I hear computers are going to be a big thing (recommend a PC for me)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have an old (circa 2011) PC running Windows 7 and it is on its last legs. I’ve decided to buy another desktop.

What I decided I want is:

[ul]
[li]A small SSD plus a big (TB) HD[/li][li]At least 8, preferably 16 GB RAM[/li][li]A processor that can run Windows 8.1 or 10[/li][li]A DVD RW drive[/li][li]At least 2-3 empty PCI slots (I’ve always ended up using at least one during the life of a desktop)[/li][li]A decent number of USB connections, plus wireless and bluetooth capability[/li][li]Dual monitor capability [/li][li]A price less than $1,000 ($700-$900 is probably my ideal range based on some prices I’ve seen)[/li][/ul]

My questions are:

Lenovo seems to have the best price for features, but doesn’t seem to get the greatest reviews online. Anyone got experience with Lenovo desktops (or products in general)?

Has HP come back, quality-wise? Their desktops seem to be more expensive than Lenovo for (more or less) the same features.

What about Dell? I can’t seem to find any reasonably priced desktops with decent SSD sizes (128-256 GB).

Is it true that the Intel 7000 series processors can only run windows 10? I figure I’ll start with 10, but want the option of going to 8.1 (my laptop has 8.1 and it is decent).

Am I missing any features that I need to look for in a desktop?

One final thing- Yes, I know Apple makes fine desktops and laptops. No, there is nothing you could say or do, short of offering me a free one, to cause me to buy a Mac (What’s the over/under on the number of posts before someone comes in and recommends buying a Mac anyway?)

2

Lenovo is IBM, if I recall. I had a Lenovo laptop that functioned just fine. Hate Dell with a passion. I have an HP laptop, which is my second one. So far, it functions very well. My last PC desktop was a Microtel gaming computer, which had more power than I ever needed, but ran very well.

Looks to me like Cyberpower computers get great reviews, with a very low percentage of one-star complaints. They price at from less than $1,000 to $4,000 or so.

3

Lenovo bought the IBM PC business in 2005, so not much IBM left.

4

Do you need to spend that kind of money on what you’re looking for? I’m looking for laptops and I’ve seen ones that mostly meet your specs for under $500. And laptops are more expensive than desktops.

How do you define a big hard drive? 1TB? 2TB? 4?

How many USB slots is enough? 4? 6?

You can add RAM after you buy it if you need to. Adding RAM to a desktop isn’t too hard.

You may want to visit a computer shop and see if having one built is a good idea. That way you can configure it.

5

I will chime in, inexpert as I am, to say that a laptop could well be the way to go. I bought one (HP, as it happens) last time I decided to replace my computer, and I have been very happy with it. I use a separate (ergonomic) keyboard and larger monitor at home, but if I want to I can just unplug three or four items and take it with me out the door (we get so many warnings about earthquake preparedness, I often think about how I would react to a “bug out” event; rescuing my PC is definitely high on the list).

USB port count shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t mind buying a multi-port extension. I have one that looks like a dog bone that turns one port into 4.

I don’t know about PCI slots in a laptop though; aren’t there other, more up-to-date ways to add stuff that you used to need a PCI slot for? (OK, mock me if you will, I said I was inexpert. I’m not sure I even remember what a PCI slot is. It’s been years since I looked at the insides of a PC.)

My PC needs are pretty standard - regular production software, a few undemanding games, etc. I don’t use the camera but if I did, there it is all ready to go.

6

Are you going to be playing games on this PC? If so which ones? And what resolution is your monitor?

BTW it’s PCIe slots these days and the chances of you using more than one are slim indeed. And optical drives aren’t really needed either.

7

I wasn’t able to find a Dell/HP/etc prebuilt that fit your specifications (or even make one via their configuration tools) so I went to CyberPower to see what I could make. This would come in just under your high point but it fits all your above requirements. I actually wanted to just use the new Ryzen 5 2400G processor since it has impressive integrated graphics and wouldn’t have required a discrete GPU but CyberPower wouldn’t let me build a “no GPU” system with that processor which is kind of nonsense since I can build a “no GPU” system with an Intel chip.

Unlike some previous generations of processors, the current AMD Ryzen line is well received as a serious contender against the Intel chips, especially on a power/cost basis. The GPU is an RX 550 with 4GB memory – no gaming powerhouse but probably able to handle stuff at 1080 (at medium-ish settings) if you wanted. If you absolutely know you’re never going to play nothin’, you can knock a few bucks off going to the GT 1030 card.

I’m not in love with the drive options but the combo included offered the best version of your request: a small SSD boot drive and a larger HDD for storage.

If I was building my own to fit your specs, I’d have gone with the Ryzen 5 2400G, skipped the GPU, gone with a simpler case to save a few bucks and tried to couple a small Samsung EVO SSD with a Western Digital Blue or similar. That’s just my perfect world scenario, though.

If you hate AMD, here’s a more or less equivalent build using an i5-8400 processor though it’ll run you a couple hundred more.

(I realize you likely won’t jump on either of these but hopefully it gives you something to think about)

8

PCI is obsolete, but I assume the OP meant PCI Express (PCIe). Which is used for video cards and other expansion cards.

Nowadays, most expansion can be done with USB - ethernet, hard drives, audio, and all sorts of I/O ports. And if your laptop has Thunderbolt-3, it can be used to connect anything, including the latest high-end video cards - though you have to spend a few hundred dollars extra for the expansion box, and there can be a slight performance hit & compatibility issues.

9

I highly recommend against Windows-8.1 at this point. And you can’t buy it anymore anyway - Microsoft stopped selling Windows-8.1 in 2015. Mainstream support ended in January 2018, so from now on, it just gets critical security updates. You’ll have more and more compatibility problems as time goes on.

10

p.s. In general I’ve found that PCs from custom builders are easier to work with. They use all industry-standard parts. My main desktop is from AVA Direct and it’s served me well. (Except I ended up transplanting everything into a larger case because I ran out of drive bays - that was easy because everything was standard.) My other PC (gaming PC for VR) is a CyberPower and that’s worked well too.

11

When someone asks me this question, I immediately ask him, “What do you want it for?” The answer to that question is what determines the best configuration in relation to money spent.

12

I used scr4’s AVA link to make a Ryzen 5 2400G build with components I liked better for one dollar over a grand. You could shave down a little (go with a 120GB Kingston SSD and save $44, for instance) if you had a hard ceiling.

13

Build your own. These days it’s pretty much trivial and you get to put your money exactly where you want to. Alternatively, look at bare bones kits like these and build off them.

14

Knowing the plans for the system would definitely help. I was trying to stay within the specified criteria because that’s what the OP asked for but even within those, it’d be nice to have an idea what sort of processor/GPU/etc is appropriate.

Here’s a cheaper $850 build than the previous ones. Uses a last gen i3 processor and a bronze-rated PSU. Be fine for casual browsing, email, light productivity applications, etc if that’s all the OP needs.

15

I would advise against it. It’s trivial if everything works right the first time, but if not, it’s a pain to deal with. What do you do if the new system doesn’t boot up at all? Is it the motherboard, or power supply, or CPU, or memory? Do you have spares you can swap in to see if that would fix it? Which company do you call for tech support, and what are you going to tell them? “It won’t boot” won’t get you very far when the company you’re calling only sold you one part in your system.

16

I’m not opposed to building your own – I just built a new rig a few weeks ago. But unless the person asking is expressing an interest in it, I assume that they don’t want to. The days of saving tons of money from building your own are largely gone unless you come across some great deal on components and the value of not spending an afternoon on it and knowing you have a working system under a single warranty can be worth what you save in parts. By way of example, my $1,000 Ryzen 5 system above is $890 through PC Part Picker. Is it worth $110 to someone to not have to build the system, potentially troubleshoot it, install Windows and worry about RMA’ing individual parts? That’s up to the individual but I couldn’t fault anyone for deciding that it’s worth $110 to make it someone else’s problem. And with different places willing to customize, you still can pick every part of your system down to the motherboard and power supply.

17

If gaming is in the equation then this is currently much more expensive thanks to cryptomining. The likes of Dell and HP charge list price for GPUs but BYO sites charge much more.

18

And along with that you get all the bloatware and in some cases proprietary parts that aren’t easily replaced/swapped. I know it’s not as prevalent as it used to be but it’s still out there. I suspect the GPU market will cool over time, just like it did with RAM 20 years ago.

19

Not if you’re using a customization shop and not buying something off the shelf at Best Buy or Walmart.

20

Thanks for all the replies. They are very helpful. I have been reading them at work, but I don’t like to post from work unless I have the time to compose the posts.

Some clarifications based on some of the replies:

[ul]
[li]My price range was based on looking at Lenovo, HP, and Dell off the shelf PCs and figuring that was a reasonable range for the level of PC I wanted. $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, etc. won’t make any difference in my short term or long term finances or lifestyle. That said, I don’t want to spend $1,500 if I can get the features I want for under $1,000.[/li]
[li]A big HD is 1TB or larger. I currently have everything on a 1TB drive with plenty of room to spare, though I have both external USB drives and a 1 TB NAS to offload some of the data.[/li]
[li]I’d like to have a mix of USB 3 and USB 2 ports. The USB 2 for various simple peripherals and the USB 3 for external drives/bandwidth intensive peripherals. I figure 6-8 total.[/li]
[li]I know I can add RAM (been there, done that for both PCs and laptops) and I’ve even built one of my past systems myself. It’s like changing the oil in my car- I know how to do it, but I don’t unless I absolutely have to. Also, at the end of the build, I realized that for a few dollars more, I could have ordered the equivalent system (more or less).[/li]
[li]I don’t game (in fact the last computer game I was heavily into was adventure), but I have this belief that if I buy a little bit towards the high end, the PC will not be obsolete (processor, RAM, etc.) as soon and paying extra for more time until I do this again is worth it to me. [/li]
[li]*I have a laptop. * I travel a decent amount and realized long ago that I didn’t want to carry my entire life around in a laptop bag, particularly in places like China. When I’m home, I prefer everything neat and tidy in a single box. A PC plus a laptop is my preference (realizing that given that I go at least 5 years between PC upgrades this might be the last box this size that I buy. Who knows what the appliance of the future will look like.)[/li][/ul]

Jophiel and scr4: Thanks for suggesting a custom solution and a couple of (I assume) reliable sites. I had a bad experience with a custom build with my second computer (In the heyday of computer fairs filling several fairground buildings, I chose one of the small vendors offering customization, specified my dream machine, and then discovered well after delivery that they had freely substituted cheaper components than I specified). Because of this, I am wary of customizing online. However, I just spent about half an hour playing with the configurator on the Cyberpower site and it was fun. Some questions:

Will liquid cooling require that I do any plumbing or add the coolant or does it show up ready to go?

If I specify an SSD and a HD, how do I make sure the OS and other software (if any) is installed on the right disk?

I realized that I also want a quiet system. Am I better off going with a large power supply (say 600W with a normal load under 300W) or going with smaller power supply sized for modest expansion (I don’t intend to install any high power cards or drives)?

Are the spec’d systems on the sites you linked all capable of dual monitor hookups? I’m used to running dual monitors off of two video outputs (DVI and VGA currently), but have come to understand that modern outputs like HDMI, USB-C, and Displayport can be daisy-chained. What should I spec to make dual monitor set up easiest?

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions. They are definitely changing some of my assumptions for this purchase.