Contrary to the trope, pc sales haven’t declined strictly because of cell phones and portables imo… they’ve declined because no one who’s bought a pc since 2010 really has a need to upgrade. Basically any intel based processor / pc built since 2010 is pretty capable in my eyes, meaning any of the Core iX cpu’s. 8GB ram is the minimum for good performance; 16 if you do video editing / CAD work. Adding a low end graphics card will get rid of any full screen youtube / flash stuttering problems if they exist. If you buy a pc and it only has a standard HDD in it, I would suggest adding in an SSD (minimum 128 GB) such as a Samsung 850 evo, reinstalling windows or linux onto it and using it as your primary boot drive. This will do the absolute most for the “user experience” and it’s only a $65 upgrade or so. Use the original HDD for bulk storage and another place for data backups.
I’ve seen some crazy deals on ebay. Decent used business pc’s being sold from bulk lots for sub $200. Be sure and see if it includes the OS key as part of the deal. Legit W7 is only about $45 these days though. W10 (Bleh!) is $100.
Yes if a fresh windows install for free does not do the trick, I am with Hoop here
And that 240GB SSD mentioned above is decent size and price, ergo good choice!
Yea that price is a steal for that 240gb ssd. I’ve had enough trouble with SSD’s over the years that these days I only buy from Samsung who makes both their own controller and memory chips. A couple years back they were the only manufacturer doing so, if they aren’t still, and they have a solid track record. I also only buy Seasonic power supplies, but that’s about the extent of my brand loyalties. Well, I’ve been satisfied with Gskill memory and MSI mo-boards over the years too but would also consider other brands for any new build. Oh, Hitachi / HGST hard drives have the lowest failure rate and I use them in my RAID arrays.
Seasonic was my to go brand as well for PSUs
There are other brands who rebranded them and sold them a little cheaper but it is too long ago do j don’t know which knrs are those nowadays.
You’ll likely want to increase the RAM to 8GB, rather than just the 4GB on there. Without knowing the RAM configuration on the board, you’d have to look inside and figure that out later. Or, you might just be happy with 4GB once you try it out.
I’m not a fan of used or refurb’s, but ymmv. It may simply not be worth upgrading this system later.
I don’t like the idea of buying a used computer from ebay (imagine trying to get support or having to ship back a faulty device), i would aim for a refurbished or new system from a local company or big box store.
I just checked out best buy and under $400 seem to be AMD devices, which i don’t know much about, i have always bought Intel, but other posters will know a lot more.
AMD is fine
CPU-wise all modern is good enough for the topic starter
Though I still urge him to just freshly install Windows and maybe be done for free and three hours work.
You can run win7 backup tool and after reinstalling your files are easy placed back and it will tell you what programs you need.
I would avoid a slim tower. I think they usually have slim sized power supplies and bad airflow. The thing about buying a used computer is, sure, it may fail and there’s no warranty. Usually the PSU goes first but that’s an easy fix.
Reinstalling windows will improve performance a bit but a Pentium D just isn’t quite up to snuff imo. That’s like a dual core pentium 4 essentially. Pre core 2 duo era type of gear. It will struggle with even basic web tasks now adays.
When I used windows I assigned 1 to 2 GB of ram via a tool like ramdisk as a virtual hard drive. Let windows use this virtual drive for swap, temp internetfiles and temp files makes it so much faster and after every reboot all that junk data is auto removed.
The motherboard of my sons windows notebook has an unused SATA port, I am thinking about modding an SSD in there. I have found a spot where it should all fit nicely.
Put the max amount of ram in it while we are at it.
Then do the same, virtual hd on ram for files not needing to be kept. Should be monstrously fast. LOL he already has the fastest pc, with a very decent gaming GPU,as a kid, he likes gaming
I never had software that would allow such a large ramdrive, the limit was always 32MB. I once got windows 95 to fit on that though
I think all laptops should only have an SSD, no drive crash risks, lower power consumption, higher performance.
I think it was ramdisk
Max size for free version was 1gb per virtual drive if I remember correctly. But two could be made, 1 for swap.page file other for temp sh#t
Man everybody loathed WinME but I really liked it, ME could not handle page file and this trick made ME very fast to boot and as reliable as 98SE.
My son has one of those hybrid SSD/HD build in, good compromise, but I miss the tweaking and modding of the desktops so we are surely gonna mod his like it is a desktop (mine accepts two 3,5” HDS and runs with 1 WD 2TB and a 250 SSD but it is large 17,4” my sons is 15”
Bought a DVD SSD caddy $5 o. AE to boost my wife’s notebook, a Asus Bamboo, the most beautiful notebook ever made but how we got that is a very long story ;))
I’m with you on the fresh install of windows. I reformat about once a year. I’ve not used that backup tool before though. All I have ever done for back ups is copy my pictures and docs to a thumb drive and then reinstall the rest. I will try and learn how to do a full back up once I get rolling with the new pc. One other motive I had not mentioned before in getting another one vs an update is that my house pc died a few months back and so I will donate the shop computer to the house when I get a replacement.
Just buy any A brand (dell Lenovo HP) avoid Acer
Any CPU will do i5 is nice any gen
8gb ram minimum
A 1 TB disk suffice
Try to get a SSD but you can always add that later no worries. However if you have your files on a nas, no TB needed and then choose a SSD over a HD it is worth it
Wow I just saw this thread and there are so many responses I almost didn’t even bother adding my two bits…but I just can’t help myself. I didn’t have time to read each post but I skimmed a bunch and here are my thoughts
Don’t waste your time trying to upgrade your existing PC. That old machine will not make use of the speed offered by a good SSD. You wouldn’t notice much of a difference beyond a simple reload of the OS. There are a too many speed killing bottlenecks in an older system like that. If you want faster performance I’d look for something with a 6GB SATA capable mobo and USB3 for high speed transfer to any external device. If you do build your own system look for a deal on a Samsung EVO series SSD. Very reliable and the best bang for the buck IMO. The Intel I series processors are way better than anything else out there. Yes, it’s a broad sweeping statement but also generally true. Later generation I5s ARE better than 1st or 2nd generation I7s typically but many variables there. I’d avoid Mac and Linux unless you are a programmer or want to pay someone every time something acts up. Mini-towers are a pain to work on. Sorry for dropping a bunch of bombs and running but I gotta go. I’ll check in later.
If one want to build from scratch he/she would not ask for advise buying a Dell or HP.
Since Ubuntu little later versions Linux is by far the easiest OS to install on generic hardware.
USB 3 is common on all modern (say three years old) hardware
Yes an i7 is better but since the Intel Pentium 4 / AMD XP2500+ all CPUs are good enough for 80% of the users.
In the topic start it is clear no special demands for anything other then basic atr present.
I like a dual Xeon 128GB ram 2TB PCI-SSD as solid foundation for a workstation but there are very few actual cases this is needed no matter how much “better” it is, good enough is the keyword here.
H#ck my main concern shifted from speed to silence and man a case with heatpipes to cool the parts is surely better then many normal cases, but to get one I thought shilling €2000 was a bit too steep so was happy with water cooling that only set me back €200.
For average Joe the stock cooler just works, and that sound simply is a fact of life.
Good enough should be the ffocus, nice and good enough preformance and options in a decent PC that will last for a year of four. Do not forget since XP hardware demands are no longer rising for a new windows, lean and smaller because of all those portable thingies is more of the future.
) SFF to Skylake cpu: Antek ISK 110 $78, mini-ITX LGA 1151 mobo (no wifi) $93, 8 GB DDR4 Crucial $35, i3-6100 $131, HDD/SSD 2.5” budget $60, total $397.