Computer recommendations

blakbearddelite

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I've been toying with the idea of getting a new computer. My current PC (Gateway DX4840-11E) is coming up on six years old. It's pokey with copying DVD/Blurays and is just slow in general. I don't do any PC gaming, so it doesn't need a high end graphics card. But it would be nice to have a PC capable of handling 4K videos at some point.

I thought about maybe just swapping out the i3 for something faster. I know I might have to replace other parts as well, so I just wasn't sure if I should just get a new PC. I'm not PC building savvy and don't know the first thing about putting one together.
 

blakbearddelite

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I don't know I want to spend [MENTION=60]greasy[/MENTION] money on a new PC ;)

But I'd say around $1k would be my comfort zone.

I also wasn't sure if I wanted a laptop or a desktop. I don't much really want another desktop as I don't do any gaming and it'd be nice to be mobile. Though I would need to purchase an external bluray drive to copy movies to the PC.
 

greasy

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I don't know I want to spend [MENTION=60]greasy[/MENTION] money on a new PC ;)

But I'd say around $1k would be my comfort zone.

I also wasn't sure if I wanted a laptop or a desktop. I don't much really want another desktop as I don't do any gaming and it'd be nice to be mobile. Though I would need to purchase an external bluray drive to copy movies to the PC.

I just made a new bed out hundred dollar duckets.

mOnEy sTaCkZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
 

nytebyte

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Mar 2, 2004
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A $1000 budget is pretty good.

I just built a graphics workstation for one of our hard-core designers here at work.
It has a new 8th gen i7 8700K with a decent ASUS motherboard, 32GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe drive.

It's unbelievably fast AF and only cost around $900.
 

GTvert90

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Would I be able to remove my old internal 1TB drive and use it to store and stream media via a Plex server on the new laptop via a USB connection?
I would just use the old desktop as your Plex server. There is a lot of Linux/Debian based NAS software that is free. Depending how much transcoding you need to do the I3 should work okay. You can always see if you can find an old I5 with the same socket and throw it in.
 

cap42

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Mar 22, 2005
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I have a P51S Lenovo laptop with a Quadroo m500 card and it can barely run pubg to really enjoy it. FPS is shit, most work grade laptops don't have a good GPU. That laptop is less than 2 years old and cost $1700, I built a home pc for my wife with a 1050ti card that can game pretty good for around $800. That desktop can kick my laptops ass in every category, plus I can update it with better stuff easier and cheaper.

If you need mobility you will either have to pay more for the laptop or not get as much performance as you could with a desktop.

Just some food for thought when choosing what you should spend your coin on.

If your not going to do any gaming you could just look at doing some minor updates to your gateway. Adding in a SSD for the OS, updating the memory and processor. Disk speed is probably the number #1 thing in performance nowadays, you can make old machines feel like new ones with faster drives.
 

blakbearddelite

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I would almost prefer to beef up my current PC. My problem is that I don't know the first thing about swapping out the processor and adding a SSD.

Ideally, I'd like the normal computer operations to run off an SSD and then store all my media on the old 1TB HDD.

I'd probably end up paying someone to do the work. And by the time I do that, I might already be more than halfway towards a new PC. I just don't know.
 

Fish

From the quiet street
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I would almost prefer to beef up my current PC. My problem is that I don't know the first thing about swapping out the processor and adding a SSD.

Ideally, I'd like the normal computer operations to run off an SSD and then store all my media on the old 1TB HDD.

I'd probably end up paying someone to do the work. And by the time I do that, I might already be more than halfway towards a new PC. I just don't know.

Keep your current drives and case. Rip out mobo and processor and replace with these.

Processor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759FGJ3Q/?tag=tcg21-20

Motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077Y5JBQ5/?tag=tcg21-20

Ram (Did prices spike or something? I paid $109 for this last year.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XHSWZ71/?tag=tcg21-20

All of the above is $472. Id add a power supply like this one for an extra $56.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EON40CS/?tag=tcg21-20

Brings you to $528. Add a 1060 if you wanna Pubg it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KQUDE2Y/?tag=tcg21-20

Total of $828. Or if you just want Plex and light gaming and web surfing the video card isnt necessary.
 

Thirdgen89GTA

Aka "That Focus RS Guy"
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Would I be able to remove my old internal 1TB drive and use it to store and stream media via a Plex server on the new laptop via a USB connection?

Plex runs as a service in the background with automated tasks. If the USB is not connected 100% of the time, it will remove items from your library as it won't be able to find them.

Cheap solution. Buy a empty 2-4 bay NAS that has Plex support and stick your drive in there. Or buy a cheap semi-modern HP or Dell Refurb and put your drive in that.

The laptop would kind of work if you kept all the movies internal. However, Plex will KILL your battery so the laptop will have to be plugged in all the time.

Buy a laptop to be mobile, but don't plan on using it for Plex unless its as a client.

Or buy my old NAS and have a 20TB media server at home. :)
 
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