[AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp

Rocky Smolin rockysmolin at bchacc.com
Tue Jun 14 11:25:16 CDT 2011


I have a sort of "manual raid" system.  Machine #2  is ready to take over if
machine #1 fails.  I have shortcuts on #1's desktop to folders on #2 as well
as a shortcut to the EHD.  Whenever I finish with an MDB I just drag and
drop the file to the EHD shortcut and the shortcut on #2.

So I always have 3 copies of everything.  

In addition I ghost both systems once a month and store the ghost images on
the EHD.  

Every so often I zip all the client stuff and FTP it to an outside server as
well. Redundant backup is all well and good until the house burns down - or
the burglars take all my stuff.

Crude, I know, but effective.

Rocky


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 9:20 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp

That is probably a pretty good deal.

Go with the i7 if you have the money for Dell as you will get hyperthreading
for another 20% performance boost.  i5 does not do hyperthreading.

I don't see where they will install an SSD as a boot drive.  You can do it
yourself but you will end up with warranty issues I'm guessing.

If it is "mission critical" then a raid 1 boot drive is the ticket.  This
thing will be so fast that you will not really notice the lack of a SSD -
for awhile.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

On 6/14/2011 11:57 AM, Bill Patten wrote:
> Rocky,
>
> Boot and reboot times went from about 3 or 4 minutes to well under 1 
> minute and have remained for over a year. I went with raid 0 so that 
> my 2 80's would create a 160 G C: drive. At the time 2 80G cost much 
> less than the 120 available. Sizes and prices have changed, but I 
> figure if it isn't broken why fix it.
>
> Also if your using windows 7 they make it very easy to move 
> directories like My Docs, Downloads and have the OS know where they 
> are located. This allows you to use smaller C drives for OS and in my 
> case I put my development directory on the SSD.
>
> I think the monitor was included in the $989 package with an i7 but of 
> course my memory isn't what it used to be.
>
> I don't know if you followed the URL's but below is the site where the 
> deal actually resides, and it appears that you actually buy from Dell 
> and apply discount codes to drop the price down.
>
>
> http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-xps-8300/28882.aspx
>
> I'm sure others will be able to add to this to assist you.
>
> Bill
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Rocky Smolin"<rockysmolin at bchacc.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:38 AM
> To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp
>
> Thanks Bill.  Actually everyone else is considering that I build one. 
> :) I'm still a bit reluctant.
>
> I've done my share of hardware but don't get much charge out of it.  
> If the box wasn't so mission critical I might be tempted to play with 
> it.  But I'm jealous of the time.  I'm switching from software\e 
> developer to upright jazz bass player and would rather spend the time
doing that.  My 14 y.o.
> needs a new box and he's tech mad so maybe I'll let him build one.
>
> I've always bought Dell because of the charm of not having to leave my 
> chair, a few clicks and walla! Someone brings the comp to my door!  I 
> plug and play.
>
> Upgrading to the SSD seems like a good thing.  How's that working for you?
> Does it really boost the response time?
>
> One of the things that's driving me to this new comp is the increasing 
> delay when opening Access, Excel, Word, sometimes opening emails.  I 
> think it's because there's more processes now than there was 4-5 years 
> ago when I got this box and I've only got 2BG RAM. In it.
>
> The deal looks good except I don't need another monitor.  I suppose 
> it's not a refurb and the Dell warranty applies.
>
> Hopefully, BTW, this thread is useful enough to the AccessD community 
> that the moderator will let it play out.
>
> And my thanks to all who responded.  It's been educational.
>
> Best to all,
>
> Rocky
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Bill Patten
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:25 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp
>
> Hi Rocky,
>
> I know you are now considering building your own, and as many have 
> suggested that can be fun, though sometime's not when the some of the 
> pieces don't work together and you get to exchange for some that will.
>
> You mentioned that you were considering Dell, I bought a Dell XPS 410 
> a few years ago, and as time went on, changed the processor to a Quad 
> Core, increased Ram to 8G, even though the book said only 4. I 
> replaced the 2 250G Raid 0 hard drives with 2 80 G SSD's Raid 0 and a 
> 500G drive D: etc to keep it fairly fast and current and am quite happy
with it.
>
> Anyway I saw this Gear Deal on Gear Diary and thought it might interest
you.
> They have Dell XPS 8300 with I5  Quad Sandy Bridge , 8G Ram 1.5 TB etc 
> for $699.99. The normal Dell price is $1202. They also offer I7 and 
> other upgrades.
>
> I have never purchased anything from them so I cannot make a 
> recommendation but thought you might want to take a few minutes to check
it  out.
>
> http://www.geardiary.com/2011/06/14/gear-deal-dell-xps-8300-quad-core-
> deskto
> ps-core-i5-and-i7/
>
>
>
> Bill
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Rocky Smolin"<rockysmolin at bchacc.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 1:58 PM
> To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp
>
> So what's the processor of choice?
>
> Rocky
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
> Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 10:22 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp
>
> I concur with John too!  ;)
>
> I know that for folks who have never built a machine it is scary but 
> once you get over that (unless something goes wrong... it is trivial 
> to build) the ability to upgrade and the future lack of fear makes it 
> well worth doing.
>
> I routinely upgrade my existing systems.  Dual core to quad, to hex, 2 
> gigs to 4 to 8, 320g hd to tbyte etc.  It costs waaaaaay less that 
> buying a whole new machine and you can continually have fast systems 
> instead of systems that are always old / slow (after the first year you
have them).
>
> I built a dual socket server with 16 dim slots.
>
> I populated one side with the old opteron 8 core and 32 gigs of ram.  
> The mb/proc/memory was around $1700.  I am (im)patiently waiting for 
> the bulldozer chip to arrive and drop in price, but when it does I can 
> drop in one or two of those chips and bump my server from 8 cores to 
> as many as 32, with faster processors to boot and update my memory up to
128 gigs as well.
>
> I can't even tell you how much I saved by not going the dell/hp route, 
> but it would be at *least*
> 3-4 times as much and 4-5 times as much for future upgrades.
>
> And... I used my old server hardware to build a Virtual Machine 
> server.  I got a 16GB quad core VM for *free* because I reused my old 
> SQL Server hardware for that after the upgrade.
>
> BTW I am using SSDs both for boot drives as well as for storing 
> database files for SQL Server and they are awesome (if expensive).
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
> On 6/13/2011 12:22 PM, Drew Wutka wrote:
>> I concur with John here.  From a business standpoint, if you are 
>> supporting a large network, you can't afford to build each machine.
>> But in a single or only a few environment, you will get better prices 
>> with building your own machine, then a single purchase from a 
>> manufacturer like Dell.
>>
>> The machine I built in January, that I posted about on OT, cost me 
>> about a grand, and similar hardware, actually.... lower level 
>> hardware (my machine has more ram and bigger hard drives), cost about 
>> 1,600 from Dell.
>>
>> Originally, the machine I built only cost $650.  That was the case, 
>> the motherboard, an i5 Quad Core, 8 gigs of RAM, video card, and two 
>> 500 gig hard drives.  I already had a 500 watt power supply, only 
>> component I didn't originally buy.  A few days later I bought three 
>> terabyte drives,
>> 8 gigs more of RAM (maxing out that motherboard).  That was almost $300.
>> And more recently I popped another terabyte drive in (making my 'data'
>> drive a RAID 10, vs a RAID 5), bought a new 850 Watt power supply, 
>> and a nice UPS (put the total closer to 1300, the ups was almost 200).
>>
>> There has already been suggestions to use a SSD OS drive, I 
>> personally have not done that.  The mirrored drives for the OS are pretty
fast.
>> While SSD drive are definitely faster than their mechanical 
>> counterparts, they are still limited by the bus they operate on.
>> Plus, SSD drives do have longevity issues, and are not recommended 
>> for
> RAID's.
>> I always prefer RAIDS for safety reasons.... ;)
>>
>> Drew
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
>> Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 12:12 PM
>> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp
>>
>> I would advise building your own.  You may or may not save money but 
>> you learn what is required to do so (it is easy) and you are no 
>> longer afraid of digging in and upgrading.  I have not purchased a 
>> desktop since 1988.  I build my own and upgrade them to keep them fast
enough.
>>
>> I recommend AMD because the motherboards tend to be usable for many 
>> years with just a processor upgrade.
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.
>> 6
>> 67
>> 457
>>
>>
>> Intel processors are fine but there are just too many different 
>> processor sockets etc.  Upgrading to a faster processor may or may 
>> not even be possible.
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.
>> 6
>> 61
>> 393
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Store/MasterComboStore.aspx?StoreID=7&name=DIY-
>> P
>> C-
>> Combos
>>
>> John W. Colby
>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
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