Question posed by a PC Dinosaur (the time has come to replace my home office Desktop) primarily I use it for legal and genealogical software, word processing and the internet. So my question is should I get something like a HP S5-1554 6 Gb RAM, 1 Tb hard drive; a Lenovo K410 57313412; or an HP P7-1534 8 Gb RAM, 1 Tb hard drive; or what?
Desktop recommendation (don't laugh)
- Thread starter Aardvark154
- Start date
Not sure where you live? Toronto? But I would go to a local computer shop, give them a budget of $600 and tell the the specs you want. You don't sound like you would need a dedicated video card, so get one integrated with your motherboard, a decent cpu, RAM, harddrive and you'll save yourself some money and get a much better build spec wise. Better to build your own.
They are all decent
You can get an excellent desktop for <$500 today.
Out of those 3, I'd pick the Lenovo then the HP, unless something better is in the Sunday paper.....
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo-...218854298369&skuId=7590131#tab=specifications
Has the fastest CPU
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP---Pa...rive/7785046.p?id=1218860880629&skuId=7785046
Has the most RAM and CPU is only a tad slower.
You can get an excellent desktop for <$500 today.
Out of those 3, I'd pick the Lenovo then the HP, unless something better is in the Sunday paper.....
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo-...218854298369&skuId=7590131#tab=specifications
Has the fastest CPU
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP---Pa...rive/7785046.p?id=1218860880629&skuId=7785046
Has the most RAM and CPU is only a tad slower.
8 GB is nice, but you shouldn't suffer with 6 GB.
Even if it doesn't have a discreet video card (on it's own card, and not on the mobo) you may want to make sure it has HDMI out. Then you could hook it to any flatscreen and get a wireless keybord and mouse, or a wireless keyboard with a touch pad, and 'viola!' you have a media centre PC.
I'm a linux geek and that's what my 'big box' does-- It serves as a media centre, file and print server, and my home network's 'hub' (it never gets turned off). In the general case, just having it as a media centre rocks.
Yup, hook your laptop to the TV and you have
the equivalent of a desktop.
Already have a laptop, just need a desktop - in part because as a PC Dinosaur, I'm comfortable with something you have in your house or office and are not lugging around.
Yes you could, RAM is cheap......you can never have too much RAM.
Your in luck, Lemovo has HDMI Output, so there would no problem hooking it up to your HDTV like Options Menu noted in post #5.
Laptops are just too fragile IMHO.
Desktops are better built, can be far more powerful and will last longer. Have a couple laptops but still prefer the power of my i7 Dell desktop which still screams like new in spite of being 3½ years old.....
CPU get an i3 or less heck most modern i3s are good enough to handle watching a 3d blu ray movie. IF you are not a gamer that is all you need.
So you could spend around $60 for a duo core CPU to $150 for the newest i3
Ram is so cheap that for $60 you might be able to get 8 gb
Mobos for your needs $80 to $100 to be honest what you are paying for is the ability to overclock, use multiple graphics cards and number of slots for adding things..... given your needs a dead basic mobo is fine. But yes a HDMI output would be ideal.
Hard drives
I'd recommend a solid state drive as they are faster than traditional drives.
I might spend around $100 on a SSD with around 128 gb and buy a tradtional hard drive with 2 TB for another $120 use the SSD for your programs/applications and 2 TB for storage of files.
Blu ray/dvd burner drive..... $60
Case....$50 to $100..... mobo helps determine the type you buy.
Power source get something rated 80 plus bronze probably don't need many watts 400W would be more than enough $50
Buy windows 7 $100
Pay canada computers to assemble it for you for $50 and pay another $75 if you want them to install windows and make it so you can take it home and start putting in your software.
What I've described would get you a fairly decent computer. You could do it cheaper. But this will provide you with a PC that should last a while.
So you could spend around $60 for a duo core CPU to $150 for the newest i3
Ram is so cheap that for $60 you might be able to get 8 gb
Mobos for your needs $80 to $100 to be honest what you are paying for is the ability to overclock, use multiple graphics cards and number of slots for adding things..... given your needs a dead basic mobo is fine. But yes a HDMI output would be ideal.
Hard drives
I'd recommend a solid state drive as they are faster than traditional drives.
I might spend around $100 on a SSD with around 128 gb and buy a tradtional hard drive with 2 TB for another $120 use the SSD for your programs/applications and 2 TB for storage of files.
Blu ray/dvd burner drive..... $60
Case....$50 to $100..... mobo helps determine the type you buy.
Power source get something rated 80 plus bronze probably don't need many watts 400W would be more than enough $50
Buy windows 7 $100
Pay canada computers to assemble it for you for $50 and pay another $75 if you want them to install windows and make it so you can take it home and start putting in your software.
What I've described would get you a fairly decent computer. You could do it cheaper. But this will provide you with a PC that should last a while.
Edit aside from hdmi output the other thing you want in your mobo is to make sure that it is compatible with the ram that you want.
It's not much more money to get a mobo that exceeds the ram that you actually bought.
This means that in the future you could buy better ram as it's price drops and thus extend the life of your computer.
Oh now that I think about it a mobo that has usb 3.0 slots would be good as that will be the new standard so avoid ones that only have usb 2.0 slots.
For the average user number of usb slots might acutally be of interest as you will need one for your mouse, one for your keyboard, one for a printer, and it would be nice to have extra ones for external hard drives or plugging in your cellphone, tablet, camera etc.
It's not much more money to get a mobo that exceeds the ram that you actually bought.
This means that in the future you could buy better ram as it's price drops and thus extend the life of your computer.
Oh now that I think about it a mobo that has usb 3.0 slots would be good as that will be the new standard so avoid ones that only have usb 2.0 slots.
For the average user number of usb slots might acutally be of interest as you will need one for your mouse, one for your keyboard, one for a printer, and it would be nice to have extra ones for external hard drives or plugging in your cellphone, tablet, camera etc.
frankcastle
All true what you post but the Lenovo he's thinking about runs $449.99 at Best Buy.
The only potential downside is it has 6 high-speed USB 2.0 ports and no USB 3.0 ports, which given his usage should be no issue.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo-...218854298369&skuId=7590131#tab=specifications
It's ready built and he has no 'compatibility' issues to fret over.....
All true what you post but the Lenovo he's thinking about runs $449.99 at Best Buy.
The only potential downside is it has 6 high-speed USB 2.0 ports and no USB 3.0 ports, which given his usage should be no issue.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo-...218854298369&skuId=7590131#tab=specifications
It's ready built and he has no 'compatibility' issues to fret over.....
One more thing you could easily just get one of those PCs you see regularly in the flyer of a best buy and not have a problem with what you want to do. In the future you will have some room to upgrade and extend the life but know that it's made of the cheapest of cheapest parts. Not necessarily in terms of quality but in terms of staying relevant.
In a few years you could simply just buy another one of these (the new equivalent). Realy depends on the person and your budget. I will admit that what I proposed above would be suitable to be your home entertainment system. Minus graphics intensive games. But still plenty of games to play just not hardcore firt person shooter type games.
In a few years you could simply just buy another one of these (the new equivalent). Realy depends on the person and your budget. I will admit that what I proposed above would be suitable to be your home entertainment system. Minus graphics intensive games. But still plenty of games to play just not hardcore firt person shooter type games.
You're right. What I proposed is overkill. But at least he'd know what he is or is not getting and whether or not it's important to hi,
If you do go this route..... the guys at canada computers, tiger direct, ncix could help you build one. I point that out because I had a friend pay an obscene ampount for assembly of a gaming computer at a smaller place. So knowing that $50 for assembly and another $75 for set up is helpful.
By now the beast which is a Dell Dimension 3000 running XP is about nine years old, so I can't say that I haven't gotten good use from it. Since I'm not modeling explosions or volcanic eruptions, I have to face the fact that I'm what they term a "basic user."
I still like XP, which is still ranked as the most popular OS in the world.
Have XP still running great on an old P4 Dell OptiPlex GX270 that was upgraded a bit to make it run even better.
Don't fear W8 which runs even better than XP. Played around with W8 and don't see what all the fuss is about. Some windows peeps just don't like change. They don't realize change is the only constant in the PC world. Have used XP, Vista, W7 and they all run fine as long as you learned PC basics. W8 is little different. That said Linux is still superior to M$. It just runs better and changes even more than M$, which is probably a reason change doesn't bother Linux peeps as much as it seems to get Windows peeps all bent out of shape.....:biggrin1:
Have XP still running great on an old P4 Dell OptiPlex GX270 that was upgraded a bit to make it run even better.
Don't fear W8 which runs even better than XP. Played around with W8 and don't see what all the fuss is about. Some windows peeps just don't like change. They don't realize change is the only constant in the PC world. Have used XP, Vista, W7 and they all run fine as long as you learned PC basics. W8 is little different. That said Linux is still superior to M$. It just runs better and changes even more than M$, which is probably a reason change doesn't bother Linux peeps as much as it seems to get Windows peeps all bent out of shape.....:biggrin1:
