How do you buy a computer anymore?!

[DolphinDynasty]

But what is a modest graphics card? My trouble these days is that when I was younger, it was RAM, Hard Drive space, and processor speed. The memory isn't the same now, processor speed has long since not been the reason to get a certain processor. At least storage is still storage, though I did see some computers have small SSD's (~8 GB) for a cache I presume. Video cards are the same, it used to be type (AGP v PCI) and memory. Now it is a matter of power supply, type of memory, type of processor in the damn video card! When did things get so... Get the fuck off my lawn!!!... complicated?

Going for a SSD vs HDD can make a significant dent in loading times, but they are significantly more expensive. Especially considering you can get a terabyte HDD for peanuts nowadays.

I can't imagine needing an SSD.

Raedon produces graphics cards as well. NVidia are better, but maybe not what you need.

Can you tell us what sorts of games, and if possible with titles. I can do research on what they requiring graphics, memory, ram and processor. That would help to get a better idea. Also, are you looking for a desktop model that can be connected to a TV or a laptop type machine?

Pricing and the specs vary between the two depending on company, too.

What sort of machine are you using now and are you partial to the company it comes from? Also do you store games on it or are you playing streaming type games?

Sorry for the battery of questions but it would give a better idea to have more info so you don't get beyond what you need. Too many people I talk to at work are selling gear that a customer does not need any of just for the name attached and the fact they can say they have it, not that they will ever use the massive storage amount somebody told them to get or need the sort of graphics for gaming or editing, cuz they just surf the web with it or do email and card games and shit, so I would need a clearer picture if you are willing.

 

[bilby]

The more comprehensive your access to information becomes, the harder it is to make a decision about anything. With Google, you have access to everything; therefore your decision making process is horribly complex (assuming you want to achieve an optimal result).

The easiest decisions are those made between just two options, with no information at all - just toss a coin, and you get the optimal result in an instant. Being informed, and being provided with lots of options, makes life harder. That's true whether you are buying a new computer, or a tin of tomatoes.

 

[J842P]

But what is a modest graphics card? My trouble these days is that when I was younger, it was RAM, Hard Drive space, and processor speed. The memory isn't the same now, processor speed has long since not been the reason to get a certain processor. At least storage is still storage, though I did see some computers have small SSD's (~8 GB) for a cache I presume. Video cards are the same, it used to be type (AGP v PCI) and memory. Now it is a matter of power supply, type of memory, type of processor in the damn video card! When did things get so... Get the fuck off my lawn!!!... complicated?

I can't imagine needing an SSD.

Modest nvidia cards go for roughly 100 bucks. This is where Newegg or Amazon is your friend. 16 gigs of ram is also overkill. 12 should be enough for most games. anything more than that is for people working in programs like Auto CAD or photoshop professionally. But then RAM is dirt cheap so who cares?

https://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Graphics-Cards/SubCategory/ID-48?Tid=7709

You say buying computer parts is complicated, but in reality it's easier than ever due to the infrastructure and wealth of knowledge the internet provides. If anything about a given componant is confusing to you, you're one google click away from being able to make a reasonably informed purchasing decision.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

Having to do this 30 years ago though? If you didn't know this stuff or know somebody who did you were SoL.

You can probably get away with something form the 900 series.
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P33H95JREGGPP9EE4Z75
Nvidia cards are currently on the 1000 series. The 1100 series are coming out in 2018 probably.

Generally, unless you want to play games that are coming out today, and you want to play on really high settings, you can go with the previous generation of graphics cards.

It really depends on the types of games you want to play.

Also, I suggested 16 gigabytes of ram because operating systems are super bloated nowadays. Windows 10 (I presume you will be playing games on Windows) is a huge resource hog. I've seen idle, just-booted memory consumption of 2 gigs.

Compare that to my Ubuntu (xfce4 desktop environment) laptop that boots with 400megabytes . And that's hefty by some Linux standards.

 

[LordKiran]

Modest nvidia cards go for roughly 100 bucks. This is where Newegg or Amazon is your friend. 16 gigs of ram is also overkill. 12 should be enough for most games. anything more than that is for people working in programs like Auto CAD or photoshop professionally. But then RAM is dirt cheap so who cares?

https://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Graphics-Cards/SubCategory/ID-48?Tid=7709

You say buying computer parts is complicated, but in reality it's easier than ever due to the infrastructure and wealth of knowledge the internet provides. If anything about a given componant is confusing to you, you're one google click away from being able to make a reasonably informed purchasing decision.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

Having to do this 30 years ago though? If you didn't know this stuff or know somebody who did you were SoL.

You can probably get away with something form the 900 series.
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P33H95JREGGPP9EE4Z75
Nvidia cards are currently on the 1000 series. The 1100 series are coming out in 2018 probably.

Generally, unless you want to play games that are coming out today, and you want to play on really high settings, you can go with the previous generation of graphics cards.

It really depends on the types of games you want to play.

Also, I suggested 16 gigabytes of ram because operating systems are super bloated nowadays. Windows 10 (I presume you will be playing games on Windows) is a huge resource hog. I've seen idle, just-booted memory consumption of 2 gigs.

Compare that to my Ubuntu (xfce4 desktop environment) laptop that boots with 400megabytes . And that's hefty by some Linux standards.

I'm still on a 650 and it plays most games on medium settings. I was never a stickler for soopr-graffix though.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Here is a question. I have an old computer from work, doesn't work anymore, but the chassis is huge! Is a chassis a chassis and can be used still? Granted, the money I'd be saving using that chassis is small potatoes.

 

[bigfield]

Here is a question. I have an old computer from work, doesn't work anymore, but the chassis is huge! Is a chassis a chassis and can be used still? Granted, the money I'd be saving using that chassis is small potatoes.

Older boxes don't have a rack for SSD's--the floppy drive rack is there instead--so you would need to improvise or buy an adaptor. Pretty sure the rest (motherboard mount, I/O cutouts, PSU mount, switches, fan mounts) have remained the same for quite some time.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Here is a question. I have an old computer from work, doesn't work anymore, but the chassis is huge! Is a chassis a chassis and can be used still? Granted, the money I'd be saving using that chassis is small potatoes.

Depends on it's design. Sometimes the older cases lack a vent suitable for supplying air to the CPU cooler. (On the other hand, if you go with a liquid-cooled setup that's moot. That, however, requires a suitable fan hole close enough to the CPU location if you want to go the easy, sealed route.)

 

[braces_for_impact]

I can't imagine needing an SSD.

Get one and you won't be able to imagine how you did without it.

This. Wow. There are two upgrades that will make a huge difference in any computer. Upgrade the RAM and get a good SSD. Makes a huge difference in speed. Not just boot time either. Everything opens super snappy.

 

[rousseau]

The more comprehensive your access to information becomes, the harder it is to make a decision about anything. With Google, you have access to everything; therefore your decision making process is horribly complex (assuming you want to achieve an optimal result).

The easiest decisions are those made between just two options, with no information at all - just toss a coin, and you get the optimal result in an instant. Being informed, and being provided with lots of options, makes life harder. That's true whether you are buying a new computer, or a tin of tomatoes.

Makes it harder to make decisions, makes it easier to make good decisions if you have patience, focus, and work ethic.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The more comprehensive your access to information becomes, the harder it is to make a decision about anything. With Google, you have access to everything; therefore your decision making process is horribly complex (assuming you want to achieve an optimal result).

The easiest decisions are those made between just two options, with no information at all - just toss a coin, and you get the optimal result in an instant. Being informed, and being provided with lots of options, makes life harder. That's true whether you are buying a new computer, or a tin of tomatoes.

Makes it harder to make decisions, makes it easier to make good decisions if you have patience, focus, and work ethic.

I don't have much free time anymore. So I go with option 2, ask a bunch of people I trust.

 

[rousseau]

Makes it harder to make decisions, makes it easier to make good decisions if you have patience, focus, and work ethic.

I don't have much free time anymore. So I go with option 2, ask a bunch of people I trust.

Yea that's what makes forums like this such a good resource. It can be efficient finding answers at the Stack Exchange community too.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I don't have much free time anymore. So I go with option 2, ask a bunch of people I trust.

Yea that's what makes forums like this such a good resource. It can be efficient finding answers at the Stack Exchange community too.

But Stack Exchange would quickly zap "How do you buy a computer?" You need to be a lot more precise asking questions there. The very nature of their system means they have a **lot** of moderators.

 

[rousseau]

Yea that's what makes forums like this such a good resource. It can be efficient finding answers at the Stack Exchange community too.

But Stack Exchange would quickly zap "How do you buy a computer?" You need to be a lot more precise asking questions there. The very nature of their system means they have a **lot** of moderators.

Yea usually takes a while bouncing around there before you learn to write well-formed questions.

I've also found the culture of different sections can be different. The alcohol stack, for example, is extremely lax, whereas history or stack are filled with pedantic nazis.

 

[Phil Scott]

I'll probably be having to buy a work computer next week, and I suspect I'm going to be the one choosing it. I think it'll need to run Windows 10 and IntelliJ. My experience with the big Java IDEs is that they're really resource hungry. I've been coding in Scala over the last three years, and I had to get creative trying to make that run well on mere 8Gb machines.

I sympathise with the OP, in finding computer purchasing a bit stressful, and thinking that there are things I'd rather be doing, like coding. It must be my poor work ethic.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'll probably be having to buy a work computer next week, and I suspect I'm going to be the one choosing it. I think it'll need to run Windows 10 and IntelliJ. My experience with the big Java IDEs is that they're really resource hungry. I've been coding in Scala over the last three years, and I had to get creative trying to make that run well on mere 8Gb machines.

I sympathise with the OP, in finding computer purchasing a bit stressful, and thinking that there are things I'd rather be doing, like coding. It must be my poor work ethic.

Actually, as a programmer I think it's as easier decision--beefy CPU (I always aim for the point just below where the price/performance curve shoots up), lots of RAM (it's been a long time since I didn't max what the machine can hold), spacious SSD. Video doesn't matter unless you're writing video stuff.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I'll probably be having to buy a work computer next week, and I suspect I'm going to be the one choosing it. I think it'll need to run Windows 10 and IntelliJ. My experience with the big Java IDEs is that they're really resource hungry. I've been coding in Scala over the last three years, and I had to get creative trying to make that run well on mere 8Gb machines.

I sympathise with the OP, in finding computer purchasing a bit stressful, and thinking that there are things I'd rather be doing, like coding. It must be my poor work ethic.

Actually, as a programmer I think it's as easier decision--beefy CPU (I always aim for the point just below where the price/performance curve shoots up), lots of RAM (it's been a long time since I didn't max what the machine can hold), spacious SSD. Video doesn't matter unless you're writing video stuff.

This is exactly my point. What is a 'beefy' CPU? How can you tell without reading a paper about it? What is a spacious SSD? adjectives and computers isn't helpful.

Oh, get a big hard drive! Wait, is that 1 TB or 4 TBs?

Get a beefy CPU! They make those out of cows now?

Any ole video card will do. ????

 

[rousseau]

Actually, as a programmer I think it's as easier decision--beefy CPU (I always aim for the point just below where the price/performance curve shoots up), lots of RAM (it's been a long time since I didn't max what the machine can hold), spacious SSD. Video doesn't matter unless you're writing video stuff.

This is exactly my point. What is a 'beefy' CPU? How can you tell without reading a paper about it? What is a spacious SSD? adjectives and computers isn't helpful.

Oh, get a big hard drive! Wait, is that 1 TB or 4 TBs?

Get a beefy CPU! They make those out of cows now?

Any ole video card will do. ????

Gaming rigs I'm less sure of, but for average use if you want a good machine you're looking at i5 or i7 processor, minimum 8gb RAM, and as much space as you need, but most machines will have 750+ these days, which unless you're downloading or taking pictures en masse should be more than enough. For gaming rigs it's a bit more complicated than that.

Really it comes down to your budget. If you're able to pay 900 - 1100 (CDN) on a desktop you'll get a very good machine.

 

[Phil Scott]

Actually, as a programmer I think it's as easier decision--beefy CPU (I always aim for the point just below where the price/performance curve shoots up), lots of RAM (it's been a long time since I didn't max what the machine can hold), spacious SSD. Video doesn't matter unless you're writing video stuff.

This is exactly my point. What is a 'beefy' CPU? How can you tell without reading a paper about it?

I got my first custom built machine back in 1999, and back then, CPU speed was what you cared about, but there was still the choice between AMD and Intel. Graphics cards were confusing, and I believe there was more choice back then. We've settled on OpenGL and DirectX compatibility now, but back then, you had 3DFx, and some games just didn't run nicely on certain graphics cards.

Nowadays, I'm not sure what I want from a CPU. Programmers do well with lots of symmetric multiprocessing, because compiling is pretty easy to parallelise. Gaming? Not so sure these days (they parallelise trivially on the GPU, not so sure for the CPU). How much cache? Games, as I understand, are pushed towards cache optimisation. Compilers? Not so sure these days (certainly not the ones I've tried writing).

What is a spacious SSD? adjectives and computers isn't helpful.

Enough to fit your OS and all your applications is what I'd go for. You want that big porky hard drive for stuff like video, but that can run happily off a slower HDD, since you only need so much data throughput for watching video.

Oh, get a big hard drive! Wait, is that 1 TB or 4 TBs?

Again, for video, I'm happy enough not caring and pushing that all onto an external hard-drive, which I can swap for something better if I ever need something better. I've got a 2TB one right now, 40% full.

 

[bilby]

The more comprehensive your access to information becomes, the harder it is to make a decision about anything. With Google, you have access to everything; therefore your decision making process is horribly complex (assuming you want to achieve an optimal result).

The easiest decisions are those made between just two options, with no information at all - just toss a coin, and you get the optimal result in an instant. Being informed, and being provided with lots of options, makes life harder. That's true whether you are buying a new computer, or a tin of tomatoes.

Makes it harder to make decisions, makes it easier to make good decisions if you have patience, focus, and work ethic.

I have none of those things. Nor do I see any of them as in particularly virtuous.

Remember, hard work usually pays off over time, but laziness always pays off right now.

 

[J842P]

I'll probably be having to buy a work computer next week, and I suspect I'm going to be the one choosing it. I think it'll need to run Windows 10 and IntelliJ. My experience with the big Java IDEs is that they're really resource hungry. I've been coding in Scala over the last three years, and I had to get creative trying to make that run well on mere 8Gb machines.

I sympathise with the OP, in finding computer purchasing a bit stressful, and thinking that there are things I'd rather be doing, like coding. It must be my poor work ethic.

Yeah, if you want to use Windows 10 and Intellij for Scala, and like to have nice things like browsers with multiple tabs open, 8 gigs is going to feel restrictive.