Need a new desktop PC

[imnontrad]

One thing to consider is that if you buy an off brand or a custom build, Microsoft may not provide you with support if one of the updates messes up your machine. I am now on my second HP. the other lasted 9 years. I like the desktop not only for the amount of storage but because it is less desirable to thieves.
I got a laptop 2 years ago for when I travel and that was a waste. Too large to use on a plane. I just ordered a tablet plus case w/keyboard (Black Friday sales) that will be my travel "laptop" from now on.

 

[Sunset]

One thing to consider is that if you buy an off brand or a custom build, Microsoft may not provide you with support if one of the updates messes up your machine. I am now on my second HP. the other lasted 9 years. I like the desktop not only for the amount of storage but because it is less desirable to thieves.
I got a laptop 2 years ago for when I travel and that was a waste. Too large to use on a plane. I just ordered a tablet plus case w/keyboard (Black Friday sales) that will be my travel "laptop" from now on.

Currently we use desktops as the main computers, and tablets and a laptop for the odd stuff, and travel.

One thing I like about desktops, is when we go on vacation, I take the HD out of the desktop and put it in a safe place. In case a thief steals the computer.

 

[Ian S]

I was going to go i5 to save a few $$, and while the i5-9600K runs at a higher base clock speed than the i7, I might miss the extra cores of the i7 on demanding apps like Lightroom. Was also going to skip having a discrete GPU, but Lightroom will also probably drive me to get that as well.

I don't know anything about Lightroom cpu requirements but according to this website, https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...ightroom-Classic-141/Hardware-Recommendations AMD Ryzen processors may be superior than Intel CPUs for that application. Almost certainly more cost effective I would think. I've used AND processors for years and have had good results. In the past they tended to be more power hungry but that's not a real issue for a desktop.

 

[TOTO]

I'm getting my 87 year mother a Lenovo - A540-24API 23.8" Touch-Screen All-In-One - AMD Ryzen 3-Series - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive - Black. Best Buy's Black Friday has it on sale for $499.99... originally $729.00. I think she will appreciate the 23.8" screen.
She's using a dying Toshiba laptop w Windows 7 and it's going to be a tough transition over to Windows 10. I'm excited to check out https://www.libreoffice.org/ that Sunset suggested. It boils my blood to have to pay Microsoft $69/year. I've just uploaded Microsoft documents to google drive.

 

[stephenson]

I used windows machines for years in mega corps. For simplicity, wife’s was, as well.

When I quit, I was very pleased to immediately switch out all machines to a pair of MacBook Pro laptops. Wow - what a relief.

Simple, transparent - almost automatic. And, the transparency works through the iPads, iphones, watches, AppleTV streamer box, etc ... ex: want to search for something on Netflix, the search shifts automatically to the ipads, laptops, phones, etc ... another, all photos saved to the cloud from any device and retrievable by any device ...everything just looks transparent ..

We could never go back to the cacophony of windows.

 

[steelyman]

We could never go back to the cacophony of windows.

If you did, you’d run the risk of “OK, Boomer”.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

Personally, I favor Linux in general and there are a number of versions that run very well on older computers. There is now a way to run all the Adobe Creative Cloud apps on linux as well. That said if you do video editing in 4k you need a powerful graphics card which is what new gaming computers have now. The same for solid state drives. There are several under $1,000 Ryzen 7 computers with all the necessary bells and whistles to easily handle 4k videos and this is on my Christmas wish list. My older mid-2011 Mac is no longer supported and cannot edit 4K videos at all so I am docking my newer MacBook Pro to my old 27 inch retina display but it is cumbersome and I am ready to make the switch but am refusing to use Windows ever again. Both Mac OS and Windows are now actually customized Linux so in reality everything new is running Linux in one flavor or another. The Ryzen SoC CPU's are excellent and you get a lot of bang for your buck.

I have several i7 based mini-computers around the house running various chores. One is set up to run OpenMediaVault and has all our media etc. on RAID drives and also runs the Plex server. Another runs PfSense as our highly sophisticated router and can handle complete encryption within our network and monitors everything going in and out plus runs a virus scanner on everything all the time which is not something you can do with off the shelf routers. Those smallish boxes I bought off Aliexpress for under $200 and also have (old) monitors/keyboards on them and run Linux as well so serve as backups or browsing the internet.

My wife has a new iMac with the new Radeon graphics card built in plus SSD however, was more than double the prices of a similar Ryzen computer but includes the beautiful 27 inch monitor. She is fully vested into the Apple Universe. I am not.

 

[hotwired]

Far from replace ment

My PC is 5 years older than yours, i7 with 16 gigs of RAM, and I feel like I'm several years from eating to replace it, and just upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, which I regret because I've had nothing but problems since. I've upgraded to Windows 10 and then downgraded again three times over the past 7 years. I have extensive experience with both operating systems and I find Windows 7 Superior hands down. I'm absolutely flummoxed at it's replacement.

That being said, it sounds like you're several years away from eating to replace your PC. If you don't already have an SSD, that is a must. You will not believe the speed difference just what that change. I have a 256 gig SSD for my primary drive where the operating system since, then a secondary for terabyte regular IDE drive for all my files. I wouldn't do this any other way either, that way no matter what happens to your operating system etc your important files are left alone. Because theye're on separate drive.

 

[Masquernom]

Does having your operating system on a SSD just speed up the boot up when you turn your computer on? I never turn my computer off, so not sure it would be a benefit for me.

Or, does the SSD speed up access to files during operation?

 

[hotwired]

Good question... I dunno that my computer boots up pretty insanely fast. I can hit the on button and have Microsoft Outlook loading email and 27 seconds. I'm sure there's a lot faster now. I believe though that the SSD makes everything faster. You're accessing information from the disc instantly, versus having two access a rotating disk. I do not have much technical explanation for you, but I do remember it having something to do with the fact that the ssds are non-moving and everything is accessible much faster that way. It's almost like your hard disk is more RAM-like instead of a hard disk if that makes any sense.

 

[stephenson]

OldMicroB,

You prob mean Unix vs Linux wrt the Mac OS?

 

[target2019]

Does having your operating system on a SSD just speed up the boot up when you turn your computer on? I never turn my computer off, so not sure it would be a benefit for me.

Or, does the SSD speed up access to files during operation?

Access speed for anything read from the SSD is enhanced.

 

[target2019]

I would take another look at leaving files on an older drive. Something that has been spinning for 5 years is probably gonna fail before the SSD boot drive.

 

[tsturbo]

iMac
27-inch

What build did you get? Getting close to making a decision on another iMac

 

[stephenson]

I love the down in the weeds discussion of Windows programs, OS versions, which thing work and don't - and, am thankful, again, I don't have to do it anymore.

I used to pay close attention and actually write down tips from folks on how to make my IT department fix the many issues that constantly popped up on Windows xx-xx-xx, etc ...

I pretty much ignore all the software speak (and, I am pretty technical) - what a relief!

I have been considering a desktop Mac, but every time I think about it, I remind myself I use my laptop for lots of meetings - offsite and in my home. While I'm certain I could make it work pretty transparently, I decided instead, to get a curved widescreen monitor (21:9) - right now on a 30" and it works well to be able to multi-task ... may consider the 34" but it may simply be too big and not yet inside the cost curve for monitors.

When I do need the laptop, just pull a three wires (I could simplify this as well) - power, audio, and connector device which allows USB B (connects to separate hard drive, two types of storage chips).

I love transparency.

 

[target2019]

I gave up the Mac thing around the year 2000. My consulting business took off due to my growing interest in Windows. With experience in hardware, software, networks, it was relatively simple to find small businesses who needed technical help from time to time.

The ultimate question is still the same, IMHO. I'm comfortable in the 85% market share. YMMV, and that's fine.

 

[ERD50]

Currently we use desktops as the main computers, and tablets and a laptop for the odd stuff, and travel.

One thing I like about desktops, is when we go on vacation, I take the HD out of the desktop and put it in a safe place. In case a thief steals the computer.

I use a laptop as my main computer.

One thing I like about laptops, is when we go on vacation, I put the laptop in a safe place. Bot the "computer" and the HDD are protected.

The other things I love about laptops is the built in UPS, the ability to use it portably if needed, and the ease of repurposing it as a music player, or on my work bench, or whatever, since it is all in one nice neat package, no wires for monitor/keyboard,or evne for power if you are using it for short times etc.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

I use a laptop as my main computer.

One thing I like about laptops, is when we go on vacation, I put the laptop in a safe place. Bot the "computer" and the HDD are protected.

The other things I love about laptops is the built in UPS, the ability to use it portably if needed, and the ease of repurposing it as a music player, or on my work bench, or whatever, since it is all in one nice neat package, no wires for monitor/keyboard,or evne for power if you are using it for short times etc.

-ERD50

If I were to buy a new machine, I would also get a laptop. I like smaller screens of no more than 15" for portability, so would need a docking station to have a larger external monitor for "serious" work.

I have been out of the PC market for a few years, so was surprised to find laptops of less than $1000 with very powerful specs, far exceeding what I have now. But as I do not play games, nor have the need for more speed, I am not drooling at these machines, only amazed at what that money can buy.

If I were to do video editing, I would want a desktop for even more power, but I stopped doing that a long time ago. I do not know where those videos of mine are now, but I am sure they are in a server or external USB drives somewhere in the house.

It is amazing that they can build a 14-core CPU running at 4.4 GHz. The chip itself costs $1,400 but that is cheap for that power. Astounding.

 

[Charlie_Boy]

Surprised no one mentioned Costco, they have (as of today, Nov/30 )two high end PC desktops on sale until 22 Dec (unless they sell out). I just purchased one with 256 SSD, 32G Ram, 1T second drive, good graphics, all of which I need for fine art photography, my ongoing passion after retirements from other careers. What I like about Costco computers is there is little or no garbage ware software (forget the slang for it). It comes with a 2 yr warranty too (besides Costco's additional one). And BTW, you can get Norton's 5-10 pack of licenses on sale now on Amazon for under $20 or so (you pay your pound of flesh when you renew), I got one for 5 users for under $10 on BF. Crucial 1T SSDs are running $99 and change and I plan to add one to this computer on arrival. And to top all this off, Dell has a BF promotion (still on, I believe) for a Dell UltraSharp 27 InfinityEdge Monitor. Life is sweet if you are for a Desktop now-a-days.

 

[jim584672]

If I was going to build a beast PC today I put in a Ryzen 9 3950x (list $750 if you can find one). It will chew though any problem. Overkill for most tasks.

 

[easysurfer]

I use a laptop as my main computer.

One thing I like about laptops, is when we go on vacation, I put the laptop in a safe place. Bot the "computer" and the HDD are protected.

The other things I love about laptops is the built in UPS, the ability to use it portably if needed, and the ease of repurposing it as a music player, or on my work bench, or whatever, since it is all in one nice neat package, no wires for monitor/keyboard,or evne for power if you are using it for short times etc.

-ERD50

A matter of personal preference. Typing for any period of time, I prefer the clickity-clack of the mechanical keyboard for my desktop. In the same way, when traveling, I prefer the keyboard of a laptop over a flat screen of a touchpad or smartphone.

 

[24601NoMore]

Wound up ordering a new HP Omen Obelisk with a liquid cooled i7-9700K, 256 GB SSD + 1 TB SATA, 16 GB and RTX 2070 for $1,233. That was supposedly a total savings of $565 off regular price as I got both Black Friday AND Cyber Monday discounts somehow..

I really didn't "need" the 9700K but it's roughly 8-10% higher performance than a base 9700 and since I keep my PCs 5-8 years, wanted to get as much longevity out of it as I could. Ditto the RTX GPU - way overkill probably, but Lightroom will benefit from it and there's some future-proofing built in also for hopefully better longevity.

Have always had Dells before, so hopefully the Omen turns out to be a good decision. I did read that many of the Dell XPS 8930s currently have thermal problems and people are doing all sorts of crazy things like retrofitting liquid cooling or additional radiators after purchase to fix what Dell didn't engineer right..long time Dell customer, but that's crazy - no thanks! So on to HP..

 

[ERD50]

A matter of personal preference. Typing for any period of time, I prefer the clickity-clack of the mechanical keyboard for my desktop. In the same way, when traveling, I prefer the keyboard of a laptop over a flat screen of a touchpad or smartphone.

Yes, but I do use an external keyboard, and an external mouse (hate touchpads for anything precise), so neither of those things apply.

The laptop still gives all those other advantages that makes it a good choice for me.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Yes, but I do use an external keyboard, and an external mouse (hate touchpads for anything precise), so neither of those things apply.

The laptop still gives all those other advantages that makes it a good choice for me.

-ERD50

External keyboard and external mouse almost makes the set up a desktop .

I also can use just a touchpad but instead need a mouse.

 

[ERD50]

External keyboard and external mouse almost makes the set up a desktop . ...

Except for all those advantages I mentioned - built in UPS, the option of portability, and the ease of re-use. Since they take up so much less space, they are easy to repurpose, and for many of those uses, the built in keyboard, touch pad are sufficient. Makes a nice neat package.


-ERD50