Suggestions for a writing desktop

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ShaunHorton

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So, I'm sick of trying to write on a laptop on an ottoman, and I'm looking around for a desktop. Currently, I'm looking at an Acer Aspire. I don't know much about the company, I've heard their choice of motherboards is pretty poor, but the model I'm looking at right now is sitting at 4.1 stars with 374 reviews on Amazon. I know I don't need top of the line or anything, just writing, internet, maybe some youtube or music.

Any thoughts on the one I'm looking at or suggestions for a good desktop?
 

Al X.

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I primarily write (and do work stuff) on a Lenovo Yoga laptop. The keyboard, screen and mouse are good enough that I don't feel that my work desktop is an upgrade in comfort and performance. I'm not saying you should necessarily upgrade your laptop but I wouldn't poo poo the idea completely.

In any case, unless you have a need for tetrabytes of storage capacity, I would consider an SSD drive to be a fundamental requirement. There is a huge difference in performance. That is standard these days for laptops.
 

Rob40

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I'm going to touch on a few subjects. you said desktop so ill start with that. there are several easy ways to accomplish that without spending lots qof money. Barebones desktop PC's are fairly cheap, throw on a good monitor and youre set. Intel even has their NUC system. Just buy some memory, put it in, and youre off with an easy system.

I use an ultrawide mqnitor and depending on how much real estate you like, a docking station very much is the way to go if you just feel like travelling or writing somewhere else for that day. I reviewed a great monitor for getting work done if interested,

https://roughdrift.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/review-ultrawide-219-monitors-for-writing/

if looking for a great laptqop for the desk, i second the lenovo yoga but really champion the X1 series for their keyboard. Theyre a bit pricey compared to other basic notebqooks but the manufacturers seem to be ditching decent keyboards lately in favor of ultra slim styles for email and web/facebook. Otherwise, I've had Dells for decades and have only good to say about their longevity. I travelled a bunch with them as a pilot. You don't need high gigahertz multi-core CPU's and huge memory if youre not doing photo work or games, etc. Black friday coming up is forecasted to be great for computer things this year.

That's my thoughts. Good luck in your decision.
 

fivetoesten

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The one you're looking at seems a bit underpowered. This one is refurbished, but has pretty decent specs, and is less expensive. I use a refurbished computer every day with no problems.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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The option of using a docking station has been mentioned, and it's a good one. Especially if you get a good dock, you can work with a big monitor and great keyboard and mouse when docked. You can even use your laptop screen as a second monitor. If you've never used a multi-monitor setup, it's probably the greatest innovation since the invention of rocks.

On the downside, getting a powerful laptop costs a lot more than getting the equivalent desktop. That might not matter, though, if you're primarily just doing word processing.

On the other hand, having a second system means you can have your files in more than one location, which is a sort of first-level backup. It used to be that two systems meant two sets of software licenses, but with all the free software and with Office 365, that's no longer a real issue. And with Dropbox or OneDrive, there's no longer an issue of copying your files back and forth between the two systems. A terabyte of OneDrive space comes with an Office 365 subscription, or you can get Dropbox, which also has file versioning (30 days worth of history for the Pro version).
 

Jason

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I’ll agree with the docking station suggestion. For starters, it’s more cost effective. Additionally, you don’t have to deal with migrating data from one computer to another. Third, it allows you the flexibility to take it with you should the need arise. There are also these things called port replicators out now that will do the equivalent of a docking station but a little more economically:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECDM78E/?tag=absowrit-20

For $89 could be a huge economic savings over a new desktop based computer...
 
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Rob40

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECDM78E/?tag=absowrit-20

For $89 could be a huge economic savings over a new desktop based computer...

Or, you could go the whole other way and make your desktop something to behold!
table_desk_dk-03-625x350.jpg

Lian Li's hybrid desk/computer case line
 

benbenberi

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Another benefit of using a laptop with a docking station is that you can attach more than one monitor to it. If you've never worked with a multiple-monitor setup, you have no idea how much it can improve your productivity. For example: in one monitor, the document you're currently writing, in the other monitor the reference materials you want to look at while you write. Or a source file you want to copy/paste from. No more need to move things around on one screen, they're just there at the same time. Two big screens of equal size are best, or at least 2 screens that can stand at the same visual level. Add a keyboard you like. Keep the laptop closed & out of the way when you're at the desk.
 

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I prefer desktops to laptops. The main reasons are screen size and keyboards. My current screen is a 23" flat screen model in 1920x180 resolution. My keyboard it a Logitech USB model.

The keyboard is the critical part. When I try to type in a laptop, my WPM plummets like a rock. Muscle memory is involved, and mine is for the Logitech. Shift to a laptop and it's wrong and endless errors occur.

My current desktop is an HP Small Form Factor model. It's a refurbished ex-corporate desktop machine. It came with with a 3.1-3.4 ghz Intel quad core i5-2400 CPU, and 512GB SATA HD, Intel HD2000 graphics, 8GB RAM, and Win7 Pro. I added a Crucial MX100 SSD purchased for a failed Dell SFF desktop and the HD from the Dell as a second data drive. I upgraded wo Win10 Pro, cloned the OS to SSD, and set it as boot drive. I also had an ATI low-profile video card I got for the Dell for better 3D graphics, but the built-in Intel HD2000 graphics offered better performance, so the ATI card is in a parts drawer.

I recently added a few small things - a USB3 mini-PCIe card, as the macing did not come with USB3, a USB3 hub, a USB3 external drive enclisure, and a USB Bluetooth dongle that plugs into a front USB slot.

I'm not a gamer, so performance is entirely adequate for my needs. (I could theoretically increase RAM to 32GB, but I seldom see more than half of the RAM I have used._

The unit cost $250 at my local Micro Center outlet, and I've been very pleased.
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Dennis E. Taylor

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The keyboard is the critical part. When I try to type in a laptop, my WPM plummets like a rock. Muscle memory is involved, and mine is for the Logitech. Shift to a laptop and it's wrong and endless errors occur.

Not to mention all the indignities they inflict on the laptop kb in the name of fitting everything into a limited space. Small ENTER and SHIFT keys, backslash key in weird places, no numpad, arrow keys combined with various other keys requiring FN key to access... bleah!
 

DMcCunney

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Not to mention all the indignities they inflict on the laptop kb in the name of fitting everything into a limited space. Small ENTER and SHIFT keys, backslash key in weird places, no numpad, arrow keys combined with various other keys requiring FN key to access... bleah!
Oh, yes.

But then, I go back to the days the days when the original IBM PC was appearing on corporate desktops. A generation of typists had learned to type on IBM Selectric typewriters, but the folks in the PC division apparently never talked to the guys who made the typewriters. there was much unhappiness about the PC keyboard layout

For that matter, I have amusing memories of the shift when the PC went from ten F-keys in two columns done the left side of the keyboard to twelve across the top. The dominant word processor was the MSDOS version of Word Perfect, and WP users were accustomed to hitting F-keys with the pinky of their left hand without taking their hands off the Home row. Suddenly they could no longer do that and screams of anguish were common. (I used WordStar and just laughed.)
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Dennis
 

ShaunHorton

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I got me a nice computer on sale over Christmas. Wayyyy more power than I'll ever need, but that's kind of the point. It should last several years through software updates and things.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz [3.8GHz Turbo] Eight-Core 16MB L3 Cache 95W Processor
1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory
AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB GDDR5 Video Card
ASUS PCE-AC51 Wireless AC750 PCIe Adapter Card for Dual-Band 2x2 802.11AC WiFi
 
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