I am looking at two budget-friendly desktop computers. They are the same price. Based on the main differences below, which would you think is the better deal. I mostly use the computer for web stuff and minor document creation. Not for gaming. Not for video production.
The Intel is faster, larger SSD. Radeon integrated graphics is marginally better than the Intel UHD, but not by that much. For what you’re doing, it’s got more than enough.
If all you are doing is web browsing and working on office type documents, both of these are fine.
AMDs integrated graphics have tended to be a bit better, though this should not make much difference if the extent of your graphics needs are going to be browsing web videos. The Intel is a bit more powerful CPU-wise but again won’t make much difference on your expected usage.
ETA: As above - at this point, look into brands and associated support and reputation and such. That’s going to make a bigger difference than the specs.
Frankly I think you can save money with a refurbished/used computer (eBay for example). Lots of corporations replace their computers every few years even though they work fine.
According to those benchmarks the AMD is slightly better than the Intel. On my current (10-year old desktop) I’m using about 188 GB of disk space, probably 30% of which is junk. So I could get by with a 256GB drive (and always upgrade later if need be.)
Given your intended usage, I can almost guarantee you won’t be able to tell any difference in performance between these.
Drive size would make a difference to some people. If all you’re doing is document creation, 256GB is plenty. If you will be saving a lot of high-res photos, videos, music, or other large files, you could run up against that limit, but it would have to be a lot.
In your shoes, I’d probably make the decision based on warranty, service, and support. You are much more likely to be satisfied or unsatisfied based on how easy it is to get support when you have a question or something goes wrong, and not based on computer performance.
I think you are good with either. I’m not a fan of HP support and warranty. A bad BIOS flash messed up my computer and they wanted a $150 support call to help, even though it was a known issue with the bad BIOS. I ended up fixing it myself.
Spec wise both are fine for your use, I would look into price and company a bit. These are big companies and mine is just one experience, but I too had a bad experience with HD support on a laptop and have refused to buy from them since. I cycle through business computers and laptops every 6 years or so at work (no computationally complex stuff, these are just standard machines), and I generally find Dell’s support packages to be really good, and Lenovo’s.
I don’t have any real experience with Acer support, but I have had a few Acer monitors and no complaints.
Sure, but if you’re going to have a media hub, you should probably have the bulk of your storage in a much cheaper hard drive. Even UHD video doesn’t need SSD speeds—though you’d better avoid shingled drives.
Personally, I’d go with the AMD. Sure, you’re not planning on doing any gaming, but occasionally the right game or other GPU-intensive item can come around around that you want to mess around with. And AMD’s onboard graphics are significantly better than Intel’s UHD stuff.
But I’d also be buying (or reusing) additional storage either way. I keep all my data with me from every computer I’ve ever used. I do agree that 256GB on its own can be limiting. I just think the cost of upgrading the storage (or, more likely, reusing storage from an older computer) makes that a non-issue.
I always recommend at least looking at Tiger Direct refurbs. I’ve bought about 8 PCs from them with zero issues, they’ve all been in great shape. Clean Windows install is a big plus, too.
I have the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 8-core (16MB cache) and the only potential issue I have noticed is, it gets quite hot, especially during gaming. Temps commonly reach 90C during gaming and with routine use hovering in the 50 to 60C range. The manufacturer advises these temps are normal for this chip but I imagine these temps will decrease its lifespan as heat is not a computers friend.
If I were making this decision, I would opt for Computer B.