1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:06,960 good news everyone I found a buyer for the valuable workstations you've all 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:11,599 been using now how are we supposed to get anything 3 00:00:08,599 --> 00:00:11,599 done 4 00:00:11,719 --> 00:00:18,080 lus I got new ones they're not brand new 5 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:23,720 but they're brand exactly I mean who needs a brand new computer when a 6 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:30,119 perfectly good older workstation that someone might deem to be obsolete is 7 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:32,000 still perfectly fine for 99% of tasks if 8 00:00:30,119 --> 00:00:37,399 you aren't playing the latest AAA releases or editing 4K video there's no 9 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:42,640 reason that an older sixth or even fourth gen processor with a reasonable 10 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:45,719 amount of RAM and an era appropriate GPU 11 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:49,000 shouldn't work for basic work so to find 12 00:00:45,719 --> 00:00:51,960 out we had three Brave volunteers give 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:57,840 up their high-end systems for about a month swapping them for more Antiquated 14 00:00:54,920 --> 00:01:03,000 options just like I gave up this more Antiquated segue to our sponsor pulseway 15 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:07,360 easily manage and monitor your systems from anywhere with pulse Way's instant 16 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:11,240 alerts and auto remediation all you need is your phone so get away from your desk 17 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:16,320 and start your free trial of pulseway at the link down below when we checked out 18 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:20,240 the treasure box PC we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the 19 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:24,240 refurbished Dell Optiplex that we received so we reached out to Sky Tech 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:28,119 Global who agreed to send us a few workstations for this project our only 21 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:33,200 requirements were that we wanted minimal downtime enough iio to use our existing 22 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:38,640 peripherals and the ability to review 4K footage from our network storage Drive I 23 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:43,320 feared that using this old computer it would just be really slow like you'd 24 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:46,320 click on things and just have to wait for them to happen but the snappiness is 25 00:01:45,159 --> 00:01:50,439 pretty much all I feared because I don't do a lot of heavy lifting with the PC 26 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:55,079 it's glorified Chromebook I honestly wasn't too worried about it I don't have 27 00:01:52,799 --> 00:01:59,560 to look through a roll too often so I don't actually need that good of a 28 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:04,560 computer I'm mostly just opening word in Chrome biggest problem I figured was 29 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:06,200 going to be uh reviewing footage cuz 30 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:11,080 those are pretty big files and usually take a lot of of transfer speed really 31 00:02:08,759 --> 00:02:15,400 to get them to play properly even on a brand new computer I was actually really 32 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:20,680 looking forward to seeing how much of a difference I would feel on the CPU side 33 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:25,599 because there's been a mad increase in terms of raw CPU performance over the 34 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:29,360 last 10 years and uh I haven't used anything that old in a long long time so 35 00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:34,480 I was really looking forward to seeing how bad would be I don't see the big 36 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:36,879 deal businesses are right now divesting 37 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:42,599 of machines that have CPUs as recent as sixth generation Intel quad core ddr4 38 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:47,560 support I'm even talking native support for NVMe boot drives and that last one 39 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:51,599 is super handy because it allowed us to just pop the drives out of our current 40 00:02:49,159 --> 00:02:56,360 PCS and toss them into these with little to no downtime now we could use a 41 00:02:54,080 --> 00:03:01,239 workaround to boot from a PCIe adapter on older Generations something that we 42 00:02:58,599 --> 00:03:06,799 actually did with the latest $69 PC build but our PCI slots as it turns out 43 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:09,959 are a valuable commodity we're going to touch on that later our preferred 44 00:03:08,319 --> 00:03:16,120 machine for this project was the Dell Optiplex 7040 ideally with a core i5 45 00:03:12,799 --> 00:03:18,400 6500 CPU 16 gigs of RAM and a dual 46 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:22,640 DisplayPort GPU but given these R refurb systems and we're Beggars we 47 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:29,760 didn't get to be choosers so we ended up with some HP proes 600 g3s and our gpus 48 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:34,680 were a complete mixed bag the Radian rx5 50 is perfect for our use case but for 49 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:39,720 office use an older 750 Ti or gt1030 could be a problem DVI that would 50 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:43,959 require a monitor downgrade what worked well that you didn't expect to work well 51 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:48,480 honestly the whole thing using this computer was not very disruptive for me 52 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:51,920 I did notice it the first day I booted it up and I was like huh why is this 53 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:56,000 taking longer than I'm used to oh right Tanner gave me this crappy computer 54 00:03:54,040 --> 00:04:00,920 pretty much the computer in general I had complaints I sent Tanner a bunch of 55 00:03:58,159 --> 00:04:04,280 complaints um cuz every now and then it just like 56 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:09,760 wouldn't do something quickly enough and it would drive me crazy but overall it 57 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:14,640 it was actually decent it was mostly just slower and uh when you're used to 58 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:18,600 computers being like Lightning Fast um that gets frustrating basically 59 00:04:16,239 --> 00:04:22,800 everything worked pretty well there was you know hiccups here and there that 60 00:04:20,079 --> 00:04:26,759 were probably unavoidable due to the the speed of the machine and just not 61 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:30,280 implementing all the current features but overall things were pretty 62 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:36,520 smooth in spite of wanting to kill you a few times now obviously even if we have an 63 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:41,560 older GPU out of the box that can be upgraded but we need to watch our power 64 00:04:39,479 --> 00:04:47,280 budget when converting an older station for modern use a few of the machines we 65 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:50,039 received with lesser gpus also contained 66 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:54,720 correspondingly lesser power supplies and we just weren't comfortable 67 00:04:51,639 --> 00:04:57,039 installing more power hungry modern gpus 68 00:04:54,720 --> 00:05:01,280 to make matters worse clearance for larger gpus can be a big challenge in 69 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:05,440 these kinds of systems depending on Drive Bay locations luckily the HPS 70 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:11,560 allowed us to pop the drive cages out tooless no LTT screwdriver required this 71 00:05:09,199 --> 00:05:16,360 time the other issue newer gpus presented was just how many PCIe slots 72 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:19,600 they took up we really wanted to have 10 gig networking working so that raw 73 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:23,600 footage from the server could easily be accessed it helps out the editors a lot 74 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:28,319 when we can scrub through and flag important moments or unneeded Clips 75 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:35,000 playback of raw footage if we were doing like a big you know 20 plus gig file 4K 76 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:38,440 whatever it would be real choppy uh especially actually after the network 77 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:42,319 card died you put in I think a 10 gig card initially and that crapped out kind 78 00:05:40,479 --> 00:05:46,560 of halfway through but even with that it was still a little choppy and then after 79 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:50,759 that things definitely took a turn for the worst and I just didn't touch big 80 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:54,479 files unfortunately it doesn't matter how fast your Nick is if your processor 81 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:57,759 can't keep up with it aside from a few short bursts our experimental 82 00:05:55,880 --> 00:06:03,759 workstations were effectively limited to gigabit speeds which made playback a 83 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:06,479 little bit choppy and unfortunately that 84 00:06:03,759 --> 00:06:10,759 wasn't the end of our issues so parac just kind of stopped working I had to 85 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:14,400 get tanner to go and just uh completely reboot my computer and launch parseek 86 00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:18,520 because we encountered a weird lock screen bug that I was never running into 87 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:22,680 before and I've been using Park on this machine well I guess my own machine uh 88 00:06:20,479 --> 00:06:26,840 for the last 3 years just fine we switched to the oplex and all of a 89 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:30,199 sudden we encounter an issue and uh that was incredibly frustrating because I'm 90 00:06:28,479 --> 00:06:34,400 pretty sure my computer was swapped out when the snowstorm happened so I 91 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:38,400 couldn't do a whole lot and it was very frustrating especially on YouTube I 92 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:42,680 found there was a lot of problems with playback there the screen would just 93 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:46,599 flash black randomly like weird kind of driver acceleration issues in the 94 00:06:44,479 --> 00:06:52,039 browser browser plugins were another actually where we use uh something 95 00:06:49,599 --> 00:06:56,520 called one page to capture a web page that worked maybe one% of the time on 96 00:06:54,240 --> 00:07:01,560 the old computer and I don't really know why I had two or three main issues that 97 00:06:59,039 --> 00:07:05,319 were recurring first one um the headphone jack on the front of the 98 00:07:02,919 --> 00:07:09,199 machine is is just that it's not a combo Jack it seems to just be a headphone 99 00:07:06,879 --> 00:07:13,280 jack so I found out in the first meeting like nobody can hear me uh that was 100 00:07:11,319 --> 00:07:18,280 annoying the other thing was my RAM kept maxing out when I had launched a bunch 101 00:07:14,919 --> 00:07:19,919 of tabs in Chrome and part of our job is 102 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:23,360 opening a lot of tabs and doing a ton of different research and making sure you 103 00:07:21,479 --> 00:07:26,800 keep everything uh sorted so you can just kind of grab whatever little 104 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:31,280 section you need at any moment second thing was intermittent like just little 105 00:07:29,039 --> 00:07:35,000 click from my monitor don't know what that was about I learned very quickly 106 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:40,840 just don't turn the computer off that was kind of the key startup took for 107 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,840 ever like absolutely forever and 108 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:47,240 normally I do have a bunch of apps starting up in the background Discord 109 00:07:44,319 --> 00:07:50,759 teams it's normally fine now all of a sudden it took like a couple minutes at 110 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:55,520 least even with an SSD it was driving me nuts uh the first couple times I did 111 00:07:52,919 --> 00:07:59,360 start up it was you know set it go downstairs make a coffee whatever come 112 00:07:57,599 --> 00:08:02,599 back and it might be good after that that it was just leave it on permanently 113 00:08:01,159 --> 00:08:05,599 and just lock the computer when you go home and the third thing I didn't notice 114 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:09,800 until we had an outage at the office and the internet was down so we had to use 115 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:14,039 Wi-Fi and I didn't have a Wi-Fi card um actually there was Wi-Fi in 116 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:19,520 Bluetooth for each machine it was an external dongle also interestingly it 117 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:22,400 has a speaker on the chassis so like if I unplugged my headphones in the middle 118 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:26,800 of a meeting suddenly people could just hear the meeting out in the room not 119 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:32,440 used to a tower having a speaker on it that was funny I did not really find any 120 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:34,399 solution the uh lock screen bug I think 121 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:38,719 that was when I started caving and I was like please give me my computer back I 122 00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:43,120 need my computer back I think that I just slowly encountered minor issue 123 00:08:41,159 --> 00:08:48,160 after minor issue after minor issue of just performance not being where I need 124 00:08:45,959 --> 00:08:53,680 it to be I say My overall experience was like out of 10 I'd give it like a seven 125 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,160 at least maybe even an eight it was fine 126 00:08:53,680 --> 00:09:00,600 snappiness uh was totally workable I think if I wasn't spoiled with the kind 127 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:04,360 of tech we have here it probably was as good as what most people are using at 128 00:09:01,959 --> 00:09:08,880 work if not better I would say day one was a challenge getting things logged in 129 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:14,720 and just running in general by the end of the process I could have kept going 130 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:17,800 if I had to everything worked worse but 131 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:20,079 not worse enough to be a deal breaker in 132 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:24,200 most cases it wasn't the worst experience I think that we could 133 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:29,920 probably use Optiplex just ideally not ones that are as old as these ones were 134 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:34,680 obviously if the budget is there for it there is a reason that businesses 135 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:39,920 account for regular upgrades to their it equipment and we're going to be going 136 00:09:36,839 --> 00:09:41,640 back to our modern workstations but I 137 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:48,120 think what we've shown is that if you need a PC for basic tasks even a 10year 138 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:52,600 old machine can get her done if you're willing to be understanding of longer 139 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:56,600 wait times and the odd bug which got me thinking about our own approach to 140 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:01,160 Rolling Out systems to our staff I mean compared to a more modern obviously pre 141 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:05,320 built system do we really need high-end motherboards and Overkill cooling or 142 00:10:03,399 --> 00:10:09,000 could we just equip our staff with modern versions of these you know basic 143 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:13,440 computers and let them age out gracefully please don't ever give me an 144 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:18,320 Optiplex again I don't think we quite need the computers that we have 145 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:22,959 currently at least I don't but I do need something that's newer give me like a 146 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:27,399 13100 like I don't like give me or give me like a 13400 Max I don't need 147 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:32,160 anything all that crazy I don't need anything overclockable as well I mean 148 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:35,600 certainly some people like our editors or the folks who do CAD as part of their 149 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:39,639 daily work are going to need more powerful systems for tools like Adobe 150 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:44,240 After Effects or solid works but those are the exception to our standardized 151 00:10:41,279 --> 00:10:49,880 workstations not the rule and yes there are some folks on our team who are more 152 00:10:47,279 --> 00:10:55,040 sensitive to even the smallest amounts of system 153 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:59,680 leg why did you cut to me but with the cost Savings of a pre-built there's room 154 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:04,760 to have a fleet of identical systems on standby that can be swapped in without 155 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:08,160 the user ever even really noticing I get 156 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:10,440 it I'd notice so we aren't downgrading 157 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:14,440 at least not for now but I do think maybe it's time that we stop assembling 158 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:18,680 every PC in house and only build the ones that are really fun or Cutting Edge 159 00:11:16,399 --> 00:11:23,000 or otherwise used for more demanding or specific tasks what we will still 160 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:28,560 assemble in house every time though is our Segways to our sponsor ground news 161 00:11:26,519 --> 00:11:32,600 ground news is changing the way we read and take in the news by giving us a 162 00:11:30,279 --> 00:11:36,200 better understanding of media bias they gather related articles from all over 163 00:11:34,639 --> 00:11:40,800 the world so that you can compare coverage on 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