Desktop PC recommendations?

[JohnYaddy]

We're in the market for a new desktop PC, and I feel like the tech world has long passed me by. I'd greatly appreciate any recommendations or suggestions on what to purchase. Since I don't know what specs I'm looking for, I'll give the list of what we anticipate using it for in the hopes it will help some of you more savvy tech guys guide me in the right direction:

My wife is a choir director at a high school. She will need to listen to some streaming music from time to time, and of course access her online grade book. She will also have a few textbooks that she will need to read in .pdf format, and also do some light work in MSOffice.

I will use it mostly for streaming MLB.tv and some work in MSOffice. Other than that, we may occasionally use it to watch movies and shows on Netflix. We aren't concerned with picture or sound quality in any serious way, just so long as we can watch it without everything being ridiculously slow.

I was planning to purchase a small to medium sized HD tv to use as a monitor, and we have a wireless mouse and keyboard from our current dinosaur. We're hoping to stay under $500 dollars for the computer if at all possible.

Looking forward to the suggestions!

 

[jwcarlson]

My suggestion would be to build your own, but that may not be your cup of tea. Keep your eye on Slickdeals.net for decent deals. Woot.com has a refurbished PC for like $260 today if that's not a problem for you. Make sure you pay attention to connectors for your HDTV. It's possible that some PCs (Dells in particular) have proprietary connectors that won't just plug right into your TV. Try to find one with HDMI if you can.

Your needs sound really basic... it's not like you need a high-end gaming machine or anything. I'd say you can meet your needs under $500 easily. Make sure you get at least 4 GBs of RAM. I'd see if you can find a quadcore Intel processesor at that price range.

 

[jd_1138]

Basically almost any modern PC will be fine for your modest needs. I'd go for at least 4 gb of RAM like JW says. You can get a nice Dell Core i5 system for about $450.

 

[CrotalusHH]

I refuse to buy anything at all from Dell after their deceptive sales tactics. But that's another rant.

Beware their interest claims.

 

[smalltank]

I used to work for Dell as a travel tech..I did EVERYTHING for customers and their old desktops to move em to their new ones...go with HP..check out bestbuy near you..or Costco..or even a SamsClub..go from there..stick with AMD cpu's run much faster than Intel..8gb ram make sure it can go 16gigs/320 gb hard drive should be plenty..you can always use Carbonite.com...look at an LED monitor..my LG is great!

 

[jd_1138]

Actually Intel has faster CPU's than AMD. But I guess it's a function of price per performance. Maybe at the cheaper end, AMD has better bang for the buck. When I build a system, I always use AMD's but if I buy a ready made system, usually they come with Intel CPU's.

I bought 2 or 3 Dells and never had any troubles. Maybe I just got lucky?

 

[PugslyCat]

Basically almost any modern PC will be fine for your modest needs. I'd go for at least 4 gb of RAM like JW says.

+1 - I don't see that you are doing anything that any modern off the shelf PC couldn't handle.

I always did well shopping the clearance/overstock section of the Dell and Gateway websites. Some of these might have odd configurations, though, so shop carefully. The last PC I got from the Dell clearance site had been configured for a call center. It was pretty cool except that it didn't have a CD/DVD burner, just a reader.

 

[nannahill]

I know you want a desktop but have you thought about an iPad? Or a laptop/netbook? I use my iPad every day and it does pretty much everything my desktop and laptop does. My laptop gets used about once a month. Desktop even less than that. Laptop is from HP and have nothing but praise for it.

 

[CrotalusHH]

I used to work for Dell as a travel tech..I did EVERYTHING for customers and their old desktops to move em to their new ones...go with HP..check out bestbuy near you..or Costco..or even a SamsClub..go from there..stick with AMD cpu's run much faster than Intel..8gb ram make sure it can go 16gigs/320 gb hard drive should be plenty..you can always use Carbonite.com...look at an LED monitor..my LG is great!

If he goes with Hp he will get his tech support from India.

I bought a HDTV/Monitor and was told ZERO interest. I questioned the salesman asking SEVERAL times if there was anything at all that could make interest kick in including missing a payment. I was told that I qualified and nothing like that could happen.

We made the first payment on time. Then I got a letter telling me that I didn't qualify and they charged me 21% interest. Never buy from Dell again and I bad mouth them every chance I get.

 

[JohnYaddy]

Thanks for the guidance so far. To clarify a little more, our home office is an adequate size, but our desk is on the small side, and we'd like to keep it uncluttered. I've seen quite a few "nettops" and micro-sized PCs, but when I look at the specs I can't tell if they're what we need or not. A laptop would work, except for the watching baseball and videos. I want a bigger screen because the office (and my recliner in it) will be my evening retreat.

 

[smalltank]

Actually Intel has faster CPU's than AMD. But I guess it's a function of price per performance. Maybe at the cheaper end, AMD has better bang for the buck. When I build a system, I always use AMD's but if I buy a ready made system, usually they come with Intel CPU's.

I bought 2 or 3 Dells and never had any troubles. Maybe I just got lucky?

I highly doubt that..Intel is more compatible and can be easily overclocked..but AMD's run hotter due to their cpu's being almost always faster out of the box..no overclocking needed...if you wanna build one..you might shave off few $200 bucks..nowadays they are cheap enough when parts are to be compared..its all made pretty much in China and tech support from India..I feel the reason why soo many people have pc issues is either viruses/malware/trojans...or the usual "black screen" due to video cards being burned out or the inside of the machine never "sprayed clean" with compressed air..should be done 2x a year on the average

 

[Unkas]

If it comes to buying a laptop I would not buy anything else than Asus or MSI since they are generally of the best quality for the price and they don't come packed with a bunch of bloatware unlike HP for example.

For a desktop the best option is to build one yourself or just order the parts and have a computer savvy friend/family member assemble it.

 

[JohnYaddy]

Well since several of you seem pretty gung-ho about it (and it sounds like fun), what can you guys tell me about building one from scratch? Any online tutorials or guides for a newbie?

 

[smalltank]

Case
Motherboard
Powersupply
Memory
Cpu
cpu fan
Heat sink
Hard drive
Cdrom drive
Mouse/keyboard
You MUST make sure EVERYTHING is compatible

 

[_JP_]

Well since several of you seem pretty gung-ho about it (and it sounds like fun), what can you guys tell me about building one from scratch? Any online tutorials or guides for a newbie?

There are online tutorials for building PCs. The real advantage is that you get exactly the specs you want in the system. But if you have little to no experience working with the hardware, then you'll be better off buying one off the shelf, ready to go.

 

[jwcarlson]

Well since several of you seem pretty gung-ho about it (and it sounds like fun), what can you guys tell me about building one from scratch? Any online tutorials or guides for a newbie?

Newegg.com has a series on YouTube about building your own.

Case
Motherboard
Powersupply
Memory
Cpu
cpu fan
Heat sink
Hard drive
Cdrom drive
Mouse/keyboard
You MUST make sure EVERYTHING is compatible

This is not nearly as difficult as it may seem. The majority of the list above is pretty much universal. It's not like it's top secret which heat sink you can use. Hell, as a general rule your CPU is going to come with a heatsink and cpu fan. Keyboard/mouse... really? Come on. Hard drive...? Figure out how big of one you want and buy it.
Case and mobo most cases can handle a variety of footprints (microATX, ATX). Power supply... newegg has a sizing tool (watts required), otherwise it's pretty much universal unless you own a Dell with some rediculuous connector so you have to buy one from them.

The main thing that as your motherboard socket type matches the CPU you buy. Your motherboard will define what type of memory you can use.

I think computer people like to make it seem like building a computer is harder than it actually is. It's not a secret. There's no membership required to build one. It is honestly pretty darn simple.

There are online tutorials for building PCs. The real advantage is that you get exactly the specs you want in the system. But if you have little to no experience working with the hardware, then you'll be better off buying one off the shelf, ready to go.

If you have basic mechanical ability and some patience... you'll be fine.
That said, it's not necessarily a whole lot cheaper or anything. But you will have a better PC in the end. Do some looking.

 

[jwcarlson]

NewEgg Videos:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok

 

[jd_1138]

If you know someone who is computer savvy, they can sit with you and order your parts from Newegg (or Tiger Direct -- but I use Newegg), and then help you put it together when the parts arrive. The motherboard is the most important decision because it will impact the selection of the other parts like the CPU, graphics card, etc.. You may not even need a separate graphics card. Onboard graphics are getting pretty good. And most motherboards come with onboard graphics, built in sound, built in networking. I usually try to stick with as much ASUS product as possible when I build a PC -- motherboards, video card, optical drive, case. But MSI and some others are good too. PC Power and Cooling and Corsair both make great power supplies. You want a quality power supply that won't fry your components and will last for years. And get one that's rated at more watts than you need now in case you want to upgrade the graphics in the future.

The hardest part of putting together a PC is mounting the CPU onto the motherboard and then putting a rice size amount of Artic Silver thermal compound on top of the CPU, and then clamping down the heat sink. But even doing that isn't very hard. The motherboard manual will clearly explain all the steps. And there are the videos like the previous poster posted.

 

[nole1]

I realize they start at $600 (and that you specifically said PC but figured I'd throw this out there) but a mac mini has everything you're looking for plus an HDMI output for ease of viewing on a tv (since it will run audio as well). It also has an extremely small footprint and runs very quiet if you are worried about desk clutter and noise.

Now, before I get yelled at by people saying you get less computer for the money with apple and they're over priced, let me just say that I've built several of my own PCs. They have mostly been for gaming and in terms of computing power they could destroy even the top end mini's for a quarter of the price. I realize it's much more economical to build your own but the mini would service his needs completely. It works as a media station that would also allow them to stream movies & tv over the internet with amazing picture quality. They also put out a beautifully simplistic looking product with an incredibly small form factor.

While it might not be for everyone, it's definitely something worth looking into.

 

[jd_1138]

Hey, nothing wrong with a Mac Mini. It will service his needs, plus Macs are less prone to malware than PC's. Good call! Plus it's a lot less hassle moving a Mini around for cable management than a hulking PC. My wife uses a Dell Zino nettop (mobile CPU and mobile HDD). The thing is so under clocked from the factory that it runs cool and silent but is still stout enough for modern apps.