Seeking advise for a new computer?? (desktop)

[gearheads78]

My 8 year old Dell is about to die and since for 2 years now windows has stopped supporting XP its time to make a change. I figure with Black Friday / Cyber Monday it will be a good time.

I have no idea what I should get. All I use it for is surfing, pictures and videos. I don't do any gaming. Anybody in the know have some suggestions for me. I would like to keep cost low as possible but also don't want junk that needs replaced a year from now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Ghiaguy]

Go to the HP website and order one up -- or go to Costco.com they've had some OK sales recently --- --- I've never had any luck with Dell and I just spend my $$$ for a better unit from HP......

I've still got some 10 year-old HP's laying around that I've put Linux on as a operating system when Microsoft OS that came with it is no longer supported, they are the backbone of my home network ... ( http://www.linux.com/learn/new-user-guides ) (( the Android OS on your phone or tablet is a stripped down version of Linux ))

Another one I have is probably a little older than that and I've got DOS 6.2 running on it, just to support some old floppy drives, because you never know when you'll need to recover some info off a 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" floppy or tape drive LMAO ((( Besides, I've got Johnny Castaway on it as its screen saver and "The Incredible Machine" I love those old programs )))

[HandOverFist]

If you do not want to build one yourself go to Newegg and punch in your requirements and view the selections. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883101177

I would stick with Windows 7, but you have the option of a free "upgrade" to Win 10 until mid 2016 if you desire.

[gearheads78]

If you do not want to build one yourself go to Newegg and punch in your requirements and view the selections. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883101177

I would stick with Windows 7, but you have the option of a free "upgrade" to Win 10 until mid 2016 if you desire.

Thats where I am having trouble. How do I know what my requirements are? I'm much more a car guy than a tech guy.

[WallaceMFG]

Stick with a bigger brand (Dell, HP, Asus, Acer), they all make decent stuff. I had a $400 Dell laptop last me 5 years through most of my college time and it still works fine. Unfortunately, it wouldn't run Solidworks so I had to upgrade to a new $2,000 MSi haha.

Here's my suggestion:
I'd look for something with at least a Intel i5 processor and 6-8 GB of RAM.
In general the more RAM you have the smoother the computer will run because RAM gets used for everything, it's better to have too much than too little.
If you want a truly fast computer then get one with an SSD for the operating system and a normal HD for files and programs. Operating system will be lightning fast if it is on an SSD.
You don't need a dedicated graphics card for what you say you use it for.
Pretty much any new machine will have Windows 8 or Windows 10 on it, if you really want Windows 7 you can buy it and put it on a new machine. I personally don't think 10 is bad.

That should get you a reliable machine for internet use and viewing/posting pictures and videos. Getting a slightly better machine will cost more now, but last longer.

[HandOverFist]

Thats where I am having trouble. How do I know what my requirements are? I'm much more a car guy than a tech guy.

I would shy away from a Dell simply because they use parts that you can't replace with other than Dell replacements...unsure of HP or others. i3, i5 is plenty of cpu for your usage and the on-chip graphics are plenty adequate. The reason I suggested Win 7 is that it is proven...Win 10 users report many driver problems and programs that won't run. I'm sure it will get sorted out eventually, but I don't believe you want to be that guinea pig lol.

[TheJDMan]

There are a lot of computers both new and used on ebay. Amazon also has some computers on their black friday sales.

[MonzaRacer]

If you want a custom build with some legs for lasting years and being able to do most anything , think about games, programs you want to use. Then we can build a custom unit specifically for you. Or hit up a local shop that advertises building gaming rigs.
I just put A 3 core AMD with 10 or 12 gb of ram, on gigabyte board, has two scsi hard drives, LG mdrive dvdburner(m drive DVDs are ones that are supposed to last forever.) My video card is a mid level gaming video card most of the computer is what my buddy upgraded from. I bought new case and the DVD burner.
I installed my copy of windows 7 professional, 64 bit. Then decided to up grade to windows 10.
Building a computer isn't hard, lets you spec parts that will last longer than the wax job on a delorean in Arizona desert.
And give much thought about buying elcheapo boxes, barely upgradeable, if at all and with the cheapest parts possible.
If you want to learn how to build a computer, its actually not that hard, just gotta make sure all the cables are plugged in.
I just opened one of the Dell (custom) made desktops, family member bought it, it fails 2 times under warranty, now out he wants me to see if I can revive it. Lucky him it came AMD instead of Intel processor. So after looking internals over, finding a power supply that's was too small for a computer TEN years ago, dead board, nearly dead CPU fan, deplorable on board graphics and a motorized cup holder making believe it was DVD burner. Oh and the ram memory wasn't enough to run XP in my opinion. So after careful spec reading I found new board with better specs, same chip set, uses same processor, got larger CPU fan with water cooling block, more ram, that all matched. We also found 3 mo old gaming video card with water cooling on it. A large power supply, with great specs, a second hard drive but decide to clone it to his old one, so we being an ssd hard drive, that means solid state as in chips instead of spinning drive.
So all we used was operating system, stock hard drive put up to provide a back up of his info. New board actually unlocked another core previously not known about ie the old computer was listed as having three core cpu, but 4 th core was opened up.
So to start he has 16 gb of fast ram with lifetime guarantee, most parts have longer warranty. This box can run up to 32 gb of ram.the video card would rate on scale of 1 to 10 about 8, has like 6 gb of video ram on top of computer ram.
So its now a 4 core, water cooled unit with loads ram, an 256 gb ssd hard drive to boot to and plans to add 2 or 3 more spinning drives, water cooler video ( turns out previous owner did water cooling on video card) , has pair of optical drives an m disc and a blueray burner I believe . old system came with win 7 so as we booted it up we deregistered it, then did win 10 upgrade for free.
We decided to dump ugly box it came in (well the CPU and OS came in). He loves old school, cars, used to have couple of cars with neon so he bought clear side case, turned out power supply had lighted fans, got luck they matched lights in case.
So now we have it all assembled, loaded up and up graded, and we did boot speed test, push button, waiting for password screen, and 19 seconds later computer is booted to password entry, type in password, and boom, we are in.
Less than 30 seconds its ready to use, online and waiting. To test its abilities we dropped in a blue ray video, then dropped in a system testing disc in DVD burner, then we fired up one of video streaming sites.
I pushed this rig HARD and it never even hiccuped once, no temps got out of control and it ran flawlessly online we decided to open a few web browser tabs, well after hitting around 500 or so, it started slowing down, so hefty browsing is easily handled and the video/sound through his 7.1 surround sound was incredible and the video handled running hs 60 in TV with no issues and three other monitors at same time.
All from careful parts choices, using some of what we had and building for a system that should live for well over 5 yrs with little issue.
Spend wisely and educate yourself on any works and what doesn't. And this all grew from a $209 , box system that other than keyboard, monitor and speakers all had parts failure of some sort.
Don't get me wrong, you don't NEED a system such as this one, but who needs a 750 hp LSx in our cars when a 450hp sbc might serve better for a fraction of the cost.
The biggest thing is build for future wants/needs/dreams and not spend too little and be disappointed.
Good luck, any questions just ask.

[ErikLS2]

I'll second the Newegg idea. I've built my last 4 or so myself going this route. It's easy, you can buy the best parts and if a part fails it's not proprietary like a HP, Dell, etc and you can just replace it. Having said that, I've never had anything in any of mine that I've built fail (knocking on wood). I've always had to build a new one because the old one just got too slow. If you can work on your car you can put a PC together, especially with YouTube and Google.

Head over to www.tomshardware.com and look around or post up your requirements. There are lots of smart propeller heads over there that will tell you what parts to get. I would suggest an Intel CPU, name brand compatible RAM, Asus motherboard and an SSD for your programs to run on with a regular 1 TB or so Hard drive for storage. You'll spend the same or less than a big brand name and have a far better, faster, more reliable and longer lasting machine.

[gearheads78]

You guys are killing me. My head is about to explode. I feel myself starting to learn about some of this stuff and once I start I won't be able to stop until I do research for days.

[HandOverFist]

You guys are killing me. My head is about to explode. I feel myself starting to learn about some of this stuff and once I start I won't be able to stop until I do research for days.

It's really quite fun gearhead,,,building it yourself and firing it up for the first time is kind of like an engine lol. Everything you need on ebay... http://www.ebay.com/cln/rickss69/pc-...s/253472689015 $300 for a complete smoking little everyday pc and you get to upgrade to Win 10 for free if you choose to do so.


Or... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA6A33HP0503

[MonzaRacer]

OK since I weighed in before my suggestion would be
AMD apu A10-7870 (why go small unless cash is tight and a smaller apu will suffice),
ASUS ROG CROSSBLADE RANGER FM2+ AMD A88X (Bolton D4) 8 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard, as it comes with 8 gb memory and its game quality board,
do some research on upgraded cooling for CPU fan/heatsink,
here is a 4 tb read terabyte!,Seagate Desktop HDD.15 ST4000DM000 4TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for a spinning drive.
If you want a faster drive then ssd like this for a large one
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E500B/AM
Or use two drives a smaller ssd(solid state drivecto boot too then save stuff in bigger one, smaller ssd like this,,
OCZ Trion 100 2.5" 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TRN100-25SAT3-240G
Then pick a case you like, look at power supply think bigger wattage and good warranty.

I got a nice enermax case, my brother had a very nice Sigma psu(looks cool, extruded aluminum rather than sheet metal, plenty of power for my use and it came with blue internal light)
I used an older DVD burner and bought a newer m drive, they burned the DVDs that are supposed to last 1000 yrs+.
If you do any photography to might look for a multiple memory card reader also.
now my new/used computer is three core AM3 with 4 the core unlocked by board, I used my buddies stock fan/heatsink his new CPU came with, as he swapped in a water cooler as he had one on the old CPU(the one I built with) my board is a gigabyte, great specs, then I shut down onboard graphics card and my buddy upgraded his card so I got his old one, its mid level video card, no fans but passive radiator( its almost as big as card), we scrapped together like 10 or 12 gb of ram. I had bought win 7 professional 64 bit when 7 came out, as beta tester I got it cheap, now the box is upgraded for free to win 10, laptop has win 10, and so far no issues.
I wound up lucky as my buddy was upgrading so I got his old parts, still in decent shape, well except a pices of tram went bad but the pair of ram sticks have lifetime warranty so we scrounged do so e memory, found a single 4 gb stick, so I have 2x8gb of ripjaws, the 4 gb we dug up and when the two g skill come back we may sell or swap them. That one board with 8 gb free is good deal and to can add more ram later.
Ram is good addition, as are better video(graphics cards) but A series are gpu on the chip so no real need for more graphics, if you want to game then instead I would go with AM3+ or FX series than buy high end graphics card.
I dislike Intel processors as I have found d them to be popcorn poppers, overly expensive and I always like ding something different. If you want something help designing decent spec custom build, set your price limits, performance limits and let me know I'll help find parts or connect you with my buddy Paul, he helped me and wierd thing is I built my first computer before he got started in computers.
His first was a throw away dual Pentium 100mhz server tower from his old career as a press technician is he printed newspapers.
2 100 mhz Intel chips, 64 megabytes of ram, started with Windows 3.1 then windows 95.
Then he collected other computers, used and eventually built several from other peoples throw aways, now he can build a system that's nearly bulletproof and has long legs, li!e the setup I have been describing I built as most of its at least 2 yrs old or better.
The above suggestions can be changed, lesser CPU to save cash, never skimp on ram, hard drives well the ssd boot drive will speed boot time and power use, slap you old drive in out of older computer and use it as second or third derive and to do t lose any old information.
It's like hort rodding, I have old school driveline in a shiny new body with few new add ons , and I love it, need to rerun updates as its still at buddies as we were cleaning up cables and doing updates, but its done for most part, except maybe some additional ram.

[andrewb70]

....All I use it for is surfing, pictures and videos. ....

If this is truly all that you need a computer for, then I would suggest getting an iMac and calling it a day. Beautiful, simple, elegant.

http://www.apple.com/imac/

Go to an Apple store and play with one. Have one of the Blue Shirt people give you a full demonstration.

Andrew

[rlodad]

I agree with the Apple suggestion. As a Windows user it will take a little getting used to, BUT it will be faster, easier for longer. If you have a keyboard and mouse along with a monitor get a Mac Mini. Its the box like a PC without the monitor. As little as $500. Oh, and if you can't give up windows entirely, you can boot any modern mac into Windows. And interestingly, it'll be the best Windows machine you've ever used.

[HandOverFist]

I'm sure the OP is thoroughly confused at this point, but you have to agree this one is the best bang for the buck thus far with no learning curve involved. http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Produc...-cjb2b-VigLink Let's not forget the free upgrade to Win 10 if he chooses to do so.

[ErikLS2]

That did so super nerd real fast. That one will do everything he needs, it just is all proprietary stuff in it if something fails and probably won't last as long, but at $200 who cares.

[MonzaRacer]

Oh lord more people feeding the Apple black hole. After having many friends do the " just buy this Apple/Mac product and be done with it" and then have so many people voice regrets of having changed over.
Had several customers in shops where I have worked , jump on fruit wagon and decide to drive over them.
When a student at local college in town I used to work in, she was given higher end Mac book pro, all bells, whistles, etc. So after fussing with school supplied program for three weeks, several trips out of town to Apple store for "service" and to no avail.
She comes in to get car worked on, I asked her why so frustrated, she tells me about Apple / Mac issue.
So seeing the school gives them both Mac and PC versions of software she sadcit should only take couple hours at most to do work.
So I pulled out my AMD processored Toshiba, offered to install her software and let her use it while fixing her car(about a 5 hr process) and she had soft ware in, registered to her and work done in little over 3 hrs, she called grandfather who bought her Mac book pro(like $1500-$1800) and asked if it was OK to return it and get a regular laptop. He said sure he would FedEx hercthe receipt.
She returned it for full refund, went to BestBuy and got 4, yes 4 laptops just like mine, added more memory, had hard drives upgraded and extended warranty on them. They even loaded her school software programs she had for school.
She left one at home.apartment for school had on for carry around, one she went home to little sister for Christmas/b day and one at her regular home as backup in case she needed it as a spare.
She is still using laptops (PC) and won't even buy an IPod or I phone she hates Apple so much.
Last two Mac book s I worked on had so many infections and Trojans and such they had to be reloaded losing most of peoples information.
If your not picky a decent lap top will do as much as desktop and in case of emergency to can grab it real quick.
Many even hook them to TV or a monitor, attach a wireless keyboard and mouse and have a blast.
Heck I get great pleasure in building computers, I just don't get to do much of it.
Basic assembly is easy, little fun getting OS installed, and up dated and all drivers/updates done but honestly last few I have put together either with new or used parts have all fired right up and booted fast even.
I really have zero issues with win7,8.1 or 10 all work awesome, network like a dream compared to 98,XP orME or Vista.
Guess it just depends on what you want and how comfy you are. But after you do one computer build it does get fun to see just how mild or wild you can get. One of my buddy's computers started out from dead box friend was gonna burn, he wound up getting an AMD Athlon 2 4 or 8 gb of ram, 320 gb hard drive, DVD burner and some cables, case was all crapped up and mobo and psu were smoked. He wound up building that one up for around $100 for case, mobo, psu. Still running today!

[Josue]

Eff......

Wish I saw this thread before black Friday! Just ordered a doorbuster Dell desktop. Inspiron 3847, Windows 10 Home 64 bit, 12GB of RAM, 1TB HD, and it included a 24" monitor, for $499. Our needs are exactly that of the OP, interwebbing, messing with pics, and I have 4 years worth of home videos on a dozen SD cards I'd like to transfer to DVD's and pass out as Xmas gifts this year. I bought a Dell laptop back in '07, and it's been a great machine for me. Had 1 issue when it was new, but I don't even remember what it was. I do know Dell took care of it right away. It's just so old and out of date now, that it's pretty much a paper weight. It takes like, 15 minutes to boot up and connect to the internet! haha Then it freezes up right in the middle of what you're doing....ugh.

I have a Chromebook to do all my basic internet browsing on, and this thing is awesome! I just don't like how EVERYTHING has to be Google OS if you want to use it for anything other than surfing the web, so we'd still like to have a Windows based machine to print on and such. Never thought about building a computer from scratch though....very intriguing! My brother has a computer networking and maintenance degree (that he doesn't use), and I know he likes messing with the "internals" of computers, I'm sure he could take the lead on such a project.

[HandOverFist]

If a build is in your future the only sure way to make it pay is thru ebay. If you try to assemble a pc from new parts garnered from say Newegg or Tigerdirect, you will have just about as much invested as if you had bought a turn-key unit. The latest and greatest hardware is not absolutely necessary, the largest improvements being energy efficiency rather than actual performance vs older generation cpu's. Good used parts assembled correctly will last many years and those parts can be found on ebay for a song. I just bought a Intel G6950 socket 1156 cpu on ebay for $12 shipped...a little powerhouse that has dedicated graphics built into the chip which would be right up the alley for the OP's needs. It will be going into a small-form factor case the size of a shoebox to replace a friends aging pc.

[MonzaRacer]

If a build is in your future the only sure way to make it pay is thru ebay. If you try to assemble a pc from new parts garnered from say Newegg or Tigerdirect, you will have just about as much invested as if you had bought a turn-key unit. The latest and greatest hardware is not absolutely necessary, the largest improvements being energy efficiency rather than actual performance vs older generation cpu's. Good used parts assembled correctly will last many years and those parts can be found on ebay for a song. I just bought a Intel G6950 socket 1156 cpu on ebay for $12 shipped...a little powerhouse that has dedicated graphics built into the chip which would be right up the alley for the OP's needs. It will be going into a small-form factor case the size of a shoebox to replace a friends aging pc.

The issue with eBay used parts you never know what you get, if they have issues. Honestly I could build a very inexpensive yet upgradeable unit but the parts inside would be spced to last several years, the biggest issue with all in box deal is the parts are specific, and limited as well, remember those box sets only have enough features and specs to achieve the advertised use.
The boards are limited in specs, quality as they are built as cheap as possible so as to be inexpensive. Most of those boards are so cheap they generally run around $8 to $12 each in cost, much less than better grade boards from newegg, etc.
I have actually used old boxed systems to build better units, find similar chip sets( from back when it was bitch to get OS to recognize new parts) windows 7/8/10 now generally will dredge up proper drivers and generally it only takes a call to Microsoft to let them know your just fixing the system.
I also make sure ram will work also. Or sell it on eBay and buy proper version for mobo.
I just haven had lots of good luck back when doing repair work on gateway,Dell etc units. You tell them you need mbo, you get ram you tell them to need hdd, you get psu.
To warranty sucks, the performance is minimal par at best. I just offered to build system for neighbor, AMD FX processor, gigabyte board, he is actually gonna buy full 32 gb of ram life time warranty, 256gb ssd, 4 , 4 tb hard drives, blue ray burner, m drive DVD burner, card reader, cool illuminated case, large psu, water cooling. Since son is growing into gamer he decided to to add two high end video cards.
We figure system should last at least 5 yrs. He went with his old win 7 copy, then will upgrade to win 10 .
Other than two video cards he is under $500, and found supplier that had paired crossfire capable cards that sold them at very low price.
He found an led TV at local pawn shop very reasonable, gonna have 26 in monitor!, wall mounted.
But hey run what ya brung, hope ya brung enough.