New PC time - I solicit your suggestions

[Pew]

I assume your current Optiplex is on the older side? I unfortunately haven't seen one from the main 3 companies with an optical drive and SD card reader and full size tower. All those require a custom order which bumps up the price and shipping time by a big amount.

The only one I could find covering almost all those specs is this HP Z2 Tower G9 but it doesn't come with a SD card reader, second HDD, and BR drive. You can always add an HDD when it comes in though. If you opt to custom build one from their websites, that ends up costing twice the amount with the same exact specs with still no BR drive. Lenovo, Dell, and HP doesn't have anything else. Without building one yourself, you may need to opt for external SD card reader at the least.

 

[vavavroom]

Yeah right

I can't imagine anything more boring than slapping a PC together. I'd rather buy something off the shelf that has most of what I want and make a few mods.

Just go to a gamer pc place get a fully loaded

II only like point-and-click games.

 

[Pablo]

I can't imagine anything more boring than slapping a PC together. I'd rather buy something off the shelf that has most of what I want and make a few mods.

II only like point-and-click games.

It’s kinda boring but it doesn’t take much time

I built a gamer pc more or less and I play zero games. Basically fast and reliable is what I want.

 

[vavavroom]

I assume your current Optiplex is on the older side?

It's a 2018 model that I upgraded 2 years ago. It has a 512 GB SSD and a 2TB HDD data drive. It has an optical drive (DVD/CD). I have an external BR drive/burner but much prefer an internal drive.

I unfortunately haven't seen one from the main 3 companies with an optical drive and SD card reader and full size tower. All those require a custom order which bumps up the price and shipping time by a big amount.

Dell has an Optiplex with an optical drive but it can't be combined with wifi.
It has another Optiplex model but it can't get 32GB RAM if I want the optical Drive. No idea if the 32 GB limit is simlky because they don't offer it or if I myself would be able to put it in.
I can't find out if there is room for a send internal HDD.
The SD card reader is a minor issue although I really do prefer an integrated slot because I despise small danglies and other small peripherals like optical drives.

The only one I could find covering almost all those specs is this HP Z2 Tower G9 but it doesn't come with a SD card reader, second HDD, and BR drive. You can always add an HDD when it comes in though. If you opt to custom build one from their websites, that ends up costing twice the amount with the same exact specs with still no BR drive. Lenovo, Dell, and HP doesn't have anything else. Without building one yourself, you may need to opt for external SD card reader at the least.

I'm not looking forward to building my own PC. Augh.

 

[vavavroom]

It’s kinda boring but it doesn’t take much time

I built a gamer pc more or less and I play zero games. Basically fast and reliable is what I want.

I have had no reliability or speed issues with my Optiplex. Redundant backups are no issue. If it weren't; for W11 incompatibility I would not see the need to get a new PC anytime soon. I'm not willing to mess up my PC by putting W11 on it without having a new PC ready to go. Once I have a new PC, I will play around with Rufus and see if I can get W11 to work.

I actually do have an Area 51 gaming laptop with W11 but I very rarely game anymore.

Where's a good place to find a tower case that can accommodate the following?

one SSD
two internal HDDs
+/>32 GB RAM
optical drive
wifi
8 USB ports, including at least 4 USB 3.0 ports
at least one SD card slot

 

[ripcord]

You should add the requirement that it not light up like a Christmas tree.

 

[Pew]

It's a 2018 model that I upgraded 2 years ago. It has a 512 GB SSD and a 2TB HDD data drive. It has an optical drive (DVD/CD). I have an external BR drive/burner but much prefer an internal drive.

Dell has an Optiplex with an optical drive but it can't be combined with wifi.
It has another Optiplex model but it can't get 32GB RAM if I want the optical Drive. No idea if the 32 GB limit is simlky because they don't offer it or if I myself would be able to put it in.
I can't find out if there is room for a send internal HDD.
The SD card reader is a minor issue although I really do prefer an integrated slot because I despise small danglies and other small peripherals like optical drives.

I'm not looking forward to building my own PC. Augh.

Yea I noticed that with the Optiplex too. I don't know why but I did find this photo so the inside should actually look the same as the inside of yours. It's the same layout as HP desktop towers too.

 

[Pablo]

I have had no reliability or speed issues with my Optiplex. Redundant backups are no issue. If it weren't; for W11 incompatibility I would not see the need to get a new PC anytime soon. I'm not willing to mess up my PC by putting W11 on it without having a new PC ready to go. Once I have a new PC, I will play around with Rufus and see if I can get W11 to work.

I actually do have an Area 51 gaming laptop with W11 but I very rarely game anymore.

Where's a good place to find a tower case that can accommodate the following?

one SSD
two internal HDDs
+/>32 GB RAM
optical drive
wifi
8 USB ports, including at least 4 USB 3.0 ports
at least one SD card slot

Start with buy ipower.com and shop other places against them

 

[Owen Lucas]

I'd stay away from Intel. The 13/14th gen i9s have a design flaw that is causing them to degrade. It has something to do with a circuit design that's drawing too much electricity and overheating.

There is no way to correct this, no firmware update can fix the flaw from the die. Intel's response was also horrible and cast blame on motherboard manufacturers claiming they were improperly configured when in fact it was the chip all along. This behavior alone makes me want to stay away from Intel.

 

[ripcord]

Start with buy ipower.com and shop other places against them

I think you mean ibuypower.com?

 

[vavavroom]

Yea I noticed that with the Optiplex too. I don't know why but I did find this photo so the inside should actually look the same as the inside of yours. It's the same layout as HP desktop towers too.

View attachment 240776

That looks about right.

 

[vavavroom]

I think you mean ibuypower.com?

I know what he meant. He's just rattled because a bear looked at him with hungry eyes.

 

[vavavroom]

I'd stay away from Intel. The 13/14th gen i9s have a design flaw that is causing them to degrade. It has something to do with a circuit design that's drawing too much electricity and overheating.

There is no way to correct this, no firmware update can fix the flaw from the die. Intel's response was also horrible and cast blame on motherboard manufacturers claiming they were improperly configured when in fact it was the chip all along. This behavior alone makes me want to stay away from Intel.

I'm not really looking at i9s.

 

[3800Series]

I'd stay away from Intel. The 13/14th gen i9s have a design flaw that is causing them to degrade. It has something to do with a circuit design that's drawing too much electricity and overheating.

There is no way to correct this, no firmware update can fix the flaw from the die. Intel's response was also horrible and cast blame on motherboard manufacturers claiming they were improperly configured when in fact it was the chip all along. This behavior alone makes me want to stay away from Intel.

It's oxidation related last I heard, I believe Intel eventually confirmed this. There was an oxidation layer not properly/fully removed during some of the production. This lead to higher than expected resistance in the logic gate, which caused over heating and degradation.

As they continue to degrade their ability to switch is slowed to the point where they physically can't switch fast enough (GHz is switch rate) causing a crash. There was a few other issues as well but to the best of my knowledge improper manufactoring was the issue. Only so many units where effected before the issue was caught, and addressed but Intel ignored this refusing to issue a recall on the CPU's manufactured during this time period.

Voltage was predicted as the likely cause for awhile until high failure rates where reported on the W chipset of motherboards. These boards are designed with heavy restrictions placed on them, running lower than base spec ram, and clock speeds as they prioritize stability the utmost even at the cost of performance. Its not a budget line of motherboards, they're server quality but focus more on no downtime than anything so they never see high voltage yet many reported failures as well.

 

[ripcord]

Personally, I don't feel a need to upgrade from my home i5-7700k system. It boots almost instantly, plays the occasional game I want to play just fine, chews through big SQL databases and compiles large projects just fine, plus with cloud hosted services, I have less and less reason for a powerful workstation.

The only reason I might want to upgrade is for reliability, but I have good backups and could switch to a new PC fairly painlessly.

 

[Pablo]

I think you mean ibuypower.com?

Yeah did I mention my iPhone was fighting me spell checking that?

 

[vavavroom]

Yeah did I mention my iPhone was fighting me spell checking that?

My spell checker has a GED and gives me GERD.

 

[ripcord]

My spell checker has a GED and gives me GERD.

That would be hard to stomach

 

[vavavroom]

I took another look at all the Optiplex options. I found one that might fit my requirements

i5 14 cores
32 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
Can order with additional HDD but would add my own
I'm unsure if there is a provision for a second internal HDD - can't find info
has an optical drive
SDcard slot optional
has wifi 6



https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/des...rationid=41009fe0-fcea-4724-af5e-3a795f077ee8

 

[ripcord]

I took another look at all the Optiplex options. I found one that might fit my requirements

i5 14 cores
32 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
Can order with additional HDD but would add my own
I'm unsure if there is a provision for a second internal HDD - can't find info
has an optical drive
SDcard slot optional
has wifi 6



https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/des...rationid=41009fe0-fcea-4724-af5e-3a795f077ee8

Here's the owners manual for that model. From a quick glance through it, there are 4 DIMM slots for memory so it will probably come with 4 sticks of 8gb RAM. It also has space in the case for 2 additional 3.5 inch drives as well as extra SATA ports to plug them into the motherboard. The bootable drive is a M2 format SSD so this PC can have 3 drives (1 M2 SSD and 2 conventional drives) plus 1 optical drive.

https://dl.dell.com/content/manual3...r-plus-7020-owner-s-manual.pdf?language=en-us

Edit: please double check for yourself as I only looked at this for a short time.