New Workstation Computer Purchases

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#1
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I need 6 new workstations before next tax season. Does anyone have any suggestions on specs?

I need one workhorse (mine) that does everything an accountant needs very fast, with no issues.

I need three for my preparers/bookkeepers that get the job done.

I need two light duty PCs for reception.

I know where I want to be with RAM and I want all SSDs, but I don't know much about the more technical stuff and I want to be educated before I get quotes from some IT guys. I love my ASUS personal laptops but I don't see any recommendations for using ASUS for business. I've always had DELL for business and DELL always seems to underperform its specs. I have not had good experience with HP or Lenovo. So for brand I'm open to anything but Mac.

I am also interested in recommendations for reliable and economical small printers, three black and whites and one that can do color.

If y'all will help me out, I'll come back with a report of what I did and how it turned out. Thanks for your help.
 

#2
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Want the truth few in IT will tell you? All the major brands suck, with a tendency to overheat, using inferior components, and bloatware (and possibly other, more malicious) software installed. HP, Dell, Lenovo...they're commonly used in enterprise and small businesses because they are inexpensive, readily available, and decent in handling repairs under warranty. But, the quality is, typically, awful.

ASUS is good, but they are more geared toward the gaming spectrum. Still, they know how to build solid computers. So did Sony, so I was saddened when Sony exited the PC and laptop business. The Microsoft Surface Pros are great, too, and can actually be desktop replacements if you use the docks. I would definitely suggest that as an option for workstations.

I highly suggest custom built. There are a few sites online that build custom PCs using QUALITY components. Or, if you have a competent and reliable IT company in your area that can provide rapid service, utilize them for it. Of the past 40 or so PCs/servers/hosts I have used, only a few were off-the-shelf from major brands--I built the rest, and they have a history of being problem free. My failures over 12 years have been a couple of HDDs, one SSD, a stick of RAM, and one motherboard, all of which I was able to replace as quickly, if not quicker, than under warranty by the big name brands.
 

#3
ATSMAN  
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Unless you are using a reputable system fabricator with local support stay away from custom built PC for mission critical business applications.

I have had 3 or 4 system builders as clients over the years and all of them are out of that business because they could not match Dell/HP/Lenovo on the warranty and service dept.

You can get rid of 99% of the bloat ware. I am using Dell and the only Dell application that I retained was "System Support"

It is one thing to get a souped up gaming PC built by a wiz kid and another thing to run a business that needs timely maintenance/warranty support.
 

#4
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I've had good luck with Lenovo and get AICPA discounts making them super cheap. Generally the quality parts the custom builders use can be available with the big guys. Maybe the overclocked CPU might not be an option but you don't need one for your tax program.

The only difference in using one brand over the other is support, the case that holds the parts in place, and the motherboard. Dells motherboards aren't good IME so I stopped buying them. A custom computer will likely opt for a better mobo. Don't see the need for a GPU if the CPU has onboad graphics. Don't really see the need for anything better than an intel i3 since hyperthreading isn't used by tax and accounting software. Fast RAM and SSD are going to be the things to opt for.
 

#5
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basisschedule wrote:I need one workhorse (mine) that does everything an accountant needs very fast, with no issues.

I need three for my preparers/bookkeepers that get the job done.


My advice: get four workhorses. Your preparers/bookkeepers probably deserve it. Also, make sure your staff have great chairs, and make sure you have a great one as well.

For the printer, I use an HP LaserJet M401 series, but it's been replaced with the M402. The main thing I hate about it is that it only holds half a ream of paper. But I don't print as much as others do, under 10 reams during busy season.
 

#6
ATSMAN  
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Computer prices have come down so much that it makes no sense buying anything less than a i5 or equivalent with at least 8GB memory! I prefer printers that can hold a full ream of paper. I have one with 2 cassettes.
 

#7
makbo  
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I have had very good experience with HP desktops, my current one is (gasp!) 7 years old (runs latest Win 10) and I plan to replace it this off-season. And the HP desktop I had before that was pretty darn reliable too, it actually still boots up Win XP just fine, I have "Atari 80s Classic Arcade" software that still runs there. 8-)

But, what about SSDs? I understand their life expectancy is significantly less than traditional spinning hard disks. I've got hard disks that seem to be 100% reliable even after many years, but I hear tell that SSDs actually wear out after a certain number of disk accesses -- true?
 

#8
ATSMAN  
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but I hear tell that SSDs actually wear out after a certain number of disk accesses -- true?


On average the mean time between failure of SSD is much higher than traditional spinning platter HD. You will have to look at the specs of your SSD.
 

#9
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ATSMAN wrote:Computer prices have come down so much that it makes no sense buying anything less than a i5 or equivalent with at least 8GB memory! I prefer printers that can hold a full ream of paper. I have one with 2 cassettes.


For tax software, spreadsheets, word, outlook etc even watching movies you will get near zero performance boosts on an i5 i7 or i9 over an i3. The processor is rarely the bottleneck in anything other than programs that are GPU intensive. Since OP is looking for a couple of lightweight computers he definitely can save money sticking an i3 in those and not have to worry about staff complaining about slow conputers. SSD and low latency RAM will give better performance boosts over expensive processors. Agree on printers that can hold at least 500 sheets.
 

#10
ATSMAN  
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The price delta between i3 and i5 CPU with the same amount of RAM is less than $50 in many ads that I have seen. As a matter of fact most of the i3 computers are factory refurbishes or sold at Walmart!

My son picked up a HP (factory refurbished) i3 with 8GB RAM, 500GB HD for $129
 

#11
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Compare the model and generation. Those i5s may be several years old. A generation 8 i3 8100 is about $70 less than the i5 8400. You generally see the i3s with steeper discounts too. Saving $350 on five computers could matter to OP without making any difference to performance. Either save money or use that $70 per PC savings and get more and faster RAM with higher clock speeds which unlike the i5, would improve performance. The i3 is a quad core and the i5 has six cores. Tax and accounting programs will not see any benefit from the additional cores.
 

#12
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I want a top of the line workstation so thoughts on...

Intel I series vs Xeon?
 

#13
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I hope you're joking with that one
 

#14
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Going to replace my work laptop this summer.

Decided on Dell mainly because of the price and on-site support.

Will get a docking station and going with an SSD for performance. My 5 year old laptop was starting to struggle towards the end this season.
 

#15
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ATSMAN wrote:
It is one thing to get a souped up gaming PC built by a wiz kid and another thing to run a business that needs timely maintenance/warranty support.


It is feasible if you have IT staff or reliable outsourced IT. I have been fortunate to be in both positions. I agree the warranty and service from Dell can be difficult to match. The missed point? A high quality PC is far less likely to need support covered by such warranties, and most issues (which are actually employee caused, not hardware failures) are generally NOT covered by those warranties and you are still paying an IT person to address.

I disagree with comments about not buying more powerful PCs for use as workstations. WIth how inexpensive computers are, there is absolutely no reason to not have every workstation a minimum of an i5, 8 GB RAM, and at least a 256 GB SSD. I have been using SSDs for years, same with standard HDDs, and my rate of failure with HDDs has been far higher than SSDs. Older SSDs diminished (or "exhausted" their ability to write to free space), but that has basically been resolved with all modern SSDs. If you are not running an SSD, that is the biggest performance improvement you can make in conjunction with no less than 8 GB RAM.
 

#16
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What are you running as far as processor, RAM, and SSD capacity on your work computer Cornerstone?

Just curious as you seem pretty experienced on the matter.
 

#17
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ManVsTax wrote:What are you running as far as processor, RAM, and SSD capacity on your work computer Cornerstone?

Just curious as you seem pretty experienced on the matter.


It is a custom PC (I build them) from 2016. Still incredibly fast and cost me a less than half of what a comparable would have cost from Dell, HP, at the time.

-AMD FX-8370E 8 Core 3.58 GHz CPU (I go back and forth between AMD and Intel, no preference other than Intels are typically more energy efficient)
-ASUS motherboard
-32 GB RAM (Crucial brand)
-Intel 475 GB SSD for operating system and software installs
-2 TB RAID 10, hardware controller with one spare HDD with automatic rollover in event of drive failure (this is where all data, including UT data and system files, resides)

Failures in over three years? Two HDDs in the RAID 10, never interfered with work due to spare and auto rollover drive. The original SSD was only 256 GB, had to upgrade to current SSD. Every other issue has been from Windows updates. That is the reality of working with a quality computer, and why I place so little value on Dell or HP's warranties and expedited services.

Another point not mentioned, so far: hardware failures almost always occur either very early (first 72-96 hours) or very late in the life of PCs. It is why decent system builders do a burn-in period, to catch hardware components that prematurely fail before the PC ends up in the hands of a customer. Many issues can be resolved by wiping the OS drive clean and reinstalling everything--entirely too many PCs are prematurely discarded for poor performance that is attributed to obsolete hardware, when realistically it is bloatware and corrupted OS/registry. That is, unless you have a PC that overheats due to insufficient cooling (passive and active), in which case you'll have hardware failures somewhere in the middle...think HP, in particular, for a brand that has a long history of poor ventilation and early deaths due to overheating. I have actually seen melted soldering that short circuited components, or blown capacitors, due to overheating. Overheating is worsened by the fact that few people rarely actually clean their systems and ventilation.
 

#18
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That's quite the powerhouse.

Building will be out of the question for me as I don't have the time or energy to learn, and I don't want to take a gamble on a local PC builder. And as you previously mentioned, the warranty and next-day on-site support from Dell are tough to beat, even if I'm paying extra for it.

Final question: Would there really be a huge difference for a laptop with 16 GB of RAM and an i7 vs one with 8GB of RAM and an i5? Enough to justify $700 worth of price difference? The most straining thing on my current laptop seems to be very large excel files and Caseware files (helps with the latter to make a sync copy, CW files are stored on the NAS). No gaming of any kind or data processing. I plan to use this as my workhorse laptop for the next 3-5 years. Old one will become the backup.

Already made up my mind on a 256 GB SSD.
 

#19
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Let me put it this way...other than upfront cost, I have never regretted buying a more powerful vehicle or boat. Similarly, I have never thought "this computer just has too much processing power and capabilities" because, without question, I always end up pushing my computers harder than I think I will. I often have 10-15 applications running simultaneously, who knows how many Office files open at one or large PDFs, so it all adds up quickly. Not to mention how much RAM is required just to run background services and applications, including the OS itself. And I am NOT a gamer--this is simply what I need to work.

If you are willing to give up some battery life, my opinion would be go to for 16GB RAM and i7. I'd also bump up SSD unless your applications and data are in the cloud (and you do not sync local copies to your PC), or you can access your NAS through a VPN or other means of accessing network. 256 GB fills up quickly, especially when installing software.

The absolute bare bones workstation, in my mind, would be an i5 with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. Even more critical with laptops (laptops are a different matter entirely, since they are now basically 100% proprietary or not able to be repaired by user when hardware fails). There is nothing more frustrating than trying to do work on a PC that is slow. By upgrading on specs now, you can also further future proof yourself.
 

#20
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Very helpful, thank you.
 

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