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Need Advice on Purchasing New PC

Timcognito

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This is not true, you just need to have a suitable player such as Audirvana, Colibri, JRiver, Pine Player etc. and you can play any audio file.
Yes, but Apple does not, along many other apps and programs. Thank you developers for fixing the snobbery at Apple.
 
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Rottmannash

Rottmannash

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I just saw this PC on Black Friday sale at Costco. This appears to check the boxes for me. Thoughts?
Screenshot_20221114-182201_Firefox.jpg
 

JSmith

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Beershaun

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Is this the one?
If so, looks good... plenty of RAM and a separate GPU.


JSmith
That looks like a good value budget gaming PC. The CPU is excellent and the graphics card will be fine for 1080p gaming. Ssd and 32gb of RAM and you have a very good machine for the price.
 

bloodshoteyed

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except, HP loves proprietary hardware (mobo's, psu's...), that's something to reconsider when buying brandnames, there's no off the shelf parts if one of those dies
 

JSmith

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HP loves proprietary hardware
I'd be more concerned with Dell on that front... some of their smaller PC's are very annoying to service! That said, mobo is normal, RAM, drives, GPU, cable connectors etc. It's usually only the PSU that can be specific and it can be a challenge to get to parts, but replacements are usually obtainable online. I've found refurbished PSU's for over 10 year old Dell's for example.

That's one of the reasons I suggested a smaller PC store that do custom builds, so you get a standard case with plenty of airflow and ease of access.


JSmith
 

bloodshoteyed

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i worked with a lot of HP and Lenovo stuff over the years, most looked like the hw was standard but after a closer look, there was proprieatry power connectors on the board, power for SATA running through the board, not from the PSU and stuff like that
that was the single reason we switched to SiemensFujitsu machines at work, they were at least easily repairable after warranty ran out

btw, almost lost my mind when my HP Z420 used as a home server smoked it's PSU...sure, there was a ton of power adapters available for regular PSU's, but most of them didin't work, not to mention i had to cut up the metal back of the case to fit a regular supply
 

AnalogSteph

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btw, almost lost my mind when my HP Z420 used as a home server smoked it's PSU...sure, there was a ton of power adapters available for regular PSU's, but most of them didin't work, not to mention i had to cut up the metal back of the case to fit a regular supply
Buying another original PSU wasn't an option? That one looks rather BTX to me.

BTW, I would be dreading the power bill with a machine like that as a home server... I don't think they're the very definition of a power miser.
Generic cases and builds FTW.
Speaking of which, all ASUS PCs I've come across so far have been utterly generic, if not necessarily the last word in ventilation. I have recycled a 2006ish case for my office PC.

It would be nice to know what the current system's hardware is like. In any case, editing 4K footage takes a fair amount of oomph. If you're serious about this, a Ryzen 5900X and up to 64 GiB of RAM may be justified.
 

bloodshoteyed

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Buying another original PSU wasn't an option? That one looks rather BTX to me.

BTW, I would be dreading the power bill with a machine like that as a home server... I don't think they're the very definition of a power miser.

yeah, but i didn't want to go for used stuff, you never know how long it lasts
it wasn't BTX, it even had an 11 (or so) V rail going to the board, that's why only active adapters worked....and yes, it was a powerhog, exchanged it for two usff (1L) HP's running a total wattage less than the old 8 core Xeon
 

ThatM1key

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I just saw this PC on Black Friday sale at Costco. This appears to check the boxes for me. Thoughts?View attachment 243391
Very good CPU but the GPU is outdated technically. I know a i5 12400F matches a i9 10900, so the i7 12700F is even better but the GTX 1660 Super matches a GTX 1070. The CPU is way overkill for that GTX 1660 Super but its totally enough for 4K playback.

Its priced very well but you give up some standardized parts for that price (Mainly the Case, PSU and MB). I tried building a similar PC to that system and went over that HP price. If your MB or PSU dies (outside of your warranty), you can always move over your CPU, SSD, Memory and SSD to a new system. Finding replacement OEM MBs and PSUs costs more than Consumer versions, but I wouldn't worry about any of thing since HP makes long-lasting machines.
 
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Rottmannash

Rottmannash

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I bought that PC but for some reason it was $100 more expensive today than what was shown on their website. Not sure why. However it does play 4K content well and that is one of the most important features I wanted.
 
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