After my previous post on x-boxes a couple of months ago, the other child is grumbling that the desktop which i "borrowed" from a project 6 years ago is a bit glitchy. So where can i get a reasonably priced desktop which will run netflix and her school work stuff. Something like this maybe?
https://www.backmarket.co.uk/second-hand-dell-vostro-3250-sff-core-i3-6100-37-ssd-120-gb-8gb/456085.html#l=11
I get them from Amazon for about £150. We have three i5s in our household, they are approx 9 years old, some needed wifi adapters or an SSD adding on but they have been faultless. I chucked in some £20 graphics cards from eBay recently and now they can play a bit of Minecraft, Fortnite or Raft (the kids aren't too fussy about frame rate) and my wife can use a big monitor for work. Outstanding value for money IMO.
That link isn't a great deal though, more than I paid and a lower CPU. That said, it is lower level but newer so it may not be as clear cut as that.
Ebay. You can get much better than that (say i5-7500 also with 8GB and SSD) for a lot less (under £100, possibly loads under). That will do what you are asking it to. You might need to add wifi.
I have powerline adapters floating around the house, so this would be plugged, so maybe wifi not so important.
Never thought of amazon, but will have a look on there and ebay. cheers
That'll be fine, I use an i3-6100 in it for all kinds of stuff and it got even better once I chucked a GT 1030 (DDR5) in it.
edit- this looks like good value-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165214742859?hash=item267790e94b:g:4o8AAOSw-dVhqfZ4
Define "a bit glitchy"? That's not a fault description.
What's the spec? Is it something that an SSD and a Windows reinstall might fix?
Define “a bit glitchy”? That’s not a fault description.
What’s the spec? Is it something that an SSD and a Windows reinstall might fix?
+1 - we have some properly 'old' desktops at work that I bunged SSD and our tech company then did fresh windows install on - they run all Office apps just fine.
Look on ebay.
Processor no older than Intel-i3-6xxx
Preferably an SSD (128GB min) to install OS + HDD 500GB min
RAM at least 8GB.
You don't have to pay much attention to video card if you don't want to play games.
Define “a bit glitchy”? That’s not a fault description
lol. This is my daughters phrase, i use words which wouldn't get past the swear filter. Its slow to boot, even with as many things as possible turned to not start during boot up. When you open a new window, it can easily take a minute to respond. Like its busy doing something more important. But when you look at the task manager its not got much going on...ITs been like this since it was on site. Office is a fresh install. Windows came with it. Its a Packard Bell imedia S2984, with a N3050 processor, 4gb DDR3 and a 1Tb drive.
Trying to use something like minecraft on it, it literally will take 30+seconds to respond to each request to move your little block building bloke about.
I undestand that due to its diminutive size, you cant get upgrades for this PC as its too small inside to accept them. Ive not taken it apart, but to clean it inside) so don;t know much else.
Itzoo is my default answer
Search Dell Refurbished we have been buying these recently as a stop-gap. From Dell the condition is new, most look like they have never been used. 180 day warranty.
I now have three from the past 10 years and they have been excellent
Windows came with it. Its a Packard Bell imedia S2984, with a N3050 processor, 4gb DDR3 and a 1Tb drive.
Fit an SSD with a clean install of windows, theres no telling what state windows is in if it's not a fresh install.
Edit: that said that CPU is a low end laptop CPU, (has a 6 watt power consumption, so that really says it all) and very old so actually, yes you'd be better off with a new(er) refurbed machine.
It was a rubbish cpu when brand new, i'm supprised it's even usable.
the one @kayla1 mentioned isn't too bad - it's streets ahead of the one you currently have in pretty much all aspects for £90.
beware of 'desktop computers' or small form factor 'lifestyle' PC's running old laptop chips, they are almost all universaly rubbish.
I was all in on the 'fresh install and SSD' until you said 'N3050'.
Burn it with fire and get something better. 🙂
Pretty much all of that. ☝
An SSD and reinstall would fix the bulk of those problems but I've never met a Celeron that wasn't shite. Back in the day we used to call it the Intel Pantium. You could likely replace the CPU too but on a 6yo PC that you 'acquired' in the first place, yeah, it owes you nowt.
So the next question is, define "reasonably priced"? The Lenovo above is, well, it's £90 FFS, but I wouldn't be seeing it as much other than a stop-gap and I whilst I'd perhaps argue against claims of "8GB minimum" being a critical requirement I wouldn't be buying a machine which only supported 4GB in 2022.
Back in the day we used to call it the Intel Pantium.
We used to call them celery processors, as in the vegetable 😀
I whilst I’d perhaps argue against claims of “8GB minimum”
Depends really, my current laptop is an i3 10110u, with a measly 4gb of fast ram and a 120gb SSD.. it's absolutley fine for general desk jockeys. It can even run streets of rage 4!
It does get bogged down if you try to do any multitasking but, it's a £400 laptop so can't really complain.
@yetidave looks fine to me. Can't really comment on value as it's a fluctuating market at this price point but it's a solid office machine.
it does not have a dedicated graphics card though and theres limited/no space to fit one should you wish.
Even a cheap crappy graphics card can help with low end gaming as the graphics card should have at least 2gb ram, which means it's not robbing ram from the main system.
But yes it will work and yes you can play minecraft on it 🙂
The built in graphics on skylake/kabylake cpus and onwards are actually quite capable, within reason.
@yetidave That looks like a decent pc, stick a GT 1030 (I know, I'm obsessed!) and it'll even run some less demanding Xbox 360 and PS3 games through emulation 😎
another thing to bear in mind is, these compact office machines also use 'small form factor' power supplies, so aside from adding more ram or SSDs, there's no space or power capacity to really upgrade it, what you see is pretty much what you get.
That said it looks good to me, it's an ugly b'stard but it's small enough to hide under the desk 🙂
Had a laptop and a dell all in one from them with no issues. I've been running the Dell for 2.5 years now for Zwift.
Back in the day we used to call it the Intel Pantium
One of the very first Celeron's that you could overclock from 300Mhz to 450Mhz was pretty handy but anything else has been awful.
