New pc for design work, etc .. laptop or not ??

[albireo13]

I have gotten into some electronic engineering consulting work. So far it has been ok using my Lenovo Yoga C940-14IIL. I originally got this laptop for personal use and it is great as a general purpose pc. It has 12GB RAM and 500G SSD storage. I have an office dock with two 27" desk monitors.

I often have many windows open, reviewing documents, specs, etc. Also, I often am doing circuit simulation work which taxes the pc some. I have noticed it isn't the snappiest and sometimes think of an upgrade.

So, I am looking at investing in either a laptop upgrade to something more powerful, or a desktop pc. I could even build my own desktop. I have done that before.

Anybody have good advice? What brands are good for business computers?

I am starting to research and will post my candidates.

Thx

 

[njhowie]

Look for refurb desktops that will provide more power for what you're doing. It doesn't even need to be the exact specs you're looking for, so long as it has a decent configuration with a CPU that will work well for your task. Adding memory or SSD is easy enough.

I gravitate towards Lenovo, Dell, and periodically HP.

 

[albireo13]

So far, I am happy with my Lenovo, in terms if stability and reliability. I have had it over a year and have had no real problems, despite it being a bit underpowered. I had originally bought it as my retirement WIN pc for personal use. For that it is great.

After that, consulting opportunities fell in my lap and I have been doing that for a year now, part time.

 

[skyking1]

I would go with another docked laptop solution, because I want to have that capability anywhere. It is paramount for being free to travel and do what you want when you want, and do some little thing for a client while on vacation, rather than fret about it. I'd much rather do a 15 minute job on the road than put them off.
Of course the best thing for freedom is to quit taking those jobs, but I see the laptop as the next best thing

 

[easysurfer]

Does the circuit simulation require good graphics? If so, one advantage of a desktop is the option of putting in a graphics card (though some laptops have decent graphics built-in).

My personal preference is a desktop, with good graphics, nice monitor and the nice click clack of a good mechanical keyboard with a mouse.

But keyword is preference. Plus, you already have an office doc so have more flexible options.

 

[RunningBum]

Do you need portability? Then go with a laptop. If you're always going to be doing the work in your home office, then a desktop is cheaper and easier to soup up. Do you understand where you are constrained with your current laptop? RAM, graphics card, ??

You should be able to write it off as an expense (I don't know how you do that for a capital expense, but I assume you can), so I wouldn't skimp. When you stop consulting, you've got a nicer home machine than you have now. If you don't see yourself consulting too much longer, you might go with what you want a personal PC to be.

 

[Ronstar]

If you don't need portability, I would go with a Dell or HP with a lot of ram and a great graphics card.

 

[albireo13]

I don't need exceptional graphics performance. Not a lot of fast moving things. I seem more to be RAM limited. Some simulations seem to take longer than I like plus occasionally I get lags when moving windows, etc.

Right now, I am running with ~ 10GB of my RAM utilized. I have about 5 windows open.

I figure I could keep my C940 as my personal laptop and get a desktop box. I mildly prefer a power laptop but, it is hard to upgrade anything. With a desktop, it is easy to upgrade graphics HW or add more RAM.


I have started an LLC. Yes, I can write it off as a business expense. I think I may keep working until the end of the year but, who knows.

 

[OldShooter]

I haven't had a desktop computer for probably 30 years. I buy higher-end laptops or tablets and dock them. Once docked it is just like a desktop: large monitor, good keyboard, good mouse, good sound, wired network connection, and USB connections for all the ancillary stuff like scanners. So I have the best of both worlds, full portability and full desktop convenience. Currently I am running a MS Surface Pro 6. It runs photo processing/Adobe Lightroom just fine. That's about the only heavy-lift application that I run.

I generally don't bother to run dual-monitors but the laptop/tablet is also available as a second monitor when needed.

 

[albireo13]

I have found that dual monitors are important to me. A laptop is nice but, you are stuck with the RAM and graphics HW. Hard to upgrade.
Getting a higher end laptop gets pricey.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Personally, I would go with a desktop because I can't stand the keyboards on laptops. If you have a dock, I presume you have a desktop style keyboard, so that problem is solved. Still, if you take the laptop off the dock and go portable you have to acclimate yourself to the laptop's keyboard (I hate laptop keyboards.) Only you can answer if you are going to be OK with constantly switching keyboards (and messing with a touchpad, and looking at a much smaller, single screen.)

If you decide to go with a desktop PC, I would build it. You've done it before. I've done it four times now. While it's not as cost savings as it used to be, you can get exactly the build you want and it will be less expensive than buying the mass produced stuff from the brand names. One of the weakest links in brand name PC's is the quality of the power supply. They are notoriously under powered and cheap. That alone would drive me to build my own machine. Another shortfall is the number of cooling fans. Adding fans are cheap insurance against heat damaging the internals of the PC. Another advantage of building your own rig is there is more space inside for cooling air flow.

 

[target2019]

Ok, here is a spec sheet for your model. https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/Yoga/Yoga_C940_14IIL/Yoga_C940_14IIL_Spec.PDF

I skimmed through it. Your circuit simulation program is your problem, you've said. The software developer can probably advise you on what (if anything) will make the program "pop". I say maybe because I have no knowledge of this program.

In a general sense, the software may just be out-dated, and slower in feel and test because it is not optimized for the latest OS and hardware features. You can actually open the task manager, leave it running. and quickly see what's going on over time as you use the software.

I'd think you'd need a desktop "workstation" rather than an ordinary model. I only use Dell systems.

Even though it may bother you to double the cost (buy a workstation), what you might find is that your time is used more efficiently, and your profit margin is improved. You can also pretty much Section 165 that system cost in its entirety on your Schedule C for this year, if business use is 100%.

 

[albireo13]

Yes, 100% business. I would keep the laptop for personal use.

I wouldn't mind building one again. It has been over 10yrs since I last built one so I have to catch up on MBDs, CPUs, etc.

What's the best forum, or resource, for pc builders these days?

 

[easysurfer]

Yes, 100% business. I would keep the laptop for personal use.

I wouldn't mind building one again. It has been over 10yrs since I last built one so I have to catch up on MBDs, CPUs, etc.

What's the best forum, or resource, for pc builders these days?

I like https://pcpartpicker.com/

There you can choose the parts to set up possible builds, get a good idea of cost.

Nice also is incompatibility flagged, I believe, say you pick a motherboard that doesn't match up with a case.

Additionally, it's fun to browse to see what parts others used on their builds, by parts, by price.

 

[albireo13]

Well, running Task Manager I see my CPU pegged at 100% when I run sims. Typically it idles at 30 - 50%.
My Memory mostly utilized.

 

[Freedom56]

I recently bought a new desktop for content creation (4K video editing). It's a Ryzen 9 5900x (liquid cooled) with 32 GB, 3733MHZ DRAM, and an overclocked RTX 3070 TI GPU and two 1 TB SSDs and a 4 TB HDD for media storage. It's connected to a Samsung 4K monitor. I couldn't be happier with the performance. It's far better than my Acer Nitro 7 gaming laptop that I also use for content creation which wasn't that bad either.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Yes, 100% business. I would keep the laptop for personal use.

I wouldn't mind building one again. It has been over 10yrs since I last built one so I have to catch up on MBDs, CPUs, etc.

What's the best forum, or resource, for pc builders these days?

Agree with easysurfer on pcpartpicker, though I mostly use it for sourcing the components that go into the PC.

NewEgg has a nice site: https://www.newegg.com/tools/custom-pc-builder

Also check out Tom's Hardware Guide PC: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-to-build-a-pc,5867.html

These sites have forums as well.

 

[Sunset]

OP - You can write off the cost so the net cost will be approx 25% cheaper than what you pay due as the 25% would go in taxes anyhow.



Besides that look into an solo 401K , you can open one now, and it will be available next year. You could have a Roth and IRA type. The max amount you can put in is about $55K per year. Much higher than the normally seen limits.

 

[Cobra9777]

I've always built my own desktop PCs. I have a triple 2K monitor set-up in my office. So a laptop is not really an option. But my latest desktop is a refurb. It's a 3 year-old Dell Optiplex 5050 Tower, with a 14nm i7-7700 running at 3.6Ghz (up to 4.2). It shipped with 16GB RAM, which I might expand to 32GB at some point.

It's got integrated graphics, but it's the Intel HD 630, which supports 3 monitors at 4K UHD. So I can upgrade my monitors at some point when 4Ks come down a bit in price. There's space for a separate graphics card, but it would require a bigger power supply, which might be hard to fit in this case. Unless you're a serious gamer, I think the 630 graphics are more than adequate.

It shipped with a SATA 512GB SSD, which I kept for backup storage. But I added a 1TB M.2 SSD, which is roughly 5X faster than the SATA SSD. I also added an older 2TB HDD from my prior desktop. So tons of storage.

Another fun fact, this is the first PC that gets a full Gigabit up and down on our FiOS Gigabit service. Prior desktop got ~400/600. So that's been a nice upgrade as well.

The PC was $529 on Newegg and the M.2 SSD was $99 on Amazon. So, all-in cost was $630 for a pretty powerful machine IMHO.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Besides that look into an solo 401K , you can open one now, and it will be available next year. You could have a Roth and IRA type. The max amount you can put in is about $55K per year. Much higher than the normally seen limits.

This is a good idea. However, while most brokerage houses offer solo traditional 401k plans not all allow solo Roth 401k's.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I've always built my own desktop PCs. I have a triple 2K monitor set-up in my office. So a laptop is not really an option. But my latest desktop is a refurb. It's a 3 year-old Dell Optiplex 5050 Tower, with a 14nm i7-7700 running at 3.6Ghz (up to 4.2). It shipped with 16GB RAM, which I might expand to 32GB at some point.

It's got integrated graphics, but it's the Intel HD 630, which supports 3 monitors at 4K UHD. So I can upgrade my monitors at some point when 4Ks come down a bit in price. There's space for a separate graphics card, but it would require a bigger power supply, which might be hard to fit in this case. Unless you're a serious gamer, I think the 630 graphics are more than adequate.

It shipped with a SATA 512GB SSD, which I kept for backup storage. But I added a 1TB M.2 SSD, which is roughly 5X faster than the SATA SSD. I also added an older 2TB HDD from my prior desktop. So tons of storage.

Another fun fact, this is the first PC that gets a full Gigabit up and down on our FiOS Gigabit service. Prior desktop got ~400/600. So that's been a nice upgrade as well.

The PC was $529 on Newegg and the M.2 SSD was $99 on Amazon. So, all-in cost was $630 for a pretty powerful machine IMHO.

Nicely done.

 

[target2019]

Well, running Task Manager I see my CPU pegged at 100% when I run sims. Typically it idles at 30 - 50%.
My Memory mostly utilized.

Whether old PC, new workstation, or build, you should identify the specific software you're using.

I don't know what SIMS is, but it could be online software for federal contractors, for example. In that case you could be using an enterprise backend. All of the money thrown at a PC won't make it faster. The actual server could be over-loaded, etc. In the office, on the LAN, everything is tolerable. If you're remote, though, there are more layers of connection.

OTH it could be a locally-installed environment, and if the software can take advantage of local resources, then it may be recommended to use even more than what you have available.

There could also be required configuration of the program to optimize everything.

The ideal situation is to have such software run in the fastest, first-available RAM. That's your memory sticks. Other cache memory on the board can also come into play. Then you have the impact of graphics processor(s) making calculations to display results.

Of course only by using such software in time does one come to realize how different hardware and OS can be.

Or you could just buy something and see it it performs better.

 

[albireo13]

This is a good idea. However, while most brokerage houses offer solo traditional 401k plans not all allow solo Roth 401k's.

The solo 401K is a great idea except we are using my contract income to cover some big expenses which have come up. Better than dipping into my nest egg.

 

[albireo13]

By sims I mean simulation runs. I am using LTSpice, and other circuit simulation SW to simulate circuity designs. Some circuits are fairly large, with high node counts, and my laptop bogs down.

 

[albireo13]

I've always built my own desktop PCs. I have a triple 2K monitor set-up in my office. So a laptop is not really an option. But my latest desktop is a refurb. It's a 3 year-old Dell Optiplex 5050 Tower, with a 14nm i7-7700 running at 3.6Ghz (up to 4.2). It shipped with 16GB RAM, which I might expand to 32GB at some point.

It's got integrated graphics, but it's the Intel HD 630, which supports 3 monitors at 4K UHD. So I can upgrade my monitors at some point when 4Ks come down a bit in price. There's space for a separate graphics card, but it would require a bigger power supply, which might be hard to fit in this case. Unless you're a serious gamer, I think the 630 graphics are more than adequate.

It shipped with a SATA 512GB SSD, which I kept for backup storage. But I added a 1TB M.2 SSD, which is roughly 5X faster than the SATA SSD. I also added an older 2TB HDD from my prior desktop. So tons of storage.

Another fun fact, this is the first PC that gets a full Gigabit up and down on our FiOS Gigabit service. Prior desktop got ~400/600. So that's been a nice upgrade as well.

The PC was $529 on Newegg and the M.2 SSD was $99 on Amazon. So, all-in cost was $630 for a pretty powerful machine IMHO.

Wow. That is a great solution. Congrats.