Which of these towers would you get and why?

mobster011

CAGiversary!
Feedback
9 (100%)
I'm looking to replace my current PC with a two-monitor setup for a new tower with a three-monitor setup. I'm not an expert in this area and would love some feedback on which would be best for my needs.

I'm self-employed and the bulk of my work is done in Outlook, Excel and several web-based applications. I don't do any video editing and do minimal photo editing, where I used Pixlr. If any additional info may be needed to assess which tower would be best, please feel free to ask.

With that said, here are my current options. If a better alternative around the same price is available, I'm definitely interested. So...what do you think is best and why?

Lenovo Ideacentre 720-18ASU
$850.00 at Best Buy
3 GHz AMD Ryzen 7
4GB AMD Radeon RX 560
1TB HDD
16 GB RAM
1 HDMI
1 VGA
1 DVI
1 DP
6 USB Ports

Dell XPS 8920-7922BLK-PUS (This looks like I could only do two monitors??)
$899.00 at Costco
3.6 GHz (8M cache, up to 4.2 Ghz) 7th Generation Intel i7-7700
8GB AMD Radeon RX 480
1TB HDD + 256GB SSD
24 GB RAM
1 HDMI
1 DP
8 USB Ports

Dell XPS 8930-7401BLK-PUS
$899.00 at Costco (Reg. $999. $100 off until 2/4/18)
3.2 GHz (12M cache, up to 4.6 Ghz) 8th Generation Intel i7-8700
4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti graphics
2TB HDD
16 GB RAM
1 HDMI
1 DP
I thought this had 1 VGA port in the store?
6 USB Ports

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The 1050Ti has DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 & DVI.  The 480 should have three DisplayPort and one HDMI.  You might be confusing the display outputs on the motherboard with those on the video card itself.  Motherboards usually have a VGA for the onboard graphics (which are garbage beyond letting you set up Windows and download your real GPU's drivers)

Go with one of the two Dell machines.  The second option has the better GPU, the third has a current gen CPU

The inclusion of the SSD (which I assume will be the boot drive), extra memory and notably superior GPU would make me pick the second one (XPS 8920).  Although the third option has a better CPU, I don't think it's better enough to give up on the extra frills of the second one for the same cost especially since you're not doing CPU intensive tasks like video editing.  The i7-7700 isn't a bad CPU by any means and only came out a year ago even if it's been technically supplanted since then by the 8000 Coffee Lake line.

For point of reference, you can buy a 1050Ti card for $230 while a 8GB model RX 480 will start at $700 with today's inflated GPU costs.

The second one would make a nice gaming system if you ever want to use it for that.  Not cutting edge "Run everything 4K Ultra!" capable but should run any modern game at 1080 at high+ settings.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
^

For 50$ more you are getting a nice cpu upgrade on the last one. From the 7700 to the 8700 you move from 4cores to 6cores and an extra 4meg of cache. Both of those will go a long way in giving you more longevity out of your processor.

However the other ones gpu is going to be better than the 1050ti, and the way gpu prices are these days who knows when  you may be able to economically upgrade it. Same goes for the ram with 24 vs 16. 

The hdd's are more preference. You can find cheap 256gb ssd's everywhere if you want to add one later, but same goes for a larger mechanical in the 1tb vs. 2tb and at least adding another mechanical later would be much easier than having to reinstall windows to a brand new ssd

So Id take it down which do you see yourself needing/wanting to upgrade first. Do you plan on upgrading the gpu once prices come down maybe in a couple years? Or do you just want a workhorse machine that can last a good while. If you need the gpu to last a bit longer then go for the 7700, but if you want the processor to last longer then the 8700

 
I don't think the OP sounds like the upgrade type but it's worth pointing out that upgrading #3 with a better GPU would be much easier than upgrading #2 with a new CPU.  Coffee Lake requires a new socket type so upgrading to a Coffee Lake processor like #3 has would require a new processor and a new motherboard so you're completely dismantling the entire system.

However, I'm still running a nine year old i7-860 (and upgraded my GPU three times in that period) so I'm more inclined to go with the better GPU, memory and other frills and trust the i7-7700 to last.

Really though, the only wrong choice is #1 which is outclassed in CPU, GPU, memory AND storage compared to the other two options.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
bread's done
Back
Top