Looking to buy a new PC Desktop - recommedations?

I just built a new PC a few months ago, also upgrading from a 10+ year-old AMD Phenom II x4!

I’ve been loving the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (6 cores, 12 threads). It’s tough to beat for the price and performance, but you could probably save a bit and go with the Ryzen 5 1600 for your use case. Furthermore, the AM4 socket will likely see some future processor support, so future CPU upgrades without replacing the mobo aren’t out of the question.

Some useful info here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

Also, if you end up getting an M.2 NVME SSD, I’d recommend one with a DRAM cache.

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I know you said “turn-key”, but here’s a DIY option to add to your data points. Would probably take 2 hours to assemble and get Windows installed. If you like to keep your PCs for 10+ years, a custom build will give you more opportunity for future upgrades.

If your copy of Windows isn’t OEM, you might be able to migrate it from your old PC.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (12nm) 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor $113.65 @ Amazon
Motherboard Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $151.53 @ Amazon
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $117.99 @ Newegg
Storage Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $179.99 @ Samsung
Video Card Zotac GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Twin Fan Video Card $178.98 @ Newegg
Case Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case $46.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply EVGA 500 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply $53.96 @ Newegg
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit $145.00 @ Walmart
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $988.08
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-09 23:00 EDT-0400
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Same here, upgraded to an AMD based x570 ITX mobo temporarily running a 3400g until the 4000 CPUs are released. I was running a FX6100 for close to a decade before upgrading.

Only count on the 4000 series for AM4. Most likely there will be a new socket for the 5000 series due to accommodating new manufacturing node (5nm) and upgraded tech availability (PCI5.0 & USB 4).

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There’s widespread shortages in components right now. Largely due to pandemic related interruptions in supply chains. If you can wait six months you’ll have a lot more options. Having said that…

I would go to Costco (or their website) and buy a machine that fits the budget assuming they have anything in stock. It’ll be faster than what you have now and Costco adds a year of warranty for no extra cost. If you’re open to building a machine then it’s a completely different conversation.

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And more on the NUC - mine has two HDMI ports. I run SolidWorks on it with no problems whatsoever. The newest ones have USB-C and AFAIK you can run yet another display off of that.

Not a build your own but a really nice little computer with easy 3 year warranty service. I had one (of 20) go bad at work and since they couldn’t replace it with the same model they (Intel) offered to refund the purchase price.

Great point! Glad you called that out. Super excited for the 5000 series, especially in laptops. Will be interesting to see if Intel can step up their game.

Also, glad you mentioned the G-series CPUs. Skipping the dedicated GPU and going with a 3200G or 3400G processor with a built-in GPU would shave a few hundred off the price and provide adequate performance for @HankCowdog 's use case.

Do you mean 4000 series? That’s what is coming out right now with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop (4900HS I think) and other newly released laptops from the different manufacturers. 5000 series won’t be hitting until sometime later in 2021 at the earliest.

Not sure a 500W PSU is enough for that rig. I’d go higher.

We use the Intel NUC’s extensively in our video security business. We run both Win10 and Ubuntu on them and they are very dependable and usable machines. I highly recommend them. We buy the i7 models and they are pretty fast, too. We do beef up the memory and storage as they are saving video stream data.

They don’t do too well with AI work, though so we’re using the new Jetson family of products for AI. They run Linux very well and very fast, too.


We’ve already built people counting applications for Covid-19 for Spirit Airlines.

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What? The 500 watts is more than plenty. That CPU is 65 watts and that GPU is 75 watts. Even a 300 watt power supply would be plenty for that build. People go fucking crazy with power supplies and it makes zero sense.

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My GPUs are 375W each ( x2 ).

1KW psu seemed very reasonable…

You have a reason to go fucking crazy with the power supply because you went fucking crazy with the GPU. The build above is very different and uses 200 watts at most.

It NEEDED MORE POWER. :slight_smile:
BOINC loves it.

HP Pavilion Core i5-9400f gaming desktop

Order straight from HP.

Add 8 more Gb of RAM for 16 Gb.

With W10Home and Office you are at a grand out the door, just plug it in.

You are missing out on some advanced features of Windows(mostly AD stuff), nvme/sata 3, storage configuration options, graphics card features…

Nothing you can’t live without.

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FWIW, We bought a refurbished Dell desktop from Microcenter a few months ago. It had a 240G SSD, but when we loaded it up it failed at about 120G. I looked up the SSD by make and model, and it was available on Ali Baba for about $15. Pretty sure it was a bogus drive. We replaced it with a real 250G drive, and it ran perfectly.

If you buy something new right now, look at its ability to upgrade from MS Windows 10 to 11. At some point you will be forced to do this, whether you like it or not. If your new box won’t work with MSW11, you have a problem. Personally, I would suggest switching to a nice Linux distro, like Mint, or Ubuntu, but you do you.

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