Desktop for FIL

[TwiceHorn 32079]

FIL has had two "hand built" desktops that, in their day, were pretty hot.  But they are more than five years (pre W10 upgraded, which is probably coming home to roost right now) old and fucking up all over the place.  I think one had the cooling fail so it was always running hot and slow.

He's not really a power user, but wants something fastish.  Has had SSD OS drives, wants that for sure.  Wants HDMI out, so decent graphics card/graphics, because he kind of HT's them.  So he runs videos, occasionally edits them.  Does do photo editing using Elements.

I'm thinking 8th gen or better i5, and maybe 6th or 7th gen i7.  He has a couple of graphics cards that were good in their day, but may be what's failing on his current machines.  So I don't know if those could/should be cannibalized or offer any advantage.  He does have a couple of bigass platter drives full of pictures and shit that are fairly recent and he'd like to move those over, so a decent size chassis is appropriate.

Any generalized recs?

 

 

[luke duke 6450]

You would think that someone who manufactures and sells internets could figure this out.

[TwiceHorn 32079]

I am not my avatar, sir.  Also, I have never owned a desktop computer.  Unless you count a TI 99-4/A.

[Braff Zacklin 13676]

Lot of good advice in this thread:

Recommend watching build rec videos from Paul's Hardware or Hardware Unboxed and go from there.

Building a desktop PC can be overwhelming at first, but it's a lot of fun and the results can be very rewarding.

[TwiceHorn 32079]

If he builds one, means I'll do it.  That doesn't excite me much, for whatever reason.

[Lobwedgephil 1146]

An iMac? 

[TwiceHorn 32079]

He's too old to learn a new os. Also too expensive. 

[elfenix 34749]

iirc you're up in dallas?  go to microcenter.  get something like this: https://www.microcenter.com/product/609060/lenovo-ideacentre-510a-desktop-computer

i don't think anything he's doing actually requires a graphics card. if he does, this will work great: https://www.microcenter.com/product/618372/hp-pavilion-gaming-computer 

just make sure there's 4 sata ports inside the computer and enough power connectors to run them and that should be fine to run all those old disk drives.  have the microcenter guys open the floor model and count.  USB docks are convenient as fuck and cheap, get one of those and he can put the old drives in as he needs them.  a lot of these little desktop towers nowadays only have space for one platter inside. 

Edited March 17, 2020 by elfenix

[Handcruser 2815]

Just get online and order something for gods sake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Handcruser 2815]

Tell him to plug it in and go. He’s not doing any stunt computing or anything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[elfenix 34749]

this would probably work great as well:

https://www.newegg.com/dell-optiplex-9020-business-desktops-workstations/p/N82E16883995672?Item=N82E16883995672

yes, it's a haswell.  keep in mind intel is still basically using skylake cores even in their latest chips, so only one actual generation and one die shrink removed (sometimes the numerical generations are new cores, sometimes just additional processor graphics, and sometimes just tweaking to get them to run a bit faster/cooler). 

[rage-a-holic 4732]

2 minutes ago, elfenix said:

this would probably work great as well:

https://www.newegg.com/dell-optiplex-9020-business-desktops-workstations/p/N82E16883995672?Item=N82E16883995672

yes, it's a haswell.  keep in mind intel is still basically using skylake cores even in their latest chips, so only one actual generation and one die shrink removed (sometimes the numerical generations are new cores, sometimes just additional processor graphics, and sometimes just tweaking to get them to run a bit faster/cooler). 

Yeah, newegg sells old corporate boxes that have great specs for pretty cheap. I've ordered a few of them over the years and eventually gifted them to family.

[TwiceHorn 32079]

Thanks.  I think he found something on Amazon.

On the ones with the haswell, 4gen procs, does that mean the motherboard is probably five years old? He was looking at an optiplex 9020 on amazon, but I wondered about that?

I don't have a feel for how desktops age.  His current ones are about 6-7 years old and going completely batshit.  

Edited March 18, 2020 by TwiceHorn