Could you help me pick out a new computer, please?
May 20, 2015 9:08 AM Subscribe
I would like to buy a new desktop computer that can handle Adobe Creative Suite, some data / statistical analysis software, and a little gaming. Could you help me figure out what to buy and/or direct me to other resources that might guide me to the right computer?
My six year old desktop died a few days ago, and I just received confirmation that it can't be revived. It had been limping along for a while, so it isn't much of a surprise, but I started looking for replacements this morning and am totally overwhelmed!
Here's what I'd like to do with my new computer, in order of importance:
1) Use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and InDesign quickly and efficiently. No video editing or animation.
2) Run SPSS, SAS, and ArcGIS, potentially other similar programs depending on the direction my career / education goes over the next few years. Most datasets will be large, but not huge or 'big data' big.
3) Small amounts of computer gaming. I primarily play things like Crusader Kings II, with maybe a few games like the new Dragon Age thrown into the mix from time to time. I am very tempted by the idea of No Man's Sky, but it isn't a deal breaker if the computer won't be able to handle it.
I've mostly used Windows in the past, so I'd prefer a Windows machine, and am flexible on price. I'd strongly prefer to keep it under $1500, but can spend more if necessary.
So, what do you think? Also, how do people like me find their computer if they aren't on AskMetafilter? Are there good review sites that I'm missing? I am great with software but mostly clueless about hardware. How should I educate myself so I can make good decisions about what to buy in the future?
My six year old desktop died a few days ago, and I just received confirmation that it can't be revived. It had been limping along for a while, so it isn't much of a surprise, but I started looking for replacements this morning and am totally overwhelmed!
Here's what I'd like to do with my new computer, in order of importance:
1) Use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and InDesign quickly and efficiently. No video editing or animation.
2) Run SPSS, SAS, and ArcGIS, potentially other similar programs depending on the direction my career / education goes over the next few years. Most datasets will be large, but not huge or 'big data' big.
3) Small amounts of computer gaming. I primarily play things like Crusader Kings II, with maybe a few games like the new Dragon Age thrown into the mix from time to time. I am very tempted by the idea of No Man's Sky, but it isn't a deal breaker if the computer won't be able to handle it.
I've mostly used Windows in the past, so I'd prefer a Windows machine, and am flexible on price. I'd strongly prefer to keep it under $1500, but can spend more if necessary.
So, what do you think? Also, how do people like me find their computer if they aren't on AskMetafilter? Are there good review sites that I'm missing? I am great with software but mostly clueless about hardware. How should I educate myself so I can make good decisions about what to buy in the future?
Your budget should be more than enough, particularly if you're willing to put it together from parts (much easier than it might sound if you've never done it).
I'd recommend getting something with a new i5, or i3 if you want to save, it would probably be fine, 8 gigs of ram, an SSD, and a gtx 750ti. That would give you a pretty good gaming rig and be more than able to run creative suite.
posted by mosschief at 9:15 AM on May 20, 2015
I'd recommend getting something with a new i5, or i3 if you want to save, it would probably be fine, 8 gigs of ram, an SSD, and a gtx 750ti. That would give you a pretty good gaming rig and be more than able to run creative suite.
posted by mosschief at 9:15 AM on May 20, 2015
Best answer: This should help. Specs required for creative suite:https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-system-requirements.html
posted by mosschief at 9:27 AM on May 20, 2015
posted by mosschief at 9:27 AM on May 20, 2015
Best answer: Do you have any interest in building your own? Putting a computer together on your own isn't very difficult, and for $1500, you could get a pretty sweet rig. If you are interested in going down that route, PC Part Picker is a fantastic resource.
posted by protocoach at 9:27 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by protocoach at 9:27 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Seconding PC Part Picker. To make things even easier, Logical Increments provides a great, up-to-date chart that suggests where to begin.
posted by fifthrider at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by fifthrider at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Just to be a bit more helpful, I popped into PCPP's build guide section and dug around a little. This build is called "Photo/Video editing + some Gaming!" It runs around $1300, and would be an excellent machine.
posted by protocoach at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2015
posted by protocoach at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2015
Best answer: If you're working with large RAW files, get a big SSD, as pulling 20-40MB files off of a hard drive slows things down a lot if you're working with a bunch of them.
I have very similar needs to you and am lazy so I just periodically get a Dell XPS desktop with a quad core i7, drop in an SSD (and boost it to 16GB of RAM if it doesn't have it already), and get work done on it rather than tinkering around with building one. The current offer is $720 for one with 16GB of RAM and a 4GB Nvidia graphics card and $80 back towards a future purchase. And they throw around corporate employer discounts like crazy, which can reduce it even further. I _might_ be able to beat the price a little by buying parts, but it's hard if you want a legal copy of Windows (and I do). This is cheap and easy and if something goes wrong, I have a single point of contact for all the parts and they come out and fix it in a day or two. YMMV.
posted by Candleman at 10:03 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have very similar needs to you and am lazy so I just periodically get a Dell XPS desktop with a quad core i7, drop in an SSD (and boost it to 16GB of RAM if it doesn't have it already), and get work done on it rather than tinkering around with building one. The current offer is $720 for one with 16GB of RAM and a 4GB Nvidia graphics card and $80 back towards a future purchase. And they throw around corporate employer discounts like crazy, which can reduce it even further. I _might_ be able to beat the price a little by buying parts, but it's hard if you want a legal copy of Windows (and I do). This is cheap and easy and if something goes wrong, I have a single point of contact for all the parts and they come out and fix it in a day or two. YMMV.
posted by Candleman at 10:03 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: What ever you buy, it should have an SSD and plenty of memory 16GB or more...
posted by Mac-Expert at 10:46 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Mac-Expert at 10:46 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Dell XPS 8700 would more than meet your needs and has been on sale for South of $600 repeatedly.
It's got a much better power supply than most desktops and you can upgrade all the parts easily. Buying a mid-range Radeon gpu, 2x 480GB SSDs will set you back an additional $400-500. You're still under $1000.
Dell.com/outlet is your FRIEND.
posted by lattiboy at 11:24 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's got a much better power supply than most desktops and you can upgrade all the parts easily. Buying a mid-range Radeon gpu, 2x 480GB SSDs will set you back an additional $400-500. You're still under $1000.
Dell.com/outlet is your FRIEND.
posted by lattiboy at 11:24 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I'd check the system requirements on the programs you want to run. I would think 8GB of RAM is enough. If you plan on using Windows 7, you will be limited to 8GB of RAM unless you get at least the Home Premium edition, Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate. If you use Windows 8 or above, there isn't a limit you'll hit. Windows 10 should be out soon and will also have no real limit.
Solid state drives allow you to access all your data faster, so a solid state drive to install all your programs on is good. If you don't want to pay for a large capacity SSD, you can get a small one for your programs and then you can store movies, music, photos, etc on a traditional hard disk drive/HDD.
You'll want a fast processor or CPU. An Intel i7 is top of the line and i5 is still very good. AMD has good processors too, but it's harder to just name the models to get. Generally, higher speeds (ghz) and more cores (duo core, quad core, etc.) means a faster processor.
If you want to do a lot of graphics stuff or play games, you can get a separate graphics card rather than using the motherboard's on-board integrated graphics. It's a matter of simply popping the graphics card in the slot inside your computer. When I shop for a processor or video card, I use this benchmark website to make sure what I want to buy is not crappy.
Given all this, you may want to build your own computer. It sounds harder than it is. You get the most bang for your buck AND going forward, your machine will last a lot longer. Having the knowledge of assembling your own computer means you can upgrade on a part-by-part basis and fix any failing hardware on your own without buying a whole new machine. It's really about just picking out the parts and inserting them into a case. NewEgg.com sells bundles if you don't want to check and make sure the parts are compatible (although manufacturer websites will let you check to make sure). The basic parts you need to have a computer is: a case, a power supply, a motherboard, a processor, hard drives(s), RAM and then optional things, like a video card, sound card, and wireless card.
NewEgg has a really easy tutorial here that I used for my first build. (Looks like NewEgg recently did an update that's more in depth starting here.) With a custom build, you will get to choose the exact specs for your machine and spend the money where you want to. At $1500, you could build a very, very high end machine. I'd say with half of that amount, you can custom build a super fast, super future-ready PC that will serve you for years to come.
Or yeah, just buy a Dell or something. You'll be fine.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:53 PM on May 20, 2015
Solid state drives allow you to access all your data faster, so a solid state drive to install all your programs on is good. If you don't want to pay for a large capacity SSD, you can get a small one for your programs and then you can store movies, music, photos, etc on a traditional hard disk drive/HDD.
You'll want a fast processor or CPU. An Intel i7 is top of the line and i5 is still very good. AMD has good processors too, but it's harder to just name the models to get. Generally, higher speeds (ghz) and more cores (duo core, quad core, etc.) means a faster processor.
If you want to do a lot of graphics stuff or play games, you can get a separate graphics card rather than using the motherboard's on-board integrated graphics. It's a matter of simply popping the graphics card in the slot inside your computer. When I shop for a processor or video card, I use this benchmark website to make sure what I want to buy is not crappy.
Given all this, you may want to build your own computer. It sounds harder than it is. You get the most bang for your buck AND going forward, your machine will last a lot longer. Having the knowledge of assembling your own computer means you can upgrade on a part-by-part basis and fix any failing hardware on your own without buying a whole new machine. It's really about just picking out the parts and inserting them into a case. NewEgg.com sells bundles if you don't want to check and make sure the parts are compatible (although manufacturer websites will let you check to make sure). The basic parts you need to have a computer is: a case, a power supply, a motherboard, a processor, hard drives(s), RAM and then optional things, like a video card, sound card, and wireless card.
NewEgg has a really easy tutorial here that I used for my first build. (Looks like NewEgg recently did an update that's more in depth starting here.) With a custom build, you will get to choose the exact specs for your machine and spend the money where you want to. At $1500, you could build a very, very high end machine. I'd say with half of that amount, you can custom build a super fast, super future-ready PC that will serve you for years to come.
Or yeah, just buy a Dell or something. You'll be fine.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:53 PM on May 20, 2015
check out the workstations on HP's business outlet. Lots of Xeons...
posted by ennui.bz at 2:36 PM on May 20, 2015
posted by ennui.bz at 2:36 PM on May 20, 2015
Tom's Hardware has some good regular articles with titles along the lines of "best ... for the money". I used the graphics card one and it was just a case of deciding my budget. I think they do them also for CPU and SSD.
I used silentpcreview to pick a quiet CPU and case fan.
I looked at highly rated items on Amazon too. Was helpful for a motherboard (they are all much of a muchness) once I knew the CPU to get. You could then Google the model for reviews.
posted by mr_silver at 2:52 PM on May 20, 2015
I used silentpcreview to pick a quiet CPU and case fan.
I looked at highly rated items on Amazon too. Was helpful for a motherboard (they are all much of a muchness) once I knew the CPU to get. You could then Google the model for reviews.
posted by mr_silver at 2:52 PM on May 20, 2015
Best answer: If you decide to knit your own machine, MaximumPC and PCPartPicker are great resources. The current recommended midrange build at MaximumPC is pretty close to what you need, although I recommend that you spend less money on the video card and get 16Gb, not 8Gb, of RAM. PCPartPicker gives you a running total of how much wattage your build will require, for that oh-so-important but oh-so-mysterious decision about how powerful a power supply you need.
Candleman and others make a good point... if you just get something pretty good from Dell, HP, or Lenovo, they'll send you a pre-built package, and come and fix it if anything goes wrong.
Don't forget, though, that the most valuable component of your computer is the data that you create and store there - do please spend the time and money to set up a redundant backup.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:20 AM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Candleman and others make a good point... if you just get something pretty good from Dell, HP, or Lenovo, they'll send you a pre-built package, and come and fix it if anything goes wrong.
Don't forget, though, that the most valuable component of your computer is the data that you create and store there - do please spend the time and money to set up a redundant backup.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:20 AM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: ArcGIS is RAM hungry. On the machines---Lenovo 540P---I just bought for our heavy users, we got them at 16GB and it seems like a very nice upgrade from their older 8GB systems. An i5 CPU seems to be fine with the ArcGIS client too. You don't need to go crazy on the processor.
We use SPSS too (as well as some other things). The other stat software isn't hugely demanding. They're light users of photoshop as well, mostly for photo retouching, and that seems to be fine on those systems too.
SSD is nice, but be careful of your size. Many of our users found that anything less than 256GB is very limiting, and that's not cheap. At home I use a dual drive system, an SSD c: drive for programs and a regular HDD (eventually upgraded to a RAID multi-disc system) d: drive for documents, data and big games. It works well for me, and was a nice price compromise.
posted by bonehead at 7:39 AM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
We use SPSS too (as well as some other things). The other stat software isn't hugely demanding. They're light users of photoshop as well, mostly for photo retouching, and that seems to be fine on those systems too.
SSD is nice, but be careful of your size. Many of our users found that anything less than 256GB is very limiting, and that's not cheap. At home I use a dual drive system, an SSD c: drive for programs and a regular HDD (eventually upgraded to a RAID multi-disc system) d: drive for documents, data and big games. It works well for me, and was a nice price compromise.
posted by bonehead at 7:39 AM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Hello! Thank you for the amazing answers! I ended up getting a freelance project that needed a really quick turn around, so I bought a pre-built computer from Newegg and installed a SSD for a dual drive system like bonehead suggested.
However, after reading all of your responses I'm super excited about building a computer on my own! I'm going to build a media center PC for our living room, working off the Newegg guide and based on a build I found on PC PartPicker.
posted by cimton at 7:58 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
However, after reading all of your responses I'm super excited about building a computer on my own! I'm going to build a media center PC for our living room, working off the Newegg guide and based on a build I found on PC PartPicker.
posted by cimton at 7:58 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
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16 gigs ram would be a minimum.
posted by Sophont at 9:13 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]