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Anyone here know junk about computer hardware? Need a new machine

I wouldn't be opposed to having a machine built. I don't know who would do it for me. A few years ago I'd jump at the chance. But now it would probably take me 3 weeks and if there were any issues on first boot I'd probably shoot it before trying to sit and troubleshoot a build.
 
And I will add that the laptop has been running fine. I haven't tried playing any high-res movies on it, they're all stuck on my old computer's hard drives.

Speaking of, I can get an enclosure and just rip out those drives to recover files, correct? One is an OS HDD, one was purely for storage. I'm not sure if they were ATA or SATA, I don't think I've bought new drives in a decade. The "big" one was 500 GB and it cost me a fortune when I got it.
 
Speaking of, I can get an enclosure and just rip out those drives to recover files, correct? One is an OS HDD, one was purely for storage. I'm not sure if they were ATA or SATA, I don't think I've bought new drives in a decade. The "big" one was 500 GB and it cost me a fortune when I got it.

Assuming the drives aren't encrypted, yeah you should be able to do that. If they're 10 years old odds are ATA but I guess you'll find out when you yank them. Interface converters are available if needed.
Really, if it's a temp connection just to yank files, you don't really need an enclosure, just sit them on the desk.
 
I wouldn't be opposed to having a machine built. I don't know who would do it for me. A few years ago I'd jump at the chance. But now it would probably take me 3 weeks and if there were any issues on first boot I'd probably shoot it before trying to sit and troubleshoot a build.
Well the closer to you the better if you can find someone to build it. I'd gladly do it for you but that will add an extra shipping charge obviously and you and I don't get discounts on shipping large items like amazon/newegg etc so it'd probably add on quite a bit.

Now that I know more about your situation I'd recommend an i5, that should more than cover your current and future needs. The "i" series CPUs do feature onboard video processing but for dual monitors I'd still recommend a video card even if its just a $60 one. Offloading all that processing to a dedicated card will really let your CPU shine even under heavy work loads. I'd still recommend an ssd just because it speeds up every day tasks so drastically and the prices are very affordable these days.
 
Assuming the drives aren't encrypted, yeah you should be able to do that. If they're 10 years old odds are ATA but I guess you'll find out when you yank them. Interface converters are available if needed.
Really, if it's a temp connection just to yank files, you don't really need an enclosure, just sit them on the desk.
Assuming what I buy has spare connectors for power and data.

The bigger of the two I planned on formatting and using as a backup drive. I'm assuming I didn't have a fatal crash since the tower just doesn't power on and it's more likely the PSU. There's over a decade of photos, videos, songs, etc on there. High school, college, and so forth.

It's terrible how poor quality and low storage stuff was in 2000 - 2008. My 128 MB (not GB) memory stick was $75 to ferry files around when I was a freshman. My photos from trips overseas are horrid quality. Nothing that would really crush me to lose, but a few hundred GB of stuff I'd like to get back.
 
Well the closer to you the better if you can find someone to build it. I'd gladly do it for you but that will add an extra shipping charge obviously and you and I don't get discounts on shipping large items like amazon/newegg etc so it'd probably add on quite a bit.

Now that I know more about your situation I'd recommend an i5, that should more than cover your current and future needs. The "i" series CPUs do feature onboard video processing but for dual monitors I'd still recommend a video card even if its just a $60 one. Offloading all that processing to a dedicated card will really let your CPU shine even under heavy work loads. I'd still recommend an ssd just because it speeds up every day tasks so drastically and the prices are very affordable these days.
A small form factor PC would probably be $30-40 to ship.

If you're serious on being happy to do it let me know what you'd do wit ha $500 budget from Amazon or Newegg. Or $600. Including a Windows 64-bit install. 7 pro preferred. No optical drive needed if you don't need one.

Part of why I just wanted to buy a machine is so I can get running. If I was doing a replacement of a working tower it wouldn't be so bad, but the sooner the better at this point.
 
A small form factor PC would probably be $30-40 to ship.

If you're serious on being happy to do it let me know what you'd do wit ha $500 budget from Amazon or Newegg. Or $600. Including a Windows 64-bit install. 7 pro preferred. No optical drive needed if you don't need one.

Part of why I just wanted to buy a machine is so I can get running. If I was doing a replacement of a working tower it wouldn't be so bad, but the sooner the better at this point.
I'll send you a pm to discuss it.
 

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