puchong

I have not kept up with the latest in PC technology, but would like to buy a powerful PC - that can run at least dual monitors (possibly even more), would not be shy of multitasking with multiple hungry applications running concurrently along with several browsers each with multiple tabs open, Can anyone recommend such a beast, preferably at a relatively low price?

garykung

You will have to go for a used computer then.

Without knowing what exactly you will do with the computer, it is impossible to establish where you should land in term of the computer power.

Performance computers are mostly in $1,500 range with latest hardware. But if you choose an used computer, what you can save up would be sufficient to improve the performance, such as SSD, memory, extra graphic card.

Again - how much you can save really depends on what you intend to do and how old you can tolerate. Old computers may not have good benchmarks. But their performance ain't bad.

javabytes

Laptop or desktop?

If desktop, any ability to build it yourself?

gfunkdave

Why does everyone think they need a computer capable of auto-piloting the moon landing while simultaneously doing the tax returns of everyone in Nebraska?

OP, for what you describe any mid-spec laptop would be just fine with a SSD and perhaps some extra RAM.

Need

Well it depends on what type of "hungry" applications that OP is running. If they are just office applications, then yes. If they are like Photoshop, Lightroom, etc... then he does need a powerful PC with a good graphic card and loads of RAM.

Error 601

I'm amazed by the new low-end AMD Ryzen processors. Faster than a two year old i7 yet cost practically nothing.

freecia

Something mid-end from the Business lines sold by Dell or HP should be fine for way too many chrome tabs and Outlook. Might also take a look at Lenovo.

Consumer geared desktops in the lower price bracket often use a lot of custom parts including tower casing which can make it harder to replace/add hard drive or memory. It's usually easier to get into a larger desktop than a smaller slim casing if you want to add a higher end graphics card or memory. Purchasing from a budget consumer range is the type of thing I'd want to see in person, open up to see if the cabling & spare/empty slots and component quality is up to the price tag, listen to the fan to make sure it isn't too noisy, and give a good nudge to make sure case is well weighted. Corporate models remove some of the need for the tire kicking because well, experienced sys admins are buying them in larger batches and companies expect the desktop lifespan to be 3-5 years. I'm sure some tear downs or reviews can also be found of such models on YouTube.

jamcoley

More details about what programs you'll be using, whether you're open to upgrading, know building PC on your own would help.

WilcoRoger

Your TV has vastly more computing power and memory than the computer that took Neil Armstrong & co to the Moon and back.

For those of us who still remember the Commodore-64 - the Voyager probes (now beyond the Solar system and still alive!) had less computing power than this icon of the 80's.

WilcoRoger

The latest Photoshop & Lightroom ran without a hiccup on my MacBook Pro 2010 (!) with and SSD upgrade and 8GB RAM . So I am very sceptical how "powerful" you really need for Photosop and the like. Yeah, maybe a powerhouse will render a 100MP picture 1 second faster - so what?

paperwastage

OP needs to come back with more information (budget, what is to be used for)

i wager that any modern computer (past 5 years) can run dual screen, multi-task (well, at least 4-8GB of RAM) to use chrome+word+pdf

different story if you want to dual screen 4K @120p or triple screen, run photoshop/video editing software (likely want a powerful GPU) at a decent pace etc
for that purchase, $500-1000 is considered "low" budget for those requirements

prebuilt with warranty or willing to DIY (cheaper)?

Need

Interesting. My niece, she edits our business videos for youtube channels, said her 2016 MacBook Pro with SSD and 16 GB ram is too slow. We just upgraded her to the latest and fastest iMac with SSD and 32GB of RAM. Maybe it is different with video than picture.

WilcoRoger

Video is a different beast, especially in 4k - that’s one of the cases when you can’t have too much power. Though AFAIK simple cutting is not that power hungry, effects, etc more so.

YVR Cockroach

And Space Shuttles had 8086 (think that was 8 MHz). Even an old cell phone has more power.

WilcoRoger

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."