EricBall's Tech Projects

All started with an Intel 386SX 16 in the late 80s, followed by an AMD 386 DX 40 and an Intel Pentium 100. At that time (90s) you had to exchange them quite frequently. Then I must have owned an Intel Pentium 166 (I hardly remember that one). 

 

In July 2003 followed an Athlon XP 2000+, which lastest 9 years.

 

My current one, an Intel i5 3570K lasted the longest. I switched to it in September 2012.

 

And accidentally I just yesterday ordered an AMD Ryzen 5700G.  

Hmm... while that's not a bad processor, it's a AM4 processor so if you want to upgrade to a Zen 4 processor you'll need to upgrade your motherboard as well.

 

My daily driver PC is an eMachines Pentium M 1.7. Got it in 2004 and still use it today, with Windows XP, to run the family business and all sorts of pertinent correspondence.

 

It's notable that the basic ho-hum not-exciting PCs of the dotcom era are far outliving the $$$$ MaximumPC builds and builds with all kinds of performance enhancements and RGB bling. Those blingblang machines always seem to develop issues and are usually unstable. Double the trouble if it's an AMD.

 

Once I got that cheap ass eMachines I was able to blissfully stay off the upgrade bandwagon. I also stopped chasing specifications shortly thereafter.

 

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Other older machines include my original Gateway 2000 486 DX2/50. I don't use it these days, it's for sentimental value. Also have some sort of Abit BX6-R2 PIII-1.4 frankenstein homebuilt surviving from the thick of the dotcom era. When new graphics architectures and CPU speed grades were coming out every 6 months.

 

Nowadays we just do those disposable miniPCs to stay abreast of the newest tech.

I used an XP HP from 2003? for about ten years. Still use it to rip CDs.

 

Current pc is an ASUS pre built (an OEM Z87 board) I bought my mom in 2012-13. Have almost maxed it out - went from an i3 to the highest gen 4 i5 and max memory.

Most of my PCs are around the same time period. Even my "gaming" rig is.  Most games over 5 years old run great with a i7 4790k on a Z87PLUS and GTX 1660 "SUPER". It is a lot cheaper to max out old hardware than new.

10 hours ago, EricBall said:

Hmm... while that's not a bad processor, it's a AM4 processor so if you want to upgrade to a Zen 4 processor you'll need to upgrade your motherboard as well.

I know. But I have upgraded my PC CPUs only maybe once. And was 30 years ago. And still they lastest quite long lately.

10 hours ago, Keatah said:

...with Windows XP, to run the family business and all sorts of pertinent correspondence...

Running an Windows XP PC connected to the net is a very bad idea.

Longest running PC I had (over 20 years in service) is this Sony VIAO U running XP which I ordered at the end of 2001 from Japan, I got the grey market import to get the 30 GB drive instead of the 20 GB drive shipping with the US version:

It finally stopped working about 2 years ago, I was able to boot it up for 5 seconds tonight after seeing this thread and trying several times.

It got worse and worse, eventually it would only boot if I plugged in the power (powersurge booting) while turning it on.

Hesitant to open it and find the Cap that needs replacing... anyone have an idea how to fix it?

 

On 4/4/2023 at 8:55 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Running an Windows XP PC connected to the net is a very bad idea.

How does this work, really? Has Microsoft had an active malware filter running on all Windows installations, besides the software you install on your own, and once the operating system goes EOL, they remove the filter to expose the computer to all sorts of port hacking, viruses and trojans? I mean the vast majority of security holes probably have been found and fixed before, and as the number of XP machines connected to the Internet is dwindling, hackers have less and less reason to target their attacks towards newly found security holes in a 20 year old OS, compared to targeting Windows 7+ and even more so 10.

I’ve long ago learned to downplay security hype - which is a marketing tool to get you to keep buying new stuff.

 

Common sense and good practices go a long way here.

7 hours ago, carlsson said:

I mean the vast majority of security holes probably have been found and fixed before,

The vast majority, yes. Nevertheless, sometimes hefty risks are detected today which went undiscovered for 10 years or so. Also all security measures like WiFi encryption or secure network protocols are becoming more and more insecure over time, as cryptanalysis progresses. Also, why should the hackers remove their once working exploits from their tools? 

7 hours ago, carlsson said:

and as the number of XP machines connected to the Internet is dwindling, hackers have less and less reason to target their attacks towards newly found security holes in a 20 year old OS, compared to targeting Windows 7+ and even more so 10.

Today's Windows still uses code which is 20 years or more old. If that gets attacked, XP often automatically gets attacked too. And there are still millions of XP installations running worldwide, often in the public sector or in the industry. Usually these are hidden to the internet, but firewalls and local networks are getting attacked too. 

 

So, the tools for attack XP are still available and used. And XP is still a valid target.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Thomas Jentzsch