Looking for PC Recommendations

Been purchasing Lenovo brand laptops from the local Microcenter retailer for myself and the family for the last four or five acquisitions. Found them to be reliable and good value. Added RAM to extend their usefulness in later life. One thing I would strongly recommend - don't even think about buying a computer without a solid-state drive (SSD). Huge difference in start-up time and performance.

Used to build my own computers but the added cost of the software now negates the cost-saving advantage. Found purchasing a new computer with the bundled software included is much more cost-effective but recognize it may be different for some gaming or ultra-high-performance machines.
Do you mean windows or other?
Windows can be installed for free and used for free with some settings and functionality blocked and an annoying watermark.

The license can be bought cheaply from various legitimate vendors. I bought mine for $40, but it can be found for around $20 too. And it pairs to your motherboard, so once activated it’s lifetime for that computer. You can install, re-install, make multiple boot partitions all you want.
 
With windows a large widesceen monitor will usually do the job of 2 monitors. Sounds like you don't need too much power. Unless you're into heavy gaming everything runs lightning fast - if you don't have junk programs or bad installs chewing on the processor.
Get something with a good graphics driver and spend more time looking at your monitor choice. On the PC, see that the USB + monitor I/O and accessibility fits your plug in work style. If you use Word and xl and Outlook you'll probably want to stay with a PC.

here is a decent dell refurb at newegg w/ win10 pro -

I didn't look to see if it has displayport connectivity - it certainly should.

 
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With windows a large widesceen monitor will usually do the job of 2 monitors. Sounds like you don't need too much power. Unless you're into heavy gaming everything runs lightning fast - if you don't have junk programs or bad installs chewing on the processor.
Get something with a good graphics driver and spend more time looking at your monitor choice. On the PC, see that the USB + monitor I/O and accessibility fits your plug in work style. If you use Word and xl and Outlook you'll probably want to stay with a PC.

here is a decent dell refurb at newegg w/ win10 pro -

I didn't look to see if it has displayport connectivity - it certainly should.


I think that the one big vs. two smaller monitor debate isn't specific to Windows.

Macs have, by default, operated in "extended desktop mode" since the hardware was capable of supporting multiple monitors(right around 1986 with the Macintosh II and System 4 or so). In effect as many monitors as you can string together(and yes you can do 6 with a Mac II-I managed to piece it together at one point for a proof of concept) will just function as one single large desktop however you arrange them.

The original implementations of virtual desktops even use to change all the desktops together. Now you can set it so that they either toggle together or can be changed independently-I hated the independent change when it was first implemented but now use it and it's easy enough to change both when I want to.

I use dual 2560x1440 monitors at home, or rather one is a 5K monitor scaled to 2560x1440, while the other is that resolution native. Each 2560x1440 is wide enough to display two windows side-by-side at 1280 pixels wide each, or in other words about the width of a typical 13" laptop screen of a few years ago(most are more like 1440 wide now).

With that said, I've always liked two monitors for what I'd call a psychological advantage. As an example, I might be working on a document and referencing a web page or other material on one screen(my main task at hand) while I have background things going on like email so that I can rapidly screen and switch if something requires immediate attention, or perhaps another browser window to look something up occasionally and iTunes Apple Music for background sound. My point being, though, that the main thing I'm working on/need to get done is physically separated from background tasks, and that's a valuable tool for me. Others may work differently, but as long as I have the space I don't see not having two monitors.

At least in serious photo editing too, and I'm sure other graphical tasks, many people will spend big bucks on one high end, purpose made color accurate monitor(not necessarily a $10K reference monitor, but maybe a really darn good $3K one) for critical viewing and use a second less expensive screen for bulk sorting/culling/etc or even in programs like Photoshop pushing all of their tools/palettes off to the side to get the most working space possible on their good screen. Back 20 years ago when even really good LCDs had terrible color accuracy, a lot of guys would put a big CRT on their desk-often something based around a 21" or 24" flat Trinitron tube-and then have an LCD for all the other stuff.
 
Do you mean windows or other?
Windows can be installed for free and used for free with some settings and functionality blocked and an annoying watermark.

The license can be bought cheaply from various legitimate vendors. I bought mine for $40, but it can be found for around $20 too. And it pairs to your motherboard, so once activated it’s lifetime for that computer. You can install, re-install, make multiple boot partitions all you want.
I use the basic (Student/Home?) Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, other? ) plus the current Microsoft operating platform (Windows 11?). Find for the complete package it is usually around $125+. Can't recall if this for one or two years. And yes, I hate recurring fees!
 
I use the basic (Student/Home?) Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, other? ) plus the current Microsoft operating platform (Windows 11?). Find for the complete package it is usually around $125+. Can't recall if this for one or two years. And yes, I hate recurring fees!
I think Microsoft 365 is around 63 bucks per year for one device/user and that usually include 1T of cloud backup/storage.
I don't like the new software "model" with recurring fees either, but I might guess updates are painless and automatic.

Walmart gave us a coupon code for 1 year. Guess who forgot to use that code when setting up my wife's new budget HP laptop last month ?

What a dummy ! 🥴
 
I use the basic (Student/Home?) Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, other? ) plus the current Microsoft operating platform (Windows 11?). Find for the complete package it is usually around $125+. Can't recall if this for one or two years. And yes, I hate recurring fees!

$150 for a non-subscription version of Office 2021. Microsoft 365 is the SaaS version.
 
Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone!

When I get a chance, I’m going to look up all of everyone’s suggestions and compare.

A few things:

1. We definitely want 2 monitors. I don’t know about my wife, but I’m the type to have multiple windows open at the same time.

2. Not interested in a laptop.

3. We don’t have to have “reference quality” monitors. But we do want monitors that will look good. I usually shoot for 7/10 in quality/money spent. I don’t mind spending some $$$, but eventually You reach the point where the returns are diminishing.

4. Definitely interested in refurbs. I feel that they’re 99% as good as new, and a lot of value can be had with these factory reconditioned electronics.

5. I think I’ve talked myself out of Apple, just for price reasons.
 
FWIW, @john_pifer, I recently picked up a refurb Dell Precision workstation. Precisions are Dell's professional-grade workstation; this one has a 6-core/12-thread Xeon in it, an absolute monster of a graphics card (NVIDIA 970), a 120GB SSD and 2TBHDD and was $180 Canadian, which is about 5 bucks in U.S. dollars. I installed a Linux distro on it immediately and am typing with it now... This was anomalous for me: I traditionally just buy off-lease business-class machines for around the same price; those having little in the way of storage and less in the way of fancy-pants GPU horsepower, but tend to be built like tanks and will run a Linux-based OS for years and years without incident.

What I am getting at is that off-lease business machines, and even a pro-grade workstation if you can stumble across one, are great bets for family computing. They're reliable. I tend to value the SSD/HDD and its stored data far more than the hardware itself; but machines of this nature have provided my family with (very) low-cost full-house media streaming, storage, homework, vacation planning, games, etc. for the last 15 years at least.

It could also be said that a factory refurb is unnecessary. There are few moving parts in most systems; a HDD being the most egregious point of failure. Guard your data if it is important and think more about SSD/HDD health, as that piece can simply be transferred to a new system in the case of catastrophic failure. OS and data SSD are the things I consider my "property" and my value; the computers they are placed in come and go.
 
I would not advise getting a refurb laptop. All the ones I ordered for my company died faster than planned and the SSDs in them had to be replaced within a year or two. A refurb desktop I can agree on, since those are easier to work with if anything needs to be replaced.

What I am getting at is that off-lease business machines, and even a pro-grade workstation if you can stumble across one, are great bets for family computing. They're reliable. I tend to value the SSD/HDD and its stored data far more than the hardware itself; but machines of this nature have provided my family with (very) low-cost full-house media streaming, storage, homework, vacation planning, games, etc. for the last 15 years at least.

If going refurb, I strongly agree getting a business/professional class computer as well. They're just built better, last longer, easier to work with physically, and is normally in a climate controlled environment with hopefully, taken care by some sort of IT person.
 
Shop for a Mac Mini. Best bang for the buck. When you see for yourself how well MacOS works and how well it integrates with your iPhones you will never go back.

The Mac Mini will use the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, you are currently using. However, Apple keyboards are very nice and handy to have the Apple, Option, Control, and Function keys in the positions macOS expects.
 
Shop for a Mac Mini. Best bang for the buck. When you see for yourself how well MacOS works and how well it integrates with your iPhones you will never go back.

The Mac Mini will use the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, you are currently using. However, Apple keyboards are very nice and handy to have the Apple, Option, Control, and Function keys in the positions macOS expects.
I am interested. I just need to do some comparison.

We do not currently have a monitor, or a keyboard, as we have just been using laptops for years.
 
I've been a computer engineer for 15 years. My preference will always be a Dell Precision.

Take a look at dell refurbished webpage. or dell outlet. You can put a long warranty on any of their products.

I used to recommend the Latitude line of laptops, but the new ones seem flimsy compared to the precision.

Don't exclude a laptop, without realizing that you can setup a USB C Dell dock, and run 3 monitors off it.

I have a precision fixed workstation at home, and a dell usb c dock, which I can plug in my office precision laptop into, and have three screens.
 
Mac for sure. Only disadvantage at least to me is the all in one because I’ve heard they aren’t as good but I don’t know for sure. When I was in school we had our laptops that were absolutely junk Dell computers and then we had a computer lab that was all Apple iMac and they were excellent I would use those anytime I could. Besides the white keys on the keyboard which get dirty really fast. I’ve always been bias against anything that wasn’t Apple. Apple is well worth the money. I am not a technology person at all but I can navigate and Apple product easier than any other brand.

I’ve also been happy with Lenovo products I have a Lenovo computer that my parents bought me in 2015. It’s super slow now and won’t update any further so I’m saving up for an Apple laptop. I think the Apple will have a lot more updates.
 
I'm just a home user.

I just purchased a new desktop PC (Acer Aspire TC-1760-UA92; Win11), an "upgrade" (🤣) from an old HP (Win7). Based on this experience, for me it's not so much hardware but the OS.

Having to deal with needing account permissions for everything, legacy software that should work but is now error prone, lack of integration; having forced to work with One Drive (cloud storage) vs. local; having to now pay for Office suite subscription; having Adobe tell you the software you purchased with a perpetual license is no longer useable; it's a royal pain in the fundio.

The latest Win11 update broke File Explorer - I could no longer access any of my directories - the Explorer window would no longer scroll (not responding). Online support, step by step fixes either don't work or are majorly different from what I'm seeing on my screen, etc. I had to do a clean install and so far it's working again....until it automatically updates again?
 
I'm just a home user.

I just purchased a new desktop PC (Acer Aspire TC-1760-UA92; Win11), an "upgrade" (🤣) from an old HP (Win7). Based on this experience, for me it's not so much hardware but the OS.

Having to deal with needing account permissions for everything, legacy software that should work but is now error prone, lack of integration; having forced to work with One Drive (cloud storage) vs. local; having to now pay for Office suite subscription; having Adobe tell you the software you purchased with a perpetual license is no longer useable; it's a royal pain in the fundio.

The latest Win11 update broke File Explorer - I could no longer access any of my directories - the Explorer window would no longer scroll (not responding). Online support, step by step fixes either don't work or are majorly different from what I'm seeing on my screen, etc. I had to do a clean install and so far it's working again....until it automatically updates again?

This sounds more like an Acer problem. 99% of my user's computers at work have no problem if they use a fresh reimaged to remove any oem stuff. The ones that I only have issues with were the ones that I did not reimaged and still have OEM programs on them or it's an issue with the program. With your fresh reimage, you should be good literally forever now.

A few things:

1. You are not forced to use OneDrive. You can turn it off, unsync, or remove it completely off the computer.

2. Microsoft Office has a one-time paid version as well. You have to search Office 2021. 365 is the cloud based version so there is no "non-subcription" version of 365.

3. Adobe problem =\= Microsoft problem.

@john_pifer

I lean on anti-Mac, but I'd say still get a Mac. You're already in the Apple ecosystem so syncing across multiple Apple devices and owned accounts is so much easier than going back and forth. It's worth the price hike. Plus you can use extra Macs and iPads as a second screen, that's totally a win in my book.

All my user's computers are windows and I personally don't officially support or work on Macs at work but I'll help out if I can. It's just easier helping folks out if they stay in one ecosystem vs going back and forth between windows and an iPhone/iPad. I don't know the specs of their screens either but I've never seen a poor quality Mac screen that was properly working
 
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I've built my own since the early 1990s. A few years ago, I bucked that trend and got a refurb HP tower. But I knew what I was doing and knew that going as far back as Haswell (Intel family of processors from ~2013) I could get incredible performance with the right components. I upgraded the RAM and put an SSD and GPU in with components I already had and I'm still using it today as my main PC. It even plays modern games well at 1080p. The reason I did this was it was so much less money than even building my own with current gen components. Intel CPUs have a lot of longevity and even if you're a gamer, you can use Haswell and later CPUs with modern graphics cards and maintain excellent performance.
 
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