Need a 2nd hand best performing desktop computer / PC ?

alykhalil1

Newcad said:

PS. If you do buy one without Bluetooth then just buy a Bluetooth dongle to plug into a USB port, you can get them for under £10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=bluetooth+dongle&ref=nb_sb_noss

The same goes for a TF card adapter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TF+card+reader&crid=2ROFSPYFV975I&sprefix=tf+card+reader,aps,192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

TBH Although you haven't given any details I suspect that with a bit of knowledge and work you could probably get your current Dell running faster again. (I suspect that your hard drive is getting full so you may need a bigger one, and that things in general could do with a good updating).
But if you're not handy with tech, or are set on getting a new(er) one then fair enough.

I got no idea why my PC is so so so slow. I have a gut feeling it might be the RAM.

My PC is partitioned into 2. Drive C which mainly has windows & has 96.6 GB free space.
Drive D is for my work, has 1.72TB free space. 

Many many thanks
AK

Newcad

16GB of RAM should be OK. (And the free space on the drives too).

Difficult to tell without getting hands-on.
Of course a lot depends on just what you are running and how much at once.
Multiple browser tabs open, multiple apps open, it all tends to use up resources.
(I tend to close things that I'm not actively using, but others leave all kind of apps running but minimised).

Just for a general clean up, I do this kind of clean/check every week:

Have you run the Windows built in Disk Clean-up recently?
Run it once for normal files.
Then run it again this time selecting 'Clean up System files'. (That one may take some time, particularly with the 'Windows Update Clean-up').

Then the next thing I'd look at is what is being loaded at startup and running in the background.
Task Manager will show you what is using up how much of the CPU, (or the RAM if that is the problem).

Personally for a quick, easy, check I'd run Malwarebytes ADWcleaner to check for and remove any adware and junkware (bloat) you may have picked up.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner
If you dont already have Malwarebytes itself then I'd also download Malwarebytes Free version and run a scan with that just in case there are any nasties (like maybe a hidden bitcoin miner) lurking on there.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Cisco001

alykhalil1 said:

Newcad said:

PS. If you do buy one without Bluetooth then just buy a Bluetooth dongle to plug into a USB port, you can get them for under £10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=bluetooth+dongle&ref=nb_sb_noss

The same goes for a TF card adapter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TF+card+reader&crid=2ROFSPYFV975I&sprefix=tf+card+reader,aps,192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

TBH Although you haven't given any details I suspect that with a bit of knowledge and work you could probably get your current Dell running faster again. (I suspect that your hard drive is getting full so you may need a bigger one, and that things in general could do with a good updating).
But if you're not handy with tech, or are set on getting a new(er) one then fair enough.

I got no idea why my PC is so so so slow. I have a gut feeling it might be the RAM.

My PC is partitioned into 2. Drive C which mainly has windows & has 96.6 GB free space.
Drive D is for my work, has 1.72TB free space. 

Many many thanks
AK

Have your machine got SSD?

[Deleted User]

alykhalil1 said:

Newcad said:

PS. If you do buy one without Bluetooth then just buy a Bluetooth dongle to plug into a USB port, you can get them for under £10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=bluetooth+dongle&ref=nb_sb_noss

The same goes for a TF card adapter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TF+card+reader&crid=2ROFSPYFV975I&sprefix=tf+card+reader,aps,192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

TBH Although you haven't given any details I suspect that with a bit of knowledge and work you could probably get your current Dell running faster again. (I suspect that your hard drive is getting full so you may need a bigger one, and that things in general could do with a good updating).
But if you're not handy with tech, or are set on getting a new(er) one then fair enough.

I got no idea why my PC is so so so slow. I have a gut feeling it might be the RAM.

My PC is partitioned into 2. Drive C which mainly has windows & has 96.6 GB free space.
Drive D is for my work, has 1.72TB free space. 

Many many thanks
AK

The reason it is so slow is this: Intel Pentium E5700 Dual Core

It is 12 years old and at the time it was released was around the bottom end of CPU power. As per the above link, the Passmark benchmark score of around 1000 is not good enough for basic usage nowadays.

Your budget is a bit tight and would typically get you a decent 6th-7th Gen machine which personally I wouldn't recommend because you are limiting the lifespan as Windows 11 needs 8th Gen plus. 

For this reason, there is a big jump in the 2nd hand market prices for 8th gen compared to earlier gens with similar capabilities but if you look hard you will find something - I picked up a Dell Optiplex 3080 Micro Form Factor with i3-10th gen 8GB ram / 512 SSD for £150 on the Facebook marketplace with 22" widescreen, keyboard and mouse.

outtatune

I'll not post links to specific items as others have done so, but your best bet is probably ebay stores selling refurbished Lenovos. Look for sellers with big feedback scores.

When corporates upgrade they buy the old machines - which generally speaking are in good condition anyway - for next to nothing, then refurbish them. Some great deals to be had.

poppellerant

Cisco001 said:

alykhalil1 said:

Newcad said:

PS. If you do buy one without Bluetooth then just buy a Bluetooth dongle to plug into a USB port, you can get them for under £10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=bluetooth+dongle&ref=nb_sb_noss

The same goes for a TF card adapter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TF+card+reader&crid=2ROFSPYFV975I&sprefix=tf+card+reader,aps,192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

TBH Although you haven't given any details I suspect that with a bit of knowledge and work you could probably get your current Dell running faster again. (I suspect that your hard drive is getting full so you may need a bigger one, and that things in general could do with a good updating).
But if you're not handy with tech, or are set on getting a new(er) one then fair enough.

I got no idea why my PC is so so so slow. I have a gut feeling it might be the RAM.

My PC is partitioned into 2. Drive C which mainly has windows & has 96.6 GB free space.
Drive D is for my work, has 1.72TB free space. 

Many many thanks
AK

Have your machine got SSD?

+1

I'm surprised it's taken this long for somebody to ask this.  The PC is probably quite capable for the OP's needs, however it probably has a hard drive which is mechanical and has moving parts.  SSD drives are not mechanical and have no moving parts whatsoever, therefore the machine isn't bottlenecked by a slow hard drive any more and everyday loading of software becomes effortless.

alykhalil1

Newcad said:

PS. If you do buy one without Bluetooth then just buy a Bluetooth dongle to plug into a USB port, you can get them for under £10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=bluetooth+dongle&ref=nb_sb_noss

The same goes for a TF card adapter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TF+card+reader&crid=2ROFSPYFV975I&sprefix=tf+card+reader,aps,192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

TBH Although you haven't given any details I suspect that with a bit of knowledge and work you could probably get your current Dell running faster again. (I suspect that your hard drive is getting full so you may need a bigger one, and that things in general could do with a good updating).
But if you're not handy with tech, or are set on getting a new(er) one then fair enough.

i mean i am not dum dum with computers and in my days i was a computer hardware programmer. good old days. That's when oracle, cobalt, galileo, and dBase++ was all into action. today i feel lost.
though i have purchased a spare RAM card (in the past) and installed it myself so i do am tiny bit ok'ish with computers. What i wonder is a PC with 1 RAM card is better than a pc with 3-4 additional RAMs as upgrade ????

i mean its like once a person is operated upon, he'll be 2nd hand (hahahahheheheh) just like a cloth, once torn and sewed, it wont be as good as original. so is 1 RAM card better than 3 different cards ?????

I thank you all

Regards

AK

alykhalil1

Newcad said:

As you say Amazon Renewed is probably a good bet.
(Personally I steer well clear of Ebay).

Here's a few decent looking ones in or under your price range currently on there:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-Dell-OptiPlex-Computer/dp/B01E97I7UO/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-HP-i5-3470-Computer/dp/B084T2QN4R/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-HP-i5-3470-Computer/dp/B084T33N2H/

You don't get Windows 10 on a disc, (although you may get a recovery disc), it comes built into the machine and you can download it for free from Microsoft at any time if you need to reinstall it.
You don't even need to enter a licence key to reinstall Windows these days, your machine has a 'digital entitlement' and the reinstall just picks it up automatically.
The only time you need to buy a new Windows key is if the machine has never had Win 8,10, or 11 Activated on it before. eg. a machine that you have built yourself.
(You can actually run Windows without 'Activation', it's legal and I currently have one laptop that runs unactivated Windows 10 (It used to be Windows XP and I refurbished/upgraded it). The main thing is that unless Activated some of the customisation settings do not work, but there are other ways to customise Windows than those settings).

I thank you for making the effort to find some PCs for me. I checked the PCs and they are only 8GB RAM where as my current PC is 16GB RAM ????
many thanks

alykhalil1

Newcad said:

As you say Amazon Renewed is probably a good bet.
(Personally I steer well clear of Ebay).

Here's a few decent looking ones in or under your price range currently on there:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-Dell-OptiPlex-Computer/dp/B01E97I7UO/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-HP-i5-3470-Computer/dp/B084T2QN4R/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-HP-i5-3470-Computer/dp/B084T33N2H/

You don't get Windows 10 on a disc, (although you may get a recovery disc), it comes built into the machine and you can download it for free from Microsoft at any time if you need to reinstall it.
You don't even need to enter a licence key to reinstall Windows these days, your machine has a 'digital entitlement' and the reinstall just picks it up automatically.
The only time you need to buy a new Windows key is if the machine has never had Win 8,10, or 11 Activated on it before. eg. a machine that you have built yourself.
(You can actually run Windows without 'Activation', it's legal and I currently have one laptop that runs unactivated Windows 10 (It used to be Windows XP and I refurbished/upgraded it). The main thing is that unless Activated some of the customisation settings do not work, but there are other ways to customise Windows than those settings).

I thank you for making the effort to look for some PCs for me. Many thanks. I must mention to you that all the PC's you mentioned the links for are only8GB RAM. i like the one with the memory 1TB but is there any reason who shwed me 8GB RAM

km1500

you don't need 16gb of ram - 8gb plus a ssd is fine