I’ve zero clue what I’m looking at here.

Wanting to buy a desktop computer for general family use. Internet browsing, Microsoft office programs, probably some zoom or Teams meetings, nothing crazy. No serious gaming or media needs.

Don’t need a monitor or anything else, have plenty laying around catching dust already. Just a tower.

I get overwhelmed looking. I have absolutely no clue what this stuff is. I know this is a lot of you guys’ area of expertise. Any suggestions? Reasonable budget, ok with paying a little extra for something that will get us 2-3 extra years of use. We currently use laptops. My 4 year old one is plugged into 2 monitors for our “desktop”.

I got some good advice here three years ago when I bought a new computer. An important question is how much do you want to spend.

If you're looking to connect to old monitors, you'll need to know what kind of connection they use, so you can make sure the new PC supports their style of signal.

Current PCs/graphic cards generally support one or more of the modern set - DisplayPort, HDMI, etc. If your old monitors are looking for something else, sometimes there are adapters (HDMI->DVI) but if you wind up having to go that route, factor in the cost of the adapter vs. putting the funds toward an inexpensive current monitor.

My monitors have HDMI and DVI.

I’m willing to spend a reasonable amount, something that’s up to date enough to run several years before needing replacement.

https://www.costco.com/lenovo-...oduct.100857954.html

Something like that? If running dual monitors, you may want one with more video output options.

I like to recommend the Dell Outlet to people as you can almost always find a coupon that provides at least 30% off the listed price... The selection is pretty limited right now due to a good Black Friday coupon, but there are a few options left.

For instance this seems to be about the best "desktop" they have at the moment, and there is a 40% off coupon. It would likely be fine for your stated use, but it is a pretty "entry level" PC. It would only cost $175.

https://www.dellrefurbished.co...plex-3060-mff/1.html



I'd probably spend a little more somewhere else if you are in a hurry... I'll do a quick perusal of other BF weekend deals.

I've gotten all of my desktops through Dell and I've never been disappointed. You can get inexpensive ones at the price level you'd see at big box retailers and you can customize it unlike one you'd pick up off the shelf which is what you see is what you get. You can call the Dell sales desk and they can help you with selection based on your needs. The Inspiron line is the economy level starting at about $370 and it has a lot of ports.

Careful on those monitors you have "laying around" Connections have changed quite a bit. You likely won't see many desktops with VGA connections. It's all HDMI, Display Port and USB-C. Of course there are adapters but that's not ideal. And really good, HD, FHD and QHD monitors have come down substantially in recent years. If you've been working with monitors with SD resolution, you will be shocked at how good the newer ones with HD (720P) or FHD (1080P) are. Much easier on your eyes as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
https://www.costco.com/lenovo-...oduct.100857954.html

Something like that? If running dual monitors, you may want one with more video output options.

This is a good option for a general family PC. Substantially better in all areas than the slim pickings currently at the Dell Outlet.

Knowing a budget is a good start. Dell has been my go to for pre-builts. If you are not gaming or graphic design, you can get a an intel chip as your CPU, and they have a graphics chip built in, so you can skip a graphics card. Or go with an older 10xx series NVidia card will cover most needs except for some of the newer AAA games out there.

Hard drives come in two flavors HDD, the old spinning type. And the newer is SSD, that is kinda like a giant flash drive. HDD is a lot cheaper, but once you try SSD, even for basic computer needs, going back to the old style is noticeable. And any pre-built check to see if there are expansion slots for more in case you want more storage later.

Memory sticks just this year rolled out DDR5. I built my computer 2 years ago with DDR4 and I have no issues. Only thing is if I want to go with DDR5 in the future, I will more likely have to builds a new system since it would also require a new motherboard.

USB ports. You can never have enough, and get as many USB3.x (blue tabs) and USB-C as you can. USB-C is the newer version. And it is stupid fast at data transfer and charging phones.

Last is RGB lights are the new cool. A lot of components have them built in. If you don't like them you can leave them off. But if you do use them, then try to get your components from the same company. Each company wants you to use their program to program the lights, and they don't like sharing. Yes you download all the different apps, and try to program them to match, but overtime it will start to bog down your system.

Dell has a nice unit that I bought about 6 months ago and am very pleased with the speed advantage of the i5 core.
It also has a DVD/CD drive which a lot don't have anymore.

Dell Inspiron Desktop - 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400 - Windows 11

Processor & Memory:

12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-12400 (6-Core) Processor
12GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM
Drives:

1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive + 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive
Tray Load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD)
Operating System:

Microsoft® Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
Graphics & Video:

Integrated Intel® UHD 730 Graphics
Moniter Not Included
Communications:

Intel® Wi-Fi 6 (2x2/160) Gig+ and Bluetooth® 5.1

Costco sells it for $750

$499.99 is the current price as of this posting. I have seen this bounce around from $485 - $599 in the last month on Amazon. Solid computer with 2 HDMI outputs. If your monitors don't have HDMI connections you might have to use converters. I can't see why you wouldn't get at least 3 -5 years out of this.

Intel Core i5-12400 6-Core Processor
12GB RAM
512GB NVMe M.2 SSD
8X DVD
Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
Windows 11 Home

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V...dt_b_product_details

Any interest in building your own?

You won't save any money, but there's always something satisfying about DIY. Plus: No additional crap-ware will be installed by any manufacturer.

I found it about equal in complexity to building your own AR-15 lower (I've done both). In both cases you get to choose what you want, within limits.

lot of info on the net on how to do it, and we won't let you get lost, promise

Buy a case, MoBo, CPU/heat-sink, PSU, OS, SSD, internal backup HDD. I think that's about all you need.

Honestly buying a windows OS, assuming that's what you want, is the item I always feel most ripped off with. The advantage of buying Dell, HP, etc is you don't have to worry about it, but as mentioned you normally get some weird crap-ware too.

Mac mini, don't look back.

I’m a 2nd on the Mac Mini. Easy to use and not overly complicated.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Any interest in building your own?

You won't save any money, but there's always something satisfying about DIY. Plus: No additional crap-ware will be installed by any manufacturer.

I found it about equal in complexity to building your own AR-15 lower (I've done both). In both cases you get to choose what you want, within limits.

lot of info on the net on how to do it, and we won't let you get lost, promise

Buy a case, MoBo, CPU/heat-sink, PSU, OS, SSD, internal backup HDD. I think that's about all you need.

Honestly buying a windows OS, assuming that's what you want, is the item I always feel most ripped off with. The advantage of buying Dell, HP, etc is you don't have to worry about it, but as mentioned you normally get some weird crap-ware too.

This is a good idea, especially if you have a good component store near by. Micro Center (same company that advertises Jays2cents and a few other tech YouTubers) is up the road from me. Only gripe about building your own is that I needed a flashlight and magnifying glass. Some of the instructions come in font size 4 and the motherboard can be hard to read what pins you are looking at. But I also know bi-focals are in my future too. :/

But building a tower is easy. And like Radioman said, you know what components you do have, so keeping them updated is easy. And if you ever want to upgrade, you do not have to worry about some weird proprietary parts that limit your choices.

And also it is nice after getting the computer up and running having to hunt down and uninstall the crapware. AOL AND Prodigy come pre-installed! What a value!

quote:

Originally posted by IrishWind:

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Any interest in building your own?

You won't save any money, but there's always something satisfying about DIY. Plus: No additional crap-ware will be installed by any manufacturer.

I found it about equal in complexity to building your own AR-15 lower (I've done both). In both cases you get to choose what you want, within limits.

lot of info on the net on how to do it, and we won't let you get lost, promise

Buy a case, MoBo, CPU/heat-sink, PSU, OS, SSD, internal backup HDD. I think that's about all you need.

Honestly buying a windows OS, assuming that's what you want, is the item I always feel most ripped off with. The advantage of buying Dell, HP, etc is you don't have to worry about it, but as mentioned you normally get some weird crap-ware too.

This is a good idea, especially if you have a good component store near by. Micro Center (same company that advertises Jays2cents and a few other tech YouTubers) is up the road from me. Only gripe about building your own is that I needed a flashlight and magnifying glass. Some of the instructions come in font size 4 and the motherboard can be hard to read what pins you are looking at. But I also know bi-focals are in my future too. :/

But building a tower is easy. And like Radioman said, you know what components you do have, so keeping them updated is easy. And if you ever want to upgrade, you do not have to worry about some weird proprietary parts that limit your choices.

And also it is nice after getting the computer up and running having to hunt down and uninstall the crapware. AOL AND Prodigy come pre-installed! What a value!

I also used to assemble my own, back in the Win2000 and XP age...it IS kinda fun and rewarding, and truly not that hard. The hardest part for me was figuring out what components to buy.

Buying a new PC for your needs is honestly just wasting money. My needs are pretty much the same. I just go to the local Buy/Sell/Trade device store. Tell them what I am looking for and get a refurb for cad cheaper than new and works great.

Just bought an i7-5th Gen with 24GB of RAM for $150 bought an SSD drive cloned the drive that came with it and have a nice computer that will do what I need for years for $250 and also he does not put any bloatware on them either.

I’ll add a vote for the Mac Mini as well. I’ll even give you a great deal on a very lightly used one if interested…

As for MS Office needs, Apple office suite reads and saves in MS formats. Easy learning curve and far less headaches over Windows

Up to date with enough memory and storage to start and is upgradable

https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/frqa

or pick one more to your liking

https://deals.dell.com/en-us/c...friday-desktop-deals

Another Dell Refurb fan here. My current desktop was a factory dell refurb purchased 8 years ago and is still running strong. It is turned on 24/7 and only gets a reboot on the 1st of the month.

I do some minor gaming (Call of Duty, World of Warships) so I did upgrade the video card and the power supply but other than that the only thing I've done to it is once a year I open the case, blow out the dust and vacuum inside and put the side panel back on.

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