The HORROR, how will I work like this!

T

TimothyB

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
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My company finally decided to update my section's computers that were bought two years ago or so. But it's not a real upgrade in any sense, they just had some extra new machines, which really only have a faster cpu, but everything else is worse.

I'm a graphic artist at a newspaper, so I usually have Photoshop, Illustrator, Mediagrid, Outlook, Unisys Hermes 5.5 all open at once, sometimes Freehand and Bryce too, so I need a powerful machine. What I have now gets the job done. And this new machine is the same ones they bought for the reporters to do office work with:

HP Compaq d530u:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=553398

The specs we'd be getting are something like a 2.5GHz version with the ram brought to 512mb if I'm correct. But it probably still has 64mb shared video ram, so it's less than 512mb after that. This thing doesn't even have a CD-R, and it would cost a pretty penny or the stupid swappable slim cd-r drive.

My current computer here is a P3 700mhz, 512mb of ram, 14gig drive and a 120gig drive, TNT2. This machine was custom made from a local company and when it was built the P3 1ghz was just out. It was a great upgrade from some G3s.

This new one only has one drive spot, a 40gig, and I already got 36gigs archived on my 120gig I had them get for my machine, which was out of the kindness of the photolab's budget.

Would any of you flip out if you found out as a heavy graphic artist that they'd try to stick you with a clerks computer as a graphic workstation?

I mean, I priced a machine at newegg for $1100 which would include a P4 3GHz HT, 1gig dual channel DDR3700, 36gig WD 10k rpm SATA drive, that popular ASUS mobo, 9600se for dual display, Lian Li case, DVD-R, and all other essential parts. All that for $1100, and these stupid slim things costed probably around $700. All I really want in the machine is at least a HT P4, a 10,00rpm drive, 1gig of ram. That shouldn't cost much. I'm hearing some sections are getting new G5s and that makes me even more upset. They won't even spend an extra $500 all togethor to get these 4 d530u machines up to 1gig of ram.

Does anyone know how well these will perform? I mean of course an old 2.5ghz 533mhz P4 is better than a P3 700mhz, but with all the other low quality parts, shared ram, and such, could the comptuer actually be a bit more sluggish?

Also, anyone have suggestions for a could pc company that builds custom machines at good prices with good warranties? I don't think the techs here have time to build machines from parts bought off newegg.
 
Have you considered building your own rig, bringing it to work to use, and giving that POS HP/Compaq back to the corporate dumbfucks that issued it to you? :rolleyes:
 
yeah instead of getting the computer get the money they paid for it , add some more and build your own. if you make good money there its the least you can do (increase productivity)
 
They really seem to have chosen an inappropriate rig for you to do your job with.

Have you considered finding another more suitable compaq that is priced the same or below, and asking them to get you that instead, explaining that it would be a much better machine for what you do?

I would expect that would be the most likely way for you to not get stuck with what they want to buy you --you'd be getting the same brand machine, just a different model, for the same price or less. Shouldn't be TOO hard to convince 'em.

Erik
 
Have you considered building your own rig, bringing it to work to use, and giving that POS HP/Compaq back to the corporate dumbfucks that issued it to you?
Click to expand...


yeah instead of getting the computer get the money they paid for it , add some more and build your own. if you make good money there its the least you can do (increase productivity)
Click to expand...


You guys must of never had a real job, things don't work like that. His only recourse most likely is to just request a different computer.
 
i would just talk to my boss, and use a whole bunch of really big computer words to confuse him; than tell him that you need a better computer to increase productivity by 173%
 
Originally posted by Zlash
You guys must of never had a real job, things don't work like that. His only recourse most likely is to just request a different computer.
Click to expand...

No kidding. Large companies could care less what you actually do with a machine. They get large contract deals with other companies and usually only get one model with minor changes for different people. Two reasons for this, its cheaper, and maintenance is easier.

Note, not sure about your company. But every company and client I have dealt with do NOT allow outside computers on the network.
 
That just sux.


My laptop would be a better solution for you...
You're gonna have to consider a USB enclosure for that 120GB hard drive.
 
Originally posted by jamestime88
i would just talk to my boss, and use a whole bunch of really big computer words to confuse him; than tell him that you need a better computer to increase productivity by 173%
Click to expand...

My boss in my department knows all about this, but he can't do much. The head photographer is against these computers too, who has expensive macs and monitors, they also got plenty of upgrades to their digital camers. My Dad, who is a photographer downstairs, just got $4000+ in camera equipment.

My boss did say to send an e-mail to the techs showing what we want, but I hadn't gotten to that yet. And a day ago he asked me I probably shouldn't send anymore e-mails because he hears they're getting touchy or something, I told him I actually haven't sent anything yet, but they must be hearing things.

I really wish the techs in charge of getting our new computers would meet with us to discuss what's needed before trying to give us second hand computers and getting offended when they start hearing about the complaints. If we turn them down, then wew get nothing, but if we accept, I'm worried it could be 2-3 years before they replace those.

There are 500 employees where I work, and only 4 graphic artists in the newsroom and we get nothing for a budget. We have to beg for upgrades to software and a lot of the time the photo department helps out by getting the upgrades with their budget, they get everything they need.

It's really fustrating. One thing I think would probably help the most is a fast drive, which I guess would help save files faster and the cache for the software. There's a lot of waiting in saving, but I keep images linked most the time. Once I had an eps file take 15minutes to save.

All in all, guess they might feel they're doing us a favor by offering these machines to us, but I think it's a waste of time. I'd rather them upgrade the 700 Pentium 3 to 1GHz and add another 512mb of ram and a faster drive than to take those machines.
 
Originally posted by xdviper
sell that shit on ebay, and then build your self blazin fast computer.:D
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read up dude ^^. and if you sold their computer on ebay they would more than likely fire you.
 
Tell them you want to keep your old one. It works, right? At work I use a PII-233 Toshiba with 98Lite. They offered me a brand new Compaq POS with XP Pro. I declined. My old Toshiba is configured like I want it, and I trust it. Sometimes old stuff gets the job done when the latest does not.
 
Originally posted by xdviper
sell that shit on ebay, and then build your self blazin fast computer.:D
Click to expand...

My rig at home I built myself from parts off newegg, and I even have an emachine 6805, but there's no way they let me connect that to the network.


Oh, but there may be a time for me to voice my opinion again to the techs. My boss will have them replace just his machine next week to try it out. Then I could probably get away with telling what I think of it to the techs.


One thing I don't get is what happened to the budget at the paper. They bought a lot more expensive stuff in the past. I've only been there for three years, age 23, but the other artist have been there 20-40 years. The scanner at my desk originally cost $2000 new, and some of the new ones they bought 2 years ago are only $200, that's a huge difference. And computers are cheaper than they ever were.

Here's a example of their bad planning. When they bought some new epson scanners, to go with the new pcs, they only could afford 3 for the 5 artist at the time. But they bought a couple of them with the tansparency adapters. We're not supposed to scan negatives and slides, the photo department does that, so these adapters are useless and the money for the two they got could have bought a fourth scanner.

Then after one artist was fired, his station is never used it has one of the 3 epson usb scanners, but even with the scanner doing nothing, they left it there and wasted time upgrading my machine with a scsi card to connect the old scanner that's huge and is five times slower, the preview takes longer than the final scan on the $200 epson.


Sorry guys for making you read all this. I just needed to let it out.
 
My sympathies bro - I feel fortuneate that I work for a software company and I get to spec out the workstations. I've had experience at larger companies, and when you bring up "budget and poor planning" - you hit the nail on the head. Plus, the higher ups don't understand technology, other than it costs them money - the photographs they can see and touch, so that's part of the difference in how the money gets spent.

What I've also seen at companies is that the execs and thier "administrative assistants" get brand new top of the line machines every 6 months to a year, while the techs and engineering people get leftovers and have to beg for thigs.

A place where a friend of mine works as a sys admin was "ordered" to upgrade all the admin people to "the best there is", while he's been working on upgrading the network from a 10 MB 250 node network with hubs to a 10/100 switched for two years and has been being told "sorry, there's no funds available, you'll have to make do", and all the while being told to make things faster. So, someone "upstairs" decides that they can make things faster for the admin staff by getting them new computers.

<sigh>

Chin up tho - work with your boss and work "with" the system and you may end up getting what you need, or at least closer to it.

Peace,
Tim
 
Sounds to me that if you were to put a CD-R and a 9600se in the machine, your problems would be solved (to a large extent, anyways).

Could you not get permission to do so?

For generic versions of the above, you could probably do the upgrade on the new machine for $100-120 bux for the parts. Hell, if it means so much to you, to avoid the frustration, you could buy the parts yourself, and install them.

You would have to get it past your IT department, though... they might not be terribly happy with that (and you might be setting a precident-- companies hate that!).

Good luck.

-Skystalker
 
Originally posted by Zlash
You guys must of never had a real job, things don't work like that. His only recourse most likely is to just request a different computer.
Click to expand...

Actually, the last couple of places I was at didn't care if I brought in my own computer... (the Santa Clara County Office of Education and Apple)
 
Originally posted by Skystalker
Sounds to me that if you were to put a CD-R and a 9600se in the machine, your problems would be solved (to a large extent, anyways).

Could you not get permission to do so?

For generic versions of the above, you could probably do the upgrade on the new machine for $100-120 bux for the parts. Hell, if it means so much to you, to avoid the frustration, you could buy the parts yourself, and install them.

You would have to get it past your IT department, though... they might not be terribly happy with that (and you might be setting a precident-- companies hate that!).

Good luck.

-Skystalker
Click to expand...

Well, this new machine is a slim compact pc. It only has one PCI slot, integrated video, a slim cd-rom drive that pops out of the case with a button, one 3.5inch total etc. So getting a CD-R for this HP would cost a ton, because it's designed just for this and the video can't be upgraded.

But like I said in a post before, maybe I can get them to get a faster drive, more ram, and a 1ghz P3 into the current box I'm using. I can't afford to dig into my own pocket right now.

The only thing I brought from home for my pc at work is a logitech optical mouse :)
 
Originally posted by Petra
Actually, the last couple of places I was at didn't care if I brought in my own computer... (the Santa Clara County Office of Education and Apple)
Click to expand...

Hmm, though at a newspaper, everything is networked and letting a computer on that's not updated and protected is extremely risky when you have to make sure a newspaper is out everyday with no exception. Just having the paper late will require an apology to the readers in some manner.


Thanx guys for your replies so far.
 
I went from a 1GHz PIII with 512MB of SDR to a 2.66GHz PIV with 512MB of DDR and it wasn't any improvement... If my fool boss would've ordered 512MB modules instead of 256 when we needed extra sticks of memory, I'd be able to stick enough memory in the damn thing to get things running smoothly (only two slots)... Hell, if the chipset on the PIII would've supported more than 512MB, I'd gladly have kept that and thrown another 256MB in it... I had an Athlon at 900MHz with 1.5GB of SDR and multiple hard drives at home that provided a better user experience...
 
Originally posted by Cardboard Hammer
I went from a 1GHz PIII with 512MB of SDR to a 2.66GHz PIV with 512MB of DDR and it wasn't any improvement... If my fool boss would've ordered 512MB modules instead of 256 when we needed extra sticks of memory, I'd be able to stick enough memory in the damn thing to get things running smoothly (only two slots)... Hell, if the chipset on the PIII would've supported more than 512MB, I'd gladly have kept that and thrown another 256MB in it... I had an Athlon at 900MHz with 1.5GB of SDR and multiple hard drives at home that provided a better user experience...
Click to expand...

Sounds like you went through what I' m about to. I wonder if they know that the cpu isn't the only deciding factor of performance. Ram and HD speed can play a big part in graphics, so no point in upgrading to a new computer with a better cpu if you neglect the other crucial parts.

I almost wish I could just say, "Give me $1000-1300 and I'll use my time to put togethor a machine that would have cost you 30%-50% more if you did it the corporate way" Or say that whatever they could buy at $1300, I could build something better that would last twice as long before needing another upgrade.
 
I feel your pain, when we upgraded I went from a PII 350 with 128mb ram and 16mb video card. Now I have a thin client with a 233 processor, 64mb ram and 4mb video. We did get 17" monitors, too bad that it has such a slow refresh when you're doing anything you spend most of your time waiting. Talking to IT did no good, I offered to use my laptop and they refused. Total cost of ownership is all they care about, never taking into consideration wasted productivity.
 
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