Need some laptop/desktop help

steviejr92

steviejr92

Authorized Vendor
So as a result of my laptop going to crap I’m in the market for a new laptop/desktop. I have no knowledge on them and would like some suggestions. I’m currently looking in the 700 to 800 dollar range (if it’s a desktop I need it to include the monitor in the price range as well).I need something that’s going to be fast, reliable, and be able to handle all the various adobe/creative apps no problem. Thank you guys in advance for the suggestions.
 
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What OS do you prefer? Are there any important specs for you (e.g., ports, screen size, etc.)? Do you have any requirements beyond being able to handle those programs?
 
benny_profane said:
What OS do you prefer? Are there any important specs for you (e.g., ports, screen size, etc.)? Do you have any requirements beyond being able to handle those programs?
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I prefer windows but my dad insists on MacBook for what I’m doing which is designing the pedals. The screen size doesn’t much matter just not too small (anything under 14” I wouldn’t entertain. I have no other requirements I’m definitely not using it for gaming( although I’m seeing the gaming laptops have some good specs again I’m a noob to this stuff)
 
I keep thinking 32 gb of ram should be good enough right? 512gb SSD of storage should be more than enough.
 
You should also budget for some sort of backup system--whether it be an external hard drive or a cloud-based redundancy. I run a 13" MacOS machine with an external monitor personally and use an external hard drive for regular backups. Since you prefer Windows, I might not be able to give you the best or most relevant recommendations. I do think that you could save some money by going down to 16GB of RAM. However, it is generally best practice to get as much as you can afford to 'future-proof' the machine as much as possible. In some cases (read: Apple) you may not be able to upgrade (easily) down the line.
 
benny_profane said:
You should also budget for some sort of backup system--whether it be an external hard drive or a cloud-based redundancy. I run a 13" MacOS machine with an external monitor personally and use an external hard drive for regular backups. Since you prefer Windows, I might not be able to give you the best or most relevant recommendations. I do think that you could save some money by going down to 16GB of RAM. However, it is generally best practice to get as much as you can afford to 'future-proof' the machine as much as possible. In some cases (read: Apple) you may not be able to upgrade (easily) down the line.
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I’m have certainly accounted for the external hard drive I’m planning on getting at least a 512gb SSD drive. Trust me I’ve learned my lesson 🤣 so you think 16gb of ram is more than sufficient? If so I most definitely can save money there.
 
steviejr92 said:
I’m have certainly accounted for the external hard drive I’m planning on getting at least a 512gb SSD drive. Trust me I’ve learned my lesson 🤣 so you think 16gb of ram is more than sufficient? If so I most definitely can save money there.
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I'm not totally sure with Windows machines. Even with Intel chips, MacOS ran a bit more efficiently than equally spec'd Windows machines. That's more the case now with the ARM silicon. So, someone with a bit more knowledge will have to weigh in. If you're just doing simple graphics works for pedal designs (i.e., no video or complex audio), that definitely lowers the demand for RAM; however, the future-proofing aspect is always something to think about. I typically try to get at least 8 years out of a laptop. I always shop refurbs since there are some good deals there.
 
Harry Klippton said:
I know you said Amazon, but last time I bought a laptop, I got a refurb via Newegg for $125, maxed out the ram and put a 550G SSD in it and it's been great
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Yeah I don’t have much money so I’m banking on this prime card to make the bulk of the purchase price. So my purchase has to come from Amazon! 😖
 
You can get a nicely-spec'd, previous-gen macbook air on amazon for about $500 which based on your use-case (basic graphic design? PCB layout in CAD?) will be more computer than you'll ever need.
 
I build monster pc gaming rigs for fun and after word got around I ended up building all the nice engineering rigs for work as well...... I can only build so many for myself but I have three teens that game as well... My PC is stupidly over powered..lol
Do you have a "Microcenter" anywhere near you? Honestly if your looking for a desktop you can get a lot of bang for your buck with a dell refurb from microcenter... No reason for you to go over 16gb of ram if your not doing any hard core processing... video editing etc etc.. What your looking for is minimum I7 with an intel CPU preferably a 6 core/12 thread minimum or I9 8 core/16 thread... 16gb of ram, 1TB SSD or even better a 1TB NVME for your hard drive.... Honestly I usually build with a 500GB NVME for the main C: drive to hold windows and a few select programs and then a 1TB SSD for storage drives.. Microcenter is hands down the best place to buy pc parts... But you have to go in store
 
swelchy said:
I build monster pc gaming rigs for fun and after word got around I ended up building all the nice engineering rigs for work as well...... I can only build so many for myself but I have three teens that game as well... My PC is stupidly over powered..lol
Do you have a "Microcenter" anywhere near you? Honestly if your looking for a desktop you can get a lot of bang for your buck with a dell refurb from microcenter... No reason for you to go over 16gb of ram if your not doing any hard core processing... video editing etc etc.. What your looking for is minimum I7 with an intel CPU preferably a 6 core/12 thread minimum or I9 8 core/16 thread... 16gb of ram, 1TB SSD or even better a 1TB NVME for your hard drive.... Honestly I usually build with a 500GB NVME for the main C: drive to hold windows and a few select programs and then a 1TB SSD for storage drives.. Microcenter is hands down the best place to buy pc parts... But you have to go in store
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Huge help! I’ve been shopping for computers all day. I’ve actually been shopping along those lines I found a laptop that has 32gb ram 1tb SSD intel 8 core 12 thread i5 processor is that good enough?
 
The great thing about SSD drives is that even if you do manage to run out of memory (32gb is a huge amount of memory) when your OS goes virtual it's on a blazing fast SSD instead of a traditional spinning drive. Just the time it takes for the platter to spin one rotation, multiplied by thousands of interrupts, will totally bog down a system. I'm still on windows 7 with a 7200rpm 1tb drive. Moving soon.

yeah, the programmer that bought his first system with DOS 1.0 and a ten MB drive is limping along on an antique. A good friend is a car mechanic, he comes over my house and I can hear his drive shaft thumping around as he pulls up. The same drive shaft that was thumping a year ago, lol.... Same difference.

btw, that first computer was $2200 in 1987 dollars..... I had to paint several houses on my weekends to make the money to buy it.....
 
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