New Computer Purchase Guidance Needed
 

We have Ipads, laptops and now are in need of <another> desktop - the one we have is over 10 years old.

Looking for recommendations on where and what to purchase.

I still have a Dell account from my business, but don't know if that is overkill for what we are looking for.

TIA

I always buy from their business side, you don't even need a business account. Those machines are usually better built and less loaded with bloatware.

I bought a new desktop at MMD on 441 in Feb 2017 and am very happy with it. The price then was $750. I also bought separately MS Office and Norton Anti-Virus. My biggest recommendation would be to get a PC with a solid-state drive. Standard hard drives, regardless of capacity, have a life of 3 to 5 years before they crash. I had already been through 3 drive replacements by last Feb and each one was very painful. Here's what I got:
i3 6100 cpu, 2 cores, 3 gb cache, 3.7 ghz clock, 8 gb ram, 240 gb ssd drive, internal cd/dvd drive, 2 tb external disc drive (BestBuy) for backups.
I would also recommend a fast internet connection from your ISP. I have 20mb and at times that is not enough because I watch videos and occasionally movies on the web. I recommend using FireFox as your browser. Avoid MS's Internet Explorer as it crashes all the time. You can find cheaper PCs on the web at places like NewEgg, but you won't get the quick, local service that MMD or BestBuy can provide. Hope this helps.

Whenever I helped someone pick out a computer I would start out asking what they want to do with it. From there we picked the software. Then we discussed their budget. My advice always included where to store data so that it can easily/automatically be stored in 2 other places. Sometimes the laptop was turned into a "desktop" with a new monitor, keyboard and touchpad or mouse for very little money.

Someone finally asked the right question!! You cannot make recommendations without knowing what the user wants to do with it. For example: Is it just for email, browsing, paying bills, making purchases? Or are they editing pictures, videos, music, playing intense games? Then, like tomwed said, the budget question.

Feel free to post your needs and we can help advise you.

I've been pretty happy buying not "cutting edge" technology, but the just previous generation of processor at significantly lower cost. Twice, these processors have been up to the task 10 years after I bought them. Also buy plenty of RAM.

I'm curious about solid state drives. I have read that after a number of overwrites, some storage bits go bad. I personally have had pretty good luck with name brand hard drives. Hope I didn't jinx myself by saying this.

I bought my first PC way back in \1987 and since then I have gone through dozens of desktops, laptops, and tablets.

Just a few days while shopping for something new, I dediced to stick to my new desktop for photo editing, word processing, genealogy, etc. I have three web-based email addresses meaning I can access those emailboxes from anywhere that has wi-fi.

So I am keeping my desktop and am purchasing Microsoft Surface Pro m3 to use anywhere else for games (such as waiting in doctor's office, etc), emailing, books, and online shopping. The reason I chose the Surface is so that I can use it as a tablet and best of all to write on it.

I do not have a cell phone - too expensive when I am home 95% of the time.

One word...Costco.

Thank you all for your responses.

Following is what we do with our PC:
Quicken
MS Word and Excel
Photo editing
Email - we have gmail and find it easier to type (when we have long winded emails) on full size keyboard

We do backup to the cloud.

I beg to differ. I never buy from those box stores such as Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. because their clerks are not trained to answer complicated questions you may have. Also they don't provide repair services; instead they are shipped back to the factory. Finally they do not display their products well. Best Buy has wonderful displays where you can try them out.

I buy from either Best Buy (my fave) or Office Depot/Office Max.

It's certainly you're prerogative to pay more per feature and for less warranty...if you so choose.


Costco Concierge Services | Costco


Personally, I've already done my research and narrowed down my choices in minimum requirements and preferred manufacturers...by the time I walk in the store.


Call me cynical, but I'm not real big on depending on a sales person (who often gets a commission on their sales)...to make my mind up on how I'm going to spend my money. :shrug:

Probably a better answer is what not to buy.

No need for AntiVirus software - Win 10 Defender is more than adequate.
No need for MS Office - Free Libre Office does the same job. (As help desk for small companies I only found one document or spreadsheet that it was unable to open.)
For quick and easy photo editing I've installed Faststone free on over 100 PC's. For more detail use The Gimp a Photoshop clone that uses photoshop plugins.
Don't buy an AIO hardware.
Stay away from off brands. Stick to Dell/Toshiba/ HP

(35 years PC repair/ help desk experience)

Turn your aging pc into a Linux Mint desktop. Typing this on a 15 yr old dell dimension. Current Mint OS, 2 gig ram, 320 gig HD. Sweet!

What program do you use for photo editing? If you are just re framing the photo or making it a little lighter you don't need a more powerful computer. What size monitor would you like? Do you prefer a touchpad or a mouse? How about speakers? What do you want to spend?

Backing to the cloud is good but you should also back to another hard drive or usb stick too. You can probably do that automatically with a $20 usb stick [they go by many names, thumb drive, dongle.]

I had mint on a thumb drive.

I did tech support too but I also had a hand on what the district bought. I wanted my job as easy as possible and down time to a half hour so I tried to limit the make and models purchased, not the amount. I had a hard drive duplicator and all the computers data was saved in 2 other locations. I used ghost too for upgrades twice a year. I got to a point where I didn't fix computers software problems anymore. I could swap out a hard drive that was all set to go and only needed to rename the machine in 10 minutes or less.

This also means that there is a lot I don't know.

General Infomation
 

A couple of points. It is a "general observation" that technology makes huge leaps about every 5 years. Once a new technology comes out it must recover its Development, et al expenses and that may take around 5+ years. Also, in few cases does it make sense to purchase an extended warranty but in the case of a computer it does make some sense. Although the profits on extended warranties can run as high as 90% it does make sense to purchase one on Laptops, etc since the costs of one failure can far exceed the warranty cost. The parts can be expensive. The pricing is done like on cars. The parts are priced so if you tried to order the parts the sum of their expenses would far exceed you buying the computer. There are pretty good profits when doing a memory upgrade. Just some thinking on the subject.:)