I'm taking a stand!

[EKKC]

thats a little extreme, have you even asked for it?
you're a DBA for god's sake. you don't have to "take a stand" like the OP, just tell your boss or the IT manager that you should be on top of the list before the computer illiterate women

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I've only been here for 7 months... which, come to think of it is a stupidly long time for me to work on this POS machine. But my department keeps saying we don't have it in the budget for this year, we have to wait until the next fiscal year starts (July). We even had someone leave who had a better computer, but when I tried to nab it they told me I might as well wait since it would only be a few weeks until I was eligible for a new one, and if I swapped out, then the replacement would get the new box. Complacency has its benefits, I suppose, but they take too long to get here.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
That's it. I've had it. Starting now I refuse to do any more work until IT sends someone up here with a 512mb module and upgrades my PC from 512mb to 1gb. There is no excuse for not having 1gb on an office machine, especially when most of the managers' PCs have already been upgraded. I don't even want a fancy new PC, I just want the memory. My manager's already approved the request but for some reason the work order is "on hold". Fine. I'll place all my projects "on hold" too.

In the meantime, I shall nef here and elsewhere while waiting for my RAM. Hell, even web-browsing sucks with only 512mb.

Buy it yourself, install it yourself, get your manager to approve expense report. Problem solved. This way you could even get yourself a gig, making it 1.5gb.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
I have no sympathy for the OP. I'm the database admin for my department, and I'm stuck on (this is not a joke) a 7 year old Dell with a 933 MHz Pentium 3 and 256 MB of RAM. Everyone in the office has a computer from the last two years, including the computer illiterate woman who needs me to show her how to open documents, except for the one person whose entire job revolves around the computer (me). I offered to bring in an old computer from home and donate it so I could have a faster workstation, but it would violate our contract with Dell.

They claim I'm due for an upgrade this summer. I'd laugh if they meant another 256 MB RAM.

...


I've only been here for 7 months... which, come to think of it is a stupidly long time for me to work on this POS machine. But my department keeps saying we don't have it in the budget for this year, we have to wait until the next fiscal year starts (July). We even had someone leave who had a better computer, but when I tried to nab it they told me I might as well wait since it would only be a few weeks until I was eligible for a new one, and if I swapped out, then the replacement would get the new box. Complacency has its benefits, I suppose, but they take too long to get here.

Hearing this makes me feel much better about my 4GB Quad-Core DBA Workstation.

 

[Howard]

I use a machine with 256MB of memory. AutoCAD and Outlook 2003 makes it pretty damn slow.

 

[JRich]

Mine has 1Gb and I do need it

 

[mitaiwan82]

C2D + 2GB :heart:

 

[boredhokie]

I have a crappy Inspiron 610 w/ 1gb of memory and after loading Safeboot, RVT scan, software delivery, identity suites, etc etc, I can barely open Outlook. I also use excel, photoshop, XML spy, winSCP, SSH, et etc and it's a nightmare trying to multitask.

Going to just expense another gig of ram, not that they'll notice anyways..

 

[Viper GTS]

Quad core + 4 GB here.

Wish they were core instead of Netburst, but overall I'm doing pretty well I suppose.

Probably the only time ever that my workstation has been faster than my home PC. Come on $266 Q6600!

Viper GTS

 

[ultimatebob]

Anyone who says that 512 MB is enough for office computers obviously doesn't use Lotus Notes or Sametime 7! Those suckers are memory hogs, and adding a mandatory AntiVirus scanner and firewall package doesn't help things.

If you want some REAL pain, though, try launching a few Rational project management products that require connectivity to a DB2 database. Those suckers can use up to a gig of memory on their own! The WebSphere development tools are just as bad, but most office workers would never need to use them.

 

[SampSon]

My office PC is a POS celeron with mabey a gig of ram. The software I use for work is a memory leaking joke that would suck any system dry.
I suppose I could upgrade it, but why bother?

 

[Pshawn5]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
I hear ya. My work machine can grind to a halt sometimes. I'll click Reply in Outlook and I'll get the hourglass mouse cursor for a while. I just get up and get a glass of water when this happens.

Outlook is the biggest piece of crap. It takes like 5 seconds for me to do anything in it. If I reply, make a new one, hell, even expand it from the corner tray, it will take 5 seconds to resopnd. If I press the up key and move my current message to the one above it, it takes like 5 seconds to open it.

I do not understand how Outlook can be such a piece of crap.

i take it you've never used Lotus Notes? After having to use notes for the past 3 yrs, I'll gladly switch to outlook. Here's a sample scenario

New mail will come. I will click on said new mail. Hour glass will pop up. I will walk to the water cooler and fill up my 24oz glass with water. I will walk back to my desk. Hourglass will still be there. Will take another couple seconds before content of new mail shows up in preview pane.

*Shakes fist at lotus notes* lotus notes takes forever to do anything!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Anyone who says that 512 MB is enough for office computers obviously doesn't use Lotus Notes or Sametime 7! Those suckers are memory hogs, and adding a mandatory AntiVirus scanner and firewall package doesn't help things.

If you want some REAL pain, though, try launching a few Rational project management products that require connectivity to a DB2 database. Those suckers can use up to a gig of memory on their own! The WebSphere development tools are just as bad, but most office workers would never need to use them.

Any office that makes you use Lotus Notes should be destroyed

 

[SagaLore]

512mb is PLENTY. Its is PLENTY. You ram glutton!

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
I hear ya. My work machine can grind to a halt sometimes. I'll click Reply in Outlook and I'll get the hourglass mouse cursor for a while. I just get up and get a glass of water when this happens.

Outlook is the biggest piece of crap. It takes like 5 seconds for me to do anything in it. If I reply, make a new one, hell, even expand it from the corner tray, it will take 5 seconds to resopnd. If I press the up key and move my current message to the one above it, it takes like 5 seconds to open it.

I do not understand how Outlook can be such a piece of crap.

Yeah, Outlook sucks. Oh, and it doesn't help that the IT guys have that stupid Rtvscan running on my PC, also. Sometimes that process will jump up to 70% CPU usage when I'm working and I can't stop it. So annoying. :|

Do you have control over the settings at all? Change it so it only scans executables and documents, not every single extension there is.

 

[boredhokie]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
I hear ya. My work machine can grind to a halt sometimes. I'll click Reply in Outlook and I'll get the hourglass mouse cursor for a while. I just get up and get a glass of water when this happens.

Outlook is the biggest piece of crap. It takes like 5 seconds for me to do anything in it. If I reply, make a new one, hell, even expand it from the corner tray, it will take 5 seconds to resopnd. If I press the up key and move my current message to the one above it, it takes like 5 seconds to open it.

I do not understand how Outlook can be such a piece of crap.

Yeah, Outlook sucks. Oh, and it doesn't help that the IT guys have that stupid Rtvscan running on my PC, also. Sometimes that process will jump up to 70% CPU usage when I'm working and I can't stop it. So annoying. :|

Do you have control over the settings at all? Change it so it only scans executables and documents, not every single extension there is.

Do you work for a corporation? All of that stuff is locked out.

 

[boredhokie]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Anyone who says that 512 MB is enough for office computers obviously doesn't use Lotus Notes or Sametime 7! Those suckers are memory hogs, and adding a mandatory AntiVirus scanner and firewall package doesn't help things.

If you want some REAL pain, though, try launching a few Rational project management products that require connectivity to a DB2 database. Those suckers can use up to a gig of memory on their own! The WebSphere development tools are just as bad, but most office workers would never need to use them.

I agree with sametime - I upgraded to 7.5 from 3.x and it's horrible. It looks a bit prettier but I really don't need to send animated smiley faces to my coworkers.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

All the comps at the college are 128MB Celeron thin machines running 5400RPM drives and WinXP on 15" LCDs. Takes forever to even load the account. Can only work on a few of my spreadsheets and word documents at a time. They have a few 256 P4 machines on 17" LCDs and while they are slow in comparison to my home machine, its a world of difference compared to the Celerons running next to them.

The Library comps are the the best. 3.4Ghz P4 machines with 1GB of memory and 19" LCDs.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Yep. My work machine has 1Gb and I routinely go over the limit, usually up to 1.2-1.35Gb, then it crawls like never before. Closing visual studio takes about two minutes when the day ends (but that's mainly due to slow harddrive and big project). A third monitor would have been nice as well. We all have dual monitors, but lately due to the nature of work I really wish I had third monitor as well. *sigh*

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
All the comps at the college are 128MB Celeron thin machines running 5400RPM drives and WinXP on 15" LCDs. Takes forever to even load the account. Can only work on a few of my spreadsheets and word documents at a time. They have a few 256 P4 machines on 17" LCDs and while they are slow in comparison to my home machine, its a world of difference compared to the Celerons running next to them.

The Library comps are the the best. 3.4Ghz P4 machines with 1GB of memory and 19" LCDs.

You serious? That's it? All the computer labs for general printing (spread around campus) are P4 2.8s or better. A few labs have Pentium D's. Of course, that's not too impressive. The lower division EE computers are P4s or Xeons, but when you get to the upper div EECS computers, some labs are Core2Duos or Xeon dual cores loaded with at least 2gb of RAM.

With that said, we have some pathetic sub 2 ghz machines with probably less than 512mb (256 or 128mb) in libraries designed for book searches. Unfortunately, the engineering library only has those, and has no general use computers for printing. But usually I'll just walk myself over a few buildings to the EE computers which kick ass.

 

[Rastus]

I've noticed a big slowdown on all my machines. I think one of the updates we received from Microsoft has introduced some sort of memory leak.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
512mb is PLENTY. Its is PLENTY. You ram glutton!

lol. I have 4gb on my home computer.

 

[Jeff7]

Close your web browser and get back to work.

 

[BUTCH1]

Our company uses SAP, my computer is a 900Mhz. P3 W/256K and it's so slow it
almost makes me cry...