PC Recommendations

For the past 15 years I have been running a windows environment inside of Macs to run ProSeries. It's time for a change, I am switching to a PC. What systems do you run and what recommendations would you have for me?
Here are some details that may help:

-I work strictly from my home office with dedicated Lan line
-Computer would run ProSeries, Excel, email and surf web
-Proseries recommends at least i5 w/2.5GHZ, 8GB RAM, SSD w/ >4GB & Windows 10
-Budget $1k to $1,800

I would also be buying monitor, keyboard, mouse so don't mind getting tower from one manufacture and components elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for any advice

(1) a SSD over a traditional HDD.
(2) as much RAM and CPU power as you can afford.
(3) $20 reserved for a six pack of your state's finest ale.

Thanks. Cost of doing business.

I may have already posted about this on another thread but I have been buying Dell Desktop computers for a while. I had a HP desktop but was not happy with it for various reasons.

As others have suggested, get a computer with Intel i7 processor and at least 12 M memory. Also get a computer that has a SSD of sufficient capacity to run your operating system and resource hog software. My rig has a 500 Gig SSD. Check out Dell Optiplex Desktop 7080.

Thanks ATSMAN....actually brought up your name (positive thoughts) in lunch with a mentor/fellow portal member the other day at lunch. All good comments.

Consider a wide screen laptop with a 10-key pad.
Makes you mobile - you can take to the road and prepare tax returns,
from the shore or mountains. All you need is a good wi-fi signal.
Why be tethered to your Office.

I have a laptop with 10key, but it's really not great to work on as a primary.
I also have a dock, with normal keyboard and mouse, and dual 24s.
Laptop is used as my third monitor. It is handy to be able to take it with me to meet clients, etc but it's not as functional as I first thought.
Definitely recommend Dell business class, optiplex.
16GB ram minimum
SSD drive is a must these days 500GB if you can afford it.
And checkout cpubenchmark.com to compare the processor before you buy. Generally the higher number is better ie: i5 vs i7 but not always.

Thanks ATSMAN....actually brought up your name (positive thoughts) in lunch with a mentor/fellow portal member the other day at lunch. All good comments.

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. Nothing wrong in getting a wide screen 10 key pad laptop. I have one too BUT I just can't use that to prepare tax returns in any serious way. I still need my 24 inch monitors, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse and a nice desk to do the job. I use my laptop to visit clients and quickly scan tax returns, or browse documents for review purpose only. All serious tax work is done on my desktop.

Each person is different but if you can use a laptop for actual production work, more power to you.

Is it worth the extra dollars to buy a laptop with a 4k display? The laptop I am looking at cost $220 more with the 4k display.

After you deduct the cost assume it’s only costing you $180 but think of what you’ll use the laptop for….does excel and tax returns look that much cooler in 4k?!?

Latitude 7000 series and greater with Dell come with a 3 year warranty on the parts. +60 for accidental coverage.

Is it worth the extra dollars to buy a laptop with a 4k display? The laptop I am looking at cost $220 more with the 4k display.

Versus 1080p? No IMO. Most laptop screens are small. You won't notice a difference.

I've been using a Microsoft Surface for two years? now....wow, love it. It has an separate dock for additional monitor, USB ports, etc. And when you want, you unplug and haul it off like a tablet! Great for those few client visits. Super great quality.

I will only be buying laptops from now on--I have a very nice HP Spectre 15" for myself, staff will likely receive Surface Pros w/ docking stations. I am in process of moving all locally installed software (well, really just Lacerte, Lacerte's tax planner, and QBD) to a virtual server. Since everything else is cloud based, storage is not nearly as significant (1TB is more than enough) and it is not nearly as resource intensive, though the GPU needs to be powerful enough to drive 2-3 high res monitors. Highly suggest this route, especially with having the virtual server under managed services. I went with Kamatara and the service has been EXCELLENT and I have access from literally any device that can run an RDP connection (which is pretty well all of them).