New Desktop Advice Please

interstellaflyer

getmore4less said:

interstellaflyer said:

greyteam1959 said:

OnlyTheBestWillDo said:

interstellaflyer said:

greyteam1959 said:

Update from the OP.
Thanks for all the ideas everyone.
Decided not to buy the pc that I linked too originally & after considering all your thoughts went for this SSD.
Crucial MX500 1 TB CT1000MX500SSD1-Up to 560 MB/s (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch, Internal SSD), Black 
I will fit that & see if my pc performs a bit better.
Will probably then look at some second-hand RAM, which I never knew you could buy until now.

Personally I'd have gone for a lower capacity SSD and used the original HDD as secondary drive that way you can do  a fresh windows install on the SSD but still access all the stuff you already have on your old HDD

I suspect the OP will go against good advice and attempt to clone his current drive...

Yes you suspect right.
For those that are not quite as computer savvy as you, doing as fresh install of Windows is not just as simple as you possibly infer 

Doing a fresh install is very easy, probably just as easy as using the cloning software

That assumes the OP has something suitable to put the image on.

Not everyone has suitable media hanging around, I didn't when I did mine.

A cheap memory stick to download the installation tool on to, not exactly something difficult to get hold of.

J_B

GDB2222 said:

The big issue can be finding the product keys.

Well, a clean install of W10 will pick up that from the motherboard. Magical Jellybean can find many others if needed

greyteam1959

You are all persuading me towards a clean install.
I will have a read up about it.

GT60

Google Windows 10 download and you will get Microsoft download page where you have to make a media creation tool then it downloads the windows 10 ISO

I use a Cd to write / burn the iso  to.
This is a quick search but double check it on a pc as I did this on my phone.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO

googler

getmore4less said:

interstellaflyer said:

Doing a fresh install is very easy, probably just as easy as using the cloning software

That assumes the OP has something suitable to put the image on.

Not everyone has suitable media hanging around, I didn't when I did mine.

A USB drive takes a day or so to arrive from Amazon...

SebC

It might be a better idea just to get a decent laptop around the £300-400 mark and connect it to your screen and use a wireless mouse and keyboard, that's what I have been doing for several years now

getmore4less

googler said:

getmore4less said:

interstellaflyer said:

Doing a fresh install is very easy, probably just as easy as using the cloning software

That assumes the OP has something suitable to put the image on.

Not everyone has suitable media hanging around, I didn't when I did mine.

A USB drive takes a day or so to arrive from Amazon...

Exactly my point it stops being as easy and adds cost to a simple clone.

Also time as the SSD should arrive today if ordered yesterday that's another day if not on the same order.

That said...
Even a clone needs a cable that may not be to hand like a dvd in the case that can be borrowed


My first SSD came with the USB SATA  cable many don't come with anything

Not everyone has a box of bits.

getmore4less

SebC said:

It might be a better idea just to get a decent laptop around the £300-400 mark and connect it to your screen and use a wireless mouse and keyboard, that's what I have been doing for several years now

Or a more modern decent <£200 machine 
(Many available smaller than a laptop)

OnlyTheBestWillDo

greyteam1959 said:

OnlyTheBestWillDo said:

interstellaflyer said:

greyteam1959 said:

Update from the OP.
Thanks for all the ideas everyone.
Decided not to buy the pc that I linked too originally & after considering all your thoughts went for this SSD.
Crucial MX500 1 TB CT1000MX500SSD1-Up to 560 MB/s (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch, Internal SSD), Black 
I will fit that & see if my pc performs a bit better.
Will probably then look at some second-hand RAM, which I never knew you could buy until now.

Personally I'd have gone for a lower capacity SSD and used the original HDD as secondary drive that way you can do  a fresh windows install on the SSD but still access all the stuff you already have on your old HDD

I suspect the OP will go against good advice and attempt to clone his current drive...

Yes you suspect right.
For those that are not quite as computer savvy as you, doing as fresh install of Windows is not just as simple as you possibly infer 

How would you know? Have you done one?

If you can fit the SSD (literally taking a few seconds once you remove the side of the case, then simply removing the connectors from the old HDD and attaching them to the SSD), you can install Windows 10. 
You'll need an empty USB flash drive of at least 8 GB in capacity.

The fitting of the SSD and installing Windows 10 are the quick and easy bits. The boring bit is reinstalling any programs on to the SSD and moving stuff over from the HDD(you'll need another SATA cable, costing £1 or £2, to have the HDD connected up as a secondary drive). Though not sure that you need 2 TB of storage. A bit of a waste to buy a 1 TB drive, though perhaps you can fit it to whatever new device you buy in the years to come.

It's all the more easy, as there will be nothing on the SSD in the first place. So no need to delete partitions etc.

Personally, I use the opportunity to tidy things up. But if you think you already have an optimal setup, you can clone it.

GDB2222

I really don’t think a 1TB SSD is an extravagance these days. It makes life simpler to have everything on a single SSD, and that’s  worth paying for.

A simple USB enclosure would make the old hard drive available for backup.