Yeah. That is way too much CPU for what the OP will use it for. It’ll work fine but it costs a lot more. Money can be saved here.
Did they say how much? It would cost you maybe $40-$50 to buy it online and do it yourself. It’s the sort of thing that’s (a tiny bit) easier to do when you first build a computer vs later, especially if the motherboard only has 2 RAM slots and they put 2x8 GBs in there.
If they want, say, $100ish for it, it might be worth it to just go ahead and have them do it now and save yourself (and them) the hassle of having to unplug everything and drag it back to the store later.
I think 16 GB is plenty for what you need, but 32 GB will pretty much guarantee you never have to worry about how many things you have open at once. You’ll never have to close an app again (until the next Windows Update forces a reboot, at least).
It’s kinda excessive, but RAM is so cheap you might as well, especially if you ended up saving money by not buying a powerful GPU.
Sometimes a heatsink can overhang the RAM which means you’d have to remove the heatsink to replace the RAM and that now makes it a project and a fair bit more difficult.
Oh yeah, that’s a good point. Other things can get in the way, too, especially in smaller cases. I’ve seen RAM blocked by GPUs, cabling, the power supply (what a dumb design), disk drives, etc.
$99.99, and they would install it at the store before I take it home.
Wow. That’s a ripoff. I don’t care how small the case is or is not. It’s an extra 3 minutes of labor, tops, and that’s including shutdown, switching off the PSU, and removing the case panel.
I was trying to look up the difference in price between 16 and 32 GB RAM on a retail computer, and I came across this on Amazon. It has Windows 11 Pro, which I certainly don’t need, but the price is right.
Tell me what’s wrong with this model:
My only concerns are that the CPU is already 2 generations old and the ad pings my Spidey Sense. This is not sold by Dell, but by a 3rd party.
If you said how much the one sold by the local shop costs, I may have missed it. Because my thinking is you’re better off going local.
$899.99
By the specs, there isn’t anything wrong with that Amazon Dell. A 12th gen processor is fine; there isn’t that much difference between 12, 13 & 14th gen in the i5 tier.
$100 to slap in 16GB RAM sounds steep but in a “I can change my own oil” way. It’s cheap and easy to do it yourself but I don’t know what the going rate is for someone else to do it. If you do go that route, make sure you’re getting two 16GB sticks and not one 32GB stick since you want the PC running in dual channel memory mode.
Edit: Two things about the Amazon machine. One, it looks to be a refurbished unit based on the reviews. Two, it has an older motherboard with DDR4 memory in it, not newer DDR5. This wouldn’t be a real issue for me if I was finding an office style PC for someone (and your use case) but you should be aware.
While you might not be looking for the Pro version of Win11, the difference in OEM Windows key costs for these guys is so trivial that they might as well install Pro and make it look value added
Interesting. The quoted price of 100 bucks was for a 32GB stick. They would then remove the 16GB and install the 32GB stick. (I’m not sure what would then happen with the original 16GB).
They also quoted me 60 bucks for another 16GB stick, which they would have to special order. Now that I think about it, I’m curious why they would have to order that stick, when presumably one is already installed. I’m going to ask them about that.
Usually RAM is installed in pairs in order to take advantage of dual-channel memory (read: faster).
So, 16GB would be 2x8GB sticks. 32GB is 2x16GB sticks. Some motherboards have more than two RAM slots (sometimes four, sometimes even more but more than four is rare and special). Most consumer grade will be two slots until you get into the prosumer boards.
If they are installing only one stick I would not go with that PC. It’ll work (probably) but not great.
My issue with Dell is it is proprietary almost everything so any future upgrades have to come from Dell and any fixes have to come from Dell which means $$$. But, to be fair, I have not dealt with Dell PC in 5+ years so maybe things are different now (I doubt it but maybe). (I have even seen some really bizarre power supplies in their units that I had never seen before and were unique…and shitty.)
I have the impression that the OP will be using this PC until the time comes to ask what computers work best with Windows 15.
My guess is that the local shop PC was going to have one 16GB stick since one big stick is cheaper than two smaller sticks. But two smaller sticks work better so that’s what you want. You want 2x16GB, not 1x32GB. It’s a pretty classic complaint about prebuilts that they often go with a single stick of RAM despite the diminished performance.
I’m not quite sure where you are getting this from and it’s incorrect. Other than the case, power supply, and motherboard everything else is commodity. You can add or replace the video card, memory, or storage with any off the shelf hardware.
Also, this is a Dell tower system; I know the micro and small form factor systems might use non-standard power supplies and other things, but don’t the tower computers use standard ones?
For the most part, yes, but they occasionally go off-standard and you can’t tell from any of the published specs.
The motherboard is a huge one. You have almost no access to BIOS settings.
I have tried installing graphics cards in one that just would not work with anything other than what it came with (I tried the card in another PC and it worked fine). Memory can be a problem too (had that happen more than once).
The mobo is at the base of it all and Dell has their own BIOS and you can’t do shit. It makes upgrades needlessly difficult.
The weird PSU was odd. A simple fix if it goes bad becomes a huge problem.
And the cases were often very difficult to work in.
In short, get a Dell and don’t expect to ever do upgrades or repairs and your fine. For someone like my mom that is exactly what she’d want. A mystery box that just does its thing. If it breaks, get a new one. Which I think is Dell’s business model.
I have had a Dell desktop since 2016 and was able to have someone repair it.
It’s been a flawless unit except for a CPU fan replacement and I hate to have to replace it.
I had one built from scratch in 2011 and it only lasted 5 years.
This is along the lines of my experience with Dell:
