Desktop PC with a SSD

Good morning VMB, I’m looking for a desktop PC with an SSD. I don’t need a gaming machine, but I do want something fast. I’m looking at a a Dell for $599 that fits my needs, but before I pull the trigger I wanted to know if anyone has better options.

Thanks.

 

Post a link for what your looking at from Dell.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-desktop-computers/inspiron-desktop-computer/spd/inspiron-3671-desktop

It’s actually $599 on Rakuten but I can’t copy the link, plus Rakuten is offering 10% off. I’m probably going to wait till Monday as Dell is having a Presidents’ Day sale. My current Dell is over 10 years old. It still works but it can be slow at times.

 

I've not bought a pre-built PC for years so I can't comment on price/value, but I have to say having an SSD is the BEST upgrade you can do imho - the difference in speed over a traditional HDD is remarkable, plus it's silent!

 

Can't offer advice without knowing more, but I'm a big fan of Micro Center's computers and see there are four stores in NY and one in NJ. I used to assemble my own machines, but bought the last one 2 years ago for less than the parts would have cost. I definitely agree that SSD is the only way to go for the main drive, while HDD's are still fine for bulk storage.

 

https://www.newegg.com/hp-pavilion-590/p/1VK-001E-3WJ25

Something to compare it with but has a 1 TB SSD and a second 1TB HD

I won’t go intel vs AMD unless talking gaming PCs which is not the case here.

 

I agree about Micro Center. I bought a Power Spec last year and love it. I have had computers since 1998 and this Power Spec is the best I have ever had. I use to buy my computers custom made from Cyberpower. But I decided i did not need a $1K model anymore. The Power Spec only cost $800 and it is all I will ever need at my age. Today you can get a lot of computer for not a lot of money.

 

What is size of the SSD? Am I missing that?

 

What kind of video card does it have?

 

One thing for sure. Going from a ten year old computer to a modern computer will be like going from a model T to a Ferrari. If you are not a gamer, that computer could be all you need.

 

Radeon R5

 

The Power Spec's SSD is 500GB, as is the SSD upgrade on the machine I built. I find that's the perfect size and can't see ever filling up more than half. I installed 1TB and 2TB HDD's for videos and backups, and also use a couple external HDD's.

My SSD's use SATA interfaces (M2 on the Power Spec), while the latest and greatest machines use M2, NVMe SSD's. It can be a bit confusing, but go for the NVMe type if at all possible.

 

Whatever you get, an SSD, PCIe, or an NVME drive, get at least 500gb and then purchase a second drive as a backup and install in the computer. The NVMe is the absolute fastest thing out there nd your computer will completely boot in 8 seconds or less.

 

SSD are amazing,

Layman simple explanation:
Conventional hard drives, imagine a record player, with a needle (looking for part of a song)=your data
looking for data sectors & the needle dropping up & down looking for your data
That's a conventional hard disk drive.

SSD"s access your data in Physical memory (yes chips)
no spin up on a platter of a regular drive, sector searching etc.
+ now their prices are very affordable.

 

You'll never regret getting a SSD boot drive. It's like night and day. m2 is even faster, and NVMe is faster still. But, the price does go up of course. If you're just looking for a fast PC, any SSD is better than an old platter disk. What you might look into is getting a smaller SSD(250gig) and adding on a larger HD for storage/programs. That way your boot is really quick, and you have plenty of storage space.

 

If all you want is speed at boot up, then you don't need a 1TB SSD. A 256GB main drive and larger conventional HDDs for storage would be the less expensive way to go.

I realize that I am very much "outside the norm" in my computing requirements, having 16TB of networked storage and another 8TB of local storage in my house. It takes about 30 seconds to boot up any of the systems in my house using SSD.

 

That’s exactly what I’m looking at. It’s not just boot up speed, once my pc is running it’s still slower then when it was new, and I have gig speed. The pc is over 10 years old, so it’s time for a new one.

 

I purchased a HP Pavilion desktop before Christmas from Wally World for 400 bucks that rocks. It has a 256GB SSD and is considered a gaming desktop since it has a GTX 1660 video card. All I know is that it rocks. Boots up before I can get seated and is fast.

Mark