Recommend a PC
Discussion
I need a computer/laptop for work and find myself drowning in options. Will only be using Office and the internet, never do gaming or anything like that. Will I only need 4GB RAM (that’s basically how fast it goes isn’t it?) I’m wanting to spend around £200-250 really and would prefer 2 screens included in that price, don’t mind screens being refurb ones, or even a refurb computer if anyone has good experience of a particular website?
What do you have at the moment? Getting two screens at that price point will definitely be secondhand refurbished.
The RAM impacts the speed but the GHz and number of cores will dictate the speed of the processor. Depends what you are doing - more RAM will mean you can have more applications open without the system grinding to a halt.
Dell outlet is often recommended on here, but again your budget may constrain any options....
The RAM impacts the speed but the GHz and number of cores will dictate the speed of the processor. Depends what you are doing - more RAM will mean you can have more applications open without the system grinding to a halt.
Dell outlet is often recommended on here, but again your budget may constrain any options....
Fair enough, I’ll go to £350 then if that sort of budget doesn’t allow me much. I didn’t know Dell had an Outlet so will try that, that’s helpful! I’m literally just on Microsoft Excel and on 1 or 2 websites at any one time, nothing more than that so it can be as basic as they come really!
How about something like: https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-lenovo...
You can pick up an external monitor (an possibly a keyboard and mouse) to act as a second screen on gumtree or ebay.
They have cheaper laptops on that site and also desktops that would meet your requirements: https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/pt/desktop-pcs...
You can pick up an external monitor (an possibly a keyboard and mouse) to act as a second screen on gumtree or ebay.
They have cheaper laptops on that site and also desktops that would meet your requirements: https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/pt/desktop-pcs...
eBay is rammed with ex-office boxes, I have one, they're superb. There are threads on here with recommendations for them too.
Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
Sorry, can you clarify whether you want a Laptop or a Desktop or you're not fussed? I read your post as either, but rereading it I'm not sure, though your two screens suggests desktop.
Chromebook at that price point on a laptop I suspect works best, but if a desktop is fine for you then that's where the value for money is.
Unless you have a specific use case, which it doesn't sound like you do, then I think the best performance/value option is to get a cheap desktop and a tablet rather than a single device laptop and dock setup.
Chromebook at that price point on a laptop I suspect works best, but if a desktop is fine for you then that's where the value for money is.
Unless you have a specific use case, which it doesn't sound like you do, then I think the best performance/value option is to get a cheap desktop and a tablet rather than a single device laptop and dock setup.
Amazon refurbished
Pick something from there - personally I'd aim for at least 8GB RAM, SSD and at least a third gen i5 (4 cores 4 threads).
Pick something from there - personally I'd aim for at least 8GB RAM, SSD and at least a third gen i5 (4 cores 4 threads).
I have a refurb Dell Optiplex 790 that has 1Tb big old slow drive in it with 16Gb ram.
It doesn't do gaming as the graphics card is shockingly bad, but it's an Intel i5 thingy.
Happy runs MS Office and a Linux Virtual Machine running a development website.
They go for comparative peanuts on eBay.
It doesn't do gaming as the graphics card is shockingly bad, but it's an Intel i5 thingy.
Happy runs MS Office and a Linux Virtual Machine running a development website.
They go for comparative peanuts on eBay.
paulrockliffe said:
eBay is rammed with ex-office boxes, I have one, they're superb. There are threads on here with recommendations for them too.
Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
You see I don't know what an SSD is let alone what it does or if I need one! I wont be using teams and will be using Edge if you tell me Chrome makes it slower!Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
If I can get better value for money with a desktop then I'm happy going for that, but I didn't realis there was better value in desktops?
I'll have a look on Amazon and eBay. Thanks all for your help.
Abc321 said:
paulrockliffe said:
eBay is rammed with ex-office boxes, I have one, they're superb. There are threads on here with recommendations for them too.
Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
You see I don't know what an SSD is let alone what it does or if I need one! I wont be using teams and will be using Edge if you tell me Chrome makes it slower!Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
If I can get better value for money with a desktop then I'm happy going for that, but I didn't realis there was better value in desktops?
I'll have a look on Amazon and eBay. Thanks all for your help.
SSD is solid state drive. I don't really understand, but from what I gather, these run a lot faster than normal hard drives and you upload your operating software to it and your computer should run a lot smoother.
They are quite expensive (relatively, copmared wuth the PC at the low end level we are looking at) but I think it's advisable not to get one without at this point.
paulrockliffe said:
eBay is rammed with ex-office boxes, I have one, they're superb. There are threads on here with recommendations for them too.
Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
This is good advice. Unfortunately it's a sellers market at the moment. Demand for PC parts has gone crazy this year. Acient graphics cards selling for silly prices.Mine was £120, then I paid an extra £20 to upgrade it to an SSD and I added a different graphics card to let it run 3 screens, rather than the two it supported out of the box.
Your budget is fine for that, but not if you want to buy two monitors as well and definitely won't stretch to a decent keyboard and mouse too. I have a couple of new monitors because work bought them for me, but when I have to buy them I go on Gumtree and pick up something that a local gamer has upgraded for buttons.
I would make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM and an SSD for Windows 10, then you'll struggle to find a processor that won't cope with what you want. RAM is cheap and Chrome and Teams both like to hammer it if you have it, so you may want to look at the cost of going from 8 to 16Gb there, but I wouldn't if you're looking at a budget rather than value for money.
Jinx said:
Amazon refurbished
Pick something from there - personally I'd aim for at least 8GB RAM, SSD and at least a third gen i5 (4 cores 4 threads).
I bought one of these refurbed Lenovo's recently for the Mrs who needed something for Uni work...Pick something from there - personally I'd aim for at least 8GB RAM, SSD and at least a third gen i5 (4 cores 4 threads).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CSXS8BB/ref...
It's been great.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-i5-4570-...
Any good? Its got the 8GB RAM and the SSD. 1 years warranty and all for £200.
Any good? Its got the 8GB RAM and the SSD. 1 years warranty and all for £200.
Abc321 said:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Monitor-i5-4570-...
Any good? Its got the 8GB RAM and the SSD. 1 years warranty and all for £200.
Absolutely fine for basic tasks.Any good? Its got the 8GB RAM and the SSD. 1 years warranty and all for £200.
My old PC finally gave in today and no longer wants to boot up. Like above I only use it for web browsing and the odd bit of Photoshop so am thinking about getting one of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YST68J3/ref...
Not that I'm likely to use its full potential but I'm assuming the i7 is a worthwhile upgrade from the i5?
Before pressing the button has anyone sent any other deals that will give a better bang for the buck?
Thanks
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YST68J3/ref...
Not that I'm likely to use its full potential but I'm assuming the i7 is a worthwhile upgrade from the i5?
Before pressing the button has anyone sent any other deals that will give a better bang for the buck?
Thanks
The digit after the i7 or i5 is processor generation, so that's a 2nd generation Core CPU - introduced in 2011. I'd rather have a 4th gen I5 or similar than pay a top end CPU premium for something that old.
If you don't need any add in cards, how about something like https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/pc-base-units/prod...
or something else from https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/pc-base-units ?
If you don't need any add in cards, how about something like https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/pc-base-units/prod...
or something else from https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/pc-base-units ?
Thanks Xeny, as it turns out it was one of the HDDs that was playing up, I've pulled it from the machine and all works fine now! Actually checked the specs of the PC and it's an i5 4th gen (thanks for the code number tip) 4670 3.4ghz so will stick with it a bit longer.
It does only have 8gb of RAM though so considering upgrading this to 16gb. There are two slots free so am I best to get 2x4gb or can i just stick a single 8gb in one of them
Thanks
It does only have 8gb of RAM though so considering upgrading this to 16gb. There are two slots free so am I best to get 2x4gb or can i just stick a single 8gb in one of them
Thanks
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