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[Truean]

Please do not quote:
Hello My fellow tech heads

I keep my computers for 8 to 9 years (longer if possible until the hard drives burn out or something) and I have a repeat history of that. It's a long term  investment.

So here's what I'm looking at:

I'm thinking one time Microsoft Office (NOT subscribing to 365 and paying monthly), and possibly expanding to more RAM.

Issues:
1.) I am concerned about the lack of optical drive. Is this a problem? The world going to flash drives and cloud?

2.) Is photoshop worth the $79? (and is that a permanent thing or a damn subscription?)

3.) Other considerations

This a a cyber monday thing, so I have to act fast actually to save the money.

Thoughts?

Please do not quote

[Tellemurius]

USB optical drives exists if the need exists. That Photoshop is more like a freebie version, its nothing compared to the full version (which is more or less sub based now). I recommend purchasing upto that 4 years of warranty if you intend for this to last long, the premium support plus if you would like to include IT support. You don't need the Pro office edition unless you're gonna be making flyers and collaboration stuff.

[Truean]

Yeah, I'm a little nervous about no optical CD drive but... I guess I have other options for that if I need it. Steam will work for games I have CDs for I imagine.

As for durability, I've never gotten any extended warranties on anything. I'm careful; I don't bother people when possible, etc.

Do I really need the 4 year warranty? Is that just the extra or?

EDIT:

1.) I'm going to throw in a bit for more RAM. Worth it?

2.) I can basically buy software online for this thing right? Basically if I try to purchase software from Best Buy and it comes on a Disk I'm screwed?
Are there USB opticals (googles that)? I can just get a usb one if I have to.

[Maximum Spin]

This computer is horrifyingly overpriced for its specifications. I would not recommend buying it.

[Tellemurius]

Yeah, I'm a little nervous about no optical CD drive but... I guess I have other options for that if I need it. Steam will work for games I have CDs for I imagine.

As for durability, I've never gotten any extended warranties on anything. I'm careful; I don't bother people when possible, etc.

Do I really need the 4 year warranty? Is that just the extra or?

EDIT:

1.) I'm going to throw in $200 for more RAM, to make it 32 GB. I don't think the 64 GB ram is really useable by me right now anyhow. Plus that'd be a lot of money.... Worth it?

2.) I can basically buy software online for this thing right? Basically if I try to purchase software from Best Buy and it comes on a Disk I'm screwed?
Are there USB opticals (googles that)? I can just get a usb one if I have to.

I mean the warranty is worth if you dont want to pay for new parts later if something smokes up. Especially when someone will go out to your house and put it in for you. 32gb is extremely overkill unless you do alot of video editing. 64gb you might as well make this a server. If you buy discs from Best Buy most of them have cd keys which you can use online installers. Probably buying online is ok.

[Truean]

Do you have a better option?

I guess it depends on how likely things are to break. It seems sturdy to me. Is it? I haven't heard bad things about the brand.
Might be worth it for room to grow.
I assume this is expandable in any case, should that happen later on (I only have limited experience with this, but yeah. Paid a friend to do it.).

[Maximum Spin]

Do you have a better option?

I'd just build from parts, so if you have a trusted friend who can do that for you (as it seems from lower down that post that you don't do it yourself), that's the best plan.

I guess it depends on how likely things are to break. It seems sturdy to me. Is it? I haven't heard bad things about the brand.

I can't say anything good about Dell or Alienware and I don't know anyone who can.

[Truean]

He may repair yes; build no.

(I'm not that tech savy).

[ChairmanPoo]

I got a Dell XPS 13 top of the line this Thursday. Budget wasnt crazy (1600€)  and it seems convenient for work. Just leaving it there as a suggestion

[Truean]

Please do not quote:

So far so good. Got external optical drive too.

This is the only thing I've really spent on for a while (the rest is bills, etc). Also it is an investment, as I use it for research etc.

Fact is, if it's a tool I'll be using for ... potentially quite a bit of hours.

Question: This thing has 2 hard drives. 1.) C:\ Drive {SSD), 2.) D:\ Drive.

Is there some trick to saving things to utilize the old school D drive, which is larger than the Sold State Drive? Is it merely a matter of moving over files?

[Please do not quote. Thank you.]

[Tellemurius]

Just a matter of moving files. You can make shortcuts on your desktop for any folders made in there. Programs and games can be installed there as well.

[Truean]

Awesome, thanks for that.

Also, preemptively, because crap happens, how do I back this thing up?

There is, oddly, no factory restore option here, which I find odd.

[Tellemurius]

Alot of the portable hard drives you can purchase have built in software for backing up your documents and files. As for the operating system, these computers would have a recovery partition that can let you make a recovery usb drive in case you replace the hard drive for any reason. Note, for Dell their warranty Pro services do include assistance in setting up backups or reinstalling the OS.