Computer buying advice?

[ILikeBacon]

Hi - I'm looking to replace a home desktop PC - and am looking for advice and/or deals for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I would consider new or refurbished. I'm not going to be using it for heavy duty gaming. Remote connection to Corporate office (work), some spreadsheets/analysis and other typical home productivity stuff, etc... plus light gaming.

Basic specs I had been considering:

i7 processor
16 or 32GB RAM
1T or 2T hard drive
(optional SSD secondary drive)

Thoughts? Is refurbished ok for basic use like I've described?

Basically I'm just wondering if you've come across any nice deals..

Thanks,

ILikeBacon

 

[Nelcyn]

Do not buy a Dell! I build my own desktop computers and never had any issues. I do not know much about used computers. If you have the drive I would suggest building your own. My 12 year old son put together a 1400 desktop for gaming this past summer. SSD for the boot and top line i7.

 

[ILikeBacon]

You know - that actually sounds like kind of a fun project. I assume there are some decent templates I could follow (kind of a "shopping list" to start from). Thanks.

Do not buy a Dell! I build my own desktop computers and never had any issues. I do not know much about used computers. If you have the drive I would suggest building your own. My 12 year old son put together a 1400 desktop for gaming this past summer. SSD for the boot and top line i7.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

You know - that actually sounds like kind of a fun project. I assume there are some decent templates I could follow (kind of a "shopping list" to start from). Thanks.

Except bitcoin mining has jacked up the parts market last time I looked.

 

[bstegs]

Save some money and get an i5 (which are now hexacore). For your described needs, even an i3 could suffice. You also shouldn't need 32 GB of RAM. 16 is enough to be future proofed for a while.

How many monitors will you be driving and at what resolution?

Do you do any video encoding?

 

[3TrueFans]

You know - that actually sounds like kind of a fun project. I assume there are some decent templates I could follow (kind of a "shopping list" to start from). Thanks.

Check out https://pcpartpicker.com/ , you can configure builds and it'll make it easier to purchase compatible hardware. They have a bunch of builds created by other people too that you can use as a starting point.

IMO an SSD isn't an option anymore, I can't imagine building/buying a PC without at least 1 SSD for the OS and applications and then maybe HDDs for just file storage or less critical software.

I'd seriously consider a Ryzen CPU if I were building right now, a Ryzen 7 2700x would be a really nice midrange choice, or a Ryzen 5 2600 for a more budget option. The Intel stuff still probably performs better for gaming but if that's not your focus the Ryzen chips seem really great, and are still pretty great for gaming too.

 

[CYdTracked]

For what you say you will use it for you wont notice a difference between an i7 an i5 processor. You will notice a difference if you get a SSD hard drive with at least 8 GB or more of RAM though. There is no shame in buying a name brand PC like Dell. I do desktop support for my job and have done it for over 15 years and have supported many versions of Windows and PC manufacturers and for my personal PC I have always custom built a Dell PC. Dell seems to be the most reliable and address any issues the quickest over any brand I have dealt with.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I wouldn’t recommend refurbished. I’ve never had any luck with those, but tried it again recently with an iPad. I figured it was an Apple and would be different. Nope. Wouldn’t take a charge at first, then when it finally did, it would randomly go dead.

 

[ILikeBacon]

Only one monitor for now and the extent of video work is editing of Gopro videos.

It does seem like the i5 plan might just be the way to go for this time. There are some decent deals. I was kind of thinking about future proofing, but as cheap as the tower is, it probably doesn't hurt to pay less now and still get adequate capabilities.

Thanks everyone.

 

[3TrueFans]

I wouldn’t recommend refurbished. I’ve never had any luck with those, but tried it again recently with an iPad. I figured it was an Apple and would be different. Nope. Wouldn’t take a charge at first, then when it finally did, it would randomly go dead.

Just so we can get....both sides....of the argument, I have bought several refurbished things and haven't had any major issues.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Just so we can get....both sides....of the argument, I have bought several refurbished things and haven't had any major issues.

It’s not that they all have problems. It’s that you’re more likely to have a problem than if you buy new.

 

[Nelcyn]

If you want to go really cheap go i5. I personally would not. I9s are available now making i7s cheaper.

Alienware "Dell" computers are junk. I have owned two (bought brand new) and both died after the warranty expired. Build it yourself there is a ton of info and guideance available.

 

[Nelcyn]

Except bitcoin mining has jacked up the parts market last time I looked.

Still better to cut out the middleman and DIY.

 

[Nelcyn]

Building your own computer really is a fun project and it does not take that long. It was good bonding time for my son and I. Plus, you will build a way better machine than out of box ever could. Good luck!

 

[dmclone]

I've built my last 4 PC's. The last time I built one was nearly 4 years ago and at the time was a powerhouse so that I could run VR. 4 years later and it still runs super fast and can't imagine upgrading in the next few years. With that said, for normal use it would be fine to just buy one from someone like Dell. I spent over $2k on mine, which is overkill for about everything. The big plus by building your own is that you can pick out the best parts from the best companies.

Mine has an i7(overclocked), 1GB SSD, WD Green 2 GB standard HD, 16gb of ram, Z97 mobo, Noctua CPU cooler, Phanteks case, Asus GTX 980, EVGA 1000 watt power supply, etc.

 

[bstegs]

I respectfully disagree on the i5 being a cheap component. You have the full Celeron range plus the I3 below it. Also, with the I7 no longer having hyperthreading, the only gain would be two cores.

On Newegg,
I5 - $250
I7 - $409
I9 - $569

 

[Cyclone44]

One other thing that is important is the generation of the chip. Stay away from generation 6 and 7. I have had all kinds of problems with two laptops with I7 chips, regular hd and 8 gb ram. Laptops tend to have less cores to cut down the drain on battery use. But, they both get 100% disk usage a lot. That seems to be a common thing if you check the internet. I also have an old I5 that blows the doors off the I7 laptops. I5 with lots of cores may be a solution.....

 

[brianhos]

Unless you are heavy gaming, don't buy an i7. Get a new gen i5 coffee lake. And you do not want an SSD as your secondary, you want it to be your C: drive and D: is your big slow storage device. Actually, just go to newegg and build one, it is a lot of fun and pretty easy anymore.

 

[dmclone]

If I was building today and didn't need it for gaming, I would look at an option like this. Just add an SSD and some ram .

https://slickdeals.net/f/12321643-i...ilable-for-379-99-free-shipping?src=frontpage

 

[UnCytely]

So many people like to show off how much they can spend. I like to pride myself on how little I can spend, and still get a really powerful system.

A couple of years ago, my Core 2 Quad was getting a bit long in the tooth. I wanted a Core i7, but wasn't seeing very good prices. It occurred to me that people were ignoring the Core i7-class Xeons on eBay. When buying a Core i7 system, nobody thinks about buying a Xeon that's just as fast. So, I picked up an old Dell Precision T5500 for $250 on eBay, and most of that was for shipping. For a Dell, this thing is a rugged TANK! Add $100 for a decent graphics card, and another $100 for a couple of SSD's in a RAID configuration. So, $500 for a system with 24 virtual cores, 12 real cores, 2.8Ghz clock speed, 24GB of RAM. I can add another 16GB of RAM to go to 40GB, and can replace the processors to go to 3.5Ghz, so there is still some upgradeability with this thing.