The most valuable help I ever got from OOT posters was probably their advice on buying a new computer back in the spring of 2004.

April 2004- Help Me Build My New Computer

May 2004- Take 2: Help Me Build My New Computer

Incredibly, that computer has lasted 15+ years. It's had some RAM upgrades and requires patience with some of its performance issues. But, it still gets the job done.

However, I recognized the need for a new computer many years ago and have simply not bothered to get onto it. Until now.

Like before, I think I'll buy a premium Dell computer which is overpowered for my needs but hopefully can make a 15 year run as well.

I went to Dell.com and put this together. Hopefully, this link works.

The price is $2,312.96


Dell XPS Tower Special Edition

Processor
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 9900 (8-Core, 16MB Cache, up to 5GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)

I'm simply going with the most powerful processor here.

Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64bit English

I don't think I have any need to upgrade to PRO. Any reason why I should?

Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2070 8GB GDDR6

I haven't played games for years but I may try a few. I'm mostly interested in good quality for movies, Netflix, etc.

Memory
32GB DDR4 at 2666MHz; up to 64GB (Additional memory sold separately)

Being able to upgrade here seems important for later. Can I do anything to increase that future capacity?

Hard Drive
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM 3.5" SATA HDD (Storage)

I could upgrade. But, this seems like more than enough.

Wireless
802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2, Dual Band 2.4&5 GHz, 1x1

I intend to use cable modem. But, it doesn't seem I have an option to get rid of this.

Optical Drive
Tray Load DVD-RW Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD)

Is there a good reason to upgrade to a read/write to Blu-Ray?

Sound Card
Integrated 5.1 with WAVE MAXX Audio® Pro

I just need something good for movies/TV.

Support
1 Year Hardware Service with Onsite/In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis

Any value in upgrading?

Microsoft Office
Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2019

Security Software
McAfee LiveSafe 12 Month Subscription

I already have a Norton subscription and it's always worked well. It doesn't look like I can just eliminate McAfee from my purchase.

Any thoughts on which service is superior?

Mouse
6 Button Laser Mouse

This seems forced on me.

Keyboard
Dell Premier Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - KM717

This seems well reviewed.

Speakers
Dell 2.1 Speaker System – AE415

Again, the priority is movies and TV.


Monitor
I'm also getting a new monitor at a cost of $541.49 (total $2,854.45)

Dell UltraSharp 27 4K Monitor: U2718Q


And since you've read this far, I think I"m getting a new TV. It will probably be a 55-inch 4K TV. I'd appreciate any advice on helping me make the best purchase there as well.


Don't underestimate my ability to miss the obvious. For example, I assumed a keyboard and mouse would be included in the purchase of any computer and didn't realize I had to make a separate purchase to get them. The same goes for speakers.


Thanks in advance for any and all helpful advice you can offer.

Nothing helpful to add, but that seems expensive.

Why? Even an I7 is overkill. Go with an i5 in a mobo that can handle an i9 and upgrade in the future if for some reason the i5 isn't enough for you in the future. The cost you'll pay for both is likely less than the cost of the i9 now. Unless you specifically need an i9, you don't need an i9.

Again, way overkill and there really aren't many games that utilize the features that RTX offers. When those games come out, Nvidia will have better cards. Go with a 10xx series like a 1080.

Get as much RAM in a single slot as possible. Get a mobo that can support that RAM and has room for additional RAM at that capacity.

No, I'm not even sure you need a DVD drive these days but it's probably only $20 or less so not that big of a deal.

Isn't McAfee garbage software? Doesn't really matter; you're going to want to format your hard drive when you get it and do a clean install of Windows.

One reason why people build their own computers.

People gamed at 480p twenty years ago and now they're up to 1080p. I really don't see the appeal of a 4k monitor and I don't see it being a big thing in the near future.

The monitor you linked also only displays at 60Hz. I'd really recommend you find a monitor at 144Hz. A 60Hz monitor will bottleneck your GPU in regards to gaming.

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If you want help building an actual computer, you should actually build it yourself rather than have it built for you. It's cheaper and you'll have a greater understanding of what's going on in your system. If you're a bit antzy about building a computer, the video game PC Building Simulator showed me how easy it was.

If you truly don't want to mess with it though, I'd at least choose someone different than Dell. My last computer was built by Stealth Machines and we actually had a dialogue over email where I was able to tell him what I wanted and how much I wanted to spend and he gave me recommendations and such. He built me a computer that's still working to this day (20 years later) and it only cost me a reasonable cost for labor plus the cost of parts.

why do you need that much performance? my company doesnt even give me that and I compile massive solutions daily (takes like 5 minutes to rebuild).

20 year plus IT (not Windows) professional, here's my take:
Dude, just get a Dell. Solid performance and reliability. We use them exclusively for our workstations and laptops. My home machine is a Dell laptop purchased from CostCo. No regerts on that purchase. And I have an old Dell laptop that I use for poker. It's at least 15 years old, with an OS and h/d upgrade.

Max out the RAM on the front-end. Trailing edge CPU is fine. Get an SSD for your boot drive, get a big, slow mechanical h/d for data.

You might get 15 years out of it.

You really don't need the second hard drive unless you specifically need all that space or you save movies to your hard drives. Your games are going to be on the SSD and those are big enough for most purposes.

I'd suggest dropping the I9 9900 to the I7 9700. 8 cores/8 threads is a good point to be at. By the time you need more threads than that, significantly faster HW will be available for the price.

32GB RAM is good. 16GB would be the bare minimum, 64GB is overkill unless you want to host a bunch of VMs.

I'd trade out the 2070 for a 2060 since you don't currently game. 2060 is plenty for light gaming and will give you the ability to drive 3 monitors.

I'd also trade out the 512GB m.2 and 2TB drive for a 1TB m.2 standalone. You can add a bulk storage drive later if you need the space.

Win10 Pro nets you Remote Desktop and Hyper-V. I like being able to remote into my PC as needed from my laptop but $60 is $60. Hyper-V to spin up VMs for various purposes can be useful if you want to mess around with Linux or BSD without the hassle of dual boot. $1859 for Win10Pro/i7/32GB/1TB m.2/2060
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell...2-0324f4642197
For monitors, I prefer 32" for 4K. 27" 4K is going to lead to using more scaling unless your vision is unusually good. 27" @ 2560x1440 works well too. Check out a 21:9 ultrawide monitor if you have a chance. Some people really love those for effectively replacing 2 monitors. They come in 2560x1080 and 3440x1440 resolutions.

you are paying for a lot of expensive stuff you are never going to use.

The I9 is massive overkill.

The 2070 is literally lighting money on fire.

Your monitor choice is bad too, you can get a 34" 1440p for that price that will be way better in terms of usefulness, or get something a lot cheaper and then upgrade years from now when/if you actually need 4K.

I havent used an optical drive in probably 5+ years, so don't see the point, but whatever

norton and mcafee are both garbage, and paying for any kind of virus software is a waste of money. If you feel you have to have anti virus just use one of the free ones and google for which is best.

Is bitdefender still best?

Try matching your build on iBuyPower, cyberpowerpc, and new egg. You are almost certainly getting rekt on price, ignoring any discrepancy between specs and needs

Edit: you didn't list mobo

Try AVG.

We use bitdefender at work. No complaints.

We migrated from AVG and I don't regret it.

Check Slickdeals. As others have said, this is lighting $ on fire.

That sim is great. They should do more of those for stem classes.