Desktop Shopping Suggestons

[arncap]

I have been a windows laptop guy my whole PC life, as has my wife. I am thinking about buying 2 windows desktops for our home, that way we can free up a laptop or two for the kids and have full-sized machines to do a lot of things. As far as the key question about our budget.... well I would like to spend as little as possible but still be able to get quality computers we'll be happy with for our needs. I know that my last Acer laptop was an $800 machine. So, I am hoping that the desktop computers would be less than that, monitors included.

For myself, I do a ton of multi-tasking with several applications simultaneously. I also do a lot of video stuff. I could really use dual screens, especially for my daytrading and other stuff. My understanding is that a tower would probably be better than an all-in-one for me. I have enough space for it. I would really like to get something really fast. I want a good processor, lots of ram, and good-sized HD.

My wife likely needs something a bit more basic but one that has the capacity to watch and do video work. I suppose in her case either a tower or an all-in-one would work.

I'm in rural Canada, and with the current pandemic, I would be looking to order online with delivery. I have no idea where I should focus my search. I have bought laptops at Best Buy in the past. Are there better places to look? How about Amazon or other stores that sell online? Is getting pre-owned, open box, or refurbished a good idea to keep the costs down and still get a good product?

I am looking for suggestions, recommendations, you name it... thanks.

 

[Wallaby Dan]

The computer i have is a little over a year old now and it was new parts but old school. This one is pretty fast! Serves me well. Maybe a am3 or 4 board and a first or second gen cpu might work on hers. yours need a pretty fast cpu and plenty of ram and a good Gpu to boot. Again, brand new parts can be found at Ebay. This is my 4th build and i have used older equipment from Ebay. I find that some have good luck with Ebay and others don't. Try remanufactured parts at Newegg. Best buy and Tiger direct are way outpriced for what they have. They also don't seem to have what you want when you visit them. I haven't bought anything from TigerDirect in about 10 years now. They had a bunch of monitors on sale and i got one that still works great. Good luck and happy "fishing".

 

[arncap]

Would refurbished machines be a good way to go?

 

[Wallaby Dan]

Depends on who does it. I myself wouldn't do that, but then i know what i need in a build. You can try it but it depends on what kind of warranty they give you.

 

[arncap]

I don't think I would go the build route. Most likely I will buy a pre-made machine. I don't have any specific requirements that would make building a machine much of a necessity. Also, given that I will likely have to do most if not all of my ordering online, it would be best to buy a pre-made system - or two. If modifications need to be made, absolutely. But overall, I just want to find something quite new, fast, and have lots of ram (or be able to add ram). I do lots of multitasking etc...

 

[Wallaby Dan]

First gen cpus from AMD are really cheap now. But second gen way more faster but cost more. Rysen second gen are 4 core rysen5 series should work for you for many years. If your wife is cool and not gaming then you could go with a first gen 3. The rysen 3 is a 2 core but way faster than some of the 4 core models that were before the FX models Ram is a big open spot where you could go high or low depending what you are using it for. So looking for a pre-manufactored good luck..