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Thanks for the Dell XPS tip. I don't know how I missed it when I first reviewed the Dell offerings. I configured one link below as close to preferred re/ parts and price as can be reasonably hoped for. I don't know which series it is as nothing shows on the page re/ same. Thanks again
XPS Desktop with up to 12th Gen Intel Processor | Dell USA[^]
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Others have mentioned it here, but I'd really recommend getting a reliable builder to do it for you. I live in South Africa, and had my last rig built for me by Wootware - they were great, providing good prices, a nominal build-and-test fee, shipping safely and helping me to arrive at a build I liked over a few back-and-forth emails. I ended up with an i9 (11th gen - 12th wasn't out yet) and 64gb RAM, wireless, nvme, pretty case, strong psu. Later got a GPU through them too.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is to scout out a good company to do the build. It's quite likely that you should steer away from larger corps like Dell - check out the GamersNexus youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GamersNexus for stories of how some of these manufacturers overcharge and underdeliver. Rather find a local shop where you can get a guarantee of the build and where you can talk to the builder a bit - it's all good and well to get a nice shiny 12th-gen i7 (as you're alluding to), but if you pair that with a rubbish mainboard and slow RAM, and slow disks, there's not a lot of point. It's a Ferrari engine in a go-cart!
Please don't rush this - it's very easy to get ripped off in this arena these days ):
------------------------------------------------
If you say that getting the money
is the most important thing
You will spend your life
completely wasting your time
You will be doing things
you don't like doing
In order to go on living
That is, to go on doing things
you don't like doing
Which is stupid.
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Get something close that can be upgraded to your needs.
You could get a laptop btw and just attach your preferred keyboard and mouse. Most laptop users do, and many add a monitor by hdmi (everyone in my "office" has at least one extra monitor).
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Someone else asked the same question about a year ago. I'll post a link to my response at that time.
The computer I ended up building is running fine and strong still so good luck.
The Lounge
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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I have purchased 3 computers from this company
My preferred base box is a Dell Precision Workstation
You can configure the additional components as you desire
As others have noted this is a great way to select your plug items and play
Refurbished IT Hardward Specialist | TekBoost[^]
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If you go to parts places, make sure that you get a motherboard that has been burned in with attached memory. It is difficult to diagnose poorly designed motherboards or defective CPU chips without spending a boat load of money on spares. I once got a kit from Egghead that I abandoned after several CPU replacements and hours with tech support, only to determine the motherboard circuit design was incorrect for the CPU I wanted. But they had a replace, not a refund policy, and since the design was the problem, I could not get my money back. Other times, the motherboard was very sensitive to heat, and after trying to burn it in ourselves, got a new one. A big waste of time and money, at least half of the shipping.
I am getting a custom Dell soon, supposedly on order. The Dell experience is pretty good for such things. I don't recommend rack servers from them, however. They think they can write their own custom drivers and Microsoft will just include them. Wrong. Maintaining that set of servers was difficult.
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I've built every rig I've owned for the last 20 years, plus rigs for the wife, family and friends. To me it seems easy and I usually start with PCPartsPicker for ideas and to check compatibility. But for a 1st-timer, there are a lot of potential trip-ups.
I don't buy from Dell, HP, etc. because you never know what you're really getting (even they don't know, it's whatever they have in the bin the day they put your system together). And you're stuck with single-source support from the manufacturer for stuff they simply don't care about more than a year after selling you the device (driver and BIOS updates mostly). You can put together a high-end machine yourself for about 1/2 the price that they'll charge for a custom high-end machine.
If you want to do it yourself, I'd say go for it. You'll learn a lot. If something doesn't match, send it back and get something else. I expect you'll get there eventually but it might take some iterations.
If you're not confident you can do it, you can look for a local computer shop that could put a rig together for you. It will cost you a little extra but it's worth the piece-of-mind and support.
In truth, there are a lot of things you have to consider and make sure to match up when putting a rig together.
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I do practically all my own repairs and built a machine years ago, which ran quite nicely for quite a long time.
As a result, I agree with the other posters here that if you do not have any hardware experience than simply building your own machine could turn into a money-pit for you.
But all is not lost.
If you want to pursue this endeavor, I would recommend that you go over to Tom's Hardware (Tom's Hardware: For The Hardcore PC Enthusiast) and begin reviewing the information available for the type of machine you want to build.
There are also quite a few books available for pc builder enthusiasts. Here is a link for the books at Amazon that are on this subject... https://www.amazon.com/s?k=build+your+own+pc&i=stripbooks&crid=31L5GBS5AG1B5&sprefix=build+your+own+pc%2Cstripbooks%2C272&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
By the way, building a game machine will give you the best performance for your every day efforts whether they are with spreadsheets or full blown development.
Hope this information helps...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Does anyone use this for testing? Comments? Observations?
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Our QA team uses it and they like it. Unfortunately, I don't have any personal experience with it. They use it to test our MVC sites.
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...it's poisonous to some aliens. Evolution (2001)[^]
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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For humans, too. (See Selenium - Wikipedia)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Everything is poisonous if you take enough of it 
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My wife uses it as part of her cancer treatments.
I guess she's not an alien.
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I've definitely used it via Python. It works very well for web apps.
The worst part of it is getting the Web Drivers installed & getting it set up first time. After that, you're golden & can record nice scripts that will help with your regression testing.
First time I ever used it, it took about 30 minutes to get it setup & then I had a script running that I use often. 
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Influential males in trouble (7)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Is your immersion fixed ?
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Yep! Now I'm looking at ways to get live data from the smart meter into a DB / Spreadsheet, so I can optimize it's usage ...
Good clue, BTW. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Let me know how you get on with that I'd like to do the same.
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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If I get anywhere useful, I'll let you know - at present it looks like you have to go via the supplier despite the WiFi connection on SM device itself.
I was hoping for a scrapable webpage but it's IP doesn't appear return anything HTTPish. It may respond to GET requests, but I can't find any info yet.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: optimize it's usage
If it's on and you don't need it, turn it off.
FTFY.
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It's the hot water supply - so it needs to be hot for morning washing, then again for washing up (twice a day, most days): but if you turn it off and it cools completely, then it's 45~60 minutes at 3KW to heat it. So if I schedule it to heat at 05:00 till 08:00 (cheap rate), then top up 12:00 to 13:00, and again 17:00 to 18:00 does that work out cheaper than leaving it on and letting the thermostat control it alone given the level of insulation around it? I dunno - that's why I want to monitor a few weeks worth and then again with it on a timer.
But that means actually monitoring the usage via a DB for which I need at least some semblance of real time data!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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SEMINAL = influential
anagram (indicator "trouble") of MALES IN
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Yay - I was beginning to think the clue was badly written. 
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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