Desktop (tower)

melbury

I posted on here a while back as I need to upgrade to Windows 10.

Have definitely decided to buy a new tower, but just wanted some opinions on which makes are good.

I have had an HP pavilion since 2012 and it has been great, no problems at all, so of course I am looking primarily at HP's.

However, I notice there are other makes cropping up in my search that are a bit cheaper, namely Lenovo and Acer.

It is only for home use - surfing the internet and occasional letters etc, no gaming. My budget is up to £450.

Neil_Jones

All "branded" computers are no different to anything else, they're just mass manufactured and come under different ownerships, as there was a lot of consolidation in the market. However they tend to be built down to a price as opposed to anything else.

HP and Compaq are the same, HP was the dominant brand. Acer is its own company which hoovered up various other brands in the 2000's like Packard Bell and Gateway, and Lenovo bought the old personal computer side of IBM company years ago so they bought their way in.

If your aim is just to go online and type, could you possibly get away with a laptop instead? Just a thought.

bob_a_builder

Or go for a refurbed PC

Can get Dell Optiplex 7010 for half that price ( or much less depending on spec)

You can get an i5, 16MB ram with 200+ GB SSD running Windows 10 for around £220

Look on Ebay you will find many available

They are small, compact units, almost silent, + tons of USB ports

Had an i3 one for a about 3 years now, more than sufficient for normal 'home' PC ( non gaming) use
I wouldn't buy new again

Farway

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Or go for a refurbed PC

Can get Dell Optiplex 7010 for half that price ( or much less depending on spec)

You can get an i5, 16MB ram with 200+ GB SSD running Windows 10 for around £220

Look on Ebay you will find many available

They are small, compact units, almost silent, + tons of USB ports

Had an i3 one for a about 3 years now, more than sufficient for normal 'home' PC ( non gaming) use
I wouldn't buy new again

As this. Just buy refurbed, with SSD, if unsure get one with a guarantee and use recommended or known supplier, for instance Amazon renewed as a start point and then ask here for opinions

melbury

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Or go for a refurbed PC

Can get Dell Optiplex 7010 for half that price ( or much less depending on spec)

You can get an i5, 16MB ram with 200+ GB SSD running Windows 10 for around £220

Look on Ebay you will find many available

They are small, compact units, almost silent, + tons of USB ports

Had an i3 one for a about 3 years now, more than sufficient for normal 'home' PC ( non gaming) use
I wouldn't buy new again

Thank you, I will have a look around. Are there any particular sellers that you would recommend?

Would this work with my current HP monitor though?

melbury

Has anyone heard of Refreshed By Us - they seem to have some quite good deals and are offering 36 month warranty on some items.

kinger101

melbury wrote: »

It is only for home use - surfing the internet and occasional letters etc, no gaming. My budget is up to £450.

Based on that usage, you might consider seeing if you can get away using a Linux distribution on your old machine instead. Open Office will work for the letters.

You can install a Linux OS to a USB stick and boot from that to see how you get on with it.

Neil_Jones

Unless the monitor's older than God's Dog so to speak it will usually be okay.

As a general guide if its flatscreen it'll be fine, but to be sure if you look at the back of the computer and follow the cable from the monitor to the computer it will go into one of three holes - a blue one (15 pins), a white one (usually two blocks of nine pins and a horizontal prong across the longer length of the block) or a HDMI port, same as the TV.

Monitors may have multiple inputs, the blue is the older one, the white is more recent and HDMI is not common on older monitors. Long as you have the right output on the computer and the right input on the monitor, you may have to get a new cable but beyond that it should be okay.

that

melbury wrote: »

Has anyone heard of Refreshed By Us - they seem to have some quite good deals and are offering 36 month warranty on some items.

I have now. They are expensive!

think these are like for like, but the cheaper one has a bigger ssd. Both have a year warranty.

£650 for https://www.refreshedbyus.com/refurbished-dell-optiplex-5050-i5-desktop-a
£359.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-5050-SFF-PC-Intel-Core-i5-6th-Gen-8GB-240GB-SSD-Windows-10-HDMI/324004377384?

£169, but open to offers. has a rust spinner https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-5050-Pentium-3-30GHz-8GB-DDR4-RAM-1TB-HDD-SFF-PC/143327682152? At this price you could fit a 2tb ssd and still have change from the above two

melbury

that wrote: »

I have now. They are expensive!

think these are like for like, but the cheaper one has a bigger ssd. Both have a year warranty.

£650 for https://www.refreshedbyus.com/refurbished-dell-optiplex-5050-i5-desktop-a
£359.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-5050-SFF-PC-Intel-Core-i5-6th-Gen-8GB-240GB-SSD-Windows-10-HDMI/324004377384?

£169, but open to offers. has a rust spinner https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-5050-Pentium-3-30GHz-8GB-DDR4-RAM-1TB-HDD-SFF-PC/143327682152? At this price you could fit a 2tb ssd and still have change from the above two

I agree with you about that particular model, but to be honest I don't need such a high spec as that.

There are cheaper ones on their site:)

melbury

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Unless the monitor's older than God's Dog so to speak it will usually be okay.

As a general guide if its flatscreen it'll be fine, but to be sure if you look at the back of the computer and follow the cable from the monitor to the computer it will go into one of three holes - a blue one (15 pins), a white one (usually two blocks of nine pins and a horizontal prong across the longer length of the block) or a HDMI port, same as the TV.

Monitors may have multiple inputs, the blue is the older one, the white is more recent and HDMI is not common on older monitors. Long as you have the right output on the computer and the right input on the monitor, you may have to get a new cable but beyond that it should be okay.

It is the one that came with my current computer back in 2012 - says HP2211x on the front.

Thanks, will check out the colour thing.