My son just started at a new school and it was recommended that he had easy access to a computer for homeworking. So with an idea in mind of what he needed I set about investigating potential machines - like I needed an excuse. In the past I had reason to look into multi core machines with oodles of RAM for number crunching and simulation work like this one:
Quite a beast and ideal for Finite Element Analysis tasks that RAM limited. The University I work at, and I imagine it is no different elsewhere, dictate that second-user equipment will not be supported or bought. But if we were then how about this all for under £8k:
The processors are old but very capable with a Passmark CPU Benchmark for a Quad XEON X7560 listed as 15414. It's never as simple as the summation of the benchmarks, but as an indication that is: 15414 * 2 * 8 = 246k... To put that into perspective the machine I play games on has a benchmark of 3.7k. For pure number crunching the processing power and capacity to hold a massive simulation is drool worth.
Focus!
However, I am getting horribly distracted by computer porn and should focus on the task: to identify and source a suitable machine for my son to do his homework on.Most of the machines in the house are dual core with the exception of the TVPC which was upgraded to a quad core a couple of years ago to enable games to be played smoothly and my PC. I considered giving him a desktop, my preferred type of machine due to speed and upgrade potential, a spare home theater machine would do, but considering where and how it would be used ended with this idea being quickly dropped.
So the machine would be a laptop, since I feel strongly that a device with a substantial keyboard is required for anything but a bit of browsing. For size I would have considered a Raspberry Pi a couple of years ago and even though the RPI3 is significantly more powerful than the original it still lacks the capabilities to run smoothly and possible code on.
Investigating laptops I was not surprised to discover the sub-£400 sector offered both big and small screens with anemic supporting hardware and knowing how capable carefully chosen ex-corporate kit can be I snagged a Dell Latitude E6230 for £120 off eBay. Upgrading the existing 300GB mechanical HDD with the latest version of the 240GB Sandisk PLUS SSD, courtesy of an earlier impulse buy on Amazon Prime Day, and augmented the existing 4GB RAM with an extra 8GB stick by Crucual. I consider 8GB to be the usable minimum for a Windows system that may be required to do some real work and memory is so cheap these days.
Laptop 110SSD 40
RAM 18
Total cost: 168
With a little work a very capable machine for less than a dual cored atom with 2GB RAM and slow imitation of a SSD with limited size. PassMark CPU benchmark of 4013 - faster and more capable than my Surface Pro 3 costing *a lot* more, but weighing less and talking natively to my Kinect v2.
The end result was eminently usable machine that I was so impressed by the quality of the hardware and the availability of low-cost accessories such as the PR02X docking stations with every connection even I could use and USB3 for less than £10 and internal mobile broadband cards DW5530 and DW5620 for around £18, I bought one myself!
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