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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (142594)	9/1/2001 4:40:53 AM
From: The Duke of URL©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

>>endlessly. The processor doesn't operate in a vacuum, it's at the core of a whole bunch of other components, many << Typically an upgrade cycle may be triggered by the purchaser's desire to take advantage of all these "peripheral" considerations. For example, the cost of the labor together with the parts may make it more economically feasible to order a new machine. You may be running a PII 200 clocked to 464Mhz, but you are still running a 3000rpm drive, a new machine will come with a 7200, 10k, or even 15k drive that is 5 times the size PLUS a new quieter fan, which costs $10 in parts BUT $35-75 in labor to replace, etc, etc. >> I can't make any reasonable recommendation about what to upgrade TO. I have no idea what the future software may require of the hardware. Even if I specify a top-end machine, I may find myself in 12 months going back and saying, "oops, guess we have to << You know, THIS TIME it just might be different. :)) The internet is the killer app. A faster disk drive as you pointed out means a LOT to the speed of the download internet transmission. But the upgrade cycle may be more oriented to the "standalone" worker, rather than the company or what we have come to perceive in the past as the "business upgrade cycle". Microsoft may believe this with their faith in the release of XP. Intel may also believe this with the P4's emphasis on audio, visual, etc features, rather than concentrating on how fast Word will run. *WEBNODE CORP LIVES!** It may be that "gnutella" will become the paradigm. That would explain Intel's predicition of 1 Billion connected server/PC's or something like that. If that is the case, then this might truly be a paradigm shift, then the upgrade cycle may be targeted to a much larger population than the worker at his desk in the formal business organization, and your examples from your perspective may be limited as to visibility. One thing is clear, although dot coms COMPANYS have suffered, internet use is UP during the last two years. Europe does not seem to be saddled with the same politically intrenched "local loop", and even in this country it may well be that the internet will be successful in spite of the political protection of the local loop (see Robert X. Cringely's recent article on the phone company tariffs which actually restrict transmission). I have a call into Nathan Myrvold. :)) But, all things will be revealed in the fullness of time. Duke *WEBNODE was the ficticious corporation set up by a couple of members of SI as an April Fools Joke and may have only cost them a relatively small amount of legal fees as a result of the (rumoured, of course) subsequent SEC investigation. Very Funny.

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (142594)	9/1/2001 10:47:55 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Michael, <<<I'm not saying that I would run out and look for ancient machines when we need to buy additional stuff. When we need to buy new, I generally recommend something in the middle of the range. Certainly I can justify an extra $50-100 when I already need to buy something. Very different from trying to justify outright replacement of every box in the house, "just in case.">>> When there is evidence that companies are replacing every box in the house, is when I short Intel. That is the sign of another bubble. IMO, the most likely scenario will be for companies to opt for replacing a percentage (20-25%) of their boxes each year as an on-going cost of doing business. When they do replace their computers, IMO, they should opt for the most advanced and powerful computers they can afford regardless of what their consultants tell them. To try to find the optimum speed grade for their processors (excuse the expression) is like high tech masturbation. If you spend the extra $100 for the fastest processor you can buy and when the computer bogs down, you know it is not the processor - or in any case, there is nothing you can do about it - if it is the processor. Mary

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (142594)	9/1/2001 9:11:59 PM
From: Dan3	Respond to of 186894

Re: Even with that three year old PC, you're not waiting 25-35 seconds for a spreadsheet to caluculate I'm sitting here at home in front of two PCs, one is an 800MHZ Athlon with PC133 SDRAM, the other is a 1.4GHZ Athlon with DDR 266 that I set up during the week because I have a project I'm working on over the weekend that involves analyzing some large data sets. I expected the 1.4/266 to be a lot faster on the big number crunching tasks, but otherwise to not "feel" much different. Boy, was I surprised! The new machine is noticeably more responsive running Access, Word, IE, and just opening windows and the like - the workpace rhythm that I'm able to achieve on the new machine is quite a bit faster. OTOH, I'm quite productive on the old 800MHZ machine, too. Composing text on word, posting on SI, and writing code are handled by the 800 quite well. But it does turn out that the 1.4GHZ Athlon with DDR is well worth moving to for "ordinary" tasks as well processing big data sets. Things like real-time virus scans can take up a fair amount of CPU power. Machines faster than 800MHZ aren't mandatory, I'll grant you that, but they can help worker productivity, even in everyday tasks. Keep in mind that on tasks like running Excel, Access, and Word, an Athon 1.4GHZ (or Athlon 4/MP at 1.2GHZ) has about the same performance as a P4 1.8 or 2.0 - so Intel does have some justification for claiming that those speeds are helpful for ordinary office staff.