When buying a new desktop PC you have two main options: build one yourself or buy a "pre-built." Pre-builts definitely make sense in some cases, and if so, this guide picks the best ones for you.
The Best Desktop PCs: Best Value, Gaming, All-In-One and More
- Thread starter Amir Shoam
- Start date
alainw1977
Posts: 7 +10
The price tag for Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 AIO says 949$, but the price mentioned in text and link is actually 649$.
godrilla
Posts: 1,365 +893
Today you can build a enthusiast level PC for around $2k. With 7900xtx level graphics and 7700x/7900x/i7 13700K ( b650e or z690 motherboard)cpu/32 gig ddr5 ram at 6 ghz cl 30/ 2 terabyte 990pro or 4 terabyte crucial nvme drives, psu, case, cooling all around $2k. DIY because you can and will do circles around most of these!
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Bobbydpue
Posts: 669 +516
Both Apple options are terrible value. It's not $200 for 16GB of RAM it's $200 for an additional 8GB of RAM to get you 16GB. $200 for 8GB of RAM is just outrageous. That along with $200 for an additional 256GB of storage it's just stupid, especially when $100 buys the best 1TB drives available.
Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,721 +4,821
This is how I see these PCs:
BRAND-IN-A-BOX: Good for cheap, but not cheap for good.
ALL-IN-ONE: Combines the weaknesses of desktops (lack of mobility) with the weaknesses of craptops (expensive and weak with limited cooling and no upgrade path).
They're ok for use in businesses because office apps aren't exactly what I would call "hardware-intensive" and they're ok for the home-uses of the non-tech-savvy but that's about it.
They also tend to be loaded with bloatware and use the incomplete "Home" versions of Windows that I often think were made with Baby-Boomers in mind. I remember one of my earliest craptops had an OS on it called "Windows Vista Home Basic". It was so bad that I had to scrounge to find XP drivers for it. Fortunately, because it was an eMachines, there was an Acer Aspire model that was literally identical and I was able to find XP drivers for it. Its performance with XP Pro was like night and day compared to Vista Home Basic which had rendered it borderline unusable.
I wanted the craptop primarily for OpenOffice and Firefox but even those programs were laggy with Vista Home Basic. If I weren't a PC expert, I would've been royally screwed and would've had to just deal with the crap that they gave me.
The only brand-name desktop PC that I've ever owned... Well, that's not the right way to say it because I've never personally owned a brand-name desktop but my family had an IBM PC model 5150 and my mother had some eMachines thing back in 2000. Those are the only two brand-name desktop PCs that have ever existed in my family (if you don't count the two TRS-80 Color Computers that we had before the IBM PC).
BRAND-IN-A-BOX: Good for cheap, but not cheap for good.
ALL-IN-ONE: Combines the weaknesses of desktops (lack of mobility) with the weaknesses of craptops (expensive and weak with limited cooling and no upgrade path).
They're ok for use in businesses because office apps aren't exactly what I would call "hardware-intensive" and they're ok for the home-uses of the non-tech-savvy but that's about it.
They also tend to be loaded with bloatware and use the incomplete "Home" versions of Windows that I often think were made with Baby-Boomers in mind. I remember one of my earliest craptops had an OS on it called "Windows Vista Home Basic". It was so bad that I had to scrounge to find XP drivers for it. Fortunately, because it was an eMachines, there was an Acer Aspire model that was literally identical and I was able to find XP drivers for it. Its performance with XP Pro was like night and day compared to Vista Home Basic which had rendered it borderline unusable.
I wanted the craptop primarily for OpenOffice and Firefox but even those programs were laggy with Vista Home Basic. If I weren't a PC expert, I would've been royally screwed and would've had to just deal with the crap that they gave me.
The only brand-name desktop PC that I've ever owned... Well, that's not the right way to say it because I've never personally owned a brand-name desktop but my family had an IBM PC model 5150 and my mother had some eMachines thing back in 2000. Those are the only two brand-name desktop PCs that have ever existed in my family (if you don't count the two TRS-80 Color Computers that we had before the IBM PC).
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m3tavision
Posts: 1,438 +1,222
It's all about use-case scenario... why own 1 PC when you can have multiples, for-use for different things...?
I expect, once AMD releases their new APUs later this month, you will see many NUC types desktops style mini-boxes/all in ones, etc.
I expect, once AMD releases their new APUs later this month, you will see many NUC types desktops style mini-boxes/all in ones, etc.
AMD's intergated GPUs are the best thing that happened for budget gaming.
I dont even consider Intel when I build affordable gaming computers.
<3<3<3 AMD <3<3<3
I dont even consider Intel when I build affordable gaming computers.
<3<3<3 AMD <3<3<3
