Hi Mike,
If you want to buy a new computer, i guess Windows based, then i would
avoid win10. I heared about many problems with sound drivers, stopping
SpecLab instances etc.
As long as you don't want to buy an expensive high end system, just use
one of the standard types offered and compare the RAM size, the HDD
space and the number of CPU cores. I thik a quad core CPU, 64bit and 8
GB RAM at least is standard these days, and it is enough. Maybe 16 GB
RAM make things a bit better, if you want to invest so much.
I would prefer to use the new PC for radio and the old one for email
etc. :-)
Regarding EbNaut, even with 1 GB RAM you can decode short messages,
depending on the code complexity choosen by the transmit station. But
you need a permanent running SpecLab instance and save files whioch are
periodically generated. Even the old HDD standard of 250 GB would be
fine i think. The current standard is 1 TB at least.
73, Stefan
Am 30.06.2017 19:46, schrieb Mike Dennison:
I am looking at upgrading the computer I dedicate to my radio work
and I am looking for some advice. It is an old office Dell running at
2.66GHz with 1Gb RAM.
There are two reasons:
Firstly, I want to de-clutter my desk and use only one computer for
radio and everything else (mostly web browsing, email and office
work). But I don't want to slow down the radio signal processing
whilst I look at BBC News, for instance.
Secondly, my existing computer already seems rather slow. I often run
HDSDR, WSJT-X and Opera together, and it works more smoothly if I
turn off the waterfall displays on these. It struggled when I ran
OPDS. I would like to try EbNaut but I don't think it is man enough.
It would be good to run SpecLab more or less permanently, too. The
computer clock seems to drift when I use too many programs (heat
problem?) so I need to use NTP software with frequent polling to keep
the time accurate. By chance the computer has a dual video card and I
found it useful to run two screens, but again it seemed to slow
things down too much so I stopped.
My question is: What do you think are the things to prioritise for
your own radio computers? Processor speed - is dual processor
essential? RAM - how much is essential? Are there reasons to have
lots of HD space?
I see advertisements for "ultra-fast gaming computers" - would these
give any benefits?
Is there a complication if I want to use two screens?
Is there something important that I have missed?
I want to get the best value for money but I am confused by the
specifications.
Mike, G3XDV
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