Buying / building a new PC- opinions?

[Toxic_Avenger]

My desktop pc of 4 years has packed it in, and looking to replace it with something 'new and improved'. I've got all the peripherals, so just looking for the beige box. The last few evenings I've done a fresh Windows install, but struggling to get any degree of stability out of the wireless access point (despite every other device in the house having a good connection). I've tried the usual ping command and tracert, which brings back more fails than hits.
Given the age of the machine, I think the trusty old steed has reached the end of its useful life. I'd rather not throw buckets of money at repairs for an aged machine.

So what's the latest hotness in pc's?
-Oem or custom?
-amd or Intel or X?
- video card?
- ssd drives or standard?
- has linux got more user friendly in the past 10 years? I've experienced red hat, debian and even spent some time without a gui in slackware :o
-going for reliability and performance at a modest price.

Usage will be mix of business (word processing/email), and pleasure- video streaming casual gaming Web browsing.
Budget ideally under 1k excluding software. Bonus points for some kind of raid setup for business files if this is still a thing?

Not sure if such a design brief is possible these days? My last foray into modding a pc ended up with a old server from a doctors surgery with a bank of 18gb scsi hot swap drives and twin cpus... There were more refrigeration grade parts in it than pc, and you could hear the fans running at 50 paces...

[loanrangie]

I usually just go to my local pc swapmeet where you csn buy an upgrade kit with cpu/mboard/ram and then your choice of graphics card etc.
I'd still chose a normal hdd of about 2tb in size, happy with win7 but 10 is almost out.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app

[vnx205]

Linux has become a lot more user friendly in the last decade. None of the pensioners on whose machines I have installed it find it difficult to adapt to.

On a machine that is a mere 4 years old, there are versions of Linux that will run at impressive speed.

It will cost you nothing to download a couple of the popular distros and run them from a USB to see how they perform.

[Toxic_Avenger]

I usually just go to my local pc swapmeet where you csn buy an upgrade kit with cpu/mboard/ram and then your choice of graphics card etc.
I'd still chose a normal hdd of about 2tb in size, happy with win7 but 10 is almost out.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app
Have I been under a rock that long that I've missed Windows 9?
I'm not aware of any computer fairs or swap meet events up my way, but I've been to the Newcastle event in the past. Always good range and advice.


Linux has become a lot more user friendly in the last decade. None of the pensioners on whose machines I have installed it find it difficult to adapt to.

On a machine that is a mere 4 years old, there are versions of Linux that will run at impressive speed.

It will cost you nothing to download a couple of the popular distros and run them from a USB to see how they perform.

I neglected to mention (partially out of shame :p) that the old pc was an aldi one.
I've got some underlying issues I need to rectify before I load up another OS, mainly driver and network adapter related. I actually ran debian linux on an old Pentium 3 which worked great for general computing. I was rather surprised all those years ago how smoothly it ran on a resource constrained machine. A bit of a learning curve to start with but interesting nonetheless.

I looked at some of the dell offers, seems like an Intel i7 based box with 16gb ram is going for the 1100 Mark. Can anyone advise if there is anything to watch out for going this way? Being a business machine, and having the backup service that dell offers its a good selling point. Just not sure how this may handle future upgrades?

[Eevo]

Linux has become a lot more user friendly in the last decade

:Rolling::Rolling::Rolling:

[33chinacars]

I'm certainly no expert on the subject. But not long ago have one build to my specs after doing a bit of research. Mainly used for internet / accounting / word proccessing / emails.

125 gb SSD ( should have gone 250 gb )
1 tb HDD
16 gb ram
2 gb dedicated graphics card
DVD burner X 2
Running Windows 7

Think thats it . Very happy

[Geedublya]

The Dell systems are nice, generally reliable, well packaged and priced. The problems start when the warranty expires and you can't easily get parts as often the MB and PSU are custom. There are sites that let you build up a PC and price the parts for you. eg. Pick Parts, Build Your PC, Compare and Share - PCPartPicker Australia (http://au.pcpartpicker.com/)

[PhilipA]

I recently tried Linux versions on an EEEPC I was given , which I added memory to.
It runs slowly on Win 7 which it came with , so I thought I would try Linux.

The first version which had a pretty good screen appearance ran just as slowly as Win 7 IMHO.

I tried one which was supposed to take few resources, but the screen interface was so basic it was a PITA.
So I went back to Win 7.
I hardly use the thing as I find an old Ipad1 is a much better thing to use when mobile.
Regards Philip A

[Pedro_The_Swift]

What do you want the beige box( do they even make beige ones anymore?) to do?
everything?
play (and I hate this phrase) next gen games?
thats where the money comes in,
just surfing the net and accounting can be done on anything sold today.

Pick a $$ point and start surfing.

or do your research on current GPU's Everything comes from your GPU choice.

[Toxic_Avenger]

Gaming is casual, and by that I mean very rare. It would be nice to be able to run the next gen stuff but realistically that won't be its primary use. mainly after something that will stand the test of time and still be fairly relevant for my needs in the next 4 years or so.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

The less you spend, the less it will stand the Test of Time.


Of course the opposite is also true;)

[Toxic_Avenger]

The less you spend, the less it will stand the Test of Time.


Of course the opposite is also true;)

I'm familiar with the performance reliability trade off.
Pretty much the story of my life when it comes to the vehicles I've owned!
(I mod them to be fast then they break :p)

[l00kin4]

Toxic avenger, I am in IT and have a background in electronics. I have custom built many pc's in the past but these days I don't think it is really worth your time. (unless you want to do it for fun or learning). I would recommend that you have a look at pc authority web site or similar for the category winning pc builds from various pc shops, check what the best thing is for your needs / at your pricepoint. Places like TI computers win these regularly - many shops create special builds at a good price to win these awards. This will give you a solid idea of what you should get for your money.

I agree with 33chinacars build philosophy - 250Gb SSD, 1-2Tb HDD, lots of memory and a decent video card. You should be able to get that on your budget Good luck with it



David

[Eevo]

look at msy systems for an idea on whats current

[Tombie]

I know this bloke... :angel::cool::D

He runs some Land Rover Forum thingy bob... :angel:

Apparently in his "spare" time he works on / builds / repairs PCs...

Decent sort of a bloke... Perhaps dropping him a line would:
- Help with your decision
- Help small business
- Save you some Ca$h

[gavinwibrow]

not sure of pricing, but if it helps, my local pc man recommends lenovo. I've just replaced my toshiba satellite and very happy except for learning a couple of new different key locations.

[vnx205]

Linux has become a lot more user friendly in the last decade. None of the pensioners on whose machines I have installed it find it difficult to adapt to.



:Rolling::Rolling::Rolling:

Are you suggesting that:

Linux has become less user friendly.
Linux always was user friendly.
The pensioners on whose computers I installed Linux are a particularly tech savvy group of geeks.

:D:D:D
I know we have had a discussion in the past about Linux, but my reason for claiming that it is user friendly is that a group of elderly acquaintances with an extremely limited understanding of computers were able to do everything they needed to do with no problems at all when Linux was installed on their computers.

They installed their printers with nothing more than a brief explanation from me about how to do it. When they switched on with either wireless or cable connection, the internet was available to them with no fuss and no need to resort to command line instructions as was the case a decade or more ago.

I'm not claiming that Linux is for everyone, but some of the aforementioned pensioners were quite impressed when a Word document created on an Apple computer would not open on an older version of Office on a Windows machine, but opened automatically on a Linux machine with Libre Office.

I know that people with some specialised needs would not be well served by Linux, but there seem to be a lot of people with more general needs who would be better off with Linux, especially if they have old equipment, and most of them don't even know that Linux exists.

[VladTepes]

I built one a while back and this is what I did based on my research.


Oem or custom?
-amd or Intel or X?
- video card?
- ssd drives or standard?
- has linux got more user friendly in the past 10 years? I've experienced red hat, debian and even spent some time without a gui in slackware :o
-going for reliability and performance at a modest price.



Custom
Intel
NVidia
SSD for operating system and HDD for storage.
Win 7




I'm certainly no expert on the subject. But not long ago have one build to my specs after doing a bit of research. Mainly used for internet / accounting / word proccessing / emails.

125 gb SSD ( should have gone 250 gb )
1 tb HDD
16 gb ram
2 gb dedicated graphics card
DVD burner X 2
Running Windows 7

Think thats it . Very happy

I did much the same. I'd also recommend a 250Gb SSD over a 125. I got a 2Tb HDD and am filling that up quite handily....
Mine has 8Gb RAM I think but 16Gb would be better.

I got a DVD/Blu-Ray burner and have used it to copy stuff TO the computer but have not once had occasion to burn anything TO a disc. For me just a Blu-Ray reader would be fine but the price difference is only small so I suppose its worth it "just in case".

[Eevo]

32gig is even better again :D

[PhilipA]

The ALDI at Erina has one in stock at the moment.
AFAIR, AMD4 processor, 4Gig RAM, 1 tbite memory .
$499.

Sounds good to me if you have a screen and keyboard.

[Toxic_Avenger]

Thank you one and all for the discussions.
I've been reading up the last few days, seems as though the divide between 'what I need' and 'what I think I need' is bigger than I thought! My computing needs are really rather basic.

Agreed on the RAM issue, video card is also a key component, however like I said, there won't be massive gaming sessions on the latest titles. Maybe the occasional derp around on minecraft or busting out the old commander Keen or Doom 2 :p

From a discussion with a mate last night, the whole idea of processor cores is somewhat redundant unless you are doing high level computational stuff like video editing or graphic design? Most daily PC tasks are only making use of a single processor core rather than the 11ty billion they make them with these days...

[DeanoH]

A different view. :)

................................ I've done a fresh Windows install, but struggling to get any degree of stability out of the wireless access point ..................


Perhaps there's nothing wrong with the PC generally but the WAP hardware/driver/firmware or location with respect to the WAP is your problem ?


Are you running an SSD ? Early SSD's had ageing issues (don't know about new ones) and needed specific drive protocols enabled to work effectively.


Removing the CPU and renewing dried out heat transfer paste can do wonders for stability as can cleaning the fluff from the cooler fins. :)


Is your power supply fan running ? Probably the most failure prone component in the whole PC, it's failure will cause power supply voltage instability and system instability in general.


If you're running any 'enhancements' like processor/memory overclocking put it all back to standard and .......................ditch the WAP and run Ethernet cable directly to your router and see how it goes then. Throughput and latency should improve considerably once the 'overheads' of wireless are out of the equation. :) I've yet to see a wireless network that's better than a piece of Ethernet cable.




Deano :)

[Distortion]

As long as you aren't into serious gaming I'm a big fan of the Intel NUC + a decent monitor

Mini PC: Intel? NUC (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html)

I have most of my family using them now rather than full blown desktops.

Once combined with an SSD they boot fast, are completely silent and take up no space or power

[Debacle]

As far as RAM goes, it's pointless installing more than 4gb unless you are running 64 bit.

I've always used AMD processors and never had a problem. They are usually cheaper than an equivalent Intel.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

There is no AMD equivalent to an Intel:p:p:p

The problem with cheap PC's is they usually run an "all in one" motherboard,

all in one MB's are the Toyota of the PC world.

[Toxic_Avenger]

Thread dig.

A mate hooked me up with some specs for a pc build:
nanoxia deep silence 4 case
MSI H97m-G43 motherboard
Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition G3258
8Gb Kingston Hyper x fury ram
Wireless pci-e adapter
500W power supply
Kingston SSD 120Gb
Western Digital 1TB
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 Superclocked 2GB video card


Purchased off PC case Gear in Victoria, been using it about a month and going strong.
Came in under budget for the gear, added a few hundred for antivirus, windows 8.1 and shipping of the gear.

Pro tip. If you know a student (or a ex student with access to a university email address) you can buy a full legit version of windows for approx 70 bucks. I might be a pastafarian, but I'm not a pirate.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Thread dig.


EVGA GeForce GTX 960 Superclocked 2GB video card



OMG! who cut its tail off!
its only 170mm long!;):p:p
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2015/05/410.jpg

I'm more than happy with the two EVGA cards I have. :D

[Toxic_Avenger]

OMG! who cut its tail off!
its only 170mm long!;):p:p

I'm more than happy with the two EVGA cards I have. :D

One's enough for me! Although I'm no PC tech junkie, it does everything I need plus has more up its sleeve.