Need Computer advice part 2 (Page 2): off the shelf Dell PC's are junk these days. HP's not much better. Problems: proprietary parts, not upgradable etc Build your own if you feel you...

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

latebloomer wrote:

Thank you for your opinions and advice. I am in great need of it. This is a great forum (It thankfully does not include political arguments in what I look at,)

off the shelf Dell PC's are junk these days. HP's not much better. Problems: proprietary parts, not upgradable etc Build your own if you feel you could do it. There are many tutorials on youtube. Or, I could build or sell you one. I may upgrade my #2 PC and could sell parts from it or the whole thing. Thinking out loud, here are some specs, which you can check out:

Amd Ryzen 3700X ~$250
Gigabyte X470 wifi motherboard ~120
Gigabyte GTX-1060-6 gb GPU ~$210-250
G.Skill 32 gb 3200 speed DDR 4 memory ~$130
Samsung 500 gb 970 Evo Plus NVMe drive (for OS) $50
your hard drive for storage and/or backup, or one of mine (2 TB SSD-$160, 10 tb WD External HD- $110)
1 of several pwr supplies ~$20-$60
Case $60
Shipping $70
~$900-940 no sales tax.

Without looking at the PC's you linked to, I'm almost 100% sure that mine would be better

google passmark CPU or GPU benchmarks for a good place to compare performances.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

latebloomer wrote:

To do this with ease, Does the following Dell get ... (show quote)

Yes Terry, it will. Someday in the future, you could add another 16GB DRAM, but this will do nicely. That’s a good CPU (fastest of the I5s), a nice GPU, SSD for the OS and an HD for the data, and 16 GB DRAM - you should be able to run whatever you like.

btbg

TriX wrote:

Well, I would suggest building your own as well, b... (show quote)

All three of your posts are good advice. The HP that is his second choice is much faster than the other two of his first three choices and the possible upgrades all make sense if the funds are available. And you are right there would be no problem running photoshop on the last Dell he mentioned.

NickGee Loc: Pacific Northwest

rbtree wrote:

off the shelf Dell PC's are junk these days. HP... (show quote)

The assertion that Dell computers are "junk" is patently FALSE. Read independent reviews to get a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses of the various brands. Don't be mislead by those on UHH that have a bias toward what they own and prefer. That's all too common on this site. There are many good choices (and bad ones, too). Do your homework.

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

TriX wrote:

Yes Terry, it will. Someday in the future, you could add another 16GB DRAM, but this will do nicely. That’s a good CPU (fastest of the I5s), a nice GPU, SSD for the OS and an HD for the data, and 16 GB DRAM - you should be able to run whatever you like.

$1100 for a PC that is not as good as mine for a lot less?

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

NickGee wrote:

The assertion that Dell computers are "junk" is patently FALSE. Read independent reviews to get a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses of the various brands. Don't be mislead by those on UHH that have a bias toward what they own and prefer. That's all too common on this site. There are many good choices (and bad ones, too). Do your homework.

FYI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMg6hUudHE

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

rbtree wrote:

$1100 for a PC that is not as good as mine for a lot less?

That PC may have proprietary MB and pwr supply and more. Not upgradable. Not good if true. It has one Ram stick... so single channel. 2 sticks of dual channel is always better. The GPU is ho-hum. CPU is good but benchmarks ~19700 vs 22700 for my 3700x

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMg6hUudHE

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

rbtree wrote:

off the shelf Dell PC's are junk these days. HP... (show quote)

PassMark on your AMD CPU is 10% faster on multithreaded tasks (2 more cores) but ~20% slower on single thread tasks. As far as the GPUs, their PassMark speeds are almost identical. And if you read the Dell specs, there are 2 DRAM DIMM sockets, so he can add another 16 GB.

But here’s the question. The OP is obviously not a computer savvy nerd like you or me, so what does he do for warranty and support? (And I notice you’re not including an OS). You need to sell your components to someone who is comfortable building their own machine, installing their own OS and going to the individual component mfgs for warranty work after diagnosing the issue, and that is NOT the OP.

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

TriX wrote:

PassMark on your AMD CPU is 10% faster on multithr... (show quote)

All good points. But I could include Windows 10 or 11. The CPU is 15% faster.... yes I know single core for the new 12th gen Intels is faster..... the GPU is probably poorly made, as gamersnexus found. NVMe drive is slower... DDR5 ram is still expensive, I think and has yet to show it's a big improvement, iirc. Power supply is adequate but is it quality? motherboard is likely proprietary..... mine was the top Gigabyte X470 board.

I just felt like throwing my info out there. I did doubt that my idea would interest the OP. I've never sold a PC...lots of components, yes! My #1 PC is powered by the awesome 5950X (64 gb 3600 ram, and two PCI 4.0 Samsung 980 Pro NVMe's, and a GTX 1080--waiting for the 3070's to get under $700...)... and I have an even better X570 Master mb to switch it into, and then a 3900X to put in the X570 Aorus Ultra and make it #2 PC... then many if not all my current #2 components will be for sale.

hrblaine

[quote=latebloomer]Need opinions and advice
I previously posted wanting a $700 (no longer the criterion ) desktop computer for Phoroshop. I have looked at options and would greatly appreciate advice on the following computers that all have 16 gb ram: Is there significant between those listed?
I apologize for my ignorance. I am getting my memory back by relearning after brain surgery. I am appreciative of any and all comments.

I would get more than 16gb of RAM even for general use. The laptop I'm using has 32 and it's not my photoshop computer - I just use it for the internet. The desktop that I use for photoshop has 128 and it works like a charm and never has to go to the hard drive for help!

I'd get 64 if I was you. After all, it's not like RAM is super expensive. Why bring a knife to a gun fight? I can remember back in the '70s, using a small IBM mainframe with 16. Slow as a cow in a horserace. That's when most of us (even the people with computer science degrees) didn't know a hell of a lot. And this was in a research unit at a major university Harry

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

[quote=hrblaine]

latebloomer wrote:

Need opinions and advice br I previously posted wa... (show quote)

Not an option for the OP. The machine he’s considering has 2 DIMM slots, one populated with 16GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAM. His option is to add a second 16 GB DIMM for ~$70.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

latebloomer wrote:

To do this with ease, Does the following Dell get ... (show quote)

Yes that will work and is a better choice than the previous ones. But what about a monitor mouse and keyboard?
Can you use your existing ones? If so you are all set.

BArthur3

Agree with all the comments about needing and/or adding a sufficient graphics card (eg an NVIDEA) -- but that also requires a sufficient power source, usually at least a 400 watt.

latebloomer Loc: Topeka, KS

What is recommend for a monitor?

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

latebloomer wrote:

What is recommend for a monitor?

I have a 10 year old 20 inch led backlit lcd Viewsonic VA2012wb monitor. It works fine for me. I'm on my third desktop with it. For me the 20 inch diagonal screen is just the right size. I'm sitting with my eyes about 2 ft. from the screen.