Help buying refurbished PC

[Clumsy]

Hey All

 

Looking for some assistance in buying a PC please. 

 

We've got a monitor, keyboard etc. So was just thinking of getting a box/tower. 

 

Mrs will be working on it so will need Windows, I'll be editing a few pics, nothing too heavy. Maybe the odd old platform game if poss. 

 

Probably spend £2-300 if that's enough. 

 

Are small ones like HP Elitedesk 800 G4 any good? (There's one on Stone refurb? ) Or is it better to get a bigger box. 

 

Thanks for any input

 

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Clumsy

 

From a quick search gathered there's a wide range of processors under that model code, the lower end being not great.

 

Mind you, I say that from my geeky perspective. The 'Pentium Gold G5500/5600' (which I suspect will be the lower priced ones, looking at the range), is in my mrs little thing, and it serves her well enough. Web browsing, powerpoint, browser - basic office work kinda vibe.

 

While back I tried a virtual machine on it, and doing some basic video editing (more to see if it could, than any real expectation), and it slowed to a crawl. Basic stuff only.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by j.o.i.n.t

[Exhale]

DELL refurbs are a better shout HP I've never liked.

 

You could get a tidy little beast like this for a quid short of £230

 

https://accomputerwarehouse.com/product/xps-8700-core-i7-8gb-120gb-ssd/

 

Should be able to free upgrade to win 11 when you set up which I recommend after upgrading to recently, uses a bit more ram in general but much more quick and responsive, also much more simplified like a tablet or smart phone.

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Exhale Me neither. Bought one of their early 11.6" micro laptop things, was a piece of shit...form factor was the novelty at the time that grabbed me, foolishly.

 

I'm a broken record these days, I just stick with thinkpads/thinkcentres. Reconditioned business machines.

[Exhale]

@j.o.i.n.t Yes I have a few lenovo's round the place, I've had a hell of a job putting stuff in to storage ready for the move, 40 mid towers, 20 laptops, 20 servers. Not quite a tech graveyard as it's all in service and still earning me money one way or another!

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Exhale That's some graveyard (eta, not a graveyard, in use!). You bring me comfort, the 36 fake android tablets I've got no idea why I said I'd take don't seem so crazy now.

 

Had visions of building a guerilla mesh network.... Use the boards in some cheap IP65, antenna, and just stick them on on stuff in public.... then I ran out of that drug

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by j.o.i.n.t

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Clumsy This is just a suggestion, in my usual rut, on the opposite end of the forms available to what Exhale suggested, just for variety - if she wants it dinky... . Reconditioned ones going for around 260. Core i5-8400T 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD Windows 10 Pro 64..... 65W max, so would be a bit more gentle on the bills if left on a lot (marginal though, think that big un around 100w max)

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkcentre-m720q-tiny

 

Problem with it, as I see it, they're going the same as all the other wankers and having the memory soldered in, I think. You'd be able to upgrade the storage, though. Having said that it'd do the job.

Edited November 29, 2022 by j.o.i.n.t

[Clumsy]

 

Thanks @j.o.i.n.t@Exhale

 

Not overly sold on the little ones, If it's better to get a bigger form I will, can always bind her feet 

 

Seen a Lenovo Thinkstation P310 8gb ram 240GB SSD i7 6th GEN @ £220, 12mth warranty, windows 10 or 11

 

Could upgrade to 16gb Ram and 500 SSD for just under £300,

 

Does that seem reasonable?

 

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Clumsy yep

 

 

[Themadhippy]

Quote

The 'Pentium Gold G5500/5600' (which I suspect will be the lower priced ones, looking at the range), is in my mrs little thing, and it serves her well enough. Web browsing, powerpoint, browser - basic office work kinda vibe.

Built a pentuim rig for the workbench earlier this year

 

 Intel Pentium Gold G6405 Comet Lake

Gigabyte H510M S2H V2 m-ATX Motherboard

DDR4 2666MHz 8GB

120GB SSD

CIT S014B Black Slim Case

 

came in at a few quid under £200 .  Ok it aint gonna play the latest games,but for general officey type work and web browsing  its fine.It was mainly built to run a logic analyser and electronic simulation,both of which it does without ant problems.Added advantage is when  10th genaration proccesor prices fall it can be upgraded

Quote

While back I tried a virtual machine on it, and doing some basic video editing (more to see if it could, than any real expectation), and it slowed to a crawl. Basic stuff only.

Not done any  video editing on it,but basic sound editing aint a problem and runs win 10 (and 98) in virtual boxes absolutely fine

[Exhale]

@Clumsy

[j.o.i.n.t]

@Themadhippy It's a first gen Microsoft Surface Go, her thing (present from her family on a 'big birthday'). I sense, which even compared to yours, the squeezed in form factor causes heat issues when it's pushed and it 'throttles' (dynamic frequency scaling).

 

I'd have yours over that thing. Having said that, it's served her well.

 

 

[Exhale]

When I was first in to PC building I never even bothered with a tower I made a bench and I would unplug, disassemble and put back the parts in to the ESD bags and back in the box.

 

Was easier to hide shit from druggies crashing in your flat also

[Military Grade]

The newer AMD CPUs with built in Vega graphics are outstanding performance to cost ratio, unless you need a PC with dedicated GPU it would be silly to buy anything else.