Re: Re: BBS Software Recommendations
By: Kurt Weiske to Sean Dennis on Thu Nov 28 2024 08:11:06

discovered Discount Computer Depot (https://discountcomputerdepot.com/)
and they have all sorts of great deals on a huge variety of system
types.

If you don't mind buying recycled/refurbished gear.
--- SBBSecho 3.23-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (1:124/5016)

Hello Mortar!

28 Nov 24 20:13, you wrote to me:

If you don't mind buying recycled/refurbished gear.

I haven't bought a new (as in off-the-shelf) computer since 1999. I haven't had to. Off-lease business machines do what I need and I can get them for a fraction of their cost new.

For example, I bought this Dell Optiplex 7040 I'm on (i7, 3.2ghz, 32GB RAM) for under $600 when it was a year old. My old reliable HP Elitebook 840 G1 laptop is six years old. Paid $194 for it. Had some spare 16GB laptop RAM I slapped in it and it's worked great under Windows 10 and 11, now Slackware Linux happily.

I have never had the need for the latest and greatest. I learned in the early 90s when I worked for a big electronics recycler in Portland, Oregon, that people throw away perfectly good computer equipment just to keep up with Microsoft's planned obsolescence timetable. If you're not dealing with them, you don't need the latest and greatest.

Another example: my BBS is running under Slackware Linux n a HPE ProLiant ML110 G6 server, probably 6-8 years old now, with a quad-core Xeon 2.4ghz CPU and 8 GB RAM, that I bought for $110, with free shipping, from a shop in Marietta, Georgia, off of eBay. That little server has been rock solid.

I have a Dell PowerEdge R710 blade server here: 16 cores Xeon 2.4ghz, 48 GB RAM, six SAS drives, 4 1GB NICs internal...got that for free.

So it's all about perspective. After growing up dirt poor and having been given a lot of hand-me-downs and such, I learnbed that newer is not always better and after 35 years in IT, not to believe the hype of the latest new thing in the pipeline.

-- Sean

... God gives us relatives; thank God we can chose our friends.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240209
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

Mortar M. wrote to Sean Dennis <=-

discovered Discount Computer Depot (https://discountcomputerdepot.com/) and they have all sorts of great deals on a huge variety of system
types.

If you don't mind buying recycled/refurbished gear.

I rarely buy new, prefer off-lease Dells business desktops or
workstations for a fraction of the retail cost. I like some of the
smaller Lenovo and HP desktops, I may need to branch out.



... ONE OUT OF FIVE DENTISTS RECOMMEND GUM.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/1)

Kurt Weiske wrote to Mortar M. <=-

I rarely buy new, prefer off-lease Dells business desktops or
workstations for a fraction of the retail cost. I like some of the
smaller Lenovo and HP desktops, I may need to branch out.

In my professional experience, Dell equipment was easier for me to get parts for than HP or IBM (Lenovo). I'm on an Optiplex 7040 right now and I've
never had any issues with it. I have an older Optiplex 390 that works
nicely even with a buggy BIOS but there is an easy workaround for Linux.
The 390 I saved from the scrap heap. I paid $600 for the 7040 when it was
two years old.

I noticed that the Dells don't use the crappy Broadcom Netxtreme chipset like HP does.

-- Sean

... How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on. --- MultiMail/Linux
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

Sean Dennis wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

I rarely buy new, prefer off-lease Dells business desktops or
workstations for a fraction of the retail cost. I like some of the
smaller Lenovo and HP desktops, I may need to branch out.

In my professional experience, Dell equipment was easier for me to get parts for than HP or IBM (Lenovo). I'm on an Optiplex 7040 right now
and I've never had any issues with it.

I ran a 3 year old Dell Precision Workstation for 10 years, bought it
just as the 3-year warranty was running out - it was a workhorse, the
biggest problem was support for the onboard RAID, which "officially"
ended with Windows 7 - but I had it working on Windows 10 with a bit of
work.

Workhorses, those systems. Upgraded to a fast Core 2 quad CPU for $20
or $20 and got another couple of years out of it.




I have an older Optiplex 390

that works nicely even with a buggy BIOS but there is an easy
workaround for Linux. The 390 I saved from the scrap heap. I paid $600 for the 7040 when it was two years old.

I noticed that the Dells don't use the crappy Broadcom Netxtreme
chipset like HP does.

-- Sean

... How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door
you're on. --- MultiMail/Linux
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/1)