Advice on New Desktop PC - Home User Working with Graphics (Budget Up to $2,500)

anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 13:32
Last edited 24/02/2025 - 15:21 by 1 other user

Good afternoon - I have always gotten great help with my computer questions here so I'm posting again hoping for some advice. My current desktop is quite a few years old now and constantly struggling - It's a Dell all in one - I don't want to buy another Dell (AIO) as I've never been happy with it. I got the AIO due to space so looking at similar again but happy to look at other recommendations. Currently this PC is constantly just running so slow and freezing. I'm over it - time for a new one.

I'm just a home user - not a gamer. But I do play around with graphics making designs for an animal rescue that I volunteer with. They use Canva (I am constantly having to refresh the page there) and I also use my own program for making designs - a legacy program Craft Artist - I love it. I also use progs like Silhouette Studio when making crafty things. All these things struggle atm. I did have the OzB Lebanese version of Illustrator ;) - not that I knew what I was really doing but taught myself a few things - until I had to give it up or pay for the AU version (which I didn't) - this PC handled it OK (but slowly) last year but now I don't think it would. Right now it's barely handling anything with graphics or much of anything really - hence something better.

My current system: Dell Inspiron AIO 5490
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10510U CPU @ 1.80GHz 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Touch support with 10 touch points
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 24H2

It originally came with a 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD but with help from here I upgraded the 256 to a 512 SSD and got rid of the HDD and it's now been replaced with a 2TB SSD. When I get a new PC I might be able to grab that 2TB SSD out and add it to that if there is a free slot.

So at the moment I have been looking at these, Lenovo and MSI

My budget can go up to around $2500?? Thank you for any advice and let me know if you need any more info :)

Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 13:45
    +7

    Your issue with an AIO device is that the graphics card is integrated and not dedicated. The issues you are having are most likely due to the Graphics Card and it not being a Dedicated Graphics Card. You might need consider a Tower Machine. You could get a great tower machine and screen for $2,500 that would ticket all your boxes.

    • simplystu on 24/02/2025 - 19:40
      +2

      please see my post to main thread …
      esp about Canva specifically (which is an online/website tool) - majority of processes are run "server side" … rather than locally like a normal program/app you would use.

      • geekcohen on 25/02/2025 - 08:04
        +2

        esp about Canva specifically (which is an online/website tool) - majority of processes are run "server side" … rather than locally like a normal program/app you would use.

        I know what Canva is and I use it. Just because it is an online tool and most stuff runs server side doesn't necessarily mean that a integrated graphics card will still be sufficient. The OPs issue with having to refresh is probably more of a RAM issue. However, the other programs they are running would benefit from a dedicated graphics card.

        The thing with an integrated graphics card is it is consuming the system RAM, so that would make less RAM available for Chrome (or whatever other browser) and resulting in the tab crashing.

        Overall, for what they are doing and how much RAM is available, a dedicated graphics card would provide benefit and free up RAM.

  • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 14:23
    +1

    Thank you - yeah I was also thinking that too but trying to avoid but if that's the best way to go I should probably do that and keep looking. And make some space for it :)

  • chartparker on 24/02/2025 - 14:44

    Going to throw it out there: are you dead set on Windows? Especially if you're doing primarily graphic design work you could potentially get yourself a base Mac Mini M4, take your 2tb ssd out of your old PC and put it in an enclosure and use it with the Mac.

    Or the other option is iMac if you want an all in one

  • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 15:10

    Ohhh I have thought about it - I watch a lot of crafty/design people on youtube and Mac seems to be their choice - even my son uses one - he does all that shiz professionally for theatres/tv - he lives in another town. I have OCD - I dunno if I could change now - plus all my progs/graphics/fonts that I have bought are for PC - just thinking about changing is going to mess with my head (lol) - I do know it is a good option though because I have seen them in my searching.

    Just been looking at what has been posted on ozb lately and checking out some of the pcs on nebula - I know it seems to be a gaming site but they have some "workstations" as well with pcs that have separate graphics. I'm just getting a bit overwhelmed by working out the extras as I haven't bought a pc that I have to add on all the bits like the OS - I think I have seen that Stack Social has W11 for a better price?? But I will need a monitor. I'm still researching.

    Thank you for your suggestion though - I appreciate it :)

    • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 15:12
      +1

      plus all my progs/graphics/fonts that I have bought are for PC

      I think you will find that there will be Mac Versions of all of those.

    • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 15:14
      +4

      Just been looking at what has been posted on ozb lately and checking out some of the pcs on nebula - I know it seems to be a gaming site but they have some "workstations" as well with pcs that have separate graphics

      Gaming PCs will be fine. My Desktop you could be used for Gaming, but I use it as a Workstation.

      I bought a PC from Nebula recently for a friend, yet to unbox it. But can provide feedback when I do.

  • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 15:42

    Thank you so much - I often wondered if a gaming PC would be just as suitable for what I need as I am sure they have a good graphics card. And who knows - you never know when I might step up from candy crush on my iPad one day ;)

    • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 15:45
      +2

      I often wondered if a gaming PC would be just as suitable for what I need as I am sure they have a good graphics card

      Yes they do and the graphics card would be plenty for what you are doing.

  • GordonD on 24/02/2025 - 16:00
    -3

    The PC you have should be able to do what you do. Only gamers need separate graphics cards. Integrated graphics these days will do everything a separate graphics card will do, just not as fast. And there's nothing you are doing that needs fast. Come to any site like this and the enthusiasts will tell you the answer is the biggest fastest PC with a latest generation discrete graphics card that uses huge amounts of power, requires lots of noisy fans to keep it cool, costs a huge amount of money, and requires a huge PC case to fit it in. Only serious gamers need that. The trouble with getting advice from other people is they have trouble distinguishing between what they want and what you want.

    If it used to do it, and doesn't now, the problem is unlikely to be that the hardware has gotten slower. Unless you are just looking for someone to justify a decision you've already made to spend a lot of money, the first thing you should do is clean out/up your Windows installation. Do a clean install of just what you want and need.

    If that doesn't help, and you've got the money and are happy to spend it, buy the MSI.

    • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 16:20
      +1

      Come to any site like this and the enthusiasts will tell you the answer is the biggest fastest PC with a latest generation discrete graphics card

      I think you will often find the opposite. People want to help and provide good value for money.

      that uses huge amounts of power

      Not really. An AIO might use about the same.

      requires lots of noisy fans to keep it cool

      My 7 fans in my machine are quite, some laptops and maybe AIOs could be just as noisy.

      costs a huge amount of money

      Not always, a reasonable machine can fit in the OPs budget.

      and requires a huge PC case to fit it in

      Nope, I have an ATX size and it sits perfectly on the floor on top of a UPS and is not in my way.

      Only serious gamers need that.

      hhhhmmm….. no

      The trouble with getting advice from other people is they have trouble distinguishing between what they want and what you want.

      That might be your opinion.

    • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 16:21

      Yeah I do understand completely what you are saying. My thought was to do a clean install of W11 anyway. I have been having gradual problems with this PC for a while now - not so long ago it was the fan which I replaced. I have programs that have stopped working/starting up and when researching the probs people have said that they have reinstalled Windows and still having the same problem with the program. I know a bit about computers but not code but yesterday watched some vids on debugging and tried to work out how to work out how to decipher a dump file to work out where the problem lies maybe but unless I knew code it didn't really help much. I can see what happened in event viewer and the debug process but I cannot understand why the program won't start - I'm not smart enough. I did try the old uninstall/reinstall a number of times to no avail.

      This PC is 5 years old. Yeah I know it has been good enough to do the playing around that I am doing but it probably still is but I am going to have to get a new one eventually and I just want to make sure to get one that does the job and lasts a while rather than buy a new one that still is only just enough - if you know what I mean. I do plan of the reinstall of the OS - it needs it but in the meantime having a research to see what else is out there - with some advice so I don't buy something that is just as similar as this one because that is the mistake I made when buying this. Needed a new one - it looked fine to me when reading about it - bought it and really it wasn't as good as the ASUS that I bought it to replace.

      • SlickMick on 25/02/2025 - 13:15
        +1

        I was going to say same as @GordonD. Your specs seem fine for what you're doing. I suspect a clean refresh and you'll be good as new.

        • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 13:43

          currently been saving anything I need to (pst file etc) and prepping the media creation tool for a clean install - making screen shots of how I had things and what progs I used (and want to put back on - some I won't bother with). Watching some bloke's YT on doing the process as a refresher - I have done it before but it was ages ago. Hopefully will be all good. Then if it's working better I might still upgrade the RAM to 32 in any case - can't hurt. I was looking at that not long ago.

  • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 16:05

    I'm looking at this one:
    https://www.nebulapc.com.au/products/fenrir-lvl-6

    with this monitor

    AOC 27" Q27G4N QHD 1440P 180Hz VA Gaming Monitor

    but when googling that monitor I found scorptec has the same monitor $31cheaper and then looked at their pcs

    https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/ready-to-run-pcs/gaming-…

    or

    https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/ready-to-run-pcs/gaming-…

    The Scorptec ones have 2TB SSD where the Nebula one only has 1TB but as far as Graphics performance goes I don't know enough to know which of the 3 would be best??

    • geekcohen on 24/02/2025 - 16:23
      +1

      Graphics Cards are all the same across all 3. I would probably go for this Scroptec one as it has a slightly bigger power supply.

      • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 16:27
        +1

        Thank you - I will bookmark that - I have decided in the first instance to reinstall W11 and see how things go. Must make sure to save all the things I need to save in preparation. Thank you everyone for your input. I really do appreciate it.

    • ForkSnorter on 25/02/2025 - 07:35

      $2200 is a lot of money to pay for an Ozbargain PC with 4060ti. I built a 4070 PC for $1800, and it doesn't have an enormous case like this one. Much smaller and more aesthetic (white case with glass side). I'm sure you can get a much more budget-friendly PC advertised on Ozbargain that will fulfill your needs.

  • hmac on 24/02/2025 - 16:10
    +4

    Just adding my two cents

    AIO's are not great and I would steer clear from them but you already have one so no point going further into this.

    As someone who used to do graphics design before and heavy use of my PC, you aren't doing anything graphics intensive and you should not have any issues with your setup.

    I would recommend doing a fresh install of windows and see if it fixes that for you before you go out and buy an overkill PC

  • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 16:23
    +3

    OK - the consensus is to do a reinstall of W11 - first. I will get prepped to do that and see how things go - I might save myself a few $$$ in the ozb spirit!!

    • jakentta on 25/02/2025 - 13:43
      +1

      My thinking is that some of your problems might come from the Craft Artis program being old, and not supported on Windows 11. Because you specs sound otherwise just fine. Also make sure your drivers, especially graphics driver, are up to date.

      • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 13:47

        Oh yeah you are probably right! I just don't want to face that because I just love that program and have so many designs in it. It's hard to move to a new program. Even the people on the Serif help boards say the same - ya gotta move on to Affinity but there ar quite a few die hards like me who still want to stick to what we know and love - but it is going to cark it one day (like Media Centre - but people are still patching that and I'm still using it too ;) )

  • simplystu on 24/02/2025 - 19:37
    +3

    both Canva + other craft programs these days are majority online "design tools" … ie. you log onto their website, and majority of GPU crunching is done "server side" rather than locally - so iGPU or dedicated GPU really doesn't affect it much (unless have 30+ tabs open in browser).

    I should know, as my GF loves crafting.

    My GF is using a computer - roughly 2018 with an AMD iGPU (can't give stat's atm) - and it is more than sufficient … although Canva's website/online-tools can sometimes be slow to respond … but in actual fact it's their "server side" processes that slows things down.

    I have a HP All-in-one … and probably the best thing I like about it == touch screen (would be VERY VERY handy with craft/design editing).
    I sometimes forget, and touch the screen by mistake - gives me alittle laugh.

    • anonymous_coward on 24/02/2025 - 19:55

      Yes my current Dell is touch screen - I really don't use the touch that often and quite often forget about it - until a cat walks in front of the screen and the tail brushes past or rubs their rump against it and then it does something. And I look right now and have 25 tabs open haha - I could probably close a few - some of them are inactive though (Chrome does that)

      • freefall101 on 24/02/2025 - 21:02
        +1

        You're probably better off closing the browser and restarting it from time to time, I use a lot of web based tools for work (including canva) and no matter how Chrome claims it manages RAM and resources and such it's way better with a restart.

        Might even be better running two browsers. But also making sure you have enough RAM, 16GB might not be enough.

        IMO an upgrade might help. I switch between a 9th gen intel and my gaming desktop, and I swear the 9th gen intel is just slower at everything. No need to spend a lot though, some of the ITX deals on here would keep the size down and be massive overkill for your needs like this one. Getting a fully fledged CPU/iGPU can help, particularly since browsers do use hardware acceleration these days. But it wouldn't surprise me if something like this was more than enough for your needs

        • kiitos on 25/02/2025 - 07:14

          Do both of your PCs have SSDs? That made a big difference to my old PC.

          • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 13:52

            @kiitos: Me?? Yes this AIO does have 2 SSD's. The C drive one is quite full though - It came with a 256gb one which I upgraded to a 512 - IIRC it wasn't easy to source that particular SSD. I do try to install as many progs as I can on the D SSD 2TB - it's a different type that I installed myself (replaced the HDD that this AIO came with).

            • kiitos on 25/02/2025 - 14:12
              +1

              @anonymous_coward: I meant @freefall101 as they were talking about the speed difference between 2 of their PCs.

          • freefall101 on 25/02/2025 - 15:07
            +1

            @kiitos: yup, both have solely nvme drives (besides some bulk storage).

            The issue generally pops up with anything hardware accelerated, because the iGPU is a potato. With browsers these days, they do a lot of hardware accelerating.

  • simplystu on 24/02/2025 - 20:00
    +4

    my parting comment …

    as said - Canva especially == majority server side processes.
    my GF often used to get frustrated at slow response times (even slow for curser to move on webpage - as it's sending the position of curser to remote website server - AKIN to a remoted desktop scenario) +++ she was refreshing webpage like you (she then tried logging on VIA her work computer - and exact same thing).

    Perhaps Canva haven't spent enough $$$ on their servers ???
    I was just reading their history - and they started out as a small business here in Perth WA - how about that.

    • Noblejoker on 25/02/2025 - 12:05
      +1

      No one has mentioned OP internet connection
      Maybe the issue is his internet speed and/or network connection to the PC
      If canva is slow my first guess would be network

      • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 14:06

        oh yeah I have thought of that - Telstra - I swear they throttle at times. I quite often have to reboot my modem. I'm on the Internet Plan Essential - Telstra just changed all their plan names - I think it's 50 down 17 up - pretty rubbish really. At times it's down to literal bytes (depending what I'm doing) - and yeah modem reboot.

  • milobob on 24/02/2025 - 22:16
    +3

    Canva should be ok to use with your PC - you don't need to upgrade. If anything I would add a second screen. QHD minimum.

  • ForkSnorter on 25/02/2025 - 07:36
    +3

    Don't get an AIO. They're too restricting. Buy a cheap PC built by one of the builders that advertise on Ozbargain, or build it yourself (can be quite fun). You can get a decent 27 inch monitor for $300.

  • loadofrubbish on 25/02/2025 - 07:54

    I had a Dell Windows 11 laptop, bought in 2020, that crashed on me last week, and I lost a week’s worth of critical data. I’m considering switching to a new Mac Mini and installing Windows on it. Is this a solid plan or a dumb move? Alternatively, I could go all-in on Mac. I’m fed up with Windows updates popping up right when I’m in the middle of something important.

    • Noblejoker on 25/02/2025 - 12:04

      Can't install windows on a Mac mini with apple chip - M1 to M4
      You can run windows in a virtual machine but that is not what you are after I gather

  • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 18:32

    EDIT - I found out what was wrong with the decryption code - I was missing a colon

    Ok I'm having trouble trying to reinstall W11 - I got stuck at the start with my C & D drives being blocked by bitlocker - I'm using Windows 11 Home.

    In the Windows 11 installation it says I need to Suspend Bitlocker in control panel first and then restart the installation. I've been researching how to do it for a couple of hours now and keep getting stuck. Some youtubes and sites say to just turn bitlocker off in CP but that option is not there. So I came across some ways of doing it via command line but I must be inputting something wrong - I think my brain is just frazzled.

    I first did this

    manage-bde -status c:

    and got this which is what is expected:

    Volume C: [512GB SSD]
    [OS Volume]

    Size: 475.73 GB
BitLocker Version:    2.0
Conversion Status:    Used Space Only Encrypted
Percentage Encrypted: 100.0%
Encryption Method:    XTS-AES 128
Protection Status:    Protection On
Lock Status:          Unlocked
Identification Field: Unknown
Key Protectors:
    TPM
    Numerical Password

    Then this is supposed to turn off bitlocker:

    manage-bde -off C:

    but I get this:

    ERROR: This volume stores external key(s) that can automatically unlock
    other volumes. Before you can decrypt this volume, you must remove such
    keys.

    ACTIONS REQUIRED:

    1. To prevent data loss, check that a recovery password or a recovery key
    exists for associated data volumes.
    2. Type "manage-bde -autounlock -ClearAllKeys Volume" to remove stored
    external key(s).

    I put in this

    manage-bde -autounlock -ClearAllKeys C

    and tried it a few other ways but keep getting a syntax error (C was not understood) or not recognized as a command :/ I thought Volume = the drive??

    Once I get past this clearing the keys bit the drive will apparently decrypt - I can do the same on d drive and finally reinstall windows. Thanks for any help :)

    EDIT: - I kept searching and copy and pasted the code from another page and it finally worked and I can see what was missing from where I C&P before - a colon

    So yeah just gotta wait out the decryption process on both drives now.

  • geekcohen on 25/02/2025 - 19:32

    You might find a good bargain for your requirements from this deal - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/895048

    • anonymous_coward on 25/02/2025 - 19:40

      I saw that ;)

      Just waiting for my drives to decrypt now that I have sorted out bloody bitlocker jamming me up for the last 3 hours. Then I can try the Windows 11 reinstall to see if that makes things a bit better - yes I'll still have the 5 year old machine (with a few adjustments done over time) but it's worth a try first.

      Was looking at this for a RAM update but I'm a bit confused as the price seems a bit cheap for 2 x 32GB RAM?? Am I reading it right?

      https://www.amazon.com.au/Crucial-3200MHz-2933MHz-2666MHz-CT…

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