Need a new PC. Suggestions?

[caduceus]

My desktop PC has finally given up and won't boot (graphics card I think). It is 8 or so years old now, maybe 10, and I need to recover the photos, videos, letters, etc off the hard drive. Is this hard to do with a new pc?
I built this one myself with parts ordered from eBuyer and it's been fine till now. I'm happy to build another one but not up to date with pc components anymore. My current one has an ASUS M5A97 mother board, Palit graphics card, OCZ ZS series 550W power supply, 1TB hard drive, AMD processor, Kingston DDR3 RAM and Silentium T11 Arctic case.
I assume that's all old hat now...?

I only use it to surf the net, bits of audio editing, emails and that's it.

Can anyone suggest a replacement?

Thanks in advance
Cad

[grumbledoak]

You should only build one if you would enjoy picking the components and assembling it. You won't save any money and you might even bugger it up!

It's not a tough looking requirement. The big box shippers will all sell you something that will work - that's HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. Sizes from Tower to Small Form Factor to Tiny/1ltr. They all have "Outlet" stores selling cancelled orders and returns for less money.

Intel CPUs are 9th Gen now. RAM is DDR4 2666MHz

Entry level is an i3 with 4GB RAM and 128GB, but do get an SSD
Mid level around an i5 with 8GB and 256GB SATA SSD
High spec maybe an i7 16GB and 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe

On-board graphics is fine if you aren't a serious gamer.

[Turn7]

Go to Pc Specialists website and have a play around......

[RobDickinson]

grumbledoak said:

Intel CPUs are 10th Gen now. RAM is DDR4 3200MHz
.

Fixed that for you..


tbh for what the OP needs I would just go amd 3100, a b450 board, 2 * 4gb ddr4 and a m.2 SSD with a low rent gpu in, put it in a nice modern case with good psu and cooling.

[Mattt]

Dell Outlet generally has some pretty good deals, when I bought mine from there it was cheaper than self-build for the same spec.

[Mr Pointy]

I'll ask my usual question: does it have to be new?

For a PC that get used for the things you use it for I'd buy secondhand/refurbished off ebay or Amazon.

[caduceus]

Thanks for the replies all.
I've had a look at the Dell website and they're pretty pricey. The PC I have now (8 years old) cost £570 for the components.

I do want a decent enough replacement PC but my main concern is pulling off all the media from the old PC's hard drive. Is this difficult? If I remove it will it essentially be a portable storage that I can connect to my new PC to transfer the media onto it? Albeit come kind of interface cable that goes from internal connection to USB.

Is this any good: https://www.ebuyer.com/936634-lenovo-v530s-sff-cor...

Regards
Cad

[Jinx]

caduceus said:

Thanks for the replies all.
I've had a look at the Dell website and they're pretty pricey. The PC I have now (8 years old) cost £570 for the components.

I do want a decent enough replacement PC but my main concern is pulling off all the media from the old PC's hard drive. Is this difficult? If I remove it will it essentially be a portable storage that I can connect to my new PC to transfer the media onto it? Albeit come kind of interface cable that goes from internal connection to USB.

Is this any good: https://www.ebuyer.com/936634-lenovo-v530s-sff-cor...

Regards
Cad

Similar but includes a dedicated GPU on the dell outlet site ( XPS)

[grumbledoak]

caduceus said:

Thanks for the replies all.
I've had a look at the Dell website and they're pretty pricey. The PC I have now (8 years old) cost £570 for the components.

I do want a decent enough replacement PC but my main concern is pulling off all the media from the old PC's hard drive. Is this difficult? If I remove it will it essentially be a portable storage that I can connect to my new PC to transfer the media onto it? Albeit come kind of interface cable that goes from internal connection to USB.

Is this any good: https://www.ebuyer.com/936634-lenovo-v530s-sff-cor...

Regards
Cad

I don't think you'll have any problem taking the old disk out and plugging it either into the new case, or into a USB caddy. Probably worth a quick look now to see what type it is.

That spec looks fine. Other similar ones

This Lenovo ThinkCentre has a better spec SSD PCIe NVMe and with web code TRADEIN is £487.99
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/desktops-and-all-in-o...

A smaller, prettier home model Lenovo IdeaCentre 510S £579.99
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/desktops-and-all-in-o...

Similar from Dell in a small case is £568.99
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/desktops-and-all-i...

HP seem a bit more expensive
https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id...


And you can maybe beat these prices at the outlets if you check daily

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/sale/clearance/
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbish...
https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Offer.aspx?p=c-...

[Pieman68]

I work for a component distributor and we also do own build PCs. If you get an idea of spec I can always see if I can get something put together for you (we do also have some prebuilt and can source HP, Lenovo, Dell etc. as well)

If you don't need absolute newest I can get a Lenovo box with 8th gen i5 CPU, 8Gb, 256Gb, Win 10 home delivered for about £395 all in

Edited by Pieman68 on Friday 12th June 17:29

[caduceus]

Thanks again for the info all.
Grumbled - that Lenovo Thinkcentre looks pretty good. Quick question about the power though. 180W. Is that man enough? As my old PC had a 550W unit and the computer tech guy said that might be part of the problem that I had? I know bugger all about power needs of computers but just wanted to be sure the 180W is going to be enough. All I'll add in the future might be more RAM or a decent sound card.
As long as the PC is fast and reliable, ok for audio/a little video & photo editing I'm not really that bothered as I'm not loyal to any make.

Is Lenovo a decent make these days?

The hard drive I have in the old PC is a WD 1.0TB SATA/64MB Cache WD 1002FAEX. Not sure what this means in terms of pulling stuff off of it.

Regards
Cad

[caduceus]

Pieman68 said:

I work for a component distributor and we also do own build PCs. If you get an idea of spec I can always see if I can get something put together for you (we do also have some prebuilt and can source HP, Lenovo, Dell etc. as well)

If you don't need absolute newest I can get a Lenovo box with 8th gen i5 CPU, 8Gb, 256Gb, Win 10 home delivered for about £395 all in

Edited by Pieman68 on Friday 12th June 17:29

Thanks for the offer Pie, very kind. I'll figure out what I want and what appears best for my needs and get back to you on that.

[grumbledoak]

caduceus said:

Thanks again for the info all.
Grumbled - that Lenovo Thinkcentre looks pretty good. Quick question about the power though. 180W. Is that man enough? As my old PC had a 550W unit and the computer tech guy said that might be part of the problem that I had? I know bugger all about power needs of computers but just wanted to be sure the 180W is going to be enough. All I'll add in the future might be more RAM or a decent sound card.
As long as the PC is fast and reliable, ok for audio/a little video & photo editing I'm not really that bothered as I'm not loyal to any make.

Is Lenovo a decent make these days?

The hard drive I have in the old PC is a WD 1.0TB SATA/64MB Cache WD 1002FAEX. Not sure what this means in terms of pulling stuff off of it.

Regards
Cad

Top end graphics cards historically did need a lot of power. Plus self-builders always talk themselves into massive over-speccing there. You are looking at newer tech, thus lower power, machines with on-board graphics, so the power needs will be much less. You are also looking at pre-built, so they are not intended for massive upgrades. You will still be able to upgrade RAM or add a sound card later, even a graphics card. You won't have the power or the space to stick in two massive high end graphics cards, and you probably cannot upgrade the PSU easily.

Lenovo are fine. All the box shippers are much the same. It will work and be reliable, more performance costs more money.

Oh the HDD - it's standard SATA interface. You might have one spare connector inside the new one. At worst you'll have to buy a caddy.

[Mr Pointy]

You don't need a really wild spec for what you want to use it for. A later generation i5, 16Gb of RAM, a 256Gb SSD & a 1TB HDD. Maybe a graphics card. Save the money on the PC & spend it on a new monitor - you'll see far more benefit.

[caduceus]

grumbledoak said:

Oh the HDD - it's standard SATA interface. You might have one spare connector inside the new one. At worst you'll have to buy a caddy.

If there is a spare inside and I connect the old HD to it, will it act as a separate storage device I can just click on and pull stuff off of ? Or will it try and boot from it, as it has Windows 7 installed?

I assume this is the type of 'caddy' you are talking about: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat...

Thanks again for the info Grumbled

[grumbledoak]

caduceus said:

If there is a spare inside and I connect the old HD to it, will it act as a separate storage device I can just click on and pull stuff off of ? Or will it try and boot from it, as it has Windows 7 installed?

I assume this is the type of 'caddy' you are talking about: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat...

Thanks again for the info Grumbled

It should boot from it's normal boot disk and show the old drive as a spare. Otherwise that caddy will work.

[caduceus]

Mr Pointy said:

You don't need a really wild spec for what you want to use it for. A later generation i5, 16Gb of RAM, a 256Gb SSD & a 1TB HDD. Maybe a graphics card. Save the money on the PC & spend it on a new monitor - you'll see far more benefit.

I already have a Dell 24 inch HD wide screen display, so don't really want to fork out for another.

[caduceus]

Great stuff. Thanks Grumbled, and everyone who has replied.
I don't think I'll overthink the the decision and just plump for the Lenovo, as it's pretty up to date. Unless anyone knows of something better for the same price.

Cad

[Mr Pointy]

caduceus said:

Mr Pointy said:

You don't need a really wild spec for what you want to use it for. A later generation i5, 16Gb of RAM, a 256Gb SSD & a 1TB HDD. Maybe a graphics card. Save the money on the PC & spend it on a new monitor - you'll see far more benefit.

I already have a Dell 24 inch HD wide screen display, so don't really want to fork out for another.

Well unless it's one of the Premiercolour ones a 24" HD screen is a pretty low level grade monitor these days. You can work so much more efficiently with a 27" QHD or larger, or even an Ultrawide.

Anyway it's up to you. I know where my money would go.

[Nimby]

caduceus said:

... but my main concern is pulling off all the media from the old PC's hard drive. Is this difficult?

No but to copy files from Documents, Photos, Music etc that are in the "Users" folder on the old drive, you will need to modify the ownership permissions, even if logged on as an administrator.