Ponderings about a stationary PC

[JensM]

I just saw where you're from! I've heard our President is so anxious for people to move here from your country, that he will personally pay for you and your family to come here, and he will buy everyone brand new computers!

Alas, the one getting offers of lucrative work abroad are the little Mrs and she is somewhat less adventurous than me, so living in NY or HK or some sort of location with the family is probably not happening. I could go possibly go and live in a hot and sandy place, residing in a container again, whilst getting paid for some months. Not a family oriented venue, though... :O

 

[beeker]

As an update to this: ordering a refurbished workstation from a 3rd party refurbisher was a failure.
The access side panel was completely jammed - making it impossible to open the case. It didn't even look like they cleaned it (the PSU fan was caked in dust).
The return and refund process took forever - with lots of email back and forth.

So my take on this is now:
Buying refurbished straight from the manufacturer (Apple, Dell, HP, …) is most likely a viable option.
Buying refurbished from a 3rd party refurbisher is like buying from a used car lot - you're taking a risk...

(I ended up buying parts and assembling myself)

 

[JensM]

I eeked out another 1,5 years of the aforementioned Samsung, but it finally bit the dust in late may. The faithfull servant then had a bulging battery, discovered after the gap between the top and bottom parts of the chassis was close to 1 cm and non-compressionable. Back-up over the last year has been frequent and the internal disk works ok. I also managed to source enough funding to actually get a nice new laptop ordered, which I think will be a rather good one.

Its a Dell G5, with the following specs:

• 9. generasjons Intel® Core™ i7-9750H
• Windows 10 Home
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) RTX 2060 with 6 GB GDDR6-grafikkminne
• 16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz
• 128 GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SDD-disk + 1 TB 5400 o/min 2,5" SATA-harddisk
• 15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS 300-nits Display

I think this will be highly suitable, and with the graphic card stuff I may try some video stuff. I have spent quite some time trying to get to grips with the machines running only SSDs, and had my eyes set on a couple of possible models from Dell, Huawei and Asus, but dallying in the indecision by over-analysing sphere untill this one came about. It weights a bit at 2,6 kilos, 800 grams more than the XPS models I had looked at, but this dont matter as it will most likely be lugged around the abode, and not much outwards bound.

Only drawback is that it so new in configuration that there is about a forthnights waiting for delivery. Never had that happen to me before...

 

[ToxicTabasco]

If a desk top PC is in your future, you may want to expand your photography into 4K video. There are places that build custom PCs with only operating systems. This allows for best bang for the buck performance. A cheap custom gaming PC with GPU, i7, and SSD can do just about anything with the right software. And you can explore 4K video for the future.

I have a custom Gaming PC over 9 years old that does my audio music mixing/mastering with a DAW, all my 4K video editing and rendering, and all my photo editing. By the end of this year Win7 updates and services will stop. Thus, I'll still use it for my digital workstation for audio, video and photo. But, will take it off line and use another computer to do online work.

The pros of a custom built PC:
a. Only software is the OS and the software you install, no extra BS software.
b. Almost no upgrades needed, and no problems with lockups and glitches.
c. Can be custom built for less than $80 by computer stores.
d. A good build has no bottle necks, and all the components are from the same era that are designed to work best with the Mother board and processor.
e. You can choose what level of performance you need for each component if you choose.
f. Can be as cheap as $500 to well over $3K depending on the performance you want.

The cons of a custom PC:
a. After 2 to 5 years a new processor will come out, and upgrading components like CPU, memory, GPU designed to work on older motherboards may not be available for upgrade.
b. Thus, if a component breaks down, finding replacements may be difficult once the computer gets old. But that's for any computer factory built or custom.
c. Custom PCs can be expensive if you want a lot of power for gaming, and 4K video.

Thus, if you seek best bang for the buck, check out a custom gaming PC. You can DIY or have a computer shop build you one. And if you go the custom route, get one that is future proofed, i.e., the latest OS, and processor with mother board.

Avoid planning for upgrading components. Get everything you need to avoid bottlenecks in performance. And avoid the upgrade by component as the years go by. IME, once a new processor is out, all the old stuff sells fast. And after 5 years, those old upgrade components or replacement parts will cost as much if not more than the new stuff, but much harder to find new.

Anyway, good luck on your new computer.

 

[Drdave944]

Get klunky big tower computer. They are not all that big.but are cheap and pack in unbelievable power and storage. Get some SDD storage for local use 1TB and you can always add more hard drives for storage.Get a lot of processing power and primary processor. Then hook up to really big screen of high quality. Like 34 a Dell with screen that can be calibrated.A powerful gaming computer is great. You get what you pay for. Dinky screens make editing a pain. You can even hook up your rig to a 65 in television set.

 

[snaimpally]

Alas, after managing to drop a very small screw onto a freshly installed Motherboard, while hotswapping a HD, and ending up with a flash and a dead board, I have somewhat forsworn the DIY notions but could probably manage it again... :O

When doing work on the internals of a computer, it is best to unplug the power cable first. Just because it is possible to do a hotswap doesn't mean you should. I think if you exercise some caution, you should be fine. Could have just as easily happened when you were adding a new drive to a pre-built (e.g., Dell) computer.

I recently picked up a refurbished Dell mini-tower - i7, 8GB RAM, DVD-RW drive, WIN 8.1 Pro, 8 external USB ports, for $199 + tax with free shipping. These are computers that have been leased by corporations and then returned at the end of the lease.
Dell Refurbished Desktop Computers, shop daily deals from Dell Refurbished Store - Intel Core i5 Quad (4th Gen) - Intel Core i7 Quad (4th Gen) - Mini Tower - Dell OptiPlex

 

[D7k1]

I upgrade about every 5 years. I am into years three on a i7700 4200 Ghz 32 gig fast ram and an AMD480 8 Gig Gpu. Main drive is a 500 Gig SSD with a 4 TB pluse 2 2Tb fast spinners. Works well on 80 GB G9 files. It does very well with 4K video but not 6K video. Because you will probably keep this machine for a while buy the best you can. I had mine from CyberPower (bought through AMAZON) and use it about 5-7 hours daily (I have the liquid cooling and 6 fans). Here is a link to a reasonable system I think (depending on your budget). You can also just get the box without the monitor/keyboard.