[TheDudeAZO]

CAUTION: Wall of text ahead

 

I am currently looking to replace my laptop for all the everyday tasks I have to do at home as I realized that the laptop doesn't get moved as much as it was intended to. 

At first, I was looking for a guide to build my own PC, because I have no clue how it works and everybody is saying how much better it is to build yourself compared to buying a complete desktop. It was there that I noticed buying a set desktop isn't that much of a bad idea as I thought it would be.

 

And now I really need some tips on what I should pay attention to when buying the machine, especially in terms of price comparison and quality components.

I'll give you some criteria and my needs:

 

- I'm a college student, so it should obviously run all the microsoft office software and having it included when buying the machine would be a nice plus.

- light gaming; I like to play League of Legends atm so it shouldn't have any problems with that.

- an SSD for the OS and most important software and data; have it in my laptop on top of a traditional HDD and I don't want to miss it

- lot of multitasking

- watching movies from the hard drive, streaming series, streaming movies, managing my music and all this casual stuff.

 

I guess my point is, which CPU would be good enough? Is it possible to replace the CPU in a set desktop once it gets old, slow or breaks? Which graphic cards are good and what do I need? 

 

I started looking on the Dell website. Is it any good? I basically have zero experience with desktop manufacturers so I don't even know where to start looking. 

 

Would be so cool if you could help me. Sorry for my poor knowledge about this topic. Bear with me.

 

 

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Dell is fine. Intel Core i5 or higher. At least 4GB of RAM, 8 is better. SSD should be at least 120GB for the OS and some programs, with an additional spinner (normal HD) for storage. As far as graphic cards go, what's the budget? They start at maybe $35 or so and go on up into the $Thou$ands,

[SpywareDr]

Dell is fine. Intel Core i5 or higher. At least 4GB of RAM, 8 is better. SSD should be at least 120GB for the OS and some programs, with an additional spinner (normal HD) for storage. As far as graphic cards go, what's the budget? They start at maybe $35 or so and go on up into the $Thou$ands,

[TheDudeAZO]

Hey, first of all thanks for your reply.

 

the graphic card is where I know pretty much nothing about. I went to a retail store which sells "ready-to-go" desktops but they also build one for you if you want to do so. 

Just gonna leave the deal they offered me: 

 

- AMD A10-7850K APU 4x 3,70 GHz

- 8GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM

- 2TB Hard-Drive (SATA 6 Gb/s)

- AMD Radeon R7 (APU)

- 120GB SSD

 

----------

 

~ 550€

 

 

 

 

Is it any good?

[SpywareDr]

Fair warning: You probably don't want to ask me, I'm an Intel guy.

 

http://cpuboss.com/cpu/AMD-A10-7850K

[TheDudeAZO]

So, does it mean the graphics card is miserable?

Because the salesman told me it is a good bang for my buck. He also told me that AMD gets a lot of hate but apparently the performance should be fine. 

Please note that I am not a heavy gamer. I am not looking for high-end material.

 

 

EDIT: I just noticed the price difference between those GPU's. Considering the price, I feel like this is a pretty good buy.

Edited by TheDudeAZO, 26 August 2015 - 03:41 PM.

[SpywareDr]

Wow, I'm not at all familar with low-end, AMD budget builds.

 

What make and model motherboard?

What about the PSU?

Who's DDR3-1600 RAM?

Which R7, just the bare-bones model?

What make and model 2TB HD?

Who's 120GB SSD?