I'm looking to purchase a system ASAP (preferably within the next few weeks) as cost effectively as possible (pref. < $2000) that will be extremely reliable, responsive, and energy efficient, for home office use.
I don't have the bandwidth to build and debug the system myself from scratch, so am hoping for recommendations for who to buy the system from (Maingear? Ibuypower? Dell? HP?) and what to ask of them or any other option that would be very reliable and require as little of my work time as possible. Or failing that, just to get a good sense of what components I should be looking for...
I'd really appreciate any recommendations and advice!
Dave.
What I'm looking for with respect to performance is:
*To be able to have many apps running and over a hundred windows/tabs open and the computer not significantly slow down
*Extremely stable (almost never slowing or crashing) with high data security (e.g. won't lose anything if HD dies).
*For apps to open very quickly (Outlook (w/several Gig of messages stored).
*For files and emails to be indexed and searched very quickly (I have 10,000's of files and msgs, with new ones arriving all the time, that I often need to do searches over).
*For the computer to go in and out of standby and hibernate modes very quickly and easily
*For video performance, to support the 2560x1600 Dell monitor I have now and be able to do things like video editing and video conferences smoothly. This isn't for games however, and it wouldn't be worth it to me to pay lots in terms of $'s or energy usage for video performance that would only be applicable to gaming...
With respect to energy efficiency:
*The system should have as efficient a power supply as possible
*The system should use minimal power in standby mode (<1W ideally)
*The system should use minimal power during operation (<100W ideally)
*The system should be very quiet and release minimal heat into the room
*The system should meet the highest Energy Star requirements, and ideally, EPEAT Gold or higher
My thoughts with respect to components
*The new i7-4770K processor unless there’s some reason not to get that.
*A GPU that is sufficient to handle any business need (e.g. hundreds of windows, smooth videos, etc.) while minimizing cost and energy consumption.
*16G RAM (ideally upgradeable beyond that) with 64-bit Windows 7
*High performance SSD boot drive w/enough space for MS Office and apps (current usage is 115G wW7), with other drive(s) for data and media storage. And what are the pros and cons for the secondary data storage drives to be in a RAID 1 configuration for data security if I have both online and physical external backup systems? Also, what are the pros and cons of using “hybrid” (SSD/conventional) drives?
*DVD player and Blu-ray burner
*Media card reader (multi format)
*Fax modem
*Lots of USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, good sound and video ports, etc..
*Extremely efficient and quiet power supply and fans
*Ideally, room to expand (drives, memory, etc.) and easy to do so
*No keyboard, mouse or monitor needed
*Good support package
I don't have the bandwidth to build and debug the system myself from scratch, so am hoping for recommendations for who to buy the system from (Maingear? Ibuypower? Dell? HP?) and what to ask of them or any other option that would be very reliable and require as little of my work time as possible. Or failing that, just to get a good sense of what components I should be looking for...
I'd really appreciate any recommendations and advice!
Dave.
What I'm looking for with respect to performance is:
*To be able to have many apps running and over a hundred windows/tabs open and the computer not significantly slow down
*Extremely stable (almost never slowing or crashing) with high data security (e.g. won't lose anything if HD dies).
*For apps to open very quickly (Outlook (w/several Gig of messages stored).
*For files and emails to be indexed and searched very quickly (I have 10,000's of files and msgs, with new ones arriving all the time, that I often need to do searches over).
*For the computer to go in and out of standby and hibernate modes very quickly and easily
*For video performance, to support the 2560x1600 Dell monitor I have now and be able to do things like video editing and video conferences smoothly. This isn't for games however, and it wouldn't be worth it to me to pay lots in terms of $'s or energy usage for video performance that would only be applicable to gaming...
With respect to energy efficiency:
*The system should have as efficient a power supply as possible
*The system should use minimal power in standby mode (<1W ideally)
*The system should use minimal power during operation (<100W ideally)
*The system should be very quiet and release minimal heat into the room
*The system should meet the highest Energy Star requirements, and ideally, EPEAT Gold or higher
My thoughts with respect to components
*The new i7-4770K processor unless there’s some reason not to get that.
*A GPU that is sufficient to handle any business need (e.g. hundreds of windows, smooth videos, etc.) while minimizing cost and energy consumption.
*16G RAM (ideally upgradeable beyond that) with 64-bit Windows 7
*High performance SSD boot drive w/enough space for MS Office and apps (current usage is 115G wW7), with other drive(s) for data and media storage. And what are the pros and cons for the secondary data storage drives to be in a RAID 1 configuration for data security if I have both online and physical external backup systems? Also, what are the pros and cons of using “hybrid” (SSD/conventional) drives?
*DVD player and Blu-ray burner
*Media card reader (multi format)
*Fax modem
*Lots of USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, good sound and video ports, etc..
*Extremely efficient and quiet power supply and fans
*Ideally, room to expand (drives, memory, etc.) and easy to do so
*No keyboard, mouse or monitor needed
*Good support package