Thinking of buying reconditioned tower..

Norman_Castle

hdh74 wrote: »

Having done a bit of research on average lifespan on new puters (apparently 1.5 yrs is average life of hard drive! - mine's been going 5 years plus though it's all slow)

Old puters must be longer lasting, mines 13 years old. Hard drives don't go slow, operating systems get bloated with unnecessary processes soaking up the available speed.

EveryWhere

hdh74 wrote: »

My PC is grinding to a halt, so slow. Now I'm not good with tech at all but as I want a machine that will browse fast, with lots of tabs open at once, and that will handle processing raw photos I'm thinking I want an i5 processor, 16GB ram and around 500 GB SSD. Having been to Curry's, where I got my last machine I can see that would cost megabucks - and most of the machines only had 8GB ram anyway. I'm partially sighted so need to use a large monitor - which I have anyway.

So someone suggested itzoo to me and I can see I can get a good spec refurbed tower for much less dosh. Having done a bit of research on average lifespan on new puters (apparently 1.5 yrs is average life of hard drive! - mine's been going 5 years plus though it's all slow) I'm thinking I'd rather buy a cheaper refurb on this basis too.

Now I just about managed to set my last one up, but that came with everything and instructions.

So I'm not sure what I'll need to worry about when choosing and setting up. I'm thinking I'll need a few usb ports, put I gather there's more than one kind and I'm not sure what the difference is. At present I have a wired internet connection via an ethernet port. I also have somewhere to plug in speakers. My monitor has old connectors (VGA I thinks, could be DVI) so I'm assuming I'll need some kind of adaptor? A power lead obv - I'm thinking this might be the same?

I set my last one up with a CD to help (it has built in CD reader) and I'm thinking a new machine won't have that. I'm guessing I won't miss the CD thing in the main but wondering how hard it will be to set up the software. I was planning on paying for windows 10 64 bit, wondering if it will come installed and just need a code putting in to activate then updating?

Am I thinking this through right, and am I missing anything please?
I'm also thinking that even if I get really stuck and have to pay someone to set it up it will still work out cheaper than buying something new from a shop?

Any advice much appreciated, thanks.

It's probably worth stating that a five year old PC is considered nearly new here.
If it is of a decent specification, it would be highly recommended to simply upgrade what you have now, by fitting a 500 GB Crucial MX500 SSD and possibly a clean install of the operating system.
So let us know what you have now. It might be cheaper to simply get someone to fit the parts for you.
The full model number is what we need.

hdh74

Thank you for all your replies.
MY current machine is a Lenovo with was a windows 7 OS and a friend upgraded for me to windows 10
Specs: Intel core TM i3 - 2120 CPU @3.30 ghz 3.30GHz, 4GB ram, 1 TB hard drive which is about half full. (not SSD).
Also most of my usb ports plus the card reader have stopped working, generally after a windows update, so I'm assuming the drivers got knocked out. I have tried manually searching for lenovo drivers and tried letting windows search for best drivers but nothing worked. Atm I have usbs that will run mouse and keyboard, and 1 left for everything else - so have to use a multicard reader in usb port for cards and plug printer or anything else into the port when needed, if another goes down it'll go from PITA to pretty unusable. Can't get printer to work wirelessly, and it used to, can't get a driver which will work now.

I rang a local computer guy and went through the problems and his opinions was 'bin it, it's not worth the expense, these old Lenovo's are proving a real problem, I've tried to sort a few but I wouldn't bother if I were you'.

I will read up on your suggestions, thank you all again.

hdh74

Starting to get my head around this a bit. Those Dell refurbs look great for the money. So USB 3 ports are faster I gather? - umm are there any compatibility issues with devices that plug into them?

Also, out of this lot, which is for the monitor please (so I can buy the right lead/adaptor)
Ports: 1. Power button | 2. Optional SD Media Card Reader Not Supplied with this PC | 3. Universal Audio Jack | 4. USB 2.0 ports | 5. USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports | 6. Line out | 7. HDMI 1.4 | 8. DisplayPort 1.2 | 9. Serial Port | 10. USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports | 11. RJ-45 | 12. USB 2.0 ports | 13. Optional platinum 92% efficient PSU

Will it be the HDMI?

The RJ-45 with be ethernet? Think that will be the same as I have...

Many thanks again.

EveryWhere

hdh74 wrote: »

Starting to get my head around this a bit. Those Dell refurbs look great for the money. So USB 3 ports are faster I gather? - umm are there any compatibility issues with devices that plug into them?

Also, out of this lot, which is for the monitor please (so I can buy the right lead/adaptor)
Ports: 1. Power button | 2. Optional SD Media Card Reader Not Supplied with this PC | 3. Universal Audio Jack | 4. USB 2.0 ports | 5. USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports | 6. Line out | 7. HDMI 1.4 | 8. DisplayPort 1.2 | 9. Serial Port | 10. USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports | 11. RJ-45 | 12. USB 2.0 ports | 13. Optional platinum 92% efficient PSU

Will it be the HDMI?

The RJ-45 with be ethernet? Think that will be the same as I have...

Many thanks again.

DisplayPort 1.2 & HDMI. Dependent on your monitor.

USB are backwards compatible.

To which DELL device are you looking?

Did you look at the device about which I sent you a link via PM?

Currently at £110 with 45 minutes to go. Still very good value.

Frozen_up_north

The Dell Optiplex I have (eBay from IT-Zone-1), has USB 2 ports on the rear and USB 3 on the front. USB 3 is significantly faster for jobs such as backing up to external drives or USB memory sticks (they need to be USB 3 for higher speed read/write, obviously). USB 2 and 3 peripherals are interchangeable, only the speed of reading/writing differs.
The DVD is only a reader, not a writer.
There is no WiFi built in.
The monitor socket is HDMI, with 1920 x 1080 “HD” graphics.

The Optiplex range was used in offices, hence the DVD not being a writer, etc. An external USB powered DVD/CD reader/writer is about £12 on eBay, a USB WiFi adapter is about £5, slightly more for a dual 2.4/5 GHz one.

Some of the Optiplex PCs have variations on the above, mine had an ATI Radeon dual monitor graphics card. There are pdf user manuals you can download from Dell that give a lot of useful info, including replacing parts, etc.

Don’t forget these refurbished PCs have had a lot of use. Look for a reputable supplier with a warranty.

hdh74

Brilliantly informative, thank you Frozen, and everyone else. I haven't quite decided which one yet, just making sense of it all and shopping around a bit now, though I will buy from one of the suggested places with a warranty. Had a wee chat with another couple of local computer guys, just to make sure the old machine isn't worth doing up. One said not for what I want but he will do my old one up and sell it for me for a cut (which I'm quite happy about) and transfer everything from my hard-drive if I want. Not heard from other yet but I am leaning heavily towards a recon Dell Optiplex. Just need to compare models and prices in a bit more depth. But up to my ears in other jobs so that'll do for today.

Thank you muchly!!!!!!!!!!!

debitcardmayhem

Lordy01 wrote: »

I recently bought several ....spam tins

Hit the button, please

hdh74

So I think I'm going with a
Dell Optiplex 3020SFF PC i5 4590 3.3Ghz @£170 plus £55 to upgrade the HDD to a 480GB SSD and a tenner for a USB wireless adaptor (will usually use ethernet but might be handy sometimes) Google says the processor is quad core and it has 8 GB ram.

There's also a Dell Optiplex 3050 i5 6500 - has 256GB SSD which is same price to upgrade to 480 - could leave that but do like the storage.
Tried comparing the perfomances of the CPUs and can't see a huge difference but that might be me not understanding the numbers. Also has 8 GB ram. (think they both have space to upgrade to 16) That one is £70 more - not sure I can see the difference, am I missing anything please?

debitcardmayhem

Fit your self a crucial 500mx 500GB for 64.37 and you have the original for data , , the 4590 is not too much different from 6500