Desktop PCs

snaver

Can anybody help me please? I bought my current Lenovo desktop PC from John Lewis in 2016. It was quite high spec (2TB hard drive, 16GB RAM, Intel Core i5 processor, Windows 10) and cost around £500. Obviously it's now old and slow, so I looked into replacing it, but everything I have found that's widely available and in that price range so far, is of much lower spec and anything that is roughly similar is well in excess of £1000. I thought that technology went up in spec and down in price, but this doesn't seem to be the case with desktops! Does anyone have any ideas of where I might be able to buy a good quality and high-ish spec PC for a reasonable price please?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

you could try Dell HERE.

outtatune

What can't your computer do now that it could 7 years ago? What are the exact specs?

googler

The hard drive will clearly be a spinny thingie rather than solid-state, so my first inclination is to suggest that you determine if you have an install disc for your version of Windoze. If not, go to the Microsoft website and use their download link to download a clean installer to USB. 

Buy a solid-state drive of, say, 128Gb. Take out the current drive, and set it aside. Install the SSD where the current drive is, as the primary SATA drive, and install Windows to that. You now have a clean install of Windows. Load any software that you have previously loaded from disc. Download Chrome, Firefox or any other browser you prefer to Microsoft's, and download any other software that you have previously downloaded and used. 

You should have a secondary drive bay available; install the original hard drive as a secondary, and access data on there. You may need extra signal and power cables internally.

You can store daily use data on the SSD, with archive on the HDD

There are YouTube videos and tutorials all over the internut showing how to do this. If I can do it, you can.  

Ask again here if in any doubt. 

facade

Don't buy a 128GB drive, it will be full in hours, especially as Windoze continually tries to download updates and create restore points!

500 GB is more like the sweet spot.

Try doing a control + shift + esc  and have a look at performance- if you find the 2TB disc drive is on 100% it is failing, and a new one will transform the machine.

I have had a couple of PCs slow to an absolute crawl because the disc drive is on the verge of failing.

An I5 of 2016 vintage with 16GB of ram should still be a fairly speedy machine for general use.

googler

"Don't buy a 128GB drive, it will be full in hours"

I'm running Win10 on a 64Gb SSD, since Nov 21, and I have 11Gb free ....

Neil_Jones

facade said:

Don't buy a 128GB drive, it will be full in hours, especially as Windoze continually tries to download updates and create restore points!

Does it?

The default option is 2% reserved of the drive for System Restore, and even the biggest Windows Update there ever has been in the history of Windows Updates has only ever been the size of a single layer DVD at most, or just over.

facade

googler said:

"Don't buy a 128GB drive, it will be full in hours"

I'm running Win10 on a 64Gb SSD, since Nov 21, and I have 11Gb free ....

How?????

A check on mine, win10 installed fresh a week ago

20.3 GB windows

18.7 GB Pagefile.sys

9.2 GB program Files

6.7 GB System Volume information (updates I can roll back, restore point)

54.9 GB, if I had hibernation or fast startup enabled there would be another 16 GB, but the pagefile.sys will shrink as the drive fills up.

And that is before I include photos, documents the caches from firefox & chrome.......

I'd check what version of windows is running we are on 22H2 now, I'd be surprised if it has been able to update with so little storage

Neil_Jones

facade said:

googler said:

"Don't buy a 128GB drive, it will be full in hours"

I'm running Win10 on a 64Gb SSD, since Nov 21, and I have 11Gb free ....

How?????

A check on mine, win10 installed fresh a week ago

20.3 GB windows

18.7 GB Pagefile.sys

9.2 GB program Files

6.7 GB System Volume information (updates I can roll back, restore point)

Well I don't know what you're doing but I last installed Windows 10 in December 2019, and my Windows folder is only 26.8Gb, with a 10.7 Pagefile and my system restore is only 1.2Gb.

And I used to run Windows 10 on a 64Gb drive as well.  Now I have a 256Gb, but I never ran out of space on a 128Gb either.

facade

I realise it isn't my money I'm spending, but a 500GB drive with a make you've heard of is around £50 (Crucial)-£60 (Samsung) on Amazon, but a 250GB is £35-£40.

The 500GB will last longer, be slightly faster because of the empty space and is just better value for money.

I wouldn't buy second hand, they are usually well worn with little life left, plus sellers have an exagerated sense of what a cast-off drive is worth compared to new.

I accept you can run windows from 64GB, I've even done it myself from 120GB, fine for basic email & a bit of online banking, but too restrictive for the home pc.

250GB would be a fair starter size, but for the extra few pounds 500GB is better.

You might get 128GB drives very cheap as hardly anyone uses them, I don't think the big names even make them any more.

googler

How?

I installed it. I downloaded some software. I installed some software from discs. I starting using it. I still am. No mystery.