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PC Unit - which one ?



 
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jicetp
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 1:10 am    Post subject: PC Unit - which one ? Reply with quote

Hi

This post to my fellow computer wizards.

I want to change my desktop, and was wondering what you would recommend.

Nothing fancy, just some Finale work and Internet.

The lower the budget, the better

thanks

JiCe
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LaTrompeta
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you mean by "change your desktop"? Like, get a new computer? What budget are we looking at?
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cgaiii
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Same question, what's your budget?
Do you do any video processing?
If you are truly doing just Finale and Internet, very cheap will be OK. You can even get a kit and put it together yourself.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have used both Finale and Sibelius on just a medium-priced Dell PC.
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LittleRusty
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

cgaiii wrote:
Same question, what's your budget?
Do you do any video processing?
If you are truly doing just Finale and Internet, very cheap will be OK. You can even get a kit and put it together yourself.

While putting together a desk top computer isn’t that difficult, if anything doesn’t work well diagnosing and fixing can be challenging.

The same caveat applies to purchasing bottom tier computers from random sellers.
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LaTrompeta
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dell or hp is a good bet
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khedger
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd recommend a Dell or a Lenovo. I've never known anyone that had good luck with HPs, but hey, they sell millions of them so that may not mean much.

What's important is how the computer is resourced. You're going to want the following resources at a minimum:

- at least an Intel I5 or equivalent AMD CPU
- at least 8 gb of RAM
- at least a 500 gb disk drive (I'd get an SSD drive)

keith
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jicetp
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I need a new desktop.

The cheaper the better

Only use for Internet surfing and Finale. No video/games....

Mabe a do it yourself could make the deal

thanks
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Turkle
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have had nothing but awful experiences with Dell. I refuse to give them another penny. What junk.

My Lenovo PCs have never let me down, ever, for many years. I enthusiastically recommend their products, and have purchased them for both work and as gifts for family members. The "chat" feature on their website is a great way for someone to point you in the right direction based on your specific needs.

Good luck!
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LaTrompeta
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would suggest second-hand market. Use the local online classifieds and find yourself a bargain. I do recommend spending a little extra for something that will last, but progress in that realm is not nearly as rapid as it was, say, 15 years ago. Homogenization has become typical, but quality has also generally risen.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a word about Dell. I have had mine for about five years and it has been (knock on wood) problem free.
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LittleRusty
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry that this won't help the OP much but...

I think anecdotal opinions don't really help make a good decision. After all, the good and bad experiences used to form those opinions are normally based on a sample size of one.

Back in the day when I participated in the hardware and software provisioning of all OEMs and ODMs of notebooks there were trends I saw.

HP, Dell, IBM all wanted to find the root cause of issues and fix it once and for all. Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sharp were similar.

Samsung and LG were more interested in schedules and were not willing to spend the time to fix the problems properly. After IBM sold the line to Lenovo some of their product lines were similar Samsung and LG. This policy would lead to intermittent problems that were nearly impossible to diagnose and fix.

I believe that part of that mentality is due to the culture of the countries that were home to the corporations. When I managed multinational teams I could really see the culture differences and had to push for my teams in some areas to focus on quality and root cause and not just attempt to please upper management and customers.
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deleted_user_687c31b
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For what the OP describes, any pc will do. They might even get away with a second hand pc at this point. Basically, I'd say pick any ol' pc you like and can afford, and call it a day. The one thing to really look out for is that it has an SSD hard drive, but even most budget laptops have them these days.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rusty, to get a broader (and I think fairly reliable) sample, I go to Consumer Reports material.
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khedger
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hibidogrulez wrote:
For what the OP describes, any pc will do. They might even get away with a second hand pc at this point. Basically, I'd say pick any ol' pc you like and can afford, and call it a day. The one thing to really look out for is that it has an SSD hard drive, but even most budget laptops have them these days.


About 4 months ago I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad on eBay.
I upgraded the memory myself from 4 to 8 gb
I replaced its hard drive with a 500gb SSD
It has an Intel I5 processor

Total cost for computer and upgrades was just north of $300. I'm NOT a hardware guy, but doing the RAM and SSD upgrades were straightforward and took about 1/2 hour all told.

keith
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mdarnton
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I comfortably run Photoshop on a bottom-feeding $220 laptop I bought a couple of years ago. I think that if you aren't doing video processing or gaming almost anything you buy will be capable of doing what the OP wants to do. Contemporary computers are way over-powered for most people's needs.

If I were doing it, I'd pick a number of dollars and give them to Dell for whatever they sell at that price. I say that having used HP, Sony, IBM, Dell and a few others over the years. Dell has consistently been the smoothest experience for me.
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