What's a "good" computer these days?

jeepinmatt

jeepinmatt

<-$15k
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Mar 24, 2005
Location
Stanley, NC
Time to get a new desktop or all in one for the house. My 2002 VPR Matrix served me ok until about 2014, and then I kinda transitioned to the work laptop. Now it's time to get a good home computer again because I'm tired of not having a base station of sorts for all my files and programs. I'd like to keep it in the $800 or less range, but I'll need a new monitor also (17" was huge back in the day), so that's why an all in one might be a good choice until something breaks. What's the wisdom of NC4x4?
 
Well, what do you want to do with it?

The desktop market is pretty much dead except for purpose-built gaming machines.
 
If you get something like a micro desktop, get one with an HDMI output so you can use an existing TV as a monitor. As a bonus, you can then use the computer to stream TV shows from an internet browser.

If you just need file storage, get an external hard drive or a NAS drive (network access...).

I agree though, the desktop market is pretty dead right now, as nearly everything has transitioned to laptops and tablets. Things like libraries, offices, and kiosk applications are most of the bulk of desktop stuff now.
 
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Not sure if you have the option, but I've been buying all my computer stuff through where ever I've worked at the time. It's all Dell brand. I figure if they can handle what I'm doing at work, they can handle whatever I'd throw at it at home. Company upgrades, I can snag a 3 year old cpu for $150 or less and laptop for $300 or less (good for kids). Or just order a reconditioned version of whatever laptop I'm using for $6-800 (good enough for me). If I wanna order new, typically $13-1500 (good for people that don't understand the value of a dollar). My primary set up at home is a recondition laptop, dual 27" monitors, docking station with usb ports for external HD's, all via work deals, and I'm in it for under a grand. My wife has a laptop I kept when I left a company and I have a 3 year old laptop as a back up. I like it for the simple familiarity sake.
 
UTfball68 said:
Not sure if you have the option, but I've been buying all my computer stuff through where ever I've worked at the time. It's all Dell brand. I figure if they can handle what I'm doing at work, they can handle whatever I'd throw at it at home. Company upgrades, I can snag a 3 year old cpu for $150 or less and laptop for $300 or less (good for kids). Or just order a reconditioned version of whatever laptop I'm using for $6-800 (good enough for me). If I wanna order new, typically $13-1500 (good for people that don't understand the value of a dollar). My primary set up at home is a recondition laptop, dual 27" monitors, docking station with usb ports for external HD's, all via work deals, and I'm in it for under a grand. My wife has a laptop I kept when I left a company and I have a 3 year old laptop as a back up. I like it for the simple familiarity sake.
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This might be a good option. I have a nice HP Elitebook for work, and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a travel size laptop and docking station with a full size monitor.
 
If I need a workstation I have our network people build it.

They build a hellova machine to run rev-it, Cad, navisworks...etc. NOT a gaming machine though. Last one I had them build was in the $1000 range (less monitors) And they will build it with cards for however many monitors you want (I run 4 monitors) I'm sure a personal station will be less. They're VERY good people and don't try and fill it with crap. PLUS they'll build it off Windows 7 and set you up on outlook thru Kerio so you're not a slave to the outlook protocol

Shoot me a txt if you want their info
 
jeepinmatt said:
Basically

I don't do anything cool or interesting, so mostly just buying stuff I don't need online, surfing NC4x4, Chromecasting stuff that doesn't work well with a mobile app, occasional CAD work, and storage/management of photos/videos/files.
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One of thse things is not like the other, one of these ....

Seriously autodesk is a resource hog. Upgrade the memory on whatever you get and rock on.
 
Ron said:
One of thse things is not like the other, one of these ....

Seriously autodesk is a resource hog. Upgrade the memory on whatever you get and rock on.
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Everybody says that, but there wasn't much difference when I changed from a dual core i5 with 4 gigs of RAM to a quad core i7 with 16 gigs of RAM.

Regardless, my minimum spec will probably be quad core i7 or comparable, with SSD and 16 GB of RAM.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Regardless, my minimum spec will probably be quad core i7 or comparable, with SSD and 16 GB of RAM.
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I'm going out on a limb here and saying you can't get that for $700. The ram alone is $125, then $150 for a 500gb M.2 drive, $250 processor, random motherboard, $150 monitor...
 
jeepinmatt said:
Everybody says that, but there wasn't much difference when I changed from a dual core i5 with 4 gigs of RAM to a quad core i7 with 16 gigs of RAM.

Regardless, my minimum spec will probably be quad core i7 or comparable, with SSD and 16 GB of RAM.
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I mean if you are going to spend a grand on a esktop you can get a dedicated liquid cooled gaming machine...
 
Next setup I get will be a big SSD external HD and whatever Black Friday special laptop. Every couple years, just upgrade the laptop.
 
I've been using a fairly standard Dell Latitude for most of my work and home use for like 8 years now. I can count on 1 hand the number of times in the last year I wished I had more "power" at home. We have an old desktop dedicated to living in the entertainment center for TV and media purposes, otherwise we all just use laptops.

I am 100% sold on SSDs though. The boot time difference is night and day. Plus having no moving parts (aside maybe a fan) in your laptop is nice.
 
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