Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
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On 1 Jan 2005 03:28:54 -0800, "jd" <sickboy2all@aol.com> wrote:
>the initial post from david b. got me to thinking. i bought my two 4600
>desktops almost one year ago to this day. at the time dell promoted the
>2.8 p4 with 533fsb, 512 ram, and 80gig hd as a machine which delivers
>"exeptional performance". i did some research at the time and found
>articles dated just over a year before my purchase, which called this
>configuration one with "bleeding edge performance".they said it was
>capable of amatuer video editing, running graphic intensive programs,
>gaming, and multi-tasking with ease. real power. and these claims hold
>true. it does all these things with relative calm. and it is indeed
>speedy. now, just a year after my purchase and just two years after
>the "bleeding edge performance" article, a machine with my exact
>specs(sans agp slot)can be found as the dimension 3000 and is promoted
>as a budget computer with the tag line of "essential technology on a
>budget". so for those of you who have been around computers a lot
>longer then i have, my question to you is this: what is this all about?
>what is in the numbers and the "new" technology that i don't already
>have?
Well, what's "in" those numbers is BIGGER numbers, of course.
> i've read a lot in the past year and have learned much about how
>computers work, etc. but benchmarks mean very little to me so long as
>my machine works well for me.
Listen to yourself: "My machine works well for me"
>so will i really need pci express, ddr2
>ram and a duel core processor in the future to truly keep up with the
>new machines or is all this much ado about nothing? as of now i don't
>even have hyper-threading.
Oh dear, guess that means you must be HYPO-threading then, huh?! Tsk!
>which i don't think i miss. and my machine
>seems just as capable and quick as a friend of mines p4 3.2 he
>purchased this past summer. so is the average home user simply being
>sold better mouse traps, so to speak?
(The term "better mouse trap" means something that is actually
BETTER!) Your "average home user" is being sold something more akin
to those 'bigger-is-better' emails you get, promising you a size
increase that will finally please your lady!
> or will i really need the latest
>"latest and the greatest". and if so, when? can my beloved machine
>really become a relic like so many p II's before it? just some food for
>thought.
By coincidence, I bought a 4600 just a year ago for my wife. At about
the same time I bought a Dimension XPS (3.0 GHz, 2 GB memory) for
myself.
My wife, a year later, couldn't be happier. She surfs the web, does
email, and uses WordPerfect. Period. This computer will ALWAYS be
adequate for her interests.
I do a great many more things with my computer than she does with
hers, and I like to have several programs running simultaneously.
She, on the other hand, has no use for the task bar--only runs one
program at a time!
About 6 weeks ago we finally had DSL reach us (after years of 24.6
kbps dial-up). My wife's computer use changes only in that she can
surf more quickly, and she, of course, loves that.
But I can now consider downloading movies (on dial-up it took 3 weeks
at 24/7--I tried it just once!). And there's a whole new buncha stuff
I must become familiar with in order to do that.
The only reason I would upgrade to faster-bigger is if I were starting
to feel the bind of a current system.
--John W. Wells