Computer: which is better?????

[Clarence Martin]

AMD A8 6500 (http://support.hp.com/wps/portal/pps/Home/ConcentraWrapper/!ut/p/a1/jY_LDoIwEEW_xQVbOgICcVeJqbziA43QjSkEAQOUFCTx70WWRt HZzc05mbmIohDRmvVFxrqC16x87VS_-GCD4hBwSRCogK2j6e-IAkDmAxANgEXwRjO8IdlrK7ANf-uuD6YKtv6fD18Gwy__jOiITH0wAhMnHESzksdj3QjXsWpmiIr0 mopUyHcxxHnXNe1SAgnalIkklx8s51xOeCXBJynnbYfCdxY11S mE26LsPTx7ArPveBo!/#AbT2 + .collapse)

TDP: 65W
Operating speed: Up to 3.5 GHz (up to 4.1 GHz turbo)
Number of cores: 4
Socket: FM2

or...

AMD A10-7870K 3.90 GHz Quad-Core Processor, 8GB of DDR3 Memory and AMD Radeon R7 GPU

or>
AMD Athlon II X4 860K 4-Core 3.70GHz PC w/AMD Radeon R7 360 1TB HDD 8GB DDR3


or

AMD FX-4130 3.80 GHz Quad-Core Processor,

or
liquid-cooled AMD FX-6300 3.50 GHz 6-Core processor AMD Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5 video card. A full 8GB of Fast DDR3 memory, Front Fan Control Panel and a 1TB/8GB Hybrid Hard Drive



The first specs, the A8 , are my HP 500-164. Looking for something a bit better than my current computer.

[Chuck Wintle]

What are your computing needs? Do you need a fancy powerful machine with a top notch graphics card or is it for internet surfing and writing emails? My preferences are Intel cpus and asus MB's. Do you need liquid cooling? An upgrade to an SSD on your current machine will give a good performance boost if it is not so equipped already.

[Roger Feeley]

+1 on "what are your needs?"

If all you want to do is noodle around on the web and send a few emails, then I would go with Apple. I work with Windows every day and find it exasperating. I think it was John Gage that said, "People don't want computers. People want computing." My point is that all the nonsense of knowledge base updates, registry fixes, virus susceptibility that seems to come with Windows is a high price to pay.

In my case, I have to work with Windows for my work. After I retire in a few years, I will probably still use Windows for that CNC router out there that has my name on it. But for noodling around on the web and sending a few emails, I have an iPad.

All that said, Solid State Disks (ssd) are awesome.

[Kev Williams]

At this moment I'm using an HP A8 Pavillion, similar specs to yours. By rights is should be my lightning-fast computer. But no. In general it's slower than any of my many XP's. And about 3 times a day for several minute stretches, which I can only guess is when Bill's crew is checking in to see what I've been doing, this thing turns into molasses. Hitting keys does nothing for several seconds. I don't type all that fast, but I can still type 3x faster than it'll put it on the screen. I'll have zero internet access, even tho it says I'm connected, and virtually every other computer can get online. Half the time I have to re-boot this pig just get back online at all.

Not the computer's fault. It's Microsoft hard at work "improving" things.

[Curt Harms]

My first guess would be that there are a bunch of things running in the background, or maybe Norton or McAfee security suites. An AMD A8 machine, while no hotrod should be more than adequate for daily use. SWMBO has an A6 based desktop which works nicely though seldom with Windows. If it's more than a couple years old, a fresh install would likely make it feel like a new machine; Windows rot is real. A fresh install on an SSD would likely make it feel like a better than new machine.

[Chuck Wintle]

At this moment I'm using an HP A8 Pavillion, similar specs to yours. By rights is should be my lightning-fast computer. But no. In general it's slower than any of my many XP's. And about 3 times a day for several minute stretches, which I can only guess is when Bill's crew is checking in to see what I've been doing, this thing turns into molasses. Hitting keys does nothing for several seconds. I don't type all that fast, but I can still type 3x faster than it'll put it on the screen. I'll have zero internet access, even tho it says I'm connected, and virtually every other computer can get online. Half the time I have to re-boot this pig just get back online at all.

Not the computer's fault. It's Microsoft hard at work "improving" things.
I would look to see what other things are running in the baqckground by opening Taskmanager. look at CPU usage. Do you still have the HP bloatware installed? Maybe that is causing problems. Also set windows updates to never check. Somtimes this will run in the background and slow things down.

[Curt Harms]

I would look to see what other things are running in the baqckground by opening Taskmanager. look at CPU usage. Do you still have the HP bloatware installed? Maybe that is causing problems.

Certainly possible. The HP machines I've dealt with were not stingy with their "enhancements".

Also set windows updates to never check. Somtimes this will run in the background and slow things down.

Isn't that living a bit dangerously? It's a shame that Windows 10 (don't know about Windows 8) can't be set to install security updates ONLY. If there's a way to do that I haven't seen it. Besides, with Windows 10 home we don't have a choice. There's no 'approved' way to disable updates. Delay restarts sure but not refuse updates.

[M Toupin]

There's nothing wrong with the physical hardware, its all software issues. Computers load up with crap overtime installing, uninstalling programs, adware, etc and slow down. A clean install/recovery will get you back to factory fresh and running like it did when it was new.

it's a nuclear option though and you will loose all your data and non-factory programs so save all your data first.

https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+reset+hp+computer+to+factory+settings

Mike

Or go with option #2 and install a free Linux distro (I prefer Mint for those new to Linux) and be done with MS.

[Roger Feeley]

I agree with M Toupin that it's the software. I've been writing software for about 30 years now. Back in the late '80s the IBM PC and Apple II+ were the biggest sellers. We got some early versions of the ATT 6300s with the new 8086 processorts running DOS. Our software was all interrupt driven which means that we used DOS to load the program and then kicked it away and ran entirely based on hardware triggers (interrupts).

I can tell you that a computer is screaming fast if it's free of an operating system. We had one 8086 reading 8 serial lines running at 19.2K baud and writing data to a Tandem system at 19.2K baud. With an OS active, we couldn't have read one line.

Of course today's processors are magnitudes faster than that old 8086. But I would submit that much of that increase in processing power is feeding the operating system and providing us with a cool user interface.

[Leo Graywacz]

They're still installing DDR3 memory?

I do Intel CPUs also. Right now I'm using a Dell Precision 7710 Laptop. NVidia M3000M Graphics card and an M2.PCIe hard drive. It's screams pretty well.

I have this because I use it for eCabinets and it's a resource hog and a 3D engine.

It's nice to have the speed with all the other programs and internet too. If you need the speed for programming or gaming then so be it. But just general stuff you can get by with less.

[Curt Harms]

I agree with M Toupin that it's the software. I've been writing software for about 30 years now. Back in the late '80s the IBM PC and Apple II+ were the biggest sellers. We got some early versions of the ATT 6300s with the new 8086 processorts running DOS. Our software was all interrupt driven which means that we used DOS to load the program and then kicked it away and ran entirely based on hardware triggers (interrupts).

I can tell you that a computer is screaming fast if it's free of an operating system. We had one 8086 reading 8 serial lines running at 19.2K baud and writing data to a Tandem system at 19.2K baud. With an OS active, we couldn't have read one line.

Of course today's processors are magnitudes faster than that old 8086. But I would submit that much of that increase in processing power is feeding the operating system and providing us with a cool user interface.

I read a some years ago that about 80% of a CPU's cycles were used to run the user interface. I don't know if that holds today.

[Curt Harms]

There's nothing wrong with the physical hardware, its all software issues. Computers load up with crap overtime installing, uninstalling programs, adware, etc and slow down. A clean install/recovery will get you back to factory fresh and running like it did when it was new.

it's a nuclear option though and you will loose all your data and non-factory programs so save all your data first.

https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+reset+hp+computer+to+factory+settings

Mike

Or go with option #2 and install a free Linux distro (I prefer Mint for those new to Linux) and be done with MS.

+1 on Mint or Zorin and they work well until you need to run a laser or engraver or CNC machine. For internet access I haven't used Windows for some years.

[Sam Duran]

I've been using HP Pavillions for the last few years. Awesome machines.