The $400 Super Computer
A decent quality computer that you might have bought six or 10 years ago lacks very little in being a supercomputer, and could be made into a supercomputer fairly easily. As a general rule, that computer could also be bought for very little money on eBay now. The two things that computer needs:
- Replace the hard disk with an SSD purchased either on eBay or at some outlet like the MicroCenter with reasonable prices. That is by far the most major thing you could do to improve the performance of most computers at most tasks. In fact, 10 or 15 years ago, computers were being sold with a hard drive for most storage and then a relatively small SSD for running applications. There is no need for that now. 1-Terabyte SSDs can now be bought on eBay for less than $100. In fact, most computer users would never use half of a terabyte of data storage in one lifetime, and half terabyte SSD's go for $45 on eBay. .
- If you are purchasing a computer on eBay for such a project rather than using an older computer that you already own, try to buy one without a hard drive or operating system. That's the next item on this little agenda, i.e. you want to get out of the Microsoft/Windows world. All but a few Linux distributions are free and the cat's meow of all of them (Ubuntu-Mate) is free. Ubuntu-Mate Linux has Windows beat so many ways it would take a day to describe it all. You basically just download a copy of the install system as a.ISO file, burn that file to a high capacity DVD, and install the operating system on the computer from the DVD.
Pretty nearly all of the software for a Linux system is free. The next thing you would do on a newly created $400 SSD based Linux supercomputer would be to bring up the software boutique application and use it to install the most normal software that you would use. Particularly:
- Libraoffice applications; this is the Linux equivalent of the Microsoft office package.
- One or two browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi...).
- An email package (Thunderbird, evolution...)
- Software for handling graphics, images, creating videos etc.
Ubuntu-Mate Linux: https://ubuntu-mate.org
if you are going to buy a used or refurbished computer on eBay for this project, there are many choices as to brands and types of computers. My own choice would be to find a Hewlett-Packard commercial grade computer from about 6 to 10 years back, typically an elite book or zbook laptop or a Z620 or Z820 desktop. Those are extremely robust and reliable, more than powerful enough for most usage, and can be bought for under $400 used or refurbished on Ebay, particularly if you find one without a hard drive or operating system.
Aside from everything else, those computers are extremely well thought-out, extremely well laid out, and noticeably easier to work on or make changes to than most other brands.
You've got a free upvote from witness fuli.
Peace & Love!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit