Currently using macmini i5 from 2014 and HP i7 from 2016. Wary about purchasing from woke companies and don't want to upgrade for a good long time. Budget of 2000$. Would appreciate the input of battle-hardened keyboard warriors.
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Buy an RTX 3090 and just stare at it until the regret sets in.
kek
That is smooth. What would you combine it with in a self-build?
Probably no less than a Ryzen 5900x, 32 GB of ram, and an 850W psu.
Ooh, practically pornographic, thanks.
A lot depends on what you want to do with it.
Are you into gaming, video editing, just browsing, office work, combination, etc.?
This. $2000 is a lot to spend unless you’re doing some gaming. Look into building your own. I’ve done it a few times and it’s intimidating at first but not as hard as you would think. There are a lot of videos and forums for guidance and help.
I have done this before and have some technical help with assembly so perhaps the best way to go.
The buildapc subreddit is a great place to start. I know it’s Reddit, but it’s a very active group with many people helping people in your shoes. It’ll at least give you some ideas to start with. Pcpartpicker is good too once you start gathering parts to show you any compatibility issues.
Good advice - the last self-build I did I spent more time investigating compatibility than just about anything else.
👌
Combination. Mostly browsing and video-editing. I hate the constant upgrading which is causing problems with MAC OS10. HP has no problems handling any applications but often unusable 'cos memory is loose or something. I get the beeps and have to open case and jiggle memory.
If you go linux, install kdenlive for video editing. It's sweet.
👍
You don't need to go overboard on specs, but there are some things you will need based on your use-case.
Invest in a decent keyboard and mouse though, and maybe a high end ultra-wide monitor if you don't have one, although that might tip you over your budget.
Any decent online 'system builder' site should be able to help you fine-tune this a bit. If I missed anything someone will be along to point it out :)
Mucho gracias
I’ve heard about these sdd’s. Are they really as fast as they say?
They're a little bit slower than the RAM installed in your system.
Does that answer the question? ;)
Yeah. I need to build a new dinosaur. My old one is a gaming machine but it runs on 8gb ram and hdd that just gets slower
A PC with a modern (last 10 years) CPU, a decent amount of RAM and a middle of the road graphics card is usually plenty of horsepower, the bottleneck has always been the HDD, most still only run at 7500rpm.
A decent SSD setup will literally blow your socks off, it is the biggest speed upgrade you can actually give your machine assuming it has the basics listed above, so make sure it's big enough for your O/S and your games/applications etc.
A separate HDD for backup and storage of large files you don't use very often if you need to make some space on the SSD and you are set.
8GB RAM is enough for general use and if you are running *nix. Windows is so bloated you need 16GB just to give some headroom to the O/S and bloated browser memory hogs.
Excellent, thank you.
8 gig ram Intel i5 quad core And Radeon graphics card. It’s a gaming machine so I figure if I put Linux on it’s own drive I can use dual boot
Now, look up a m.2 drive. It’s night and day compared to a HDD.
Thanks. Is Linux better for protection? I know windows is the easiest to hack and also most susceptible to viruses. Also do they come with vpn already loaded or will I need to add that to the distro?
I've always purchased my hardware components/upgrades from Newegg.com
Investigate Linux.
Have done but Linux on what and which OS?
https://linuxconfig.org/best-multimedia-linux-distributions
You can simply make a linux live CD of any of these distros and try them without compromising your current setup. I would recommend AV or Modica.
download distro.iso
install rufus on your windows box.
plug in the USB stick; make it bootable.
tranfer the ISO.
restart your box. F12, change boot device to USB
Enjoy.
Personally, I do not mind what distro, as long as it does not run systemd. Any app I can obtain from the package database.
However .... do check whether your video card in your new box is supported (I would expect so, but better be sure)
Also, what I notice is that linux is much more kinder to your setup and it works like a breeze for years .... There are updates .....there are easy to install and do not subject you to unwanted restarts and other forceful measures.
Lol at systemd
It's awful.
Good call.
Thanks for this link. What video editing software is compatible with Linux and is it difficult to add to the build and run from this drive?
Nothing. You cannot crossplatform unless it is made in Java, which is a questionable thing.
Moving to Linux is quite an experience.
But if you have a favorite video edit software, check the website of that software and look for Linux versions.
.Deb or .rpm files are often present.
If not, you'll have to get used to something else.
Thanks. Would you say that Ubuntu already has everything I need? I’ve heard there are loaded versions that way out perform Mac
IF you want to run Ubuntu ... then Ubuntu has all you need. You just have to be very clear on the programs you want to install.
Though, I personally would not recommend using it.
What would you recommend, for video editing and audio?
See ozrifles comment on kdenlive
Thanks for the start red-toe.
Thanks for the info
It would be nice if I understood what you said...LOL
Based on your video editing, I would look at distro's that lean more towards supporting video editing software.
I'm a bit out of touch on self-build so I don't want to give specifics as it will be out of date by now.
Will do.
Build your own from parts. It's quite simple these days.
Get a mid range AMD Ryzen or new i5. These entry level chips offer more speed and power than you will likely ever need.
Buy the best mech keyboard you can afford.
Buy a decent monitor.
Run linux on it (just a vanilla ubuntu LTS will do). Or if you know what you are doing, FreeBSD 13, or OpenBSD.
Download every compiler and language you can find, and learn them all.
Phew. Independence takes work. Thanks.
That sounds smoother than smooth. Thanks.
Literally this
One option to consider is a refurbished ex-corporate rig, (mostly dells and lenovos) you can get a whole lot of kit for 2k. I wipe the drive or re-partition it for dual boot, existing microsoft crap as optional with Linux Mint as the default, I use the Gnome/Mate flavour.
Great idea. Is there a company that does the refurbishing or is it done by Dell or Lenovo. Where do you find them?
Search locally for IT recycling companies, I use ebay
Lotsa good info in here. Thanks yall
https://www.stikc.com/
Thanks. Is there a similar site for refurbished Lenovos?
Application is everything; what functions does it need to excel in? As an analogy, Do you need a SUV, sports car, pickup truck, or dune buggy to best meet your needs?
Pick-up truck that I can fix myself
But if you like the idea of fixing it yourself, I would advise investing in extra hard drives, external hard drives, and other nice backup hardware so that you can easily recover from data loss type failures. Replacing corrupted software with quality backups fixes most common computer problems.
In my analogy, a pickup truck style computer would be a "workstation" class of computers. Those are built to minimize compatibility issues, and have enhanced tech support options, as well as having good performance for heavy duty computations typically used in CAD, and intensive graphics design work. Those requirements are not commonly needed by most people. And true workstation computers are very expensive. $2000 would be on the lower end for most workstations.
What you are paying for with serious workstation computers is the enhanced tech support that helps design those computers to be highly compatible with a wide range of hardware, and software, and also priority patch upgrades when you do have compatibility issues.
If you are not doing graphics design work, you probably want to avoid a workstation, because you are paying for stuff you likely will not need.
I do need a workhorse. That's helpful.
Ya, I see you do graphics editing. Workstations are built with extra redundancies to minimize glitches that can ruin hours of work. A mainboard with ECC (error correcting) RAM, plus a workstation type video card, and enterprise grade hard drives (with backup drives) would be what I would be aiming for if I were you. Also be sure you have a minimum 16gb RAM, preferably 32+, and whatever CPU you go with has lots of cores, 8+.
Humongous, thanks
first identify why you need to upgrade, look at your options, amd vs intel. then decide on a price point, whats more important your video or CPU, strike a balance between the price points, do you need anything beside cpu-mb-ram? If your comfortable shop around for the parts. case or PSU if needed?
Sounds like a plan. Thank you. I have a much better idea of where I stand since posting.
if you decide to build a pc, look at future upgrade paths, as well so that if you get a halfway decent cpu that you can upgrade it to another level in the future. ddr4 is a standard for new systems. video cards are over priced to to 'shortages' I bought new gpus 3 years ago at 140$ price point decent for gaming, and that same card is about 300+ . look for specials or deals, around 'holidays'. a cpu that is oem usually doesn't have cooling , plan accordingly. feel free to message me if you want to have second pair of eyes, if you have never build a system before. I had a good friend of mine put a system together and got it up over the phone, and this is when chips had pins.
Thanks for the cpu/gpu tip and the second pair of eyes. 👍
Weird. Swedes are full-on cabal, why would Apple stop using their keyboards?
Hold your own
Anyone have a copy of Linux they are willing to share? I have always wanted to start playing around with the idea of having an OS on thumb drive. I have used the ultimate boot Linux but that was only used to get into widows machines that lost password and format drives. I would really appreciate a link to download a copying that iso I can convert to thumbdrive?
See red-toe skipper's post on Linux distro
Found it thanx