What Computer Do I Want?

[GoldMember]

I'm looking to replace my 5 year old home computer with something new. I'm really a non-techie so am only going from a little bit that I've read. I think this is what I need for specs:

16 gb RAM
i5 processor
SSD Drive
1 tb memory (is this possible with SSD?)
Windows 10

Beyond that, I'm lost. Right now, my Dell is an integrated desktop/monitor similar to a Dell OptiPlex 7460. I like this style for my limited work space at home. However, I don't know my current specs, just that I'm on Windows 7 and I'm running kind of low on disk space with a 1 tb drive. I have a remote 1 tb hard drive that I use for backups as well.

Any comments/suggestions or what may be wrong with what I'm looking for? I use this for remote work as well as video storage and, of course, my biggest data use, posting on TGR. Looking for some help from all you geeks out there.

[lordf]

This is what I'm looking at for my do all windows home system since I refuse to pay what mac asks for a desktop. You will need a monitor though.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cors...kaAgmqEALw_wcB

[Mustonen]

I'm looking to replace my 5 year old home computer with something new. I'm really a non-techie so am only going from a little bit that I've read. I think this is what I need for specs:

16 gb RAM
i5 processor
SSD Drive
1 tb memory (is this possible with SSD?)
Windows 10

Beyond that, I'm lost. Right now, my Dell is an integrated desktop/monitor similar to a Dell OptiPlex 7460. I like this style for my limited work space at home. However, I don't know my current specs, just that I'm on Windows 7 and I'm running kind of low on disk space with a 1 tb drive. I have a remote 1 tb hard drive that I use for backups as well.

Any comments/suggestions or what may be wrong with what I'm looking for? I use this for remote work as well as video storage and, of course, my biggest data use, posting on TGR. Looking for some help from all you geeks out there.

You have memory and storage confused. You want (probably don’t need) 16GB of memory, and you want (again, doubt you need) 1TB of storage. Unless you somehow know otherwise, i’d consider 8gb memory and 512gb of storage; I doubt you’ll notice the difference. SSD over spinning platters is money well spent, though..

A 1TB SSD is possible, but you’ll spend up for it a little.

Desktops are pretty well commoditized. Find a cyber Monday deal and pull the trigger. I’d set a target to make it happen for $500.

[GoldMember]

You have memory and storage confused. You want (probably don’t need) 16GB of memory, and you want (again, doubt you need) 1TB of storage. Unless you somehow know otherwise, i’d consider 8gb memory and 512gb of storage; I doubt you’ll notice the difference. SSD over spinning platters is money well spent, though..

A 1TB SSD is possible, but you’ll spend up for it a little.

Desktops are pretty well commoditized. Find a cyber Monday deal and pull the trigger. I’d set a target to make it happen for $500.

No, not confusing memory and storage. Right now I have 8 gb memory and I think it works okay. It's just that when I looked at some online recommendation article, they were saying 16 would be better. But yeah, 8 is probably fine but I always wonder how much more future application requirements will demand.

As for storage, I am using over 800 gb right now and have had to purge some stuff that I could get rid of. However, as time goes along, I won't want to purge much more. I have a lot of video and raw photo files from over the years and that's probably the biggest offender for storage. Even at that, though, I can't understand why I have used so much storage. I could move it all to the cloud, I suppose but I'm a little leery of that and I am too much non-techie to really have much knowledge on it. I guess I can spend a little time to learn more about it and save some cost on the homefront.

[skaredshtles]

Probably what you want is an SSD for your "boot" drive - it will house the operating system and programs. Get a second, "normal" disk drive that's large for your data.

And yeah, 8GB of memory should be sufficient for consumer use for awhile yet... unless you're some sort of power-user that requires more, I'd stick with 8GB.

And in your original post it *appears* that you are confusing memory and storage because you specified "1 tb memory."

[adrenalated]

No, not confusing memory and storage. Right now I have 8 gb memory and I think it works okay. It's just that when I looked at some online recommendation article, they were saying 16 would be better. But yeah, 8 is probably fine but I always wonder how much more future application requirements will demand.

As for storage, I am using over 800 gb right now and have had to purge some stuff that I could get rid of. However, as time goes along, I won't want to purge much more. I have a lot of video and raw photo files from over the years and that's probably the biggest offender for storage. Even at that, though, I can't understand why I have used so much storage. I could move it all to the cloud, I suppose but I'm a little leery of that and I am too much non-techie to really have much knowledge on it. I guess I can spend a little time to learn more about it and save some cost on the homefront.

You don't want everything on one drive. Your system will run better with a smaller boot drive and a second drive for storage. Get a 512 GB SSD and use it for Windows and other applications. Then get a second, spinning drive for storage, as big as you need. Since a spinning drive is fine for storage you can go as big as you want pretty affordably - 2TB, whatever. Use a third drive for backups or pay for a cloud based backup such as Backblaze.

[Mustonen]

SSD Drive
1 tb memory (is this possible with SSD?)

No, not confusing memory and storage. Right now I have 8 gb memory

That’s all I was basing that off of....

As for storage, I am using over 800 gb right now and have had to purge some stuff that I could get rid of. However, as time goes along, I won't want to purge much more. I have a lot of video and raw photo files from over the years and that's probably the biggest offender for storage. Even at that, though, I can't understand why I have used so much storage. I could move it all to the cloud, I suppose but I'm a little leery of that and I am too much non-techie to really have much knowledge on it. I guess I can spend a little time to learn more about it and save some cost on the homefront.

Well, if it isn’t important, delete it. If it is, your local single physical drive is a terrible place for it. Go cloud or go storage appliance. I vote cloud, but I’m not going to argue with your paranoia.

[blackalps]

you can get 16gb pretty cheap, no reason to downgrade to 8. I got my Acer V15 Nitro Black laptop new for $1k. Has a Xeon processor and 1060 gtx card, 512gb SSD. Haven't had a single issue with it, even running 3d modeling software.

my current work laptop has similar specs, but is a Dell Precision 7540. cost twice as much. also been good.

[skaredshtles]

And use this utility to figure out why/where you're using so much storage: http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

It will show you where the storage is being used primarily, so you can make a more informed decision as to what should be deleted.

Generally speaking - raw image files generally take up a TON of space. I'd expect you'll find that type of file gobbling a lot of your storage.

[GoldMember]

Probably what you want is an SSD for your "boot" drive - it will house the operating system and programs. Get a second, "normal" disk drive that's large for your data.

And yeah, 8GB of memory should be sufficient for consumer use for awhile yet... unless you're some sort of power-user that requires more, I'd stick with 8GB.

And in your original post it *appears* that you are confusing memory and storage because you specified "1 tb memory."

My bad for my original post. I meant storage. As for what I currently have, I do have a separate spinning 1tb drive that I back up to. Based on the posts quoted below, getting an SSD boot drive at 512 gb along with my current 1 tb drive for apps and storage makes sense. I could then get another 2 tb drive for backups. That would be a pretty good way to solve my storage issues. Thanks!

You don't want everything on one drive. Your system will run better with a smaller boot drive and a second drive for storage. Get a 512 GB SSD and use it for Windows and other applications. Then get a second, spinning drive for storage, as big as you need. Since a spinning drive is fine for storage you can go as big as you want pretty affordably - 2TB, whatever. Use a third drive for backups or pay for a cloud based backup such as Backblaze.

This makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

That’s all I was basing that off of....



Well, if it isn’t important, delete it. If it is, your local single physical drive is a terrible place for it. Go cloud or go storage appliance. I vote cloud, but I’m not going to argue with your paranoia.

Based on what's above, having storage for all this stuff is pretty easy with a new configuration. As for the cloud, I'm not paranoid about it (I have it for all our company stuff) but need to check into pricing, etc. Mostly, I just need to gain familiarity with it. Like I said, we have it for our company so I'm fine with it but, I'm not the administrator and really don't even know who we have it with or what it's costing us. Guess I'll need to look into that. Thanks for your input!

[Lindahl]

What kind of apps do you need? Pretty much all of what I do these days is web-based, so I really like the Chromebook 2-in-1s for travel (download Netflix, etc).

[GoldMember]

Mostly work related stuff so, Office, PPTX, etc. Probably my biggest thing is I'm old-school and like to keep things local rather than remote for servers. I do play around a little with photo editors and will be playing around with video editing, also. Video editing, especially is what I think I may need more memory (and storage) for.

[adrenalated]

If you are going to be using higher end photo editing apps (like Lightroom) or doing any video editing then 16GB of memory is well worth the expense.

[skaredshtles]

If you are going to be using higher end photo editing apps (like Lightroom) or doing any video editing then 16GB of memory is well worth the expense.

Can agree with this. I'd imagine the more robust photo/video editing software is quite large and only sure to get larger, with regards to PC hardware requirements...

One thing that is worth looking into as well, IMO, is an NVMe SSD drive as the "boot" drive. These connect directly to the motherboard and are quite a bit faster than SATA SSD's. This article provides a pretty decent description of the difference: https://www.performance-computer.com...ssds-compared/

[nortonwhis]

Shopping for work and saw these for Cyber Monday

https://deals.dell.com/en-ca/productdetail/3o26 - no SSD. can always add.
https://deals.dell.com/en-ca/productdetail/3n42 - 12GB Ram with SSD

All their deals.
https://deals.dell.com/en-ca?ref=p13...berwarm1_cta_1

We have been on Dell at work for past 5 years. Don't think we have had a single catastrophic failure.

[brown9]

I assembled an Intel NUC this past year with similar specs to what's recommended here. Shopping deals on drives on amazon or other, lets you find the right size/price that you may crave and let you easily upgrade later. At work we use Lenovos, which have held up well in my experience. Though I'm no techie

[steved]

Fwiw...I've gotten pretty good pricing at newegg .....mboards, processors, memory, SSDs...etc.

[skaredshtles]

Fwiw...I've gotten pretty good pricing at newegg .....mboards, processors, memory, SSDs...etc.

This is usually the way I go when rebuilding the home desktop PC. Been using the same case since 2007. Every 5-6 years it gets a new motherboard, memory, boot drive, etc.

[GoldMember]

Thanks guys. As for building my own from components.....did I mention I'm totally non-techie? Yeah, I need something that's done. Good input, though.

[XXX-er]

So consider if OP could build his own fukcing computer he wouldn't be asking you what computer he wants

[Snow Dog]

If you're running out of storage then consider a NAS -- network attached storage. This WD 2 bay lets you add 2 drives of whatever size you want. There's 4-bay versions if you need more storage. Some can also act as media servers or support connections to the world giving you personal cloud storage.

[cycology1]

hardware for the most part is ubiquitous...a couple fine suggestions above but no one mentioned security...all the hw listed above will do is let the hacker encrypt ur stuff faster...

that said I don't know where to buy quality consumer security products as I only do purchase biz size products.

at a minimum you should get Microsoft advanced threat protection level security stuff. I'll look later as now I'm interested in seeing what is being sold to the masses

[MakersTeleMark]

We just take our clothes off and profit. Thanks though, Windowz got my front.