Off The Shelf Recommendations

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msny

2[H]4U
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Can anyone give me good recommendations on a middle of the road system
from a computer vendor?

What I'm looking for is a box for the wife. she plays light weight internet games,
surfs, does some pictures and video. All light weight stuff. She's retired so she's
on it all the time with her friends.

Looking for a box with an SSD if possible, we like the quick start ups. Price isn't
a concern, but say under $1000. Don't need anything but the box itself she has
an older Dell monitor, keyboard and mouse that works fine.

So been out of it for a while, what's good today?

Thanks much.
 
Dell is still a decent OEM, I've seen tons of organizations buy computers in bulk from them. Lenovo is also good.

The problem is that SSDs still aren't a standard feature in consumer desktops (although they are appearing in laptops now). They assume you'd rather have a big old hard drive. There is one model from Dell I've found that will let you add an SSD, the OptiPlex 9020. But it only goes up to 256GB. It's a business model, though, and it costs pretty close to that $1000 mark.

The Lenovo Ideacenter Y900 is a better deal, IMO, although they're best known for laptops.

Other good OEMs would include MSI and ASUS, but the thing is that their systems that include SSDs are even more expensive than Dell or Lenovo, and their systems are largely targeted towards gamers and enthusiasts.

Desktops are becoming a standardized business line item and something people only buy as replacements for old junk. All-in-one systems that are basically a laptop built into a monitor are becoming the new trend. Also little NUC style systems that just attach to the back of a monitor to achieve the same goal.

The SSD thing is honestly killing you, though. It would be cheaper to buy a box with a hard drive and add an SSD yourself, although that might void the warranty (I wouldn't think so, but it's possible depending on the agreement) and invalidate your reason for going with a vendor in the first place.
 
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athenian200 said:
Dell is still a decent OEM, I've seen tons of organizations buy computers in bulk from them. Lenovo is also good.

The problem is that SSDs still aren't a standard feature in consumer desktops (although they are appearing in laptops now). They assume you'd rather have a big old hard drive. There is one model from Dell I've found that will let you add an SSD, the OptiPlex 9020. But it only goes up to 256GB. It's a business model, though, and it costs pretty close to that $1000 mark.

The Lenovo Ideacenter Y900 is a better deal, IMO, although they're best known for laptops.

Other good OEMs would include MSI and ASUS, but the thing is that their systems that include SSDs are even more expensive than Dell or Lenovo, and their systems are largely targeted towards gamers and enthusiasts.

Desktops are becoming a standardized business line item and something people only buy as replacements for old junk. All-in-one systems that are basically a laptop built into a monitor are becoming the new trend. Also little NUC style systems that just attach to the back of a monitor to achieve the same goal.

The SSD thing is honestly killing you, though. It would be cheaper to buy a box with a hard drive and add an SSD yourself, although that might void the warranty (I wouldn't think so, but it's possible depending on the agreement) and invalidate your reason for going with a vendor in the first place.
Click to expand...

OK I get the big picture.
I'll take a look at Dell and take the SSD off my list then.
What model in the Dell line is considered 'middle of the road' then?

Appreciated your quick response, thank you very much.
 
msny said:
OK I get the big picture.
I'll take a look at Dell and take the SSD off my list then.
What model in the Dell line is considered 'middle of the road' then?

Appreciated your quick response, thank you very much.
Click to expand...

Well, there's actually two models that would be considered middle of the road. The generic Inspiron and the OptiPlex 7040 line. Both can be customized to a limited degree.

Inspiron Desktop Intel®

New OptiPlex 7040 Series Desktops

The biggest difference is that the Inspiron comes with Windows 10 Home, and the OptiPlex comes with Windows 7 Professional (upgradable to Windows 10 Pro). Also, the OptiPlex only comes with a 500GB hard drive standard, while the Inspiron has a bigger hard drive. I don't know if the difference between 8GB and 16GB RAM is significant for your purposes.

The models range between about $600 to $900, just pick whatever you think she should need.
 
pretty much all pre-built systems are of equal quality. I did refurb work for a company that sold HP, Dell, Asus, Acer etc etc and all of them were basically the same with different labels. I would take a look at this:

HP ENVY 750z Desktop | HP® Official Store

its cheap(on sale -$200 till 3/31), pretty decent specs to start and you can ad the SSD(256GB) you want as the primary drive and get a secondary HDD if needed.
you can also use this to see what all HP has to suit your needs: http://store.hp.com/us/en/ContentVi...inder&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1
 
pendragon1 said:
pretty much all pre-built systems are of equal quality. I did refurb work for a company that sold HP, Dell, Asus, Acer etc etc and all of them were basically the same with different labels. I would take a look at this:

HP ENVY 750z Desktop | HP® Official Store

its cheap(on sale -$200 till 3/31), pretty decent specs to start and you can ad the SSD(256GB) you want as the primary drive and get a secondary HDD if needed.
you can also use this to see what all HP has to suit your needs: http://store.hp.com/us/en/ContentVi...inder&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1
Click to expand...

Well, HP servers are all right, but I've heard bad things about Compaq and HP as far as their consumer-facing products (and I had bad experiences with Compaq first hand). Aren't those two merged now? Still, that price is hard to beat... less than $500 for a system with 16GB of RAM. On the other hand, it has an AMD APU, and I don't think I could recommend an AMD system in this day and age. I mean, it's fine for people that are loyal to them, but the benchmarks for their stuff just don't look good. Not on price/performance or performance/watt. Intel is too far ahead in terms of process technology, although that might change if Intel hits a wall at 10nm or 7nm and they manage to catch up. Wouldn't bet on it, though.
 
I'd never get one of HP's consumer grade laptops (though I swear by EliteBooks), but their desktops are honestly fine.

I'd stay the hell away from AMD, though. Get her the cheapest box you can find with an i5 quad and at least 8GB of RAM and she'll be set for several years. That should be /easily/ doable under $1000. The areas where we as enthusiasts tend to be worried when it comes to OEM machines (lower rated PSUs, lack of expandability, limited configuration options, overpriced upgrades) don't really apply here.

Also note that sometimes there are deals where they'll throw in a monitor for free or nearly free as well (Dell in particular) so you might look in to that, either to get her a nicer monitor or to sell and bring the cost of the system down even further. You should also look at what getting 8GB of RAM will cost you vs buying a kit and installing it yourself. Literally 5 minutes to get the door off the thing, click click, done. Could be as much as $75 difference, from what I've seen in the past.
 
But for what OP is looking for, that HP pretty tough to beat. Average users won't see the difference between this AMD and an Intel based system or the couple dollars more electricity a year. And if it really is an issue, the second link I gave has Intel in the list...
edit: here's the intels: HP ENVY 750xt Desktop | HP® Official Store
 
silent-circuit said:
The areas where we as enthusiasts tend to be worried when it comes to OEM machines (lower rated PSUs, lack of expandability, limited configuration options, overpriced upgrades) don't really apply here.
Click to expand...

Well, I had a Compaq desktop, and one of the problems I've had with their computers over the years is that their motherboards have weird PSU connectors instead of standard ATX... meaning that if they fail, you can't get a replacement without paying $200 or something ridiculous for an OEM part. That's what turned me off prebuilt machines a long time ago, but I've heard that Compaq and HP are the main OEMs that do that... and that a lot of others will let you replace the PSU with something off-the-shelf if it dies. To be fair, I don't know if they still do that, but I know they used to do that.

You should also look at what getting 8GB of RAM will cost you vs buying a kit and installing it yourself. Literally 5 minutes to get the door off the thing, click click, done. Could be as much as $75 difference, from what I've seen in the past.
Click to expand...

This is true. Often, it's fairly easy to buy an off-the-shelf machine and upgrade the RAM and the Hard Drive. As long as you don't touch the video card.
 
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every standard style OEM system ive touched in the last 8+ years have been standard atx varients. only with custom shaped systems and AIO have I seen oddball internals. like this:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/original/2009/01/gallery_firebird_1280x1024_10.jpg

edit: and yes you can usually add RAM or a SSD/HDD to a prebuilt as long as you don't break any warranty labels and can return it to factory state in case you have to send it in for repair. which may or may not happen with any OEM system/brand.
 
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A $1000 will get you a decent custom build. What's wrong with building it yourself again?
 
thanks everyone, I appreciate the great input and suggestions.
 
pendragon1 said:
But for what OP is looking for, that HP pretty tough to beat. Average users won't see the difference between this AMD and an Intel based system or the couple dollars more electricity a year. And if it really is an issue, the second link I gave has Intel in the list...
edit: here's the intels: HP ENVY 750xt Desktop | HP® Official Store
Click to expand...

The HP looks good. I customized it for an 500gb SSD and went to 16gb ram.
Kept everything else the same, looks good for the wife.
Perfect!
 
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