If you were having a desk top custom built what would you include?
 

My grandson is a PhD candidate in computer science and is in the process of defining what my new desk top would spec out like.
He is calling for the new solid state drive technology, very high (2 terabytes memory), blue ray DVD capable.......

What would you recommend be sure to include or consider??

btk

Hardware
 

Well, I can tell you that a SSD (Solid State Drive) is worth the $. Just installed a 256G in my desktop, and a 64G and 128G in my two laptops and the speed increase is almost unbelievable.

If he is recommending 2T of STORAGE, I would just caution that when the hard drives get older, losing large ammounts of data can be devastating (and it only takes a bad sector or two).

I personally do not watch TV etc. on a PC. I do have a 27" HD monitor, but it is just not like the comfort of my recliner.

:thumbup: on the SSD! JMHO

Matt

Desktop?
 

I suspect your grandson will get it more right than I ever could :thumbup:.

For me personally, I would never buy another 'desktop'. I would buy a laptop with a docking station. The docking station would support multiple DVI monitors and remain in my 'office'.

This allows me to undock my laptop easily to use elsewhere in the home.

Let's see.............you push this button to turn it on? I didn't even realize that those terras would byte. Wow, that's gotta hurt.:posting:

Windows 8 is due out in late October. Early reviews say it be will revolutionary vs evolutionary. If you plan to do a win PC, them I would certainly want it to be configured for Win 8.

I still like having a desktop but love having an IPad for mobility, apps,etc.

I would recommend getting the most resources (processor and RAM) in the machine that fits in your budget. The rest is all software and configuration. Windows 8 is the microsoft OS to attempt to compete in the tablet market. By that, I mean unless you have a touchscreen monitor, you probably won't like it.

Depending on how involved you get with your computing, with enough resources your machine can be configured to do almost anything. Again depending on how involved you want to get, you could build a virtual machine inside the machine and try out any OS you want to see if you like it. If you don't, just delete the virtual machine.

It all depends how you use your PC. IF you do not run multiple applications at the same time a solid state disk won't buy you much. You would be cheaper to get an 80 GB solid state drive for the OS and a larger conventional hard drive for data storage. This would give you high performance at lower cost.

Again, I don't know how you plan to use your PC but I cannot imaging why 2 TB of memory would be needed in a PC. 8 GB RAM is usually more than enough for current systems.

My other suggestions:

- a high end video card
- a 300 watt power supply for future expansion
- 10 USB ports
- DVD/Blu Ray reader

Good Luck.

Oh. Once again I misunderstood the title of the post. When you said desk top I thought you meant desk top. My first thought was that it would be nice to have a big drawer with dividers for pencils, pens, notepads & paper clips... :doh: :wave:

Built in backup software to a remote site.
Virus protection.
Backup local disk drive that is out side of your computer. Maybe us that disk for financial data also. Have it unplug when not using it.

Have him get a GREAT chair and desk. All the technology in the world will change, but the comfort of a desk and chair is important if he/she is spending any good amount of time there.

TV Computer had a very good presentation on using Quicken for financial software. During the presentation J. Maxine Miller gave a step by step of how to set up and use two USB flash drives to store your information. Here is a link, hopefully, to her web site on how to do it. http://thevillagescomputerclub.yolas...SBforFiles.PDF

This will even back up your info to the second flash drive.

The one thing about this process is that it can be used on a lot of other programs and more importantly your critical information is only accessible when the flash drives are resident in your computer. Another great safe way to use and store your data.

VG

I strongly agree with the idea of a solid state drive and a 2T drive. Your need for storage will go up dramatically with pictures movies, etc. I also agree with offsite storage. The only thing I can add is at least 16G of ram. Ram plus a SS drive will equal speed and the ability to use large programs such as Photoshop.

I've yet to meet a person who wished they had less ram or hard drive space but I have met plenty that regretted not getting more when they purchased their computer. Suggest you look at Mac for ease of operation and increased virus protection.

I would go with a really good graphics card.... and nothing less than a 700-1000w power supply, the previous poster said 300w.... way way too small of a power supply for any kind of high end computer