Good to know! 
Nothing wrong with HP in my experience , we buy them in bulk at work running windows and Linux.
Currently have an ASUS laptop with Windows 11 solid pc for the money, had Dell which are also good, last one was an MS Surface Laptop, though it was overpriced garbage.
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At work we have HP mini PC’s. They are running pretty much problem free. Only require a reboot once in awhile to install Windows updates.
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I think the customer service question is hit or miss with many of the brands mentioned.
I have had the gamut from very good to very bad experiences with Asus (exceptionally poor service and gouging for money to repair things that were not broken) and HP (business level very good and consumer level very bad). My sister has had very good service with her HP laptops she runs her own business and has a service/support contract. I have had a mostly positive experience (consumer level) with Dell but have seen some have issues with response times.
My suggestion would be, if possible, buy from a local shop (Best buy, Micro Center, etc) and ask what their service/support plans get you. This way if you have issues, you have a place to take it to to get it fixed. If you buy from amazon or other online source you run the risk of not getting good support or even what you ordered (in amazons case). Buying direct from manufacturer like Dell or HP woul dbe another way to go. Check to see if they have a service center in your area or if you would need to ship it in to get service.
As far as internal vs external ripping device, I think speed if the only issue and if you are only “adding” to your existing collection and not ripping hundreds of CDs it is not an issue.
Connectivity can be handled by either docking stations or interface hubs depending on the brands chosen solution. Some laptops will have all the connections you need (usually at a price) some will have very few connections and rely on the “hub/dock”.
Take a look at the brands suggested pick something that you like and post what you looked at I am sure those that have responded will have opnions help to guide you.
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Windows Defender has been good enough for our household for years. I’ve tried others in the past but ended up banishing them for a variety of reasons.
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For dell computers we always buy the Lattitude line. These are more work related and dont try to be cutting edge or have fancy look. Thats why they are more stable.
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Edit: Somehow I have replied to the wrong post. I meant to reply to Recommend a computer (PC) brand? - #26 by garym
I bought my Dell Precision laptop for very similar reasons having been exceptionally impressed with the Precision that I had been using at work (and at home all through the Covid lockdown).
I had used a succession of Dell pro grade laptops (2 Lattitudes and 1 Precision) at work over a period of 20 years and always found them to be very reliable despite, at times, a serious amount of mistreatment. All of them were still working perfectly well when they were retired.
My current, personnally owned, Dell Precision is now two and a half years old (with an 11th gen i7-11850H) and still holds up well against modern laptops on everything with the possible exception of battery life.
By contrast, the Dell Inspiron that I bought for myself prior to the Precision was relatively poorly constructed and did not last much more than 4 years failing completely just as the warranty expired 
The professional models are most definately more expensive than the consumer ranges - much more so for the precision range - but, in my experience, they have been worth the difference.
My desktop computer is, however, a different matter. It is a self-built computer akin to the Ship of Theseus in that every part of it has been replaced at least once over the years and quite a few parts many times. It started off as a 20MHz 20286 and now boasts a 10th generation i9-10900k with 10 cores(20 threads) running at all cores at 4.8GHz (Single core max 5.3GHz).
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That reminds me of my first desktop that started out as a Compudyne 386SX16 and ended up as a 486DX50, new mother board and processor.
If I remember correctly, I went:
802086 → 486DX → Pentium MMX → AMD Athlon → Pentium D → i7-2700K → i7-6700K → i9-10900K.
I’m currently building a new PC.
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I had a similar path but started with TRS-80 (tape deck from Radio shack, AKA trash-80) and so far ended on the i7-6800K. With Apple IIe mixed in at school computer club (chop-lifter FTW).
For the last 3 - 4 years I have gone for Intel NUCs now ASUS NUCs. I can’t recommend them highly enough. they attach to the back of your monitor.
Current one is an ASUS NUC 14 Pro + Ultra 9 processor with 96GB of RAM. It fits your budget.
You would need to plug in an optical drive for ripping but that’s no problem. I use a NAS for music storage.
My old NUCs become Roon Endpoints around my home and run Roon Rock OS.
If you do decide to go that way I would be very happy to remotely help with install etc.
Regards
Andrew
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How’s this look?
Given your use case, this seems fine and reasonable price. Id prefer 32gb memory but not really needed. And you could add more later easily. Just plugs in.
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Read the use case, folks. Many of you are way over specifying this and overpricing it. No need for 32 GB RAM or an i7 processor, etc. Almost any ~$250 mini PC on Amazon will do just fine. And at that price level, support is of little concern, since the mini PC is readily replaceable if necessary.
AJ
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For your intended use:
This PC will be more than adequate. However, there is one aspect that, as a home builder, troubles me. The processor is an intel i7-14700 (not the K variant) which is a perfectly good processor but it states, on the linked processor specs, that, whilst the base power consumption of the processor is 65W, the maximum is 219W (for the processor alone).
The problem, as I see it, is that the power supply fitted is rated for a maximum of 180W which, seems very low. Have they disabled the turbo modes of the processor? If so, you are not getting the performance that you should with that processor. If not, I would have thought that there would be a danger of over driving the power supply resulting in a power shutdown which would not be good.
This may be an mistake on the part of Best Buy. On the Dell USA website the same computer is still available but under the ‘tech specs’, three different power supplies are listed (180W, 300W and 460W but with no option available to specify which one) so I would imagine that Dell supply the power supply appropriate to the particular build spec.
It may be worth clarifying though.
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The only other question I would have is how many memory cards are in it?
One 16Gig or two 8Gig.
The reason this is important is that if there is only one card the memory bus will run in single channel mode, however it would be simple to have them add a second 16Gig card to up the memory and get the memory bus into dual channel mode (which is slightly but noticeably faster). If it is two 8Gig cards then if you want to upgrade you would need to replace them both.
I am not saying 32Gig is needed and this is not a deal breaker by any means, but would be good to know for future upgrades if needed.
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According to the Dell website linked in my earlier post, it is fitted with a single 16GB memory module but has two slots available.
This is OK because it allows for expansion to 32 GByte without discarding the old memory.
The degradation in performance from using single channel memory instead of two channel memory will not be noticed with the use cases that @Saturn94 anticipates above.
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I was also thinking if I wanted to continue storing music on an internal drive like I do now, I could add an internal HDD just for the music, leaving the included1TB SSD (which should be plenty) for everything else.
It certainly looks like this can be done. The case has slots for two 3.5inch SATA HDDs or, with adaptors, two 2.5inch SATA SSD/HDD’s. I imagine you would have to source your own SATA cable - like this one from Amazon UK. Hopefully, the are power connectors available for connecting power to a hard drive.
Do you think 24TByte will be enough? 
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