Is my work computer a piece of crap? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

CubicleGeek · 03-25-2014, 10:34 AM

It's a generation old. Depending on what you do, you "might" be able to run it a little longer if you upgrade the RAM. I wouldn't recommend anything less than 8GB nowadays.

But if you're eligible for an upgrade, get a shiny new i7 w/ 8GB RAM and it'll fly.

ken0042 · 03-25-2014, 10:37 AM

Sounds like a bit of a slug for a general office computer. Don't you work in O&G as an engineer? If so, then I would say it really is time for an upgrade. The single biggest reason is your loss of productivity would cost them more than the cost of replacing a computer.

burn_this_city · 03-25-2014, 10:38 AM

All office computers are garbage, lowest bidder bulk pricing, what do you expect? You should probably close stuff down or ask IT to install more RAM.

CubicleGeek · 03-25-2014, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

All office computers are garbage, lowest bidder bulk pricing, what do you expect? You should probably close stuff down or ask IT to install more RAM.

I beg to differ, my office computer rocks.

Locke · 03-25-2014, 10:43 AM

I've thrown out better computers than that.

Mazrim · 03-25-2014, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CubicleGeek

But if you're eligible for an upgrade, get a shiny new i7 w/ 8GB RAM and it'll fly.

If his work is anything like mine, you'll need a damn good justification to get an i7. My work has yearly updates to a list of computers you can request defined by your regular job use of that computer. So if you're running spreadsheets and email all day, you're not going to get anything much better than what Fotze is running now. If you're running 3D Modeling (Revit, Navisworks, etc.) then you get the Xeon Quad Core with 32 GB of RAM and a 3 GB Video Card. The price difference between the two is huge, so it's something we have to fight very hard to get upgraded to.

burn_this_city · 03-25-2014, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CubicleGeek

I beg to differ, my office computer rocks.

Compared to any home build they are crap. Also depends on your job/industry.

Madman · 03-25-2014, 10:47 AM

It also probably suffers from a POS hyper-protective anti virus program that scans everything endlessly that some IT guy is in love with and will fight you to the death if you tell him it's the problem.

woob · 03-25-2014, 10:51 AM

780 is not too bad, but that 2gb of memory is pretty crap. You running XP or Win7?

iggyformayor · 03-25-2014, 11:01 AM

Haha, I'm using the exact same PC. I swear I spend half my day waiting for it to catch up to me...

Hemi-Cuda · 03-25-2014, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

This computer is crawling and I have no idea how old it is. Its been a long time since I last knew anything about computing power so I am virtually my mother.

ITs a Dell OptiPlex 780.

Intel Q9400 2.66GHz with 2.0 GB ram.

http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/optiplex-780/pd

I have probably 15 programs open all the time.

Says it was made July 2011.

Just want to know if this thing is actually old before I ask for them to upgrade.

Right now I want to punch it right in the computer dick.

There's your issue. If you can't get them to give you a full upgrade, at least see if they can bump up the RAM to 4GB. That's the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit OS can handle, which I'm guessing is your office standard especially if you're stuck using some crap legacy software

Daradon · 03-25-2014, 11:13 AM

Yeah, I don't know as much as some of the computer guys on here but it definitely seems like a little more RAM could go a long way.

It's a typical office computer. A lot of people here love their blazing fast machines, so in comparison it's slow (plus techies love to brag about their... equipment), but for an office computer I'd say that's pretty typical.

CubicleGeek · 03-25-2014, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazrim

If his work is anything like mine, you'll need a damn good justification to get an i7.

True, but if he requests today, he won't get anything less than some mid-range i5 w/ 4GB of RAM - that seems to be the standard issue Dell rollout nowadays. Put in a request for an additional 4GB of RAM and it should be plenty fast for anything that does not involve 3D modelling or intense simulation. Even without the extra RAM, will be a huge upgrade to what he has today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Compared to any home build they are crap. Also depends on your job/industry.

Yah, my current role qualified me for a MacBook Pro w/ 16GB and .5TB SSD. Runs pretty much as good as my home build in every category except GPU. Coming from your standard issue Dell Latitude as my previous computer, it is night and day. Only down-side is that I can't use the 10 minute boot time as an excuse anymore to go for coffee first thing in the morning.

To Be Quite Honest · 03-25-2014, 11:28 AM

PsYcNeT · 03-25-2014, 11:46 AM

It's pretty terrible.

I have some pretty taxing programs running all the time but I'm graced with an i7-2600 and 8GB of DDR3 at work, along with a 24" 1900x1200 Dell IPS panel+a 21" 1650x1080 on the side.

Not exactly a CAD/3D workstation but more than ample for 90% of office work.

Hack&Lube · 03-25-2014, 12:02 PM

I'll take care of this. Check your PMs.

Hack&Lube · 03-25-2014, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazrim

If his work is anything like mine, you'll need a damn good justification to get an i7. My work has yearly updates to a list of computers you can request defined by your regular job use of that computer. So if you're running spreadsheets and email all day, you're not going to get anything much better than what Fotze is running now. If you're running 3D Modeling (Revit, Navisworks, etc.) then you get the Xeon Quad Core with 32 GB of RAM and a 3 GB Video Card. The price difference between the two is huge, so it's something we have to fight very hard to get upgraded to.

780s with 2.0GB of ram were designed for Windows XP requirements and should all get recycled although the CPUs are still great. Anybody stuck with one is probably a longer tenured employee which seems backward to me. New employees get new PCs and 22" HD monitors while tenured ones get ancient equipment and 19" 4:3 monitors because they are stuck with what they were originally issued.

i7 2600K's with 4GB of ram are the normal standard. I think that's not enough for some of the leviathan spreadsheets around here but a decent sized page file should take care of that. The bottleneck is still the mechanical disk.

Geosciences/Engineering may be eligible for for dual Xeon workstations with 8GB memory, 512GB SSDs, and Nvidia Quadro K5000 GPUs but those are still in beta testing with SCCM.

CubicleGeek · 03-25-2014, 12:19 PM

^

LoL. You work with Fotze? Is the process for hardware upgrade at your company to complain on public forum?

Hack&Lube · 03-25-2014, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CubicleGeek

^

LoL. You work with Fotze? Is the process for hardware upgrade at your company to complain on public forum?

Hey, O&G is all about who you know and getting around bureaucracy

.

Mazrim · 03-25-2014, 12:34 PM

Hack&Lube, are you with someone like Dell who does Enterprise solutions or just IT somewhere? I'm sure they collaborate with these companies to generate the spec sheets us workers see and choose from. Most of the time the engineers don't know what they need so IT gives them what they feel is best. Usually it's the low-end stuff with i5's at best and a little RAM like was mentioned earlier.

I would love a 24" IPS panel but our standard is a 22" 1680x1050 that is probably TN or something. Again, I would need a great reason to ask for a better monitor, and I don't really have one.