New Desktop Computer

My current desktop computer which I primarily use for photography and videography is getting a bit long in the tooth.  Back when I purchased this computer, my cameras only recorded FullHD video...  shortly later, 4K became mainstream....  now 8K and even 12K is well on the way to becoming mainstream.  This desktop doesn't fairly well with FullHD but it struggles with editing and producing 4K video.  8K and 12K video is simply out of the question.

I've also been experiencing issues with the computer freezing especially when I'm pushing it with photography edits.  Then I recently learned that Microsoft is no longer supporting updates to Windows 10 after this coming October and, unfortunately, my computer isn't compatible with Windows 11 so I can't just upgrade to Windows 11.  Common sense was telling me that I need to either upgrade my current computer or start looking for a new one.

For the past year or so, I've been struggling with the limitations of my current desktop computer.  It does not play well with any AI three dimensional computations without freezing up.  Also, editing 4K video on this computer has been an exercise in frustration.  The processor and graphics simply are not up to this task.  They are pretty old by today's standards and immense file sizes.  I could do basic edits but producing the way I usually produce my videos was impossible.  I've known for longer than Microsoft has been advising me that I could really use an upgrade.

Putting aside my occasional freezing problems with my computer, I actually really like this Lenovo computer so I had always planned to upgrade the processor, RAM and graphics card.  Now was the time to find my specific upgrade path so I spent far too many hours researching my motherboard to see what processors I could upgrade to.  I would compare that to a list of Windows 11 compatible processors.  I thought I had chosen my upgrade path but then remembered that I didn't know if my BIOS would support the components I had chosen so I started researching about my BIOS.

In the end, I found that my particular computer with this particular motherboard was at its most powerful and upgraded state now.  This meant I would need to find a new computer instead.

Let's talk about prices for a minute because this played into the decision on whether to upgrade my current computer or simply purchase a new computer.

Since I had no viable upgrade path for my current computer, I would need to replace just about everything except the tower case.  Fortunately, I like this tower case and I have been very unhappy with all the new tower cases with clear panels and all sorts of absurd, distracting LED lights.  I wanted a simple, plain tower case and my current tower case fits the bill so that was going to be my starting point. 

So then I chose a motherboard, a processor, a graphics card, RAM cards, a power supply, SSD drives, cables, heat sinks, paste, etc.  Since I would be creating a new computer, I would also need to purchase Windows 11 so I have a licensed package.  My total came to around $2000.  I could get an equivalent computer (albeit in a brightly LED illuminated tower case...  which I do not want) for the same price.  This was disheartening.  

In the meantime, we left town for our cross-country Amtrak trip with two of our grandchildren.  I knew I had time to decide on what to do.  We went on our trip, had a great time, and when we arrived back home I injured myself (partial thumb amputation) so I was now laid up for a few weeks.  My thoughts wandered back to the computer issue.

In short, I just could not nor did I even want to spend $2000 on a new computer.  I needed to find another option.  One option that was becoming more and more appealing was to just continue to make do with my current desktop computer.  Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 really makes no difference to me since I have my own anti-virus software.  I was, however, having problems with the larger file sizes of my cameras, with larger file sizes of my video files and all new AI computational features.  This would only get worse as technology progressed so jumping on this dilemma sooner rather than later made sense....  if I could find a desktop computer that would meet my demands.

I looked at my current specs and then decided that anything better spec-wise was a step in the right direction if it had Windows 11 (Windows 11 works better for AI computational features used in photography).  I didn't need top of the line stuff.  I just needed enough to make my photography and videography a bit easier while also allowing me to use AI computational photography editing features (ie, noise removal, higher resolutions).  I decided to keep it simple.

I was not finding what I wanted in any new desktop tower computers at an affordable price.  Besides, I couldn't bring myself to purchasing one of those brightly illuminated ridiculous looking things.  Then I turned my attention to Mini PCs.  

I quickly found the most powerful mini computer and put it in my Wishlist.  Within a few days, it went on sale at a ridiculously low price.  The specs of this mini computer were far better than my current tower computer.  The only thing I would be missing is a place to install extra SSD drives but I knew I could always put those into a separate case and connect via USB4.  

This is the route I chose! 

This new mini computer is tiny yet far more powerful than my primary desktop computer that I had been using for years...

Because this computer is so tiny, future expansion isn't really possible (well...  I could double my RAM to 64gb) but, then again, it turns out I couldn't even do that with my current tower desktop either for the reasons mentioned above.  The price of this mini computer was so low that future expansion isn't even something to be concerned about anyway.  When it is time to upgrade, I'll just purchase another mini computer (if all goes well with this one).

I'll have another small case housing a few SSD hard drives.  And, I already have an external CD/DVD drive which still gets occasional use related to music, music production and movies.

I'm still in the process of installing and setting up all of Windows 11 Pro.  Then I have about two dozen other programs to install which I'll slowly tackle over the coming weeks.  In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with this tiny powerhouse!