Going Tiny Part 1

So, the holidays are in full swing so I took a break from the column to get ready for the festive season! Since I am a geek, I truly enjoy giving the gift of tech. As such, I went on to my main mission of the holiday season, to buy a small form factor computer for my Mom.

My initial plan was to build a custom Mini-ITX system as they can be both small and affordable while remaining relatively performing. However since some parts were back ordered this plan fell through and I am kind of glad it did. It gave me a chance to sit down with my Mom and discuss her computing objectives to ensure that we got her a product she would ultimately be happy with. Her objective was to replace a five year old HP laptop. So we looked at the different options;

•           Get another laptop. This was the easy way out.

•           Get a Mac Mini or a MacBook. She said no to OS X.

•           Build the aforementioned custom system. A maybe given the time constraint.

•           Buy a mini pc from a major brand such as Lenovo or HP.

Given the fact that Mom is computer savvy, I took into consideration her main requests;

•         Windows 7 Pro as the OS

•           8 GB of Ram

•        I5 or better CPU

•        Lightweight and small enough to fit in a safe if stored.

With those specs in mind I started to browse the various Boxing Day sales and found a few options. The most interesting was however a Lenovo M93p Tiny. I have deployed these machines at work in the past and they do a good job in a production environment so I think that this will be a fine choice for someone who uses the pc a few hours a day after work for what can only be described as light usage. One thing is sure is that the i7 CPU with 8GB of Ram will provide enough punch for reading emails, managing a vast photo collection and even the occasional Photoshop edit. In the end, the sub 700 dollar price is what did it. For the price of a similar model with an i5 CPU and 4GB of Ram, we got the higher end unit. It’s like being bumped up to Business Class free of charge on an overbooked flight.

I will post more comments about the Lenovo M93p Tiny after my Mom gets to use it for a while and we fully configure it.

Happy Holidays and a Prosperous 2015

Dell P2815Q; Larger than life display on the cheap!

I did not post for the last few weeks. I was busy recovering from the chaos that was Black Friday and getting my holiday shopping done. Also, I had bought and started using a few items that I intend to review so I was deciding what to write about next. In the end, I decided to share my impression of the increasing availability of 4K screens in the PC market.

Before you ask, I did take the plunge and bought a 4K screen this Black Friday. I bought a Dell P2815Q. Why that specific one? Because of the price which was ridiculously low. At 300$ plus tax, it was by far the cheapest 4K display I have seen on the market. I initially had 3 27” Acer screens, so I decided to sell two of them to partially finance the new acquisition. Truth be told, scanning across 3 screens, which took up my entire 6 foot wide desk, was dreadful and I mostly used 2 of them.

When I was reading reviews I was weary of the fact that the new Dell P2815Q had a paltry 30 Hertz refresh rate. But due to my usage, I was not turned off by this. Since 95% of my use of the PC is work related rather than gaming heavier multimedia, I decided that picture quality and sheer pixel real estate would trump over refresh rates.

It took me a good 20 minutes to set up my new screen and un box it. Once I plugged it in, Windows 7 detected it instantaneously and set the resolution to the default 3840 by 2160 pixels. At first, my head started to hurt as I adjusted to the tiny text. Then I opened up a picture taken by a Canon t3i DSLR and I went WOW! I even went double WOW once I set the color template to Warm. The detail and quality of the image in front of me was worth the price of entry.

In the end, I still believe that 1080p screens are the norm and will remain so until their 4K counterparts become more affordable at an equal 60 Hz refresh rate. Most people don’t need to nor want to spend more than 600$ for a single 27” monitor, especially that not everyone will be able to live with the tiny text on a daily basis, if using such as screen in an office environment several hours a day. In the end, the Dell P2815Q was worth its price because it cost me 100$ to upgrade from 2 27” Acer 1080p LCD’s to a single Dell P2815Q which can host as much data as 4 1080p screens. And that’s what I call a bargain. I will post a commentary after a few months of usage that will detail more how to efficiently manage the sheer pixel real estate efficiently and without having to bleed your eyes out! More to come...