Daily Thoughts

[Vyn]

Good luck with the job hunt, Z!.

[Zzzptm]

Good luck with the job hunt, Z!.

Discovered pretty quickly that all the roles I'm most interested in require a CISSP certification.

So now I'm about 10% into Shon Harris' CISSP guide. I'm getting ready for the security trivia contest.

[Vyn]

One of these days, they are going to have to stop using her name.

[Zzzptm]

One of these days, they are going to have to stop using her name.

Unless she's become the Betty Crocker of cybersecurity... then it's a registered trademark.

[Charger]

Been thinking about upgrading my pc a little bit...It's already way over 5 years old and I am worried that it might crash and burn soon and I'd rather upgrade before that happens so I could easily transfer all of my files and stuff...

BUT the big problem now seems to the component availability...and the prices for processors, motherboards, RAM and especially display cards have gone through the roof.

6-7 years ago when I last upgrades I got all the components for well under a grand and they were bit above average in terms of processing power and such...

Now though a grand is nowhere near enough. Processor (was thinking about changing back to AMD after 15 or so years with Intel) and motherboard alone are around 400€...even if I didn't get a display card yet as they are in such short supply at the moment I'd still be looking at almost another 400€ for RAM and Bluray drive plus another 100€ for a bigger ssd harddrive...and that doesn't include new coolers and power supply...

I guess I'll be waiting for bit longer then and hope this still lives on...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I built my own about 20 years ago and saved money on buying one off the shelf... which never quite meet the spec you want. When that one had served well for years and I came to get a new one I was shocked how much the self assembly would cost compared with off the shelf. The last 2 or 3 computers I've bought have both been off the shelf and I've just tweaked the spec which the supplier has done at reasonable prices. Actually my current one is coming up to 6 years of age, but it still seems reliable and not overly slow or out of date. I back up the important data to a USB HDD which I should do at least weekly bu sometime forget!

It might be worth looking at what the market has and comparing it with what a self build will cost you.

[Zzzptm]

I've been getting laptops over the last pile of years, so I go with online sites that allow me to do lots of configuration. If I get a Sager or ASUS or MSI, I can usually get more stuff in it than if I go with a Dell, HP, or Lenovo. I used xoticpc.com for my builds. I like to game, and that was the best way to get a laptop with the config that I wanted.

[Charger]

Only my first ever computer (a 286) back in 91 (or 92 can't remember anymore) was a ready bought computer... I have built all others myself...and I doubt I'll change that now.

The thing is you ALWAYS need to buy something else anyways...and the biggest problem with off the shelf computers tends to be the motherboard which is quite often a cheap one with very few connection ports...and I need atleast 6 SATA ports alone and that's not such a common sight so I'd be royally screwed when I'd be installing my own harddrives into that store bought computer just to notice I'm too ports short!

Price wise I don't think there is much difference anymore between full computer packages compared to building one yourself...but the benefit is you will get EXACTLY the kind you want when you do it yourself...and you don't need to replace components right away...which would void the warranty on the whole thing...when buying components yourself and building it up each individual component has it's own warranty and quite often those warranites are a long longer than the whole computer would have.

I'm not quite ready to go Laptop yet...I need a big screen a lot of storage space...and a proper keyboard and mouse too...also connectivity is important as I need a lot of USB ports for my PS4, printer, phone etc....would never work with a Laptop..

I

[Zzzptm]

xoticpc also does desktops. They allow you to pick your parts, make them to order with the expectation that you may want to rip and replace. Might want to give them a look.

[Charger]

I am not familiar with that brand...might not be available here at all...

[Zzzptm]

True, I don't know if they ship internationally, but there may be something in the EU that could do what they're doing.

[Charger]

There are a few here in Finland too that make bespoke pcs...but they tend to be more on the high end stuff and thus pretty expensive.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

This years Flu jab installed successfully yesterday! Slight arm ache today.

[Zzzptm]

Hectic morning, trying to find a cat that got out.

He didn't actually *get* out, it just looked that way. He was actually hiding inside the sofa.

[Zzzptm]

Good luck with the job hunt, Z!.

Well, I had a great interview on Friday, might be the one that ends this job search. We shall see.