What do I need? First of all, understand, I am quite "technology challenged," I need baby steps to understand computers. I am needing a new computer. I have an old HP laptop that is...

leftyD500 Loc: Ocala, Florida

First of all, understand, I am quite "technology challenged," I need baby steps to understand computers. I am needing a new computer. I have an old HP laptop that is running extremely slow, it couldn't catch a cold! I have tried defragging the hard drive, cleaning the cache, etc. My present computer has just 4 gigs (I think that is the right term!). What do I need in a new computer, ram wise? I don't do much on the computer, basic surfing, play very few games, do face book, and process photography pictures using photoshop cc and lightroom classic. Now, I am not interested in keeping up with the Joneses, I want just what I need to do what I want on a computer, as I have stated. Also, do ypu recommend HP, Dell, etc.? I do not want to go Mac. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

jradose wrote:

First of all, understand, I am quite "technol... (show quote)

So you will get a lot of help with this. I would shop here for an HP. Get a 1TB hard drive and 12GB of ram with windows 10. Sometimes they give free financing too. I bought my laptop and desktop this way and it takes a lot of stress out of shopping and choosing.
https://store.hp.com/app/slp/weekly-deals/laptops?jumpid=ma_home_hero_na_1_180516

Bill_de Loc: US

Computer brands like HP & Dell could pretty much be interchanged based on what's in the box. They source components from the same manufacturers. I'll let others figure out what they think you need, which will likely cover a wide rand of ideas. I will give you a bit of advice that someone gave me. If you are shopping on the HP website, even if they are having a sale, pick up the phone and call them. The phone reps will beat their own sale prices by just asking. I think I saved $350 on my last one and got a free in home service warranty.

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par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

Bill_de wrote:

Computer brands like HP & Dell could pretty mu... (show quote)

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

jradose wrote:

First of all, understand, I am quite "technol... (show quote)

For what you want to do, 8 gigs of ram will be fine, 16 would be better. My best advice would be to go to hp.com and custom build a laptop. For further help, you should be able to contact HP by phone and one of their reps will be happy to help you, they have walked me through many computers in the past. I have tried Dell, Asus, and Mac as well and have had the best luck for me with HP. Good luck with your choice and try not to overthink it.

Cheese

My rule of thumb has always been to buy as much RAM as you can afford, or at least 12 or 16 megs. Unfortunately, most pre-built machines from HP and Dell still come with only 4 or 8 megs.

Photocraig

Two years ago I bought a Dell at COSTCO with an i5 processor (medium fast chip but not the fastest i7), 1 Terabyte of Disk and 12 Gm Memory for $600. My guess is you should be able to beat that by 25% or more. I do a fair amount of Light Room and PS and I'm never waiting long or wishing for more power.
Good Luck and don't spend or buy ore than you need. I alter bought an ACER 24 inch ips monitor for $139 on Amazon. Sweet.

ggttc Loc: TN

Honestly it depends on your patience...if you're not in a position where you MUST process 50-100 images a day 8 gigs is fine and you could even go to an i3 processor. However, it will be slow going. By slow going, it might take you an extra 90 seconds over a faster and more expensive computer to load and process.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

My tech guys prefer HP to Dell, by a lot, but they seem to give their reasons in either Klingon or Farsi. I’m not quite sure.

That said, I’d go for the 16 gig and 1 TB. Make sure you get a solid state hard drive (a few cheapies still come with a mechanical drive). If you have a reliable geek, you may want to look at upgrading your present machine with more RAM and HD. I’m a cheapskate- every dollar you spend on a computer is a dollar less to spend on travel, printing, and GAS.

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

jradose wrote:

First of all, understand, I am quite "technol... (show quote)

I prefer Dell. If you are going for a laptop, get at least 8 gb of memory and a 1 tb hard drive. However, you would be better off with a desktop. Then you could get at least 12 gb of memory and two hard drives.
Bud

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

jradose wrote:

First of all, understand, I am quite "technol... (show quote)

A computer without a discrete graphics card will share memory with applications, operating system and data, making an entry level, 8 gb computer irrelevant for most things, since it likely uses core memory for graphics.

So you want a 16 gb computer, 2 gb graphics card, Windows 10, and it really doesn't matter which machine you get. They are pretty much all the same. The only way to get something a bit better is to go to a custom integrator, and these are not any more expensive.

Micro Center will put something together for you to fit your budget.

Bill_de Loc: US

When I ordered my current laptop they offer a single TB hard drive or two physical 500 GB drives. I took the second option making it easier to do automatic backups.

Just a thought.

jdub82 Loc: Northern California

When you are looking at a particular computer model on the HP or Dell websites, copy and paste the model number you are considering into a google search. There will be online reviews available for almost any computer model. Look for reviews of that particular model. The reviews tell you a lot about how good a particular model performs. The reliability and performance has more to do with each individual model than a particular brand. i.e. Dell may have one amazing model, and another model may function poorly. Same is true with HP, ASUS, or any major brand. If one or two reviewers don't like a particular model, but the majority do, it is probably good. Look for four stars or more on reviews. Anything with an overall rating of less than four stars may be a problem.

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

par4fore wrote:

So you will get a lot of help with this. I would shop here for an HP. Get a 1TB hard drive and 12GB of ram with windows 10. Sometimes they give free financing too. I bought my laptop and desktop this way and it takes a lot of stress out of shopping and choosing.
https://store.hp.com/app/slp/weekly-deals/laptops?jumpid=ma_home_hero_na_1_180516

I agree. Hop service is great if you have a problem. My wife's hard drive died during warranty. I started and on line chat, nine days later the repaired computer was at our door step.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

jradose wrote:

First of all, understand, I am quite "technol... (show quote)

I've used Dell for years. I went from the XPS8300 - 8500 - 8700. Then I built my own. I am still using an old XPS8500 and Studio from 2009. Modern computers are remarkable capable, even at the low end. I always got a fast processor and 16GB or memory, but I've learned that I could have saved money. There's a huge difference in price between a "bragging rights" computer and a competent one, but the performance difference isn't that great.

Memory -
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-much-ram-does-your-p
c-need-probably-less-than-you-think/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need/

Processor -
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i9-vs-i7-vs-i5-cpu/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/core-i5-vs-i7
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/210703-intel-core-i5-vs-core-i7-which-processor-should-you-buy

One thing I would recommend is an SSD for the C drive and an internal hard drive for programs and data. I don't know if Dell sells them with an SSD now, but any computer shop could install and SSD and use the original hard drive as the D drive for less than the price a manufacturer would charge. As Gene51 said, getting a separate (not expensive) graphics card would be a good idea. Unless you're into heavy duty gaming, you don't need a $1,000 graphics card.