quick computer advise needed

[Steve@TF]

my desktop is pretty old now. windows 7 iirc. its no longer being supported and i keep having issues with trying to print stuff (often have to reboot) as well as being out of memory. its a pain.

going to use it for personal home usage. no gaming. will be connected to dual monitors as well as a laser printer. not often used but needs to have an optical drive.

on my way to Costco now lol. looking to grab one of their $500 desktops while im there. they all seem pretty comparable, except one which does not have have dual drives (ssd and hdd). ssd sounds good for quick boot up. nothing worse than waiting on that. so that narrows it down to the three.
the Lenovo and two HPs, one with AMD and one with Intel. the AMD and Lenovo have more memory. in the reviews for the AMD, people complained that you have to set up the 2nd hdd? i guess with the Lenovo and HP/Intel you dont have to?

the AMD looks great but not if setting up the hdd is a pain. if its easy for a computer tard like myself than cool.

i dont want to have to upgrade anything. i can upgrade memory if need be im sure that wont be necessary for a while. just want to set it up and use it lol.

looks like computers dont come with Office any more? or even Word? all i need really is Word.

here is the link. hopefully you can see what im seeing (if not location dependent)
https://www.costco.com/desktops-ser...OS&sortBy=item_location_pricing_salePrice+asc

which of these $500 machines would you recommend?

thanks in advance

 

[Blown 89]

Use OpenOffice. It's totally free and does everything Word does without any learning curve.

Get the AMD one....specifically the Ryzen 4600G. The people complaining that they have to set up 2 HDD's don't know what they're talking about.

Immediately remove McAfee.

 

[quad]

I am the worse person to give advice on budget computers because my opinion is go big or go home lol! I have two desktop computers with 128 GB RAM. I have spent thousands on computers. But when I build a computer it will last for a longtime. I still have a PC that I built back in 2001. It still works.

Anyway here is a pretty good deal on Amazon for $429. You get what you pay for though. There are many graphics cards that cost more than this PC. It does come with a 512 GB NVME SSD so the drive should be fast. 256 GB SSD is just too small for the OS and a few applications. You inevitably run out of space. Not even 1 TB SSD is enough for me. I now have 2 TB NVME SSD drives in my desktop computers. I have over 100 TB of storage on a Synology DiskStation. Yes there are 12 TB drives in it.

These great desktop PCs won't cost you more than $500

Best Overall: Acer Aspire TC-895

Acer's Aspire TC-885 was our top pick of all best budget PCs for a long time, but it's been usurped by the updated TC-895. This pre-built has been updated with 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10100 and Core i5-10400 CPU options, as well as up to 12GB of DDR4-2666MHz RAM and a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) for speedy read and write speeds. There's no dedicated GPU for gaming or an otherwise heavy workload; the addition usually pushes the price of a PC well above $500.

An optical drive is still built into the front of the tower, and it still has plenty of ports. The front has USB-A, USB-C, an SD card reader, and dual 3.5mm audio jacks, while the back has audio, HDMI, and more USB-A. Also upgraded is the wireless adapter, now able to support Wi-Fi 6 for faster and more reliable wireless internet. Included are a keyboard and mouse, meaning you only have to add one of our picks for best computer monitors to get going.

If you'd like to make the jump up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU for better processing power and slightly more RAM at 12GB, the cost moves up to just $545. If you have a bit more budget, it might be worth opting for the more powerful PC.

 

[quad]

You can get a 6 TB USB 3.1 external drive at Costco for a reasonable price to expand the storage capacity of your computer. I have bought a few over the years. Their performance is decent so long as it is connected to a USB 3 port (blue).

 

[nxhappy]

I went with HP, bought it from best buy. Rzyzen AMD, bought more RAM off ebay. So far running titties knock on wood.

 

[GOTSVT?]

Advise
Advice

Choose your weapon wisely

 

[Black02GT]

I am the worse person to give advice on budget computers because my opinion is go big or go home lol! I have two desktop computers with 128 GB RAM. I have spent thousands on computers. But when I build a computer it will last for a longtime. I still have a PC that I built back in 2001. It still works.

Anyway here is a pretty good deal on Amazon for $429. You get what you pay for though. There are many graphics cards that cost more than this PC. It does come with a 512 GB NVME SSD so the drive should be fast. 256 GB SSD is just too small for the OS and a few applications. You inevitably run out of space. Not even 1 TB SSD is enough for me. I now have 2 TB NVME SSD drives in my desktop computers. I have over 100 TB of storage on a Synology DiskStation. Yes there are 12 TB drives in it.

These great desktop PCs won't cost you more than $500

Best Overall: Acer Aspire TC-895

Acer's Aspire TC-885 was our top pick of all best budget PCs for a long time, but it's been usurped by the updated TC-895. This pre-built has been updated with 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10100 and Core i5-10400 CPU options, as well as up to 12GB of DDR4-2666MHz RAM and a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) for speedy read and write speeds. There's no dedicated GPU for gaming or an otherwise heavy workload; the addition usually pushes the price of a PC well above $500.

An optical drive is still built into the front of the tower, and it still has plenty of ports. The front has USB-A, USB-C, an SD card reader, and dual 3.5mm audio jacks, while the back has audio, HDMI, and more USB-A. Also upgraded is the wireless adapter, now able to support Wi-Fi 6 for faster and more reliable wireless internet. Included are a keyboard and mouse, meaning you only have to add one of our picks for best computer monitors to get going.

If you'd like to make the jump up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU for better processing power and slightly more RAM at 12GB, the cost moves up to just $545. If you have a bit more budget, it might be worth opting for the more powerful PC.

I agree with this over-build and you'll win in the long term. And also agree with video cards, paid ~$700 a couple years back now they want almost double for the same card. Still runs anything you can through at it 2.5k 165hz. Just have to hit that sweet spot.

 

[quad]

I agree with this over-build and you'll win in the long term. And also agree with video cards, paid ~$700 a couple years back now they want almost double for the same card. Still runs anything you can through at it 2.5k 165hz. Just have to hit that sweet spot.

That's because crypto prices are up a lot. My GPU rigs are quite profitable right now at between $5,000-$6,000 per month depending on the fluctuation in Ethereum prices. I am not converting to USD though and just hodling it because "cash is trash". Now this is a gamble of course. I have seen some wild estimates for Ethereum this bull run. If it goes to 20k or more like some have predicted my profits would be wild, we're talking $15-20k per week - or more if it goes even higher! As it is right now your ROI for an expensive RTX 3090 is a few months if you have it mining Ethereum on the side at current ETH values. That is if you can get ahold of one because they are sold out everywhere. Even older 1070 ti and RX580 cards are selling for decent prices.

Nvidia just announced that they are going to handicap Ethereum mining on the 3060 TI cards so gamers can get some stock. Who are they kidding some gamers are miners after hours. I am also not impressed with the new dedicated mining cards they announced. The 3090 outperforms the highest tier mining card @ less power usage. And the mining card can't even drive a display. Apparently there are ASIC Ethereum miners that can mine as fast as six 3090 cards but some think they are unicorns or vaporware. I've seen Voskcoin review some.

Ethereum mining will come to an end in 1-2 years when they transition to Proof of Stake so this looks to me like Nvidia is offloading some bad batch chips that could not make the grade in a gaming board. Deep down I think Nvidia (and AMD) really love crypto mining since it brings them a ton or profit and allows them to raise their prices. They just badmouth miners to appease the hardcore gamers who are fuming at the current state of affairs.

I agree with you it is best to overbuild. I remember wasting a lot of time waiting on old computers with slow mechanical drives to boot, load programs, copy files etc. Life is short it's just not worth it to go cheap on something that you use a lot. SSD drives are probably one of the best things that happened to computers the past 20 years.

 

[RedVenom48]

Processor speed is important, but SSDs are a revolution. Its absurd how much of a bottle neck the HDDs were, even the WD Raptors

 

[Steve@TF]

Use OpenOffice. It's totally free and does everything Word does without any learning curve.

Get the AMD one....specifically the Ryzen 4600G. The people complaining that they have to set up 2 HDD's don't know what they're talking about.

Immediately remove McAfee.

Turns out costco doesnt have ANY of them in stock. Went back home and looked at multiple online retailers. Ended up going with Costco due to ease of returns. I upgraded to the $550 model to get the 4600 as you suggested, thank you. Did quick research on the two and it was worth the extra. Dont like lenovo so i paid a little more to get the hp.


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[Steve@TF]

Advise
Advice

Choose your weapon wisely

I identified as British that morning mate.

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