Advice requested to buy mid cheapish pc

that

John Grey, I agree it is usable, but for kids that often load their own stuff on, it could give a poor experience if doing stuff other than office.

With such an open spec, I would not buy it for me, I can't recommend something I would not buy, can I Did think about converting one into a router, but a bit too power hungry.

My I7 laptop is about 7 years old, came with windows 7, and already MS and amd say it will not support the latest direct. My 5 year old Xeon box in the other room wont support win 2016 server because of the disk chipset/MS, and may end up being a PC

katglasgow

Thanks very much for the advice - its all very helpful.

My son has also been looking online and reading reviews and found a PC which is very similar to one recommended above - more expensive due to a graphics card but without SSD. I am still not convinced he needs needs a graphic card but he says he would appreciate this more that SSD so I will request his request. Graphics communication is a course that included desktop publishing, 3D modelling and technical drawing (on paper). I think most of this work will be done at school but he might enjoy trying things out at home if he can.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072DXLRDD/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1_1_1?smid=A3LA1ADBIY9FQC&psc=1

Thanks again for all your opinions and suggestions. I feel much more confident going ahead with an order now and its great to see that what he picked was very similar to option being suggested as I am keen to encourage him to be involved in the process.

Thanks again

Anthorn

that wrote: »

John Grey, I agree it is usable, but for kids that often load their own stuff on, it could give a poor experience if doing stuff other than office.

With such an open spec, I would not buy it for me, I can't recommend something I would not buy, can I Did think about converting one into a router, but a bit too power hungry.

My I7 laptop is about 7 years old, came with windows 7, and already MS and amd say it will not support the latest direct. My 5 year old Xeon box in the other room wont support win 2016 server because of the disk chipset/MS, and may end up being a PC

The OP specifies "for study" and "doesn't need the machine for gaming". Within those parameters the Dell Optiplex 780 with Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM and 160GB HDD will be superb.

Microsoft entered new ground with Windows 8 in that the required spec was reduced and was even more reduced in Windows 10. That enabled the cheap laptops with a much lower spec which was intended to rival the equally lower spec Chromebook.

Overall for study anything more powerful than a Dell Optiplex 780 is likely to be overkill depending on what is studied: For example it won't be much use for Graphic Art and Design!

that

Anthorn wrote: »

The OP specifies "for study" and "doesn't need the machine for gaming".

Ha ha, you probably don't remember being 15 any more

A fast graphics card instead of storage definitely sounds like school work to me. This would be my choice of school work - as a 15 year old, if they had PCs then. Would have helped my subject on Social Engineering and Human interaction. Alcohol and girls are the next step, also as part of the same study

mxch

For storage, it could be useful to buy a cheap 120GB SSD to put Windows on, along with any applications he'd be using frequently. Then, get a cheap hard drive to put data/games on so that you have more storage. SSD pricing globally has been starting to drop, and 120GB SSD will actually feel much faster during use than a better CPU for example. Should cost you roughly £30 for a cheap model on amazon.co.uk, which is still much better experience than a hard drive.

Mobeer

The HP gaming PC you found on Amazon looks decent if you actually need the graphics card. Otherwise something like this:
https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/pc-base-units/products/dell-optiplex-9020m-micro-computer-i5-4590t-2-0ghz-8gb-500gb-windows-10

Is otherwise a viable PC for a lot less money.

Anthorn

that wrote: »

Ha ha, you probably don't remember being 15 any more

A fast graphics card instead of storage definitely sounds like school work to me. This would be my choice of school work - as a 15 year old, if they had PCs then. Would have helped my subject on Social Engineering and Human interaction. Alcohol and girls are the next step, also as part of the same study

Oh but I do remember and I also remember the Maths co-processor. That's going back a fair bit

What we must note is that the Dell Optiplex Core 2 Duo hailing from the year 2006 was not only used in business, It was also used in schools for education. The Optiplex 760 tower machine has three (spare) slots, two PCI-E and one PCI so a graphics card can be added although that is likely to push up the price depending on the graphics card bought. However it's still likely to be below the £300 limit set by the OP. There is also a more powerful alternative to the Core 2 Duo processor which is the Core 2 Quad.