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The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

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The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby emersonbiggins » Fri 24 Mar 2006, 16:28:37

My god...$9930 for top-of-the-line Dell PC.
This thread is not meant to advertise this beast, but just to show how insane some consumer electronics are getting these days...

[web]http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/renegade/renegade.html?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs[/web]
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby lotrfan55345 » Fri 24 Mar 2006, 17:19:50

I'm sure you can construct something like that for a fraction of the cost if you DIY.
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Free » Fri 24 Mar 2006, 17:50:14

Since one of the rather tricky issues of high end CPU's is overheating it seems odd to me to associate this with flames...

And yes DIY is definitely the way to go to get the best bang for the buck, besides it's much more fun, especially if you have time and creativity.

Personally I am much too lazy to do anything beyond the standard box, but there are truly amazing and great ideas out there, for example the guy who put all the parts into an aquarium filled with vegetable oil for quiet cooling, way cool...
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby ECM » Sat 25 Mar 2006, 04:00:54

$10K and you ONLY get a 1 year warranty. What a rip off.
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby katkinkate » Sat 25 Mar 2006, 04:31:34

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Free', '.')..... for example the guy who put all the parts into an aquarium filled with vegetable oil for quiet cooling, way cool...


Would that really work? Wouldn't the oil interfere with the electrical connections? And how effective would oil be as a coolant?
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby ChumpusRex2 » Sat 25 Mar 2006, 08:15:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('katkinkate', '
')
Would that really work? Wouldn't the oil interfere with the electrical connections? And how effective would oil be as a coolant?


Oh it does work. Liquids are dozens of times more effective as coolants than air. (Hundreds of times if you don't want to use fans).

The problem is that vegetable oil contains acids and traces of water. There isn't enough water to upset the operation of the equipment - but there is enough to cause electrically induced corrosion within a relatively short period of time.

If you want to use immersion cooling of electrical/electronic equipment you need to use ultra-pure mineral oils or perfluorocarbon liquids. (Such cooling systems were used on Cray supercomputers).

Going back to the $10k dell PC. Well, it's really a status symbol of excess.

Looking at the specs, it's a very high specification piece of equipment, and given the current cost of the parts, actually represents very good value (even though the parts themselves may not).

Trying to DIY a similar machine wouldn't save you that much - maybe 10%. You've got a $1200 CPU, 2 $1200 graphics card, a $2200 monitor, 3 $300 hard drives, a $300 accelerator card, a $300 sound card, $300 of RAM and a $300 mainboard.

Considering that Dell has already found a PSU and cooling system that can deal with that monstrosity, and that you get a warranty (even though the CPU is being run outside of its design ratings). And you get some software thrown in - the Dell isn't that bad of a deal.
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby backstop » Sat 25 Mar 2006, 13:53:02

This may seem a somewhat heretical question for an internet message board,
but can anyone point me to any evidence as to how the computor has actually served the well-being of society ?

Has it raised the communications between the poor south & rich north ?

Has it cut deforestation by establishing the paperless office ?

Has it raised the resilience of our society to climatic impacts or intentional attack?

Has it cut the commuter's usage of oil & output of GHGs ?

Has it raised official responsiveness to the several looming catastrophic threats ?

All in all, to what extent is it just another corporate distraction from initiating the changes in conduct & technology that are now imperative ?

regards,

Backstop
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Falconoffury » Sat 25 Mar 2006, 16:07:57

Actually, some people make a living working at home on their computers rather than driving to a job, so it may have decreased some oil usage. Other than that, all it really did was help the economy grow, which is a bad thing.
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby EnergySpin » Sun 26 Mar 2006, 04:53:25

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'T')his may seem a somewhat heretical question for an internet message board,
but can anyone point me to any evidence as to how the computor has actually served the well-being of society ?

Has it raised the communications between the poor south & rich north ?

Has it cut deforestation by establishing the paperless office ?

Has it raised the resilience of our society to climatic impacts or intentional attack?

Has it cut the commuter's usage of oil & output of GHGs ?

Has it raised official responsiveness to the several looming catastrophic threats ?

All in all, to what extent is it just another corporate distraction from initiating the changes in conduct & technology that are now imperative ?

regards,

Backstop

As with all things in life, it is way too much to ask for an inanimate object to do all these things you mentioned. With all due respect backstop you are falling into the technofix trap.
But at least as far as climate change is concerned, the PC/IT/Internet did help by:
a) running Ocean/Atmoshpere coupled simulations
b) powering the realclimate.org
c) enabling you to speak about these things

The particular PC that was featured in the first post of this thread is yet another example of wasting Ghz to silly things.
But I can think a couple of applications (e.g. medical imaging, drug design, mat sci) where having 4 graphics cards makes sense. 3D shoot-em-ups is not ony of them though :roll:
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Zardoz » Sun 26 Mar 2006, 12:26:17

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'T')his may seem a somewhat heretical question for an internet message board,
but can anyone point me to any evidence as to how the computor has actually served the well-being of society ?


Every day, another percentage of the sum total of human knowledge becomes instantly available to us. Forget the Library of Alexandria. That was a little local bookstore compared to what we have at our fingertips now.

Can AMD Sempron 2800s make people stop frantically banging each other and mass-producing an oversupply of babies? No, they can't, and that's the root cause of every single one of the titanic problems we're facing, isn't it? You expected computers to end the population explosion?

Yes, the paperless office was a myth. We always knew it was. No, telecommuting is still largely impractical, but we're going to have to make it work, aren't we? We'll have no other choice. We WILL make it work.

Has it raised all our consciousnesses about what is coming? Has it made it more difficult for governments and corporations to get away with murder? Absolutely!

The underground information system of the Internet is just getting started. How old is the concept of blogs? How long has non-corporate instantaneous dissemination of news and information been available? What, you expected a miraculous sea-change in human consciousness and behavior overnight?

Your original post indicates that you expected far more from the computer revolution than you had any right to. "Raised the resilience of our society"??? "Raised official responsiveness"??? Huh? Like you expected it to?
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Kickinthegob » Sun 26 Mar 2006, 15:04:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'H')as it cut deforestation by establishing the paperless office ?

Bahaha. Having worked in the industry I have witnessed what amounts to criminal acts against the environment by Bob in accounting. I can not count the number of times I have seen print outs hundreds of pages long with a few characters of jargon on each page. One of my first jobs in the industry was to feed a 1 ton line printer for a multinational, this thing would eat over 10 boxes of paper a day, at week end it would eat 20 and for month end reports - over 50 boxes in a weekend shift. Jevons would have been very impressed with the operation.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'B')ut I can think a couple of applications (e.g. medical imaging, drug design, mat sci) where having 4 graphics cards makes sense. 3D shoot-em-ups is not ony of them though :roll:

Meh, the gaming industry is what drives the PC market these days. In many ways I am glad I grew up before the PC age, sitting in front of a flickering tube for 10 hours straight is not healthy for anyone, especially a kid. I am just not sure about the younger generations mental and physical health these days, for example check out this video...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3466919384
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby lotrfan55345 » Tue 28 Mar 2006, 17:41:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'T')his may seem a somewhat heretical question for an internet message board,
but can anyone point me to any evidence as to how the computor has actually served the well-being of society ?

Forget the Library of Alexandria. That was a little local bookstore compared to what we have at our fingertips now.


[smilie=XXonlyamother.gif] We don't even know how much was in that...
Millenias of critical information compared to a "local book shop"
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby The_Virginian » Wed 29 Mar 2006, 00:32:57

I'll bet I could assemble something like that for 3,500 FRN.

Nice paint job...how fast from zero to sixty? :lol:


KTB, Oh man funny Vid thanx. :lol:
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Falconoffury » Wed 29 Mar 2006, 09:57:49

One would expect such a monster to come out of the Alienware division of Dell.

I could build a machine that I would consider very close to top of the line for $2000.
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby rushdy » Mon 03 Apr 2006, 17:44:07

How long can it run from a deep cycle marine battery with an inverter? :wink:
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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby Chuckmak » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 13:22:42

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', 'T')his may seem a somewhat heretical question for an internet message board,
but can anyone point me to any evidence as to how the computor has actually served the well-being of society ?

Has it raised the communications between the poor south & rich north ?

Has it cut deforestation by establishing the paperless office ?

Has it raised the resilience of our society to climatic impacts or intentional attack?

Has it cut the commuter's usage of oil & output of GHGs ?

Has it raised official responsiveness to the several looming catastrophic threats ?

All in all, to what extent is it just another corporate distraction from initiating the changes in conduct & technology that are now imperative ?

regards,

Backstop


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Re: The $10,000 Dell PC... (credit cards are amazing)

Unread postby 0mar » Wed 05 Apr 2006, 17:35:41

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kickinthegob', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('backstop', '
')Meh, the gaming industry is what drives the PC market these days. In many ways I am glad I grew up before the PC age, sitting in front of a flickering tube for 10 hours straight is not healthy for anyone, especially a kid. I am just not sure about the younger generations mental and physical health these days, for example check out this video...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3466919384


You do know that many games tell stories better than some of the best novels out there? That meeting people on some games is better than getting hammered at the bar? That putting 12 bullets in a guy point-blank is more fun than tossing around a ball?
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