What do decent fast desktops look like now?

Currently on a HP Compaq elite 8300 with i5-3570 at 3.4 GHZ. This is the kind of (office) computer I'd buy again, just 6-8 years newer and with an SSD drive.

I don't even mind the onboard graphics with this... it plays 1080p content just fine. It's the rendering of 1080 HD video in kdenlive that could speed up as well as general program launching and whatnot.
 
I'd get a prebuilt new or used system, with a SSD, dual channel matching 8gb of RAM, SSD to your sizing, a 9th Gen Intel or above.

I was thinking of suggesting an SSD, but with a prebuilt of that era, I doubt Compaq had the foresight to include an M2 slot.
 
Where I work they're all HP, and the latest round of upgrades is switching from HP 800s to the Z2 series. They're both expensive but the Z2 isn't a lot more than a new 800 and brings a dedicated GPU and graphics RAM.
 
eljefino said:
Been out of the game for a while.

Use Ubuntu, do some non-linear video editing. But I can dual boot with windows. I just hate paying for stuff or being tracked so I use linux.

Seems like most $600 desktops have $400 graphics cards. I think this is dumb as a box of rocks.

Needs are generic. SSD boot drive. No gaming.

I've bought off-lease desktops that are a couple years old that get good CPU benchmarks. Should be easy enough. Budget $200-500. Not afraid of building my own, but it's been more financially feasible to get them already assembled. Throw me some ideas.
Click to expand...
www.techradar.com

Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020) review

Small, but with big ambitions
www.techradar.com www.techradar.com
 
Recommending a Mac to me is like recommending a Crown Vic to someone who needs a minivan.
 
I am still running my Dell Precision T3500 with Xeon CPU that I bought 8 years ago.
I upgraded the RAM from 6 GB to 12 GB and put in an 1TB HDD at that time.
Now, I have upgraded it to 1 TB SSD and a newer Graphic Card.

I probably need another one when Win 10 is obsolete in 2025.
Their spec said, it needs 7th generation Intel CPU minimum although people have found work around to use older gen CPU.
 
Here is a quick build from Amazon. Latest gen intel, 16gb of ram, 1tb ssd. No proprietary components, all standard stuff. It’s like putting Lego together these days. I’m sure with more careful shopping the price could be brought down to below $500 quite easily.

This system should be good for the next 5-8 years quite easy.
367242BD-585F-4F8B-90EB-25237CF3DBF1.jpeg
 
My luck with Gigabyte is similar to MSI, really not sure who makes a consistently decent motherboard these days, flakey but doesn’t fail is about the worst experience.
 
alarmguy said:
Don’t you still need to purchase the windows operating system with the above mentioned builds?
Click to expand...

With windows it is now a yes, no or maybe type of situation.

I transferred the windows ssd from my old machine to the new one, making it dual boot, and it stay activated.
For the other boot I paid $40 for a pro license key.

You can also just install windows and not activate it. It will turn off few things, but will function otherwise and just remind to activate from time to time.

If you have an online Microsoft account linked to a win10 license, then I believe it will activate a new machine with a fresh install as well, once logged in.
 
atikovi said:
What useful software is there uses more than 32gb that isn't used on a mainframe?
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I run VMs on my desktop and allocate at least 8gb to each, so I can easily use 32gb of RAM pretty quickly.
Not a single application, but different VMs are doing different things. One will be on VPN while another may be for a different work task in a different OS
 
I built a pc from server parts. And used it for many years.
But it's better to build normal pc,but more often.
8 latest zen cores run circles around 16 decade old ones. All else equal.
 
sk_pete said:
I built a pc from server parts. And used it for many years.
But it's better to build normal pc,but more often.
8 latest zen cores run circles around 16 decade old ones. All else equal.
Click to expand...

I agree as well.

However, when it come to computers I find that most people are quite stingy.

Most don’t think twice about getting a new smartphone every 2-3 years for several hundred dollars or more, but when it comes to spending $500-800 for a computer that will last 8-10 years, it’s a hard pill to swallow it seems.
 
atikovi said:
What useful software is there uses more than 32gb that isn't used on a mainframe?
Click to expand...
Lightroom will gobble as much as you let it.

I find it basically unusable on my 8gb M1 MacBook Pro-in fact unusable to the point that I just don’t do it anymore(despite what people claim about 8gb being “fine” in that computer).

The last time I used it on my Mac Pro 5,1 with 96gb, I’d find it munching up 40gb of RAM on a 400 file catalog of 36 megapixel RAW files. I haven’t tried it on that computer since upping my main camera to 45mp, but I’d expect it to use even more RAM now.
 
wkcars said:
This one seems decent for $500 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09P1SYQMC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Or one of these from for about $240 from amazon warehouse after extra 20% off coupon and spend some money for 16 or 32gb ram. Not sure what the differences in the condition between acceptable vs like new, maybe go with the acceptable since you can always return it
Click to expand...

Those are basically e-waste once something goes wrong. Proprietary motherboard, power supply and only can fit two sticks of ram. Pretty much zero upgrade paths going forward. Fine I guess, but can be a major headache once the warranty is out. Which is only 1 year.
 
They're also really boxy. Looking at Amazon it's possible to find a used Elitedesk 800 G4 SFF with an i7 processor and 16 MB or more RAM for around $350. These have 4 DDR4 slots and an M2 SSD. I don't know how the CPU numbers convert into the Intel CPU generation though.
 
KrisZ said:
However, when it come to computers I find that most people are quite stingy.

Most don’t think twice about getting a new smartphone every 2-3 years for several hundred dollars or more, but when it comes to spending $500-800 for a computer that will last 8-10 years, it’s a hard pill to swallow it seems.
Click to expand...
When it comes to nearly everything I'm quite stingy.

In 2003 I waited in line for Black Friday at Best Buy, and got an e-machines with 2.4 GHz Celeron Processor and legit copy of XP for $200. That was a big boost from my 400 MHz AMD and Win 98.

My current cellphone cost $15 BTW.

Appreciate the ideas, shopping isn't fun like it used to be.
 
eljefino said:
Recommending a Mac to me is like recommending a Crown Vic to someone who needs a minivan.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I only mentioned it because is was close to your upper price range. But maybe not that close @ $650/$669 @ Costco and at most times $699. at Best Buy. Other times maybe less, hard to tell now with the inflation thing going on.
 
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