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Re: Building a rackmount looping computer as an alternative to the Receptor for Mobius



And a good point it is, Jeff...both my work and personal laptops are over 3
years old and still kicking butt, no functionality problems...and I don't
foresee any reason to get a new one for another year or so, maybe more. 
Both
have XP on them, and both have what were the fastest processors on the
market when I bought them. The key is to refresh every once in a while.  I
find people all of the time with PCs that are 8+ years old....crazy. No
wonder the have problems and can't run some software...they are behind 
about
5 operating systems. No shit! That could be a problem, and then they try to
load a new OS on an old computer, which is a huge can of worms and 
generates
hardware/software performance and compatibility issues.  People wait too
long before they refresh is the point.

Why would you two not consider a laptop roadworthy? Roadworthy in what
respect?  My laptop is my only computer for work. I use it at home, drag it
around the house with wi-fi, take it on the road for business trips, etc,
etc.  I don't stick it in a bag and check it in on my flight (well, I did
for Y2K5 wit no problems), but I don't know anyone who does this on a
regular basis.  It is more roadworthy than some gear I have, such as the 
EDP
controller with those fragile buttons. What are we expecting of a laptop to
be roadworthy? Treat it as any other piece of high end floor gear, and 
we'll
be fine.

Maybe consumer laptops are relatively "disposable) but not high end
commercial models, which most of you don't buy, btw. My work laptop ran for
about $4000 +. Commercial boxes are much, much more reliable, sturdy, and
higher performance than most consumer boxes. This is why fortune 100
companies buy them for their employees...not some cheap "on sale" consumer
box, where the manufacture only makes $15 on them after the retail sale.
These days, I can say for a fact, most of my peers at Hewlett-Packard use
laptops as their primary computers, and they use them for years with no
major problems.  These commerical laptops are build to last and perform 
very
efficiently.

Kris


> My point here was that most people dispose of their computers not
> because they stop working, but because they can't run the latest
> software.  Salesmen cart a laptop to "gigs" almost every day for
> years.  They get rid of them because they can't run PowerPoint 2010.
> If you're willing to freeze your expectations, there's no reason except
> hardware failure why you can't use a computer for more than 10 years.
> Sure they break, they depreciate in monetary value.  But they do not
> depreciate in function.
>
> But I completely agree that laptops are not as roadworthy over the
> long run as dedicated hardware without disk drives.   If I were a
> gigging musician I would be worried about them.  And I agree that
> computers are disposable.  In some respects that's an advantage
> because you can always move your stuff to a newer more powerful model.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>