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Need Advice on Purchasing New PC

Rottmannash

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I am currently using a fairly dated ASUS PC that has been serving me well but lately been freezing up for no apparent reason and can't display 4k content. I need a new PC but don't need a blazing fast computer as I don't game but do watch and edit 4K GoPro videos, stream music and surf the web. I'm afraid if I go buy something at Costco I will inadvertently buy something that will either be obsolete by the time I get it home or won't play 4K video, etc. Can someone give me some advice on what I need to be looking for in terms of video capabilities, high speed USB ports, etc?
 

digitalfrost

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Do you have a budget in mind?

Would you be able to build it yourself or you want something that is already assembled?
 
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Shadrach

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I am currently using a fairly dated ASUS PC that has been serving me well but lately been freezing up for no apparent reason and can't display 4k content. I need a new PC but don't need a blazing fast computer as I don't game but do watch and edit 4K GoPro videos, stream music and surf the web. I'm afraid if I go buy something at Costco I will inadvertently buy something that will either be obsolete by the time I get it home or won't play 4K video, etc. Can someone give me some advice on what I need to be looking for in terms of video capabilities, high speed USB ports, etc?
I'm not sure if these will cope with GoPro. It's worth finding out.
Otherwise, for the duties you mention, this or something like it will do fine. Ample power music file handling as long as you bear in mind any DSP software you may be using.

I have two similar machines now. The first is now over three years old, used daily and is running Puppy Linux.
The second, eight months of regular use running Ubuntu Mate.

 

Timcognito

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I like the LG Gram laptop very thin and light for travel <3 lb and you can get it with 16 or 17" high res screen for viewing w/o a monitor. SSD up to 2TB and i7 processor. FYI
 
OP
Rottmannash

Rottmannash

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Matthias McCready

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If are into Windows, check out Dell's Outlet website. If you sign up and play your cards right you can sometimes get 50% or more off on a computer. They have options for most every budget.

I have purchased several computers from there over the years, and they have been fantastic machines for the price every-time.

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The Apple M1 chips are super solid (other than Bluetooth being buggy on many of their machines these days).

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Also do you have a Microcenter nearby? That is a great place to walk in and purchase a computer, their pricing is great and their staff are knowledgeable.
 

pseudoid

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A proper Intel NUC12-i7 would get you all you want (even vid.edit) and cost you near $1k stuffed to the gills!
Build it yourself and knock off another $200.
Although the NUC13 is out (in "extreme" kit versions), you won't have to ask this question for another 5 years...
Your green side would like you more, too...
It really is the 'desktop' of the 21st century but @jhaider suggestion about a MAC is worthy (if you can burden yourself with the cost for trade of ease of no-brainer type)

EDIT: NUC is what they were calling Small Form Factor PC and Intel is NOT the only player in the SFF market but if you are a Windows person; I hope you have as much success as I have had with two of them running in the house under the control of a rack-mount, gas-guzzler, 4 year old Asus server that refuses to die.
 
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Martin Takamine

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When is the last time you cleaned the CPU heatsink & fan?
The graphics card heatsink & fan?
Can you upgrade to a 4K capable graphics card.
I put my PC together in 2015 around a Haswell (4th gen) and a GTX 960 output to a 4K monitor. This is all really old hardware in the computing world but it's 4K capable.
 

pseudoid

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...my PC together in 2015 around a Haswell (4th gen)...
and, there I thought my Skylake (6th gen i7-6700K) server needed a casket! :D
@Doodski about 4 months ago built a monster... I am thinking he went with an AMD instead of Intel cpu. << either way worth exploring as AMD usually saves you about a $100 when the dust settles.
 

Doodski

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and, there I thought my Skylake (6th gen i7-6700K) server needed a casket! :D
@Doodski about 4 months ago built a monster... I am thinking he went with an AMD instead of Intel cpu. << either way worth exploring as AMD usually saves you about a $100 when the dust settles.
I went with a Intel because for shooter games the speed of the CPU matters and the Intels clock faster. I was reading last night that the new Intels are beating AMD in gaming use. It was hair splitting benchmarks but Intel was the boss. Extreme RAM speeds don't make all that much improvement so don't go blowing your budget on very expensive RAM.
 

Doodski

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For a media PC I think AMD has the advantage but you best check that before buying.
 

Astrozombie

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You might just need a GPU upgrade, what do you actually have? I know from laptops that you needed a Kaby Lake Intel 7000 series CPU at least to play back 4K Video. I don't even know what I would get if i wasn't building it myself, I guess whatever microcenter has (actually now that i think about it you can go there and select your parts and they can help you build it)
 

Doodski

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can go there and select your parts and they can help you build it
Building a new PC these days is easy if one is handy with a screwdriver. Loading the OS takes about <12 minutes when using a fast NVMe drive.
 

pseudoid

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Okay, I went back and read your original post again. No matter what you settle on, it should be mentioned that you may seriously consider an add-on graphics card and disable the cpu's crappy video subsection. Thunderbird does well as 4K in/out if you are going to use the HDMI to feed your video stream (or wutevr form) thru your A/V audio system and split the video.
 
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Doodski

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you may seriously consider and add-on graphics card and disable the cpu's crappy video subsection.
I believe that the vid card can be used for processing operations like video processing and crunching video numbers stuff and it's faster. But check that factoid firstly before buying a expensive video card. AMD recently released a new graphics card series and the performance is not ground breaking but it is several hundred dollars less than a comparable Nvidia. So from what I have seen in the past 2 days AMD is value driven and the performance is there if you can choose your parts carefully.
 

DWPress

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The Apple M1 chips are super solid (other than Bluetooth being buggy on many of their machines these days).
As mentioned, a used M1 Mac mini or laptop is pretty affordable with the next gen of Apple silicon out now and would exceed all your needs.

No audio drivers for most everything but DAWs, absolutely silent, no problem with 4K+ video and I'm sure there is GoPro software out there for Mac for nothing or cheap. Admittedly, bluetooth is flakey on my machine but a DAC with bluetooth connected via USB is not affected and acts independently.
 

maxxevv

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When is the last time you cleaned the CPU heatsink & fan?
The graphics card heatsink & fan?
Can you upgrade to a 4K capable graphics card.
I put my PC together in 2015 around a Haswell (4th gen) and a GTX 960 output to a 4K monitor. This is all really old hardware in the computing world but it's 4K capable.
That isn't too old ... my routine (non-work) desktop has been in use since 2010. Only upgrades to date have been bigger storage drives as they got cheaper and a new monitor after my 2008 Dell Ultrasharp 24 died about 3 months back !
 
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