Desktop Upgrade

[BobT]

With my decision to upgrade our desktop PC I find there are a lot of options available. Weeding through all of them is a bit taunting so I have some questions.

 

Processor: I'd like to hear what others recommend and why. From the searching I've done I seem to be leaning toward Intel i5 or higher. With that said, should I go all the way to i7 or ...? We don't do any online gaming. We use our PC for internet surfing, some video streaming, and otherwise offline work. Could possibly consider video chatting at some point but not on the radar at this time.

 

Memory: My past experience has been to get the largest memory the system will handle. It seems memory is one of the first things that begins to be compromised as time goes on. With that said, what about dual channel vs single channel? 

 

Hard Drive: We currently do not require a huge hard drive. Our current drive is 140GB and we've only used about 110GB. Plus I have a 1T external hard drive that I can use. It seems most packaged systems such as Dell or HP offer 1T HDD. Any reason I would need anything more? 

 

Monitor: Our current system came from  Dell. I had to uninstall some bloatware and trial software but otherwise we have been very happy with it. The monitor still works fine so I'm wondering if there is any benefit to replacing it with something newer? 

 

Productivity: We do use our PC for spreadsheets, documents, and presentations. Back in 2007 through my work I was able to buy an extended license version of Office2007 Enterprise which we have been using. It's legal as long as I'm an employee but at 58 I'm considering early retirement so I may not be able to legally use that package for too many more years. Besides, with my uprgrade I figured it is a good time to upgrade to the latest office package. With Windows 10 it looks like Office Online may be a worthwhile consideration. One disadvantage that I see is that Office Online does not allow for offline reading or editing of files. Of course, 99.9% of the time this will not be a concern as our PC will be online unless the server is down. Aside from that is there any advantage to buying an office package?

 

I have a lot of respect for the knowledge you all have so I'm looking for thoughts and ideas. 

 

Thanks,

 

Edited February 4, 2017 by BobT

[Nick Kuhn]

Processor: You won't need more than an i5 for that. Essentially an i5 is an i7, just with the hyperthreading disabled. Since you won't need that many threads, the added capability of an i7 is pretty worthless to you. 

 

Memory: you probably won't need more than 8 GB of RAM, but if it isn't too much more for 16 GB go ahead and purchase it. Always better to go dual channel, and it really shouldn't cost you anything more to go with dual channel.

 

Hard Drive: Go SSD, not a spinning hard drive. Everything will be much faster, and for what you will use it for this will probably be the most noticeable improvement over your current system. Get a 250 GB SSD, use the external for any large files you hardly ever will use.

 

Monitor: If it isn't broken... This is also something that can be upgraded completely independently of the rest of the hardware, and you really don't save much getting a new monitor in a bundle over buying one separate.

 

Productivity: That's up to you. I use Google Docs at home for most things, my work computer has full Office installed anyway if I needed Office. But really it comes down to preference and how often you use it.

[delcecchi]

About office.... How would microsoft know if you retired?  Sort of like being an employee anyway.  And pretty much office is office. 

 

Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/   is another alternative. 

 

i5 vrs i7, I have a desktop with an i5 and a laptop with an i7, both with windows 10.  They both have perfectly acceptable perfomance. 

Edited February 5, 2017 by delcecchi

[bobbymalone]

I have Microsoft Enterprise products through the U.  They require periodic connection to the U's network or they start hassling me about activation. So if I retired, I'd have to go connect to campus wifi every couple months to keep using it. 

[delcecchi]

Then Open Office is a good alternative, if Google docs isn't enough, or you want to do it offline.

[delcecchi]

If anyone is looking for an inexpensive setup, Amazon has a gold box deal of

Lenovo ThinkCentre A70Z 19" All-In-One Desktop, Intel E5700 Dual-Core 3.0GHz, 4GB DDR3, 2TB SATA, Win10H 64-Bit (Certified Refurbished)

 

for just under 200 bucks.  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-A70Z-Dual-Core-Refurbished/dp/B01MRDCA8I/ref=gbps_tit_s-3_bb19_c0ae3fbf?smid=A1KWJVS57NX03I&pf_rd_p=41fd713f-6bfe-4299-a021-d2b94872bb19&pf_rd_s=slot-3&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_i=gb_main&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=40ESSH572S7HVF4Y7WHT

 

Not the screamingest machine in the world but would likely do the job for just surfing the net, etc. 

 

Deal good for today only.

Edited February 5, 2017 by delcecchi

[BobT]

Thanks a bunch for the info. Very useful and appreciated.