New desktop for home office

Burnsie1983

Hi

I have a Surface Pro 3 with i5 processor (not sure on the gen)and 4gb of RAM

It is about 6 years old and has never missed a beat...

However, I’m currently teaching from home and it is starting to struggling, using 95% of memory when I clocked it during a lesson

It being a surface pro, it cannot be upgraded.

Wondering what people recommend, I’m thinking of a desktop, i5 or greater with 8gb of RAM of greater. However, just looking for a refurbished etc, but for work.

I do have Photoshop and also noticed a bottleneck when using and this could also be the ram, but I'm guessing it's my external HDD (where all my photos are saved) that is the problem here 

I want duel monitor set up (currently use a docking station for the Surface) so don't really want a laptop with wires running everywhere. I don't really like working on laptops anyway.

Any recommendations/advice on this stuff?

HereToday

Look at something like an Optiplex 3050 or perhaps a 5040 or 7040.from around £150. 

Here a sold example: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-3050-SFF-i5-6TH-GEN-6500-CPU-8GB-RAM-128-SSD/303795653000

Reasoning? PCIe SSD for productivity gains, multiple outputs with DisplayPort and HDMI. Price.

MattMattMattUK

Burnsie1983 said:

However, I’m currently teaching from home and it is starting to struggling, using 95% of memory when I clocked it during a lesson

Is it actually struggling or just using a high amount of RAM? All the main video conferencing software options seem to use a chunk of RAM but do not seem to cause issues when doing so.

Burnsie1983 said:

I do have Photoshop and also noticed a bottleneck when using and this could also be the ram, but I'm guessing it's my external HDD (where all my photos are saved) that is the problem here 

Photoshop loves lots of RAM and SSD storage, I believe it is probably a combination of both, on an SSD it would be faster opening the files, but if it is slow when running then that is down to RAM. Photoshop has a minimum of 8GB and a recommended of 16GB, more for larger/multiple images.

Burnsie1983 said:

Any recommendations/advice on this stuff?

For the moment, if you can, wait. Due to huge demand for laptops and desktops prices are higher than they would otherwise be, if you can wait six months or so then you will be able to get much more bank for your buck.

HereToday

MattMattMattUK said:

Burnsie1983 said:

However, I’m currently teaching from home and it is starting to struggling, using 95% of memory when I clocked it during a lesson

Is it actually struggling or just using a high amount of RAM? All the main video conferencing software options seem to use a chunk of RAM but do not seem to cause issues when doing so.

Burnsie1983 said:

I do have Photoshop and also noticed a bottleneck when using and this could also be the ram, but I'm guessing it's my external HDD (where all my photos are saved) that is the problem here 

Photoshop loves lots of RAM and SSD storage, I believe it is probably a combination of both, on an SSD it would be faster opening the files, but if it is slow when running then that is down to RAM. Photoshop has a minimum of 8GB and a recommended of 16GB, more for larger/multiple images.

Burnsie1983 said:

Any recommendations/advice on this stuff?

For the moment, if you can, wait. Due to huge demand for laptops and desktops prices are higher than they would otherwise be, if you can wait six months or so then you will be able to get much more bank for your buck.

I don't agree with your last statement. You can still find good deals. The link of the sold device above  illustrates the point. You just have to do a little digging, as opposed to just popping down to Currys.

mksysb

Have you thought of building your own?  You'll then get exactly the spec you want.  It's not difficult.

Neil49

Take a look at the Dell Outlet site where you can find a range of refurbished or returned products. Each one has a different specification so you need to check the detailed description to ensure they are suitable for your needs. 

CoastingHatbox

The advantage of building your own, is that you dont end up having to replace proprietary parts. It's not uncommon for manufacturers to change the pin out on power connectors, for example, so it is harder to use generic replacement parts.

That said, the optiplexes recommended above are good machines. We have a fleet of ultra small form factor 3050s, for which you can get a couple of different VESA monitor mounts if you want to discretely hide it away on your desk.

If you do a lot of Photoshop, it can benefit from using different SSDs for storage and for scratch files. And it can also benefit from graphics acceleration - I think there is some relevant reading on Adobe's website in respect of what graphics cards are support and which operations in Photoshop benefit from graphics acceleration. So if you plan on adding extra disks or a graphics card in future, then the ultra small form factor machines are possibly not a good buy.

Additionally, there are usually some good deals on the Dell Outlet Store:

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7UdWK/ka3wM/ycpZzfRzwaR6wMkEoXPi8vVQWWruwlgG2kf5vNuGBZkwDpf+rUxrrfMhbFlxLIpTmQXML+vUPcoQlSbraslAlVuZ9oOkPZpRggtx5R2qPVN5JERZQZsySZGC34roA3qxzPeuI5wN0vrgIjXww2XbctPcCPX2TwsyvFViJXm7gu/f2JVYipOpellk937DrNggcv

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7UdY9UEsKvrgeMfQlCDjReMP2eESVPTO1ujN0Q/D7HK64K6DqbOLqgE8RRhuxdFHmCIocu85WXE++WY+AX5XmA1wekX9c5INS7km9WMBkhWNvZNiDcr7WqUBKLMXeBt33dY31CBHnsCTQs2OuWAPVevXp/hBRybW846oSoeR2uNMfkK46GOZXFxsbb62/aUytfWQt97vX92hdX

BTW I'm not saying you need 32GB RAM by recommending the above.

Edit: I forgot ot mention:
1: Those prices are ex-VAT
2: I just bought my mother a new computer from the Dell Outlet Store and it included 12 months on-site warranty

HereToday

CoastingHatbox said:

<snip>

Edit: I forgot ot mention:
1: Those prices are ex-VAT
2: I just bought my mother a new computer from the Dell Outlet Store and it included 12 months on-site warranty

Did you avail yourself of the 10% discount(before VAT)?

MattMattMattUK

HereToday said:

I don't agree with your last statement. You can still find good deals. The link of the sold device above  illustrates the point. You just have to do a little digging, as opposed to just popping down to Currys.

I always build my own desktops (I game and edit video) and components are hard to get and over-priced at the moment. I somehow managed to get an RTX 3080 for example, but I could resell that at twice what I paid for even though it is now used, other components seem to be at or above RRP in many instances, where as over the last decade apart from GPUs near launch most things can be had at a considerable discount from RRP. I would never buy from Curry's, I would rather go without.

HereToday

MattMattMattUK said:

HereToday said:

I don't agree with your last statement. You can still find good deals. The link of the sold device above  illustrates the point. You just have to do a little digging, as opposed to just popping down to Currys.

I always build my own desktops (I game and edit video) and components are hard to get and over-priced at the moment. I somehow managed to get an RTX 3080 for example, but I could resell that at twice what I paid for even though it is now used, other components seem to be at or above RRP in many instances, where as over the last decade apart from GPUs near launch most things can be had at a considerable discount from RRP. I would never buy from Curry's, I would rather go without.

I agree that prices are higher than they were this time last year. What I meant is that I don't think it's worth waiting six months. Bargains can be found, with a little digging.

CoastingHatbox

There are a lot of unscrupulous sellers entering into the fold (I know a few people who have bought laptops and either had long waits or not have them arrive at all) and lots more products listed with faults (dead batteries (laptops)), "tested to bios boot", etc.). More products listed with stock images too. So it is definitely a case of buyer beware.