Desktop PC for browsing internet and watching videos

[RobbieTheTruth]

I don't do much. Essentially browse online with multiple tabs, download the odd film/boxing match, stream Netflix and watch loads of YouTube.

I just want a relative powerful PC that will handle multiple internet browsers with ease.

I'm on Hyperoptic 1bg.

Am I basically looking for and modern PC with a decent SSD?

Anything/anyplace particular I should be looking for?

What are all the 'renewed' ones on Amazon/Ebay?

Edited by RobbieTheTruth on Wednesday 16th March 19:52

[Robotron70]

I’ve got one of these purely for web browsing, from power on to desktop in less than 20 seconds -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-3020m-Tiny-Mini-PC...

[Theraveda]

I've been happy with all the Dell machines I've bought. I got my last machine here;

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbish...

[RobbieTheTruth]

Theraveda said:

I've been happy with all the Dell machines I've bought. I got my last machine here;

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbish...

Thanks - that's where I got my current one and it's been good for 10 years.

[Theraveda]

RobbieTheTruth said:

Thanks - that's where I got my current one and it's been good for 10 years.

You're welcome!

[paulrockliffe]

For your use case you can't really go wrong these days, so long as you avoid something with 4Gb of RAM you'll be fine opening lots of browser windows.

eBay refurbished office machine, pay to upgrade it to an SSD and it might be worth paying for 16Gb of RAM too and you'll be fine. Broadly the more you pay the better a machine you'll get, but like I say even the cheapest will do the job.

[FourWheelDrift]

Robotron70 said:

I’ve got one of these purely for web browsing, from power on to desktop in less than 20 seconds -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-3020m-Tiny-Mini-PC...

Only has a Displayport or VGA for video output, so it depends if RobbieTheTruth has a display with a Displayport not all do and not as many as HDMI. I wouldn't bother with VGA.

[Captain_Morgan]

These are relatively powerful

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-laptops/sf/al...


The refurb units on eBay, some have been refurbished, some have been hoovered out, some haven’t been touched at all.

Most have quite old CPU’s in them, you’d need to look up ther specific cpu but for example a i3-4600 would be a fourth generation i3 cpu that dates back to 2014 so quite old now.

As a minimum I’d look for

Cpu i5 gen7 or above
Mem 8gb
Storage 256gb ssd

[RobbieTheTruth]

Captain_Morgan said:

These are relatively powerful

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-laptops/sf/al...


The refurb units on eBay, some have been refurbished, some have been hoovered out, some haven’t been touched at all.

Most have quite old CPU’s in them, you’d need to look up ther specific cpu but for example a i3-4600 would be a fourth generation i3 cpu that dates back to 2014 so quite old now.

As a minimum I’d look for

Cpu i5 gen7 or above
Mem 8gb
Storage 256gb ssd

Thanks

Looking at my existing settings, currently have

CPU i5 2300 cpu 2.90ghz
6gb
No SSD

Worth me getting someone to add an SSD and get 8mg of new ram (or an additional 6)?

It's probably over a decade old.

[anonymous-user]

Get something modern with a good wifi 6 card built in.

You have something equivalent to a 100k mile car that is a decade old. I remember reading a lot of PC components are designed to last about 10 years. Stuff like capacitors start going bad around this age.

Sure like with cars, someone is going to have a 20 year old PC still going strong, but I don’t think its worth investing in upgrading a machine that old.

I bet if you buy an SSD, it will be strangled by a SATA 2 connection which is really slow. You can mitigate this by adding a PCI-E card, but is it worth it? At some point its better to get rid and get a machine containing new standards for internal busses and connections etc.

Having said that, your upgrades will work in eeeking more life out of it and you will see a lot of the benefits of having an SSD, even on SATA 2. Depends on your financial situation I guess. And if you are the sort of person who thinks adding a new stainless steel exhaust, mapping the ECU, fitting high lift cams, adding a new air intake etc. is a good idea on an average 10 year old 100k mile car like a 1.6 Ford Focus, which you find a bit slow. That’s what you are suggesting in PC terms. Yeah it will work, but won’t it be better just to buy a new car?

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 17th March 06:15

[Captain_Morgan]

RobbieTheTruth said:

Thanks

Looking at my existing settings, currently have

CPU i5 2300 cpu 2.90ghz
6gb
No SSD

Worth me getting someone to add an SSD and get 8mg of new ram (or an additional 6)?

It's probably over a decade old.

I’d say you’d had your money’s worth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core...

That’s a gen 2 cpu from 2011.

Adding a sad will be ~£40-50 plus the time to reinstall windows or this machine with a 2018 cpu, ssd and 8gb with windows already set up

https://www.europc.co.uk/hp-elitedesk-800-g4-sff-d...

[Mr Pointy]

There are still lots of ex-business machines on ebay but not so many moderately current machines which are definate to work with Windows 11. MS have said that a PC will need an 8th generation processor & a TPM module to run W11, but lots of people are saying they have made it work with older PCs.

Looking at Dell Optiplex PCs you need at least a 7060 to be sure it will work & there are few on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_t...

They aren't particularly cheap though, unlike the practically throw away 7010/7040/7050 models. If you feeling happy taking a bit of a risk over W11 then there are some nice 7050s available:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_t...

Lots of them have 8/16Gb & an SSD - always buy them already fitted as it costs way more to upgrade.

[k99]

Buy an iPad Pro. Ditch the PC.

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah I think for that use case I’d get an iPad Pro too.

And I’m an avid PC builder/user.

[Mr Pointy]

A 12" iPad Pro starts at £1000 before you add on a keyboard for £329 & you're still left looking at a tiny screen.

For this use case it's not a great solution - the OP hasn't asked for a portable system.

[Mr Whippy]

Those NUC Intel things are pretty swish.

All depends what you want.

Plus screen. Do you want nice. Any old thing? Already have?

[paulrockliffe]

For this use case I would heavily weight the budget towards the stuff that you interact with, screen, keyboard, mouse. Simply because the PCs that will do this stuff cost buttons and if you don't do other stuff you won't notice any benefit from the extra hardware spend.

Not sure the OP is asking about new monitors etc, but it's where I'd go first if I decided I want to up the budget.

I spent 18 months working off a £100 refurb HP desktop box, spend £30 on an SSD for it, then I spent £50 on a funny graphics card for it to run three screens and that was faaaar more useful than an expensive machine. Even that would happily chunk significant data volumes in Excel and Power BI

[RizzoTheRat]

For watching Youtube consider something like a Chromecast with Google TV or a Firestick plugged in to your telly rather than a computer. Much nicer to watch stuff from the sofa than your desk.

[RVB]

Mr Pointy said:

There are still lots of ex-business machines on ebay but not so many moderately current machines which are definate to work with Windows 11. MS have said that a PC will need an 8th generation processor & a TPM module to run W11, but lots of people are saying they have made it work with older PCs.

I'm running Windows 11 on an old Dell with Pentium E5300 processor which was released 14 years ago.

On the initial attempt at installing W11 it failed every part of the compatibility check (processor, TPM, secure boot) to the extent that W11 refused to install - not even allowing me to tick a disclaimer box as has been the case with some people.

I edited the W11 checker/installer file and it installed without issue and has been running fine and receiving updates since October.

[eeLee]

Indeed many ex-business machines have TPM but 1.2 - 11 needs 2.0

www.rufus.ie will prepare you a Win11 install USB that can bypass the security checks.

I am running Win11 on a Samsung Slate (MS Built 2011 goodie) and a Dell Dimension from 2005. I don't even have the watermark.

For the computing needs, SSD + 8Gb RAM would be the base and depending on what screen(s) you want to drive will make clear what video requirements you have. Any recent generation i3 upwards will do what you need, they also have reasonable graphics capabilities.

For whomever suggested an iPad (pro, anything) does not understand what budget means. I went through the thought process 2 years ago thinking Pro but bought a Surface Pro 7 instead. Absolutely no regrets and cost about 60% of what a decent Pro plus Magic keyboard would. Oh and it drives my QHD screen at native resolution and not some funky Apple-driven version of events.