On 11/23/2023 11:29 AM, micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 23 Nov 2023 02:32:29 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
Is a chromebook enough for 3 weeks?
Thanks for all the answers.
Michael explains that you cannot run windows programs on a chromebook.
His plan to leave my PC running at home 2000 miles away is pretty complicated, and relies on very good internet connection when I'm not
sure some of the jungle locations I plan to go to will have internet at
all, especially on the roads between towns.
Another choice would be to go the opposite direction. Instead of cheap,
get something that is a real upgrade for my laptop. Since it's old and doesn't have much RAM (and won't run Win11 if that matters), buy a nice
more modern but still reconditioned ~$500-700 laptop, don't add the
extra RAM I probably want until I get back from this trip, so if it's
stolen I won't lose $100+ in extra RAM and if it's stolen, which was
never that likely, I won't lose much data and I can just buy another
one. My email will still be on the server and I can dl it when I get
home.
Are there laptops designed to hold 16 or 32 Gigs of RAM?
Are they bigger or heavier than ones that have only 8?
Is there a heat problem with having that much RAM ad a faster CPU?
Let's try a linear model for power. If I bought 64MB for my first
IBM PC compatible in year 2000 and it drew 1 watt, and today I bought
a 64GB RAM, would it be reasonable for the DIMM to draw 1000X watts?
That would make it into a toaster. Clearly this is not happening.
We know the power model is not linear. And the cooling on the DIMMs
hasn't changed in decades.
If you had an 8GB and a 16GB DIMM, they could be made with different
chips, the geometry could be 7nm on one and 5nm on the other, and the toggle-power numbers could be different. Maybe the bigger DIMM draws
10% more power. I tried to Google this, to get a chart, but Google
gave me the usual random noise I have grown to love.
You compare DIMM power numbers, at the "industry standard cycle mix".
That ensures each DIMM is doing the same operations, when the lab guy
measured the power. Read and write cycles are heavy power users, but the density of those commands is low. Most of the time, the bus command is NOOP.
The DIMM gets a little warmer, when Memtest is running.
I would not say that the RAM is a potential "blast furnace". The power
won't be the exact same. But the power won't be infinity either. The DDR5 have lower voltage, and likely come from a different fab than the DDR4.
A fast CPU can cause a heat problem. They turbo until they hit their
power limiter, or their temperature limit. The area behind the hinge can be extended ("caboose") to provide an air path for the hotter ones. Both CPUs
and GPUs use closed loop feedback, and they enter "states" such as
"power", "clock", "temperature" to indicate which aspect of control
currently controls the limitations. When my CPU rails on one core, the
fans make more noise than if the CPU rails on all cores. On one core it does 5GHz. On all cores, maybe 4GHz.
All the new thin ones use a USB-C port for the power supply is that
right?
I see there are hubs that allow charging current to pass through the
hub while still having several jacks for flashdrives, mice, keyboards,
SD cards. I need a hub like that, right?
Has the price of SSD's continue to go down in the last 3 years? That
is, can I get a lot bigger than 250GB for the same price I paid for 250
3 years ago?
There are several standards versions of USB PD. These allow passing
a lot more power than in the old days. Without USB PD, you might have
an apple product drawing 5V @ 2A for example, from a desktop. The
computer you're buying, may make reference to what it needs for
charging. And then you buy infrastructure with the right name for the job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#USB_Power_Delivery
Whether a wall adapter has a barrel jack on it for charging, or
there is USB PD charging, there still has to be a DC power source
(SMPS) to source the power. Nothing really magical has happened.
A "big device" might power a "smaller device" for charging, with PD.
The highest PD might be 48V @ 5A, and I don't think any of those
have been made yet. 48V is not a voltage inside a desktop computer
for example. It's all just a bit messy, in the name of jamming
oodles of power through a small connector. 48V is not a "healthy"
voltage to be running next to TX+, RX+ type pins.
A desktop might make 5V @ 2A (the ATX PSU doesn't have a lot more amps than that to give on +5VSB). Whereas a USB PD might give 5V @ 3A, because that much is convenient to do. A laptop wall adapter could be 65W (19V @ 3A kind of thing).
The adapter needs sufficient power to run the CPU, and put some charge
into the battery at the same time.
*******
SSDs won't be getting any cheaper. The fabs are cutting back flash
production, so that the price of flash chips will rise again.
And this is not Sparkle Pony stuff. A fab needs to run at 85% load,
to stay in business. If a fab is only 10% busy, you shut it down,
because it is losing bushels of money. If you reduce the amount of
flash going through the fab, something else must be added to the
fab to keep it busy.
The price right now is likely to be lower than three years ago, but
if you were expecting them to keep "giving away" SSDs for nothing,
that is going to stop. The charts show the price has "stiffened" a bit.
It's also the time of year that affects price, and January 15 may take
the "steam" out of the stiffening on price.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08QBJ2YMG 1TB $140 --> $60
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08QB93S6R 2TB $260 --> $120
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08QBL36GF 4TB $480 --> $230
I even made a post a couple months ago, telling people "now is the
time to buy a spare SSD". Even if you didn't need one, you should
have put one in the sock drawer. My sock drawer got a 1TB one, so
I didn't go crazy. The other option would have been a 4TB one.
For a trip somewhere, you can do the math concerning your digital camera. If
a JPG out of the thing is 3MB, you can do the math to work out how many
photos you might shoot in a couple weeks of travel. The higher the camera
res, the faster it chews up storage.
I'm planning to go to Guatemala around Jan 7 for a 2 week vacation. I
was last there 53 years ago, and I want to see if it has changed. (after
a week visiting my brother)
I'm cautious, and other than that, normally I don't worry about crime.
But there is it seems a lot of crime in Guatemala.
A lot of crime is organized. You may think "Pedro was hungry and that's
why he stabbed me". Well, it's a gang with a hundred guys and they
have productivity quotas. If you round up the ring leader, it can
make quite an impact on a certain kind of crime. That's why for drugs
here, they hardly ever bother arresting low level dealers.
You should see how organized car theft is here. Or Fentanyl manufacturing. (Canada exports Fentanyl)
Paul
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