Recommend a new computer

D

dsiomtw

New member
Mar 12, 2007
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End of the rainbow
Long story short I've got an old Dell Precision running XP that needs to be upgraded since XP is dead in a few more weeks. Just what I need, another bullshit project that's gonna take up a few days of my time. Grrr.

I've always bought Dell for no real reason but I'm open to anything...

Just looking for a good, fast business desktop that's a little more up to date. I don't play games but I will need a graphics card that can handle my 3 monitors as I doubt the one I have now will work with newer tech and Windows 7.

So what do ya'll recommend?
 


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I have a very methodical approach when it comes to buying a new computer. I go to the mall where the entire floor is dedicated to computer shops, then wander around and find the most expensive one. I drop that price by about 15 - 20%, and buy a computer in that price range, simply because I don't want to pay extra for "new" technology that will be obsolete in a couple months.

Probably not the best method, but works for me!
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
I have a very methodical approach when it comes to buying a new computer. I go to the mall where the entire floor is dedicated to computer shops, then wander around and find the most expensive one. I drop that price by about 15 - 20%, and buy a computer in that price range, simply because I don't want to pay extra for "new" technology that will be obsolete in a couple months.

Probably not the best method, but works for me!
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Didn't your laptop break after 6 months or so recently?
 
Don't get anything by Sony. Mine has caused me nothing but grief in the 6 months or so that I've had it.

Also don't be a little bitch like I was about Windows 8, just pay $3 for start is back and you have it better than Windows 7.
 
insectlife said:
Don't get anything by Sony. Mine has caused me nothing but grief in the 6 months or so that I've had it.

Also don't be a little bitch like I was about Windows 8, just pay $3 for start is back and you have it better than Windows 7.
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Inb4 FatBat.

Could just as easily use desktop mode as well. Or just learn Windows 8, not that hard really, just different. It does have some small issues though when using a touch screen.
 
hmmm why no mac?

I was thinking of buying a MacBook Pro w/ retina in a few months, I am so done with this shitdows 7. It hangs every now and then can't run simulataneous apps without getting hanged.
 
mattseh said:
Didn't your laptop break after 6 months or so recently?
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2 months actually, but humming along like a beast now!

I was actually astonished at how quickly they fixed it, and for free too. I was expecting a massive headache, but nope -- tech showed up at my house right away, and even had motherboard in hand already. Way better service than I'd ever get in Canada.
 
Desktop - iMac. Portable - Macbook Air (or if you have the dough, macbook pro).

Made the move from Windows in 2012 and haven't looked back since.
 
Need more information.

Well, without knowing your budget..........it would be pissing in the wind to suggest anything at all.

Since you have 3 monitors that you want to run....you would most likely be better off just building your own.

Keep in mind that just because a video card or MB has 3 video outputs does NOT mean it will drive/run 3 displays at the same time.

If you do not plan on gaming, just so long as your OLD video card is NOT an AGP card you can use it your new system so long as the MB has another PCI Express 16 slot and the Power Supply is large enough to power it.

If the computer has onboard integrated graphics they usually support 2 monitors and if you have an open PCI Express 16 slot you can either buy a discrete graphics card or use your old card. Again, provided the PSU can handle it.

Just keep in mind that if you try to use Onboard and Discrete graphics at the same time "some" MB BIOS will NOT let you use both, while others will.

You just have to do some tweeking to get them to work together. But Windows 7 will run your monitors just fine from any video source so long as the BIOS or UEFI supports it.



Just an FYI........Your Power Supply is the most critical part of your computer. Most OEM systems use CHEAP PSUs. This is why I always build my own systems.

The second most important part is your Motherboard followed by your graphics card and RAM. Then your CPU and CPU Cooling. (Fan Or Water. I prefer Fan cooling with Arctic Freeze MX-2 non-metalic thermal paste.)

Then your computer case. As in Air Flow, Accessibility, and Durability.

Then an SSD drive for the OS and nothing smaller than 240 GB. The Samsung EVO's are great drives for price, speed, capacity and reliability.

If the computer is for your business, I would suggest getting an Enterprise HDD for the data storage. WD RE4 or SG Constellation. (But do NOT get them from Newegg or independent sellers at Amazon since most of these drives are OEM and do NOT have the 5 year warranty that they say they do.)

Though Enterprise drives are made for RAID setups, they work just fine as single drives and are much more reliable and last longer.


In the last 8 months I've built a Xeon Workstation for around $2,500 that runs 3 monitors and a 50" TV and an AMD 8320 for around $1,200 that runs 2 monitors and another 50" TV. Both systems have 32 GB of ECC RAM. RE4 and Constellation HDD's and a Corsair Neutron GTX 480 GB SSD and Intel 320 240 GB SSD.

The Xeon has a SeaSonic Platinum 1050 Watt PSU and the AMD has a Corsair HX 750 Watt Gold PSU. My Old Backup 4 core AMD system has a SeaSonic Platinum 650 watt PSU in it.


So, throw out a number for your budget and whether you're comfortable building your own system or you're set on getting an OEM system and I'll see about offering some helpful advice for you.
 
Take your Online Business to the Next Level!!

If money is no object, then the NEC SX-ACE might do well for you.


NEC Announces Availability of SX-ACE Supercomputer

NEC Corporation has announced the worldwide availability of the SX-ACE supercomputer, the latest model in NEC’s SX Series of vector supercomputers, featuring the fastest processor core performance in the world.

The SX-ACE is the first SX Series supercomputer equipped with a multi-core vector CPU, which enables the world’s fastest core performance and the world’s highest memory bandwidth per core. Its performance per rack has improved ten times over existing SX-9 models,


The SX-ACE, like all models in the SX Series, is a supercomputer developed to provide both high performance and ease of use.

The SX-ACE has a newly developed multi-core vector CPU, the first in the SX series. With four high-performance cores mounted on this CPU, the SX-ACE realizes a computing performance of 256 GFLOPS. With the multi-core vector CPU as one node, an ultra high-speed interconnect with a maximum of 8 GB/s in each direction allows a maximum of 64 node cards to be mounted on each rack. The SX-ACE can thereby achieve a rack computing performance of 16 TFLOPS (TFLOP one trillion floating-point operations per second) and a memory bandwidth of 16 Tbytes per second. With a maximum of eight racks, 512 nodes can be connected and a peak computing performance of 131 TFLOPS. Furthermore, with a 10 Gbit Ethernet, several cluster systems can be connected, and the scale of the system can be expanded through multi-clustering.

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NEC's new supercomputer introduces multi-core vector processing

Commercial availability (both in Japan and internationally) started last November 15, 2013. In Japan, they're currently available for a monthly lease fee that is equivalent to about $45,000.00 USD.
 
Dell XPS still works great for me, it's been 2 years now and still on Windows 7. It really depends on what kind of work you do on your laptop. I won't buy mac because windows 7 gets the job done for me.
 
Hey thanks for the all the tips. Should have mentioned I'm not interested in building one, just not worth the time/hassle as I've never done it before and I'm sure I'd run into all kinds of problems and waste 3 days doing it. I can add memory, swap out hard drives, etc. but not up for building an entire computer.

I was thinking of using these 2 extra Intel series 320 SSDs I have and setting up a raid. They aren't the best or fastest and they're only 80GB but that's more than enough for this computer. What do you say at least 240GB?

I remember learning after I bought these SSDs that the smaller ones aren't as fast as the bigger ones for some reason, is that why? 80GB is more than enough for my work computer so at the time I figured why buy more than I'll ever use...

I just looked up the 250GB Samsung EVOs you recommended and curiously they are cheaper than these Intel 80GB SSDs I already have...

I ended up just ordering a Dell T1700 small form factor with an Intel Core I7 processor and 16GB ram. It was barely $1000. The plan is to put these SSDs I already have in it, and I ordered a Quadro NVS 510 graphics card to go with it since it's only around $350. It'll be a nice hassle-free upgrade to my NVS 440.

Midas Touch said:
Well, without knowing your budget..........it would be pissing in the wind to suggest anything at all.

Since you have 3 monitors that you want to run....you would most likely be better off just building your own.

Keep in mind that just because a video card or MB has 3 video outputs does NOT mean it will drive/run 3 displays at the same time.

If you do not plan on gaming, just so long as your OLD video card is NOT an AGP card you can use it your new system so long as the MB has another PCI Express 16 slot and the Power Supply is large enough to power it.

If the computer has onboard integrated graphics they usually support 2 monitors and if you have an open PCI Express 16 slot you can either buy a discrete graphics card or use your old card. Again, provided the PSU can handle it.

Just keep in mind that if you try to use Onboard and Discrete graphics at the same time "some" MB BIOS will NOT let you use both, while others will.

You just have to do some tweeking to get them to work together. But Windows 7 will run your monitors just fine from any video source so long as the BIOS or UEFI supports it.



Just an FYI........Your Power Supply is the most critical part of your computer. Most OEM systems use CHEAP PSUs. This is why I always build my own systems.

The second most important part is your Motherboard followed by your graphics card and RAM. Then your CPU and CPU Cooling. (Fan Or Water. I prefer Fan cooling with Arctic Freeze MX-2 non-metalic thermal paste.)

Then your computer case. As in Air Flow, Accessibility, and Durability.

Then an SSD drive for the OS and nothing smaller than 240 GB. The Samsung EVO's are great drives for price, speed, capacity and reliability.

If the computer is for your business, I would suggest getting an Enterprise HDD for the data storage. WD RE4 or SG Constellation. (But do NOT get them from Newegg or independent sellers at Amazon since most of these drives are OEM and do NOT have the 5 year warranty that they say they do.)

Though Enterprise drives are made for RAID setups, they work just fine as single drives and are much more reliable and last longer.


In the last 8 months I've built a Xeon Workstation for around $2,500 that runs 3 monitors and a 50" TV and an AMD 8320 for around $1,200 that runs 2 monitors and another 50" TV. Both systems have 32 GB of ECC RAM. RE4 and Constellation HDD's and a Corsair Neutron GTX 480 GB SSD and Intel 320 240 GB SSD.

The Xeon has a SeaSonic Platinum 1050 Watt PSU and the AMD has a Corsair HX 750 Watt Gold PSU. My Old Backup 4 core AMD system has a SeaSonic Platinum 650 watt PSU in it.


So, throw out a number for your budget and whether you're comfortable building your own system or you're set on getting an OEM system and I'll see about offering some helpful advice for you.
Click to expand...
 
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