New Desktop

[upnortheast]

We are looking for a new desktop to replace our 2012 Lenovo running on Windows 7, it's memory is nearly full
We use Landmark Key prime for farm accounts and have been advised to go for Intel core i5, 8 GB ram, 250 GB SSD and a DVD drive

Just getting quotes for new PC for the robots ( 2014 one on w7 & hd almost full )
Local `puter shop just quoted as follows
We can supply a Custom built PC with 2 year parts warranty, I5 processor, 8GB ram, 500GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro, extra NIC £689 inc VAT.

 

[ollie989898]

There is a wide range of intel i5 chips, some of the lower end diesels will not be a patch on the higher end ones. Also beware you aren't being sold an older iteration of the i5- it's a big model range and I get confused as fudge trying to follow them.

 

[ollie989898]

One thing I would say is that if you opt for an SSD then you won't go far wrong with a Samsung drive. They make their own NAND and controllers and I believe I am right in saying that only Intel make better consumer drives but these vastly are more money.

If possible (and the motherboard supports it) you want an SSD that is NVMe ask any vendor about this specifically because these SSDs are slotted straight into your motherboard and are much much faster than even the very posh Samsung SSDs I have in my own machine which is stuck with using the SATA interface- with NVMe your SSD could be delivering data to and from your CPU up to 7 times faster than mine. NVMe drives are also smaller and take up less room in the chassis- I bet these days there are cases that don't even accept SATA SSDs.

There are also posh PCIe SSDs which slot into the motherboard PCIe slots themselves I've had a play with an enterprise grade Intel drive once but it was nuts money.

 

[Steevo]

One thing I would say is that if you opt for an SSD then you won't go far wrong with a Samsung drive. They make their own NAND and controllers and I believe I am right in saying that only Intel make better consumer drives but these vastly are more money.

If possible (and the motherboard supports it) you want an SSD that is NVMe ask any vendor about this specifically because these SSDs are slotted straight into your motherboard and are much much faster than even the very posh Samsung SSDs I have in my own machine which is stuck with using the SATA interface- with NVMe your SSD could be delivering data to and from your CPU up to 7 times faster than mine. NVMe drives are also smaller and take up less room in the chassis- I bet these days there are cases that don't even accept SATA SSDs.

There are also posh PCIe SSDs which slot into the motherboard PCIe slots themselves I've had a play with an enterprise grade Intel drive once but it was nuts money.

Most SSDs I've seen recently are M.2 version so slot straight into motherboard as you say.

If this is important it's critical to ensure that the motherboard will support the drive speed.

 

[ollie989898]

Most SSDs I've seen recently are M.2 version so slot straight into motherboard as you say.

If this is important it's critical to ensure that the motherboard will support the drive speed.

I always get NVMe and M.2 mixed up, they are not the same are they?

 

[Steevo]

I always get NVMe and M.2 mixed up, they are not the same are they?

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/sata-3-vs-m-2-vs-nvme-overview-and-comparison/

I'm not surprised - you've prompted me to do some digging as I assumed m.2 was motherboard plug in drives. Reading that article doesn't make it hugely clearer....but effectively they are different things.



NVME is the protocol used i.e. plug into motherboard
M.2 is the physical form factor

NVME appears to be PCIe (i.e. plugged into motherboard rather than via SATA).....so essentially I guess possibly your two comments relate to the same thing?!

Quote from article above to show speed difference:

Here is a look at the typical read/write speeds of a hard drive, a SATA 3 SSD and an NVMe SSD for large files.

• • 7200 RPM Hard Drive – average read/write speed of 80-160MB/second
• • SATA 3 SSD – read/write speed up to 550MB/second
    
  • NVME SSD – read/write speed up to 3500MB/second

 

[Steevo]

In essence, I think it is a mistake to buy any PC now without a motherboard mounted SSD drive....or at least a motherboard capable of supporting high speed motherboard mounted SSD drives.

 

[fermerboy]

A little update on the new PC.

I5 9th gen 8gb Ram, 240 SSD and 1tb HD, new IIyama 27" monitor, and a cordless Logitech Keyboard and mouse from Novatech, arrived well packaged, on time, exactly as described, when they said, and given we are in NE Scotland thats not always the case.

Absolutely delighted with it, bought it without Windows, so bought a key off Ebay for £4.50, downloaded the ISO off MS website and burned to a USB pen, result £85 saved. Registered and activated no bother, no bloatware not that Novatech do that, so far so good.
Already have an Office 365 sub that Mrs and mother use so use that too.

Everything else moved off old pc by USB drive. All the progs that I need installed. Working great seems well up to anything I've done so far. Haven't tried to sort out a video yet, that will be the toughest test I'll give it I guess.
Only gripe was the cordless mouse being sticky and freezing when the little adaptor was plugged in to the tower. plugged it into one of the monitor usb outlets and no bother. Only reason I can think of is the wifi card antennas interfering the signal a bit.

Boots from cold to idle in about 12 odd secs, although I tend to leave it asleep which is almost instant.

27" monitor seemed over the top when I opened the box, but now I just love it, clear and fast. I'm using the HDMI connection as that takes sound to the monitor speakers too, though they are a bit on tinny side, but its a flat screen monitor so cant expect too much, I have other ones here so may well revert to them.
Plugged my old 19" one in too and its up and running great. Wasn't sure how a different resolution and shape would work but windows knew what it was and it didn't require any fiddling at all, wouldn't go back to one monitor now. Yes two the same would be better but it is just what I've got.

Definitely recommend Novatech going by this experience.

 

[ollie989898]

Good news then. As you say Windows 10 tends to sort a lot more stuff itself these days than in the past.

27 inch monitor is ace for work or play.

 

[dowcow]

Here is a look at the typical read/write speeds of a hard drive, a SATA 3 SSD and an NVMe SSD for large files.

• • 7200 RPM Hard Drive – average read/write speed of 80-160MB/second
• • SATA 3 SSD – read/write speed up to 550MB/second
  • NVME SSD – read/write speed up to 3500MB/second

I installed a pretty big Win10 update around x-mas on 3 computers equipped with drives similar to the above.

1. El Cheapo office PC that runs the milking parlour. Spinny disk of some sort, very popular in the neolithic.
2. My main desktop/gaming PC, Has Sata 3 SSD doing a few hundred mb/sec only for Win10 I believe, although has several other SSDs with Linux/etc and an NVMe on a pci-ex card, but it can't boot from NVMe.
3. A new gaming PC I built for a friend over x-mas, specced for VR, 12core AMD, gtx2080ti, very quick NVMe drive.

So after update downloaded...

El cheapo: Had to leave it over night. Supper was ready, although I checked on it after supper and it was still going to be quite some time.
My PC: Maybe half an hour, I went for a shower as it was dragging and it had finished by the time I was done.
SuperPC w NVMe: 5 minutes... maybe not even that. I didn't even leave the seat and just watched the progress work its way through to 100%.

I was happy with my main desktop PC until I played with the NVMe based system. Probably going to have to upgrade my own PC sometime this year now.

 

[Steevo]

I installed a pretty big Win10 update around x-mas on 3 computers equipped with drives similar to the above.

1. El Cheapo office PC that runs the milking parlour. Spinny disk of some sort, very popular in the neolithic.
2. My main desktop/gaming PC, Has Sata 3 SSD doing a few hundred mb/sec only for Win10 I believe, although has several other SSDs with Linux/etc and an NVMe on a pci-ex card, but it can't boot from NVMe.
3. A new gaming PC I built for a friend over x-mas, specced for VR, 12core AMD, gtx2080ti, very quick NVMe drive.

So after update downloaded...

El cheapo: Had to leave it over night. Supper was ready, although I checked on it after supper and it was still going to be quite some time.
My PC: Maybe half an hour, I went for a shower as it was dragging and it had finished by the time I was done.
SuperPC w NVMe: 5 minutes... maybe not even that. I didn't even leave the seat and just watched the progress work it's way through to 100%.

I was happy with my main desktop PC until I played with the NVMe based system. Probably going to have to upgrade my own PC sometime this year now.

It's not just about the drive itself....the motherboard can sometimes have quite an impact. Hence why M2/NVMe works so quick....but some of the cheaper end motherboards still support NVME but can't match the full drive speeds as they only run PCI 2.0.

 

[steveR]

27 inch monitor is ace for work or play.

2 are even better!!

I am rejigging my office desk to take 1 x 27" and 2 satellite 22" screens. Why? Cos I can...