Workstation Replacement

[wct097]

Is it just me, or are you not getting much more for your money today? Four years ago we got PCs with the following specs:

3rd gen quad i7
16gb RAM
256gb SSD
1TB HDD
discrete graphics card

Today, for the same money (~$1600), I can get:

6th gen quad i7
16gb RAM
512GB SSD
discrete graphics card

I net a newer gen processor, 256gb increase in SSD space and a 1tb loss in HDD space for $1600 to replace a 4 year old machine.

 

[Jays89YJ]

Looking at your specs, I assume you're paying a premium for that $512GB SSD. Is that what's driving the cost?

Would you roll 100% SSD and no HDD? I did at my previous company and thought my HP laptop was a screamer when compared to the Dell HDD laptop I'm working on now.

 

[wct097]

Looking at your specs, I assume you're paying a premium for that $512GB SSD. Is that what's driving the cost?

Would you roll 100% SSD and no HDD? I did at my previous company and thought my HP laptop was a screamer when compared to the Dell HDD laptop I'm working on now.

Yeah, Dell wants a premium for everything. I was hoping to pull off a i7/32gb/1tb build with discrete graphics, but that's not looking like a possibility.

I have no major heartache for 100% SSD, but realize that if we go from 256gb SSD + 1TB HDD to 1TB SSD, we're netting a loss in capacity and only gaining some SSD size/performance and processor performance. I really expected to have a real upgrade in capacity after 4 years.

 

[themonk]

We just bought HP Z240's with Skylake i7, 32GB RAM, 256SSD, AMD discrete graphics (W5100) for $1320. Granted, we purchased 286 on one PO.

Since you're gov't, don't you have access to national accounts/contracts? Within PA, any local government/public school etc can purchase off the same contracts the Commonwealth has negotiated and for the same pricing.

 

[Jerk!]

dell got expensive, probably to buy emc.

 

[Justin]

DIY FTW!


(I know, not an option)

 

[kthrash]

keep what you have.. erase, reinstall, start from scratch.. like a new computer.

 

[Jays89YJ]

What's the allure of Dell? This Dell Latitude E5550 laptop was a bloated POS when I got it. I disabled as much Dell drivel on this thing to make it run better. IT caught wind of what I had done and asked me WTF I thought I was doing. None of it's used (all Windows controlled) and it was just hogging resources. Now this pig is a bit faster, but still nowhere near as fast as my 3+ year old HP laptop with a SSD. Not even remotely close.

What's the point of having so much internal storage? I don't save much on my machine, mostly on the network or on a USB. Even at home, I'll save more on external storage than internal. I'd be fine with 256GB SSD. That's what I had in that HP and it was fine.

 

[Justin]

What's the allure of Dell? This Dell Latitude E5550 laptop was a bloated POS when I got it. I disabled as much Dell drivel on this thing to make it run better. IT caught wind of what I had done and asked me WTF I thought I was doing. None of it's used (all Windows controlled) and it was just hogging resources. Now this pig is a bit faster, but still nowhere near as fast as my 3+ year old HP laptop with a SSD. Not even remotely close.

What's the point of having so much internal storage? I don't save much on my machine, mostly on the network or on a USB. Even at home, I'll save more on external storage than internal. I'd be fine with 256GB SSD. That's what I had in that HP and it was fine.

Dell vs HP means nothing here. It's SSD vs HDD all day long. Your current company cheaped out.

 

[abqtj]

My Dell work laptop blows

i5 2.5 GHz
4GB ram
300GB HD

 

[Jays89YJ]

Dell vs HP means nothing here. It's SSD vs HDD all day long. Your current company cheaped out.

I don't recall the HP having HP control over every piece of hardware. If it did, it didn't pop shit up every single time I started the computer. Dell does. The Dell backup recovery bullshit is annoying too. They probably did cheap out like you said.

 

[themonk]

The question I have is why your IT folk are deploying factory images on your computers. For that matter, are they even using a non-home variant?

The Dell workstation I evaluated back in the spring had nothing on it that I remember but... our organization doesn't use what comes from the factory. in fact the HP workstations I'm rolling now have an image I built and they came from the factory that way.

Factory imaging with OUR image... the way to go.

Tell your IT folks to do their jobs and build their own custom image. You can keep all of that extraneous crap off it that way.

 

[wct097]

Huh?

 

[skeptic]

Pull the discrete gfx cards out of the mix then post the prices. There is also the question of how cutting edge you are on the CPU. $1,600 is pretty spendy for a basic computer, I'm guessing the CPU and GPU are premium priced units - the rest is pretty standard. Even that SSD should be $350 max.

 

[themonk]

Huh?

Was directed at Jay.

Are you sure you don't get on a state/federal government contract? I'm confident a county here wouldn't pay that much.

 

[wct097]

Was directed at Jay.

Are you sure you don't get on a state/federal government contract? I'm confident a county here wouldn't pay that much.

I'm signed up on the Dell Premier site for our organization and getting pricing there. Waiting to hear back from the rep as to if he can do any better on prices.

 

[Jerk!]

I'm signed up on the Dell Premier site for our organization and getting pricing there. Waiting to hear back from the rep as to if he can do any better on prices.

just FYI, I often do the same thing and lately if I do a quote on premier (i like the configurator) and email it over to my rep @pcconecction shes been crushing the premier pricing lately.

 

[Short Round]

Ivy-Bridge isn't bad. Unless you're on a 3 year upgrade cycle, I'd keep what you have. The gains in processing power aren't monumental. I have an i5 Ivy Bridge machine with a 256GB SSD and it was great. I have a Broadwell based one with a Samsung 850 Pro SSD and 16GB of RAM and it too is a screamer. The difference shows in the processing of analytics, but I think it's more of a RAM need.

 

[Jays89YJ]

The question I have is why your IT folk are deploying factory images on your computers. For that matter, are they even using a non-home variant?

The Dell workstation I evaluated back in the spring had nothing on it that I remember but... our organization doesn't use what comes from the factory. in fact the HP workstations I'm rolling now have an image I built and they came from the factory that way.

Factory imaging with OUR image... the way to go.

Tell your IT folks to do their jobs and build their own custom image. You can keep all of that extraneous crap off it that way.

Yeah, it's business for sure. The Dell control shit is ****ing homo. I want to uninstall the Dell backup and recovery program completely, but IT said NEGATIVE BRO.

 

[Justin]

Yeah, it's business for sure. The Dell control shit is ****ing homo. I want to uninstall the Dell backup and recovery program completely, but IT said NEGATIVE BRO.

THEY SPYIN ON YOU BRO