Computer question again...

[Scott Douglas]

I've been slowed a tad of late by my quad bypass surgery and my wife is getting tired of not having a working computer. Her 'old' one works but it isn't Win 10, it's a Win 7 machine. I'd bought Win 10 machines about a year ago but they've been problematical to say the least. I don't have the energy to find the thread I started about them.
So this morning my wife says she wants me to buy her a new machine that works.
She's a seamstress with computer driven machines that have some pretty sophisticated programs for making designs etc. The newest program runs on Win 10 machines.

My question is, should I configure a machine with a better processor vs one with more storage?
I have configurations for two different machines.
i5 w/16gb ram, 1TB SSD, 1TB HD extra storage, 6GB video ram.

i7 w/16gb ram, 1TB SSD, 6 GB video ram.

I hope to get her a 27" 4k monitor to run with this machine. (My son put my new Lenovo 27" 4k monitor on her old machine when I was in the hospital, I may have to fight to get it back eventually but am in no shape to do that right now.)

Any help on the computer question would really be appreciated.
I guess I look at it kind of like a car. Do I get a fully loaded compact (i5) or a less optioned full size model (i7).

[id10t]

Skip the extra storage, if you need it in a year or three or ten then you can buy an external drive and plug it in, or better would be to connect to a NAS on your home network.

I'd even consider a 500gb ssd and use the savings there on more RAM. i5+24-32gb RAM > i7+16gb when you are working with large files.

[GH85Carrera]

Win 10 and the many programs that get loaded suck up RAM like mad. I built a machine with 256 gig of RAM because of the work I do with aerial mapping. Right now with a few programs running like Outlook and such my system is using 12 gig of RAM. It is just 5% of my RAM, but it shows a few programs can suck up memory like mad.

[flatbutt]

Can a 3 year old i5 laptop have it's memory upgraded?

[Scott Douglas]

So a slower i5 with more RAM is going to be a better machine than an i7 with less ram?

[John Rogers]

Glad to hear you are getting well enough to ask computer questions! Are you still coughing and holding the pillow they give you when you have the bypass like the heart shaped on I go with mine? Since you live in Orange County I would suggest taking a trip down here to Chula Vista to Best Deal Computers, buy the parts and make her a machine she'll never have to upgrade! Large case with at least 4 fans, ASUS Motherboard for an AMD X8 or better with liquid cooling, 16 GB of memory, NVidia RTX2060, SSD for C drive, at least 2 extra hard drives maybe 4TB and 8TB so she can take all the pictures she will do for the rest of her life and a DVD burner/player. Install Windows 10 and it will copy the pictures without her doing most anything from her phone! Stop by Walmart and get a 40 to 48 inch VIZIO flat screen for display. You should have her hopping in a few hours! Get well soon.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

So a slower i5 with more RAM is going to be a better machine than an i7 with less ram?

What will go faster - a GT3 on a go-kart track or a '63 VW Bug on the interstate?

[RWebb]

She's a seamstress with computer driven machines that have some pretty sophisticated programs for making designs etc. The newest program runs on Win 10 machines.

My question is, should I configure a machine with a better processor vs one with more storage?
I have configurations for two different machines.

- can't answer that question w/o knowing how CPU intensive her computer driven machines are (e.g. Lightroom (a photo program) is very CPU intensive and is backward about using GPUs well - so those users always need to go for a fast CPU, not GPU)

If there is a forum for those machines, you might be able to find out here.

If I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd shoot for the CPU power.

[sugarwood]

Both are perfectly capable of running her seamstress program.

[nota]

i7 costs more because it has a video chip in the processor but they ain't very good for video games

if the unit has a video card esp with 6 G they are better then the chip and no need to get an i7
and a fast i5 will save a 100 or so

except for the top of the line i7 you can get an i5 that is as fast or near enough but speeds on both vary a lot
they check and up price the better ones and the slower ones are cheaper called binning

newest faster thing is a m2 card on the PCle instead of an ssd on a sata3 conection for the HD
the m2 unit is almost 10 times faster then the ssd that is 10 times faster then a old HD
well worth 50 to 100 bucks over an ssd https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pcie-vs-sata-type-ssd-best/

most computers can use more memory but some older ones can't go to big like apples
check the exact model year ect

[John Rogers]

If you are running Windows 10 you can set an application to use only part of the "cores" in one of the new CPUs either Intel or AMD. Essentially you start the Task Manager, then select the tab for Details. Highlight the application name you want to control then Right Click and select Set Affinity. You will see the list of "Processors" starting at 0 and like in my case going to 7 since I have an AMD X8 CPU. Generally I would use this when converting video since HandBrake uses 100% of the CPUs available so I'll pick 3 or so for that application. That way I can do other things.
John

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Win 10 and the many programs that get loaded suck up RAM like mad. I built a machine with 256 gig of RAM because of the work I do with aerial mapping. Right now with a few programs running like Outlook and such my system is using 12 gig of RAM. It is just 5% of my RAM, but it shows a few programs can suck up memory like mad.

Exactly. RAM is cheap speed, and somehow you can never have enough.

[rusnak]

As an aside, keeping an eye on the ARM processors. There is reason for some people to not buy a PC just yet. Probably won't help the OP at this juncture...yet.


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/arm/

[Scott Douglas]

Here are the system requirements as stated on the box that her embroidery system software came in from Pfaff.

OS - Win 7,8, or 10 [We'll be going with Win 10]
Intel 32-bit or 64-bit Processor or equiv, (1 GHz or higher) [I'm thinking an i5 will do fine here]
4 GB of RAM [16 GB of RAM is the minimum I'll go with]
4 GB of hard disk space [512 or 1TB SSD is going to be spec'd]
Display with at least 1024 x 768, 16M colors (1280x768 is recommended) [Suggestions for a video card are welcome here. I like the idea of an NVidia RTX 2060 card.]
Mouse or drawing tablet [Mouse will do here]

Thanks for any and all input on this.

[RWebb]

just double what's on the box & should be fine

[sugarwood]

Why do people make things so needlessly complicated? Display, yes, you need one.
No, you do not need a GPU to run this basic software. You're not playing a video game with 100 frame updates per second.
Any piece of junk computer that is 10 years old will be perfectly fine for her needs.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

Any piece of junk computer that is 10 years old will be perfectly fine for her needs.

Sorry, but that just isn't the case. If it were true, her Win 7 machine would suffice.

[Scott Douglas]

JR - sent you a PM.

[Scott Douglas]

Just to update this thread.
I ordered a Dell 89840 i7 w/16gb Ram, GTX 1650 card and 512 SSD along with a Dell 27" HD monitor.
I hope it works plug 'n play.
Fingers crossed.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by nota

i7 costs more because it has a video chip in the processor but they ain't very good for video games

if the unit has a video card esp with 6 G they are better then the chip and no need to get an i7
and a fast i5 will save a 100 or so

except for the top of the line i7 you can get an i5 that is as fast or near enough but speeds on both vary a lot
they check and up price the better ones and the slower ones are cheaper called binning

newest faster thing is a m2 card on the PCle instead of an ssd on a sata3 conection for the HD
the m2 unit is almost 10 times faster then the ssd that is 10 times faster then a old HD
well worth 50 to 100 bucks over an ssd https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pcie-vs-sata-type-ssd-best/

most computers can use more memory but some older ones can't go to big like apples
check the exact model year ect

You can get any of the iX series cards with on board video. The i3 is the bottom end and an i9 is the top. Fo a lot of stuff a faster (as in GHz) i5 will outperform an i7.

Just get a fast processor and RAM, a TB of space is fine for now and easy to upgrade later. Upgrading RAM isn't always as straight forward.

If you are in the mood to read, look here for workstation CPUs: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-performance-cpus,5683.html