After a year of shopping and asking questions here, I’m finally going to pull the trigger!
Here it is. But I don’t know if the link will show you the customized choices I made.
If it copies the choices correctly, it should be $1349.99, on sale. Here are my choices:
See my questions in [brackets] next to #2, #4,
Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 265 processor (20-Core, 66MB Total Cache, 1.8GHz to 5.3GHz)
32 GB DDR5, 2 x 16 GB, 5200 MT/s [The sales rep says for 32GB RAM it’s better to get 2x16 instead of 1x32. Do you agree and know why? They are the same price].
2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
460W Platinum [Should I pay $50 more for a 750W? I don’t do gaming].
Windows 11 Home
It was $1649 yesterday so I want to pull the trigger today.
Halleluiah! I’d get Windows Pro instead of Home. It gives you more flexibility to do what you want. Also, I see a price of $1400 with your link and selecting Windows Pro.
Oh, yes, 16 GB x 2 is better than 32 GB x 1 since that gives you “dual channel” memory access and will be faster. I believe you’ll still have another 2 DIMM slots to add another 32 GB in the future if you need it.
And the lower watt power supply is fine for your likely needs now and in the future.
Halleluiah is right! You’ve been with me the whole time I think, LOL! Thank you.
Can you say more about what Win pro has that Win home doesn’t?
I’m waiting for an email from the sales rep and then I’ll pull the trigger!
Thanks for all your help.
I hope you are pairing it up with a nice monitor. I really love the extra space my wide monitor gives me. Usable screen is around 31.75" wide, 13" high, nominally something like 34" officially. I’ve window-shopped wider ones, but they mostly seem to be curved (which I don’t think I would care for), or $$$, usually both. I’m not a gamer.
*(The way screens are measured is such a stupid holdover from the early days of television, when screens were round, or at least rounded.)
I was planning on continuing to use my old monitor, which is about 24" diagonal. 20" x 11.5" usable screen.
I can always do that later if I want to. I don’t really think I need the extra space. It might be nice for some spreadsheets, but otherwise…???
Well, google will tell you that Pro has Bitlocker, virtual machines and the ability to join network groups, as well as other security goodies, but I’ve simply found that it exposes more of the OS to customization and doesn’t bend over backwards to shield you from yourself!
It doesn’t have a built in DVD/CD player, which is a bummer. I have a lot of CD software. So I’ll need to use an external USB drive.
What’s the deal? Everything moving to online and downloading I guess. It’s hard for old schoolers like me!
One comparison I read said that Win Home is more user friendly, easier to use, for ordinary joes like me. Any idea what they mean?
Mostly I just need an easy menu with a list of my software! And an icon task bar for my commonly used software.
And an easy to use Windows Explorer.
Are they both the same with these types of things?
I thought the same, but I ended up getting a 27.5Wx15.5H monitor and I don’t know how I ever worked on smaller screens like my 13 inch TV attached to my first computer.
The resolution is 2560x1440 so it is the same ratio as HD TV, 16x9.
I do a lot of text editing (code) so I can have a 79 line window and have nice readable text in it. Seeing more code in the window makes it much easier for development. Width wise, I can run 4 of those with only a slight overlap.
I can watch/listen to a video using PIP with 1/4 of the screen, large enough to see the charts, etc, and still do a lot of things with the rest of the screen space.
When I bought this screen, I was still using the desk I made in 1980 for my first computer. I sawed a couple pieces to make it fit!
I only mean that Home makes the assumption that a user can cause problems by configuring things, or changing things in ways they don’t intend. So, it hides the ability of making such changes, erring on the side of being overly cautious in many cases. So, Home is appropriate for those who either don’t have the necessary expertise or will never care. If that’s you, feel free to buy Home instead of Pro. You can always upgrade to Pro later if you find it too restrictive. But if you’re happy with Home now, you will likely continue to be.
It allows you to modify things that you know nothing about and turn your lovely computer into something that sometimes does not boot or gives you strange things on the screen that you need to call tech support to find out how to fix.
Holy Toledo! This calls for a celebration. I bought the computer!
There are numerous reasons for the delay. But I won’t bore you.
Thanks for all your help for the past year!
I hope I don’t have to bother you guys too much once I get it and set it up. I’ve done it many times, so I don’t know why I’m nervous this time. For one thing, it’s been so long since I have done it that I’m older now! Eight years between desktop computers is a record for sure. I think on average I did every three years. Wow. How it lasted eight is amazing.
Probably wise. And although I’d prefer Pro myself (having been in computer support for 30 years), I still use Home at Home! Just never got around to upgrading to Pro, and actually not finding Home too restrictive for me as I get older and less inclined to want to wrestle with Windows in order to force it to do my bidding.
I’m sure you’ll be happy. Yes, the longer you go between upgrades, the more trepidation you’ll have about going through it again. Been there, done that. Same thing goes for Mac and iPad upgrades.
I’d get Windows Pro instead of Home. It gives you more flexibility to do what you want. Also, I see a price of $1400 with your link and selecting Windows Pro.
