I know I've asked before but (a) W10 support ends shortly and (b) the level of HDD activity on current PC has ramped up is making me concerned that its on its way out.
I still prefer a desktop, or rather tower, to a laptop. Need reasonable performance for general home use including browsing, forumming and household admin. I usually have 10-15 tabs open in Chrome which obviously uses memory.
Not a gamer, though I could get into flight simming. I have an SDR play software defined radio which is demanding enough of processor that it overwhelms the cheap Lenovo notebook I use away from home.
Need a CD/DVD player as I've still got lots of both.
Around a terabyte HDD though that's probably over the top.
Needs to be sufficiently future proof to last five plus years, current one dates back to before lockdown.
I'll pay what's needed but would expect to come in at a max of £500 for PC only. Got screen etc and the keyboard I failed to hand back to the MoJ in 2013 still functions perfectly.
Recommendations please!!
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You don't really need a CD/DVD player as you can buy a plug in. Mine cost around a tenner from ebay a couple of years ago and works perfectly.
I've got a mini PC and it performs as well or better than any desktop I've had at much lower purchase cost. They are worth considering.
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If it won't work with tiny url or similar, editing out everything after the question mark in Amazon links usually sorts it.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 24 Sep 25 at 13:34
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A few questions.
Is the PC Win11 compliant?
How much memory has it got?
Will the motherboard support an NVME SSD, (preferably, though SATA would definitely be an option)?
Do you sign in to it with a Microsoft Account?
(There may be a few more later)
Win10 goes "out of support" next month, but subject to going through a few easy MS hoops you can get extended security updates for another year, free and official.
If you want to keep WIN10, or the m/c is WIN11 compliant and can be updated to this later, subject to the answers above I would suggest upgrading and reinstalling windows.
A 1TB SSD would be in the order of £55, and (other than a 8GB min USB stick if you haven't got one) that would be the only cost, and the performance improvement over a HDD should be significant.
The O/S installation (up to date) is available free from the MS website; the installation process is relatively easy and, since you'd install to the SSD, the (presumed) current HDD would provide a fall back in case of messing up.
Patently, after a reinstall you'd need to get all your personal stuff (programs, data, etc.) reinstalled, but it's the same issue with a new m/c.
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>> I can never get this shortening malarky to work, if a mod can step in
>> please.
>>
tinyurl.com/4hs36ss9
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Others have installed W11 on older AMD processors than yours. Before splashing out on a new box, try downloading the installation tool and installing it onto a 16 GB usb stick and then update using that.
support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d
Of course, if you want to buy a new box, ignore this.
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For clarity I'm convinced my current 2017 PC is at end of life and not looking for that classic forum thing that maybe I'm asking the wrong question.
PMSL over answers outwith the question posed; for which see below;
What do I need in terms of processor/memory etc and preferably links to models/retail sellers do I need to meet requirements in my op?
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I started this earlier (before there were any other answers) but went out for dinner at which I forced down an entire bottle of a rather agreeable red. So it is incomplete but I was at least trying to answer the orig post. :-)
"Increasing disk activity isn't necessarily a sign that the machine is on it's way out - could just be short of memory or a knackered app or drive or something but the W10 end cometh so upgrading isn't a bad idea.
"I'd imagine these days you want to be looking at a later i5 processor or equivalent, or i7, with at least 16g memory for the stuff you do.
"As above the external DVD is a good idea, or take the one out of your existing machine and ..."
And there the draft ended. I'll look again tomorrow and maybe add more when both brain cells are active... morgancomputers was the name I wanted to check out.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 24 Sep 25 at 22:10
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I have had such PC issues since the late 80s.. The PC was struggling, needing another hard disk & memory, it would re-boot for absolutely no reason..... etc etc
My wife would "listen" to the tales over a couple of months. At a point, she would mention it might be better to get a new PC/Laptop and, as the PCs were a lot cheaper a better investment than putting it in to be upgraded and for the PC to fail completely a few months on.
Similar stories needed to change the car BUT that takes ages. My wife is allergic to car showrooms.
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E.G. this one tinyurl.com/bdh5avmd
Intel Core i5 10th Gen up to 4.50GHz Hexa Core
16GB RAM (Max 128GB)
256GB SSD
Windows 11 Professional
No Optical Drive
DisplayPort, USB Type C & USB 3.1
for £330 (you may need to buy a display port to HDMI converter for a few qui if that's what your current monitor is.
Your Windows 11 is pre-installed on the onboard 256Gb NVME disk so once you're happy you've saved all you need you can reformat your existing drive to use as a data drive, leaving the NVME for system.
And of course you can re-purpose your existing peripherals instead of having to have new ones.
You could choose to have 32Gb memory which should make it really fly for your purposes.
I have used these people in the rather distant past and was quite happy with the way it went. They've been around for years.
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>> and not>> looking for that classic forum thing that maybe I'm asking the wrong question.
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....but you're asking the wrong question ;-)
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>> What do I need in terms of processor/memory etc and preferably links to models/retail sellers
>> do I need to meet requirements in my op?
>>
Just seen this - you are probably sorted by now, but if it's not too far for you I've had helpful service from Dave and Ryan at computerdoctors on Holcot Lane nr Sywell when I replaced my water damaged laptop recently.
www.computerdoctors.co.uk/contact/
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New PC Needed - Robin O'Reliant
