PC pondering
Jan. 30th, 2023 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaMy main laptop - Rocket - is 7 years old at this point. It's probably time to start thinking of a replacement. That means deciding what I want.
What I want doesn't exist!
I want an optical drive. I actually use the things from time to time, even if it's just CD ripping I want to be able to.
Doesn't need to be a hardcore gaming PC but I do want a reasonable amount of horsepower, if only for future-proofing. Rocket has no problem with most games from the last few years, but I've not tried any recent FPS and imagine they'll be a bit rubbish but I'm not a hardcore gamer. Thinking i5 (maybe i7) and one of the more sensibly priced graphics cards.
I think I'll avoid a laptop. Rocket has spent the past few years sitting on top of my printer. It actually takes up more space than a mini tower would. And there are few, if any laptops that have a DVD drive.
I don't want a full tower. They're inconveniently large.
So I want a mini-PC.
I considered building a PC from scratch. Or getting one built. Finding a good case is the challenge here though. It needs room for a graphics card and a DVD drive. Also compact ITX cases look really fiddly!
Am now wondering would it make sense to buy something off-the-shelf and upgrade? There's a reasonable number of options for a base PC. It's hard to tell what ones have decent speed PCI-E slots but I presume some of them do. Maybe even room for a full height graphics card.
It occurs to me though I'm out of touch with Graphics cards. I have a vague idea with nVidia. But where does the 1650 fit into the product line? And I have no idea about the AMD range.
And the final dilemma is where to get it from. Finding online shopping for high end stuff is a pain. It's so hard to return. Do local PC shops have what I want? Do they even exist? Or should I say "screw it" and go to PC World?
What I want doesn't exist!
I want an optical drive. I actually use the things from time to time, even if it's just CD ripping I want to be able to.
Doesn't need to be a hardcore gaming PC but I do want a reasonable amount of horsepower, if only for future-proofing. Rocket has no problem with most games from the last few years, but I've not tried any recent FPS and imagine they'll be a bit rubbish but I'm not a hardcore gamer. Thinking i5 (maybe i7) and one of the more sensibly priced graphics cards.
I think I'll avoid a laptop. Rocket has spent the past few years sitting on top of my printer. It actually takes up more space than a mini tower would. And there are few, if any laptops that have a DVD drive.
I don't want a full tower. They're inconveniently large.
So I want a mini-PC.
I considered building a PC from scratch. Or getting one built. Finding a good case is the challenge here though. It needs room for a graphics card and a DVD drive. Also compact ITX cases look really fiddly!
Am now wondering would it make sense to buy something off-the-shelf and upgrade? There's a reasonable number of options for a base PC. It's hard to tell what ones have decent speed PCI-E slots but I presume some of them do. Maybe even room for a full height graphics card.
It occurs to me though I'm out of touch with Graphics cards. I have a vague idea with nVidia. But where does the 1650 fit into the product line? And I have no idea about the AMD range.
And the final dilemma is where to get it from. Finding online shopping for high end stuff is a pain. It's so hard to return. Do local PC shops have what I want? Do they even exist? Or should I say "screw it" and go to PC World?
