavy duty table and be able to have all my hardware easy to manage. As it is now I find it hard to move anything to remove or place a cable on the rear of any of the computers. Now that I have these two twin full towers that increases the table top weight a lot and my blank closet door has held up very well with so much on top but it is simply too small now. I have already planned on putting a new bed in my room and it will be a single that is not as wide as the bed I sleep on. The bed I sleep on today is just totally worn out and like everything else I keep putting off buying a new one. The cats are really upset cause I put their perch back on top of the little hutch I had removed it from and attached it to the two radiators I use in winter. I needed to use that hutch to assemble this last full tower computer and it was a good decision doing that, I did not hurt my back or get tired because I had lots of room to work and do what was needed without standing the whole time and looking down, I could move the little wheeled hutch and spin it to do the wiring etc. It fired up and ran like a champ. I was tired and spent about 3 and a half hours on the project then I crashed and burned for 4 hours and woke up in time for Judge Judy. I slept well that few hours and just about time to turn in again.
So you're using the SSD drive solely as a boot drive with no application programs or file storage on it? Is that a common setup? I guess degaussing an SSD drive is impossible, huh? I've not built a desktop since my employers went to laptops and I started liking the convenience of portability. Employee Purchase Plans sealed the transition and I've not switched back since.
The solid state device I use are the M.2 and there are two styles with both having a different contact pattern. You have to make sure you use the right one for your motherboard slot. I think this M.2 is keyed so you can't install the wrong one vice versa the other one. The newer laptops have the slot for ssd. These solid state card style SSD are great. I had installed the 21/2 size SSD on these other 2 3600 machines I built last year. They don't recommend defrag of the these drives. Drive is not a good description since they are not mechanical but they kept it I guess to not confuse people like us. They do work well, you have to keep in mind that the normal download folder is put on the system drive or C as a default and when you use the drive for just system files you should setup your download folder on a second drive, you don't have to but you will have to delete those installers and that is usually a pretty good work load that would be unnecessary using another drive for programs and helping the new SSD to not work so hard and wear out sooner. I think there are a lot of new laptops that don't use the 2.5 mechanical drives any longer and only use these newer SSDs. It cuts down noise and heat and uses less power. My motherboard had a nice cover for the slot and a heat sink on the under side so it touches when you place it back on top of the ssd.
The only thing I’ve been doing with our old computers is removing the hard drives before I recycle them. We will be down to two computers after we move, an old Apple PowerBook and a newish Mac Mini. We use our iPads 99% of the time for just about everything.
When I've finished with desktop computers, I've removed the hard drives, put some large magnets on them and let them sit for a week, then take them outside and beat the buhjeebees out of them with a small sledge hammer. I wish there were a way to custom-build a laptop. I guess the reasons this can't be done are obvious, so some guy made a 5 minute video to drive the obvious points home: Best Buy used to sell a "kit," but all you really did was plug in the speaker and the power adapter. Here are 6 kits & projects, but the guy in the video I posted pointed out that lots of heat builds up in those tiny cases, so component selection and placement are crucial (you cannot just add another case fan as with desktops.) I don't know how these kits & projects address that (because I only skimmed the article I just linked.)
The power guys were jacking around with the power again this morning and did one of those on and off piss me off things, it burned out my TV decoder, a capacitor popped . I took my coax and connected to my TV and surprisingly my non smart TV grabbed 38 channels without hesitation and I never realized that it would do that because I had cable connected when I bought the TV and then the cable company changed over to the newer modem which was able to run fast speed internet and also it killed my free cable. I had cable for years here and had the cable connected already so the cable guy who turned on the internet again just left it connected. I had moved over to the telephone company internet service but it went downhill very fast and when it goes off line you cannot reset it but have to call the telephone company and the repairman has to drive 4 miles over to my little town just to go into the switching building and reset my internet. No Thanks I don't want to wait on the repairman to get a moment just to reset my internet, how backwards is that. Anyway I have TV so I'm a happy camper
I definitely don't build my computers. Remember, my vcr is still flashing 12:00. I browbeat a friend to fix our computer stuff. Sadly, he says he can't quite do it anymore. His vision and other things are going down. But if I wait long enough, I get $99 walmart laptops/notebooks new if I need. I still have an antena and rotor on my roof. It gets a few channels. I think the rotor is stuck between Madison and Milwaukee. It won't turn to Green Bay for hubby's Packer games. I have two rokus in different rooms. But Roku is trying to go smart. When it does, I guess I will go back to videos, reading and sewing.
The number of channels is pretty good but more than half I wouldn't watch and those that are good start all night commercials after 12. There are some of those old rerun stations that show the good old stuff but I leave the TV on GRIT for the old westerns and then at 3pm I turn on Judge Judy and watch that for 2 full hours. Years ago I watched Judge Joe Brown he was black and like Judge Judy. He would tell the thugs "I'll Jack You Up" !!! it was so fun to watch. I believe he was from Houston.
Hmm. We buy, in the last many years, Dell computers. I did order some extra RAM for mine (directly from Dell because the recommendation RAM from another site didn't work). Works out just fine for us.
I installed one of these antennas so I can pick up 2 markets without using a rotor: TOPIC>> I used a computer I did not build to order it. <<TOPIC There is a website called TVFOOL that can tell you exactly what direction to aim them, what stations you can expect to get, the antenna type you need for each station, etc. TOPIC>> I used a computer I did not build to look up the info. for my location. <<TOPIC
I built one of these from plans found online. My 2 signal directions were 180 degrees apart, and the antenna is bi-directional, front and back.