On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 05:05:52AM -0400, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking to upgrade my PC that's served me well for about 8 years, but
> it's starting to be unreliable and I can't upgrade the RAM beyond 4GB. So
> I'm looking at a new desktop system that will be used mainly for
> many-tabs-open browsing and multimedia editing using openshot, audacity,
> etc. Of course must run Linux well.
>
> I am currently looking at two NUC-form-factor barebones systems that use
> the 8th gen Intel i7, an Intel model available through CC
> <https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=570_7_1203_1157&item_id=130569>
> and a Zotac model available from Amazon
> <https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B079H24SWZ/>. Both are about the same price. I
> would be installing 16GB RAM, an SSD and two screens.
>
> Can anyone offer any advice whether to go with one, the other, or neither?
> Are there better places to buy?
Are you particularly attached to the tiny size for any reason?
Remember smaller always costs more for the same thing.
My 6 year old laptop has higher specs than that NUC, never mind what my
6 year old desktop has in it. I guess they were a bit overkill at the
time and the reason I haven't had to upgrade anything in years (and
still don't).
Lennart: One problem with claiming "my 6 year old X has higher specs" is that it doesn't account for the generational differences in the Intel chips. Our desktops got "upgraded" at work, but I was thoroughly unimpressed because we went from an i5 to an i5, and from 8G to 8G ... but we also went from 3rd to 8th generation. A clunky Python script I run weekly to process web statistics went from 20 minutes to 2 minutes. (Part of this could be throughput on the motherboard, or from the change from spinning disk to SSD, but I think it's mostly processor.) An order of magnitude is nothing to scoff at.
Evan: From a security point of view (Rowhammer, Fallout, RIDL, ZombieLoad ...) I would encourage you to consider an AMD processor. (Or better yet, ARM - but that's not really viable on the desktop yet.) AMD isn't totally immune to the plethora of recent attacks, but it's a lot better off. (I say this, but I'm writing you from an 8th gen i7 bought in the middle of that series of appalling revelations.)