| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 1:12 PM Peter King via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: | > I didn't even consider ThinkCentres, which word-of-mouth had rated as | > overpriced and underpowered, | > | You had me at overpriced. There's a robust resale market. That's where I've bought all but one of my ThinkCentres. Prices vary (not an "efficient market"). | To some people the value of the brand is worth the premium, which takes us | back to the original subject. I actually appreciate support. I've had updated firmware released for 8-year-old ThinkCentres. I also like the mechanics. How it is easy to disassemble and reassemble the boxes. | > I suspect this list of desiderata would apply to many in this group: | > | > - reliable and long-lived | > | This is usually measured by warranty length. For instance: typically cheap | storage drives will have a year or two warranty, high-end drives (that | might otherwise have identical specs) five years or more. All part of the | value tradeoff. The warranty length is a hint, just like the branding. In fact it often follows the branding. I cannot imagine returning a storage drive. The security and privacy risks are obvious. (Without Secure Erase, you cannot be sure that all your data has gone from the drive.) So I take the warranty as an unreliable signal of the manufacturer's confidence in the product. There are also lots of very technical issues that probably affect reliability. - CMR vs SMR - SLC vs MLC vs TLC vs QLC vs ... - DRAM cache vs pseudo SLC cache vs HMB - over provisioning | > - user-upgradeable and user-fixable | > | I find a remarkable amount of PC hardware not user-fixable. | User-replaceable may be as good as it gets. One question is: how large is the module that needs to be replaced? Also: how much skill is needed to do so? The same is true of cars and many other appliances. --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk