Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
This, 100%.
A UPS is really handy but a data backup option is far more important.
Odd computer behaviour
- Thread starter weltweit
- Start date
A UPS is really handy but a data backup option is far more important.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I'd say it's old enough to have those things
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
The N100 nuc would get the job done and be faster, but is more of a sidegrade for budgetary concerns. The Ryzen 7735 is screaming fast and would be really quite noticeably powerful. The used HP sits between the two in power and remains cheap as the N100.
I still think the cheap NUCs are the way to go for most people unless they need the expandability of a proper PC. They're impossible to fix, but as you've seen when you get past a certain age repairs aren't really an economical option.
I still think the cheap NUCs are the way to go for most people unless they need the expandability of a proper PC. They're impossible to fix, but as you've seen when you get past a certain age repairs aren't really an economical option.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
The £100 job, yes. It's bare minimum. But the Ryzen is an 8 core Zen 3 with a boost speed of 4.8GHz. Even I get by on 6 cores, albeit ones some 20% faster.
And we've only just got to the point where 8GB is a bit constrained for the average user. I reckon 16GB will see most users for the next 10 years.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I just spent a sort of frustrating three quarters of an hour in currys in Gloucester.
I had hoped to go in check out what they've got and walk out with a PC a keyboard a mouse and a VGA adapter. It was not to be.
Most of the PCs had eight gig RAM and I wanted 16, quite a lot of them had only an SSD often only 512 gig, I don't think I found one with a one or two terabyte hard drive.
They had a lot of laptops and sort of Chromebooks etc then they had a gamers section with very expensive graphics cards not for me.
Looks like I am back to researching on line, I think what I want is Windows 11 a medium fast chip 16 gig of RAM a 512 gig SSD for the software and a one or two terabytes hard disk drive for the data. It doesn't have to have a flash graphics card because I'm not going to be gaming.
I had hoped to go in check out what they've got and walk out with a PC a keyboard a mouse and a VGA adapter. It was not to be.
Most of the PCs had eight gig RAM and I wanted 16, quite a lot of them had only an SSD often only 512 gig, I don't think I found one with a one or two terabyte hard drive.
They had a lot of laptops and sort of Chromebooks etc then they had a gamers section with very expensive graphics cards not for me.
Looks like I am back to researching on line, I think what I want is Windows 11 a medium fast chip 16 gig of RAM a 512 gig SSD for the software and a one or two terabytes hard disk drive for the data. It doesn't have to have a flash graphics card because I'm not going to be gaming.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Do you mind second hand or do you want new? If you want new then what's your budget? Would you be willing to add a second drive yourself?
Did you check to see if the monitor had any other ports then just VGA?
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I am coming round to the idea that secondhand could be worth considering. I do see that second hand it's going to be much lower cost.
If new I think I am prepared to spend up to 700 pounds, and that's for a tower with all the bits a keyboard a mouse and a screen adaptor. Ish..
Yes I checked the monitor it only has the VGA connector and the power lead.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Yes, absolutely. Keep hard drives for backups. Having all the files that you work with on SSD will make a much nicer experience. Do you know how to fit a SSD/HDD drive to a PC if you wanted a second one? I'd probably buy a second hand one with enough RAM and then add an additional SSD if you have the option.
Obviously an adapter for your current screen is very cheap, but if it's that old that it's only got VGA and you can had the funds free (maybe from buying a second hand PC) then I'd imagine even a sub £100 24" screen would be a lot nicer. Although £150 would get you a 27" QHD screen which would feel lovely to use.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Most of the custom builders aren't interested in that price range, but I can put together the following...
Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor £139.97
Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE 43 CFM CPU Cooler £15.99
Asus PRIME B660M-K D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard £85.98
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory £34.99
Verbatim Vi3000 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive £89.99
Thermaltake S100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case £35.99
be quiet! System Power 10 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply £44.99
Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard £12.99
Logitech M90 Wired Optical Mouse £8.91
Dell SE2422H 24.0" 1920 x 1080 75 Hz Monitor £98.98
Total £568.78
Now that's a mess of parts and a built system would cost you more, but it shouldn't top £650 and I've snuck a new monitor in there too. Can always take that out to save £100.
Many of the bits aren't bleeding edge, but still 80% as good as the newest and shiniest. Particularly where I've gone for an older tech 2TB SSD - still going to be miles faster then any spinning disk. Small spinning disks are quite expensive for the storage size - they only get to be a good deal at 4TB+ sizes.
Now Windows... Depends on how legit you want. You can buy licenses online that are... sketchy in origin for not a whole lot. But a proper OEM pre-install is going to run you £100.
This isn't going to leave you anything spare for a backup solution though. But I think that's as low as it's possible to go with UK parts and still have something that will last you 10 years. Cheaper is giving up something useful or buying a Chinese NUC.
Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor £139.97
Thermalright Assassin X 90 SE 43 CFM CPU Cooler £15.99
Asus PRIME B660M-K D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard £85.98
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory £34.99
Verbatim Vi3000 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive £89.99
Thermaltake S100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case £35.99
be quiet! System Power 10 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply £44.99
Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard £12.99
Logitech M90 Wired Optical Mouse £8.91
Dell SE2422H 24.0" 1920 x 1080 75 Hz Monitor £98.98
Total £568.78
Now that's a mess of parts and a built system would cost you more, but it shouldn't top £650 and I've snuck a new monitor in there too. Can always take that out to save £100.
Many of the bits aren't bleeding edge, but still 80% as good as the newest and shiniest. Particularly where I've gone for an older tech 2TB SSD - still going to be miles faster then any spinning disk. Small spinning disks are quite expensive for the storage size - they only get to be a good deal at 4TB+ sizes.
Now Windows... Depends on how legit you want. You can buy licenses online that are... sketchy in origin for not a whole lot. But a proper OEM pre-install is going to run you £100.
This isn't going to leave you anything spare for a backup solution though. But I think that's as low as it's possible to go with UK parts and still have something that will last you 10 years. Cheaper is giving up something useful or buying a Chinese NUC.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Hi Chz, thank you for that post you went to some trouble, it is appreciated. I am not sure that I could build a PC myself, I don't feel confident that I know enough about it.
But I am getting closer in my searches. If I have to spend more then I am trying to buy something that will last me the next 10 years. My existing computer lasted me 13 years so I think I got my money's worth.
One side effect of my computer falling over is that I am getting more competent with my phone!! If I don't manage to find a deal with my phone then next week I will be back at work and can use my lappy.
I do want to get this resolved.
But I am getting closer in my searches. If I have to spend more then I am trying to buy something that will last me the next 10 years. My existing computer lasted me 13 years so I think I got my money's worth.
One side effect of my computer falling over is that I am getting more competent with my phone!! If I don't manage to find a deal with my phone then next week I will be back at work and can use my lappy.
I do want to get this resolved.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I've installed Win 11 on quite a few computers, including three in the past month, and I've yet to pay for a license. I just download the ISO from Microsoft and make a bootable USB with Rufus. You can even choose to bypass those silly checks that might prevent it installing.
Just skip past the license key nag (I'll supply it later) at the start of the installation, and once it installs it's pre-activated.
Now I don't know if I'm just being lucky, but I've done maybe twenty or so installs this way, and none of them required parting with any hard-earned.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
TBF, it's a much better case and power supply than Dell would give you. I went for the cheapest PSU that I myself would consider using, but cheaper is definitely available.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Where they big name PCs that probably came with 10? If so there's a good chance to key is in the BIOS.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
what's the panel's view on these little SSD computers that are about the size of a cigar box?
i'm thinking that my current PC (bought second hand / refurbished in 2016) might want replacing some time in the next year or so (it's not windows 11-able, and may be worth getting in ahead of the rush to upgrade when W10 becomes obsolete next year) and wondering if one of them might be a way forward.
when i got the current one (it's got a SSD and HD) the wisdom at the time was SSD's are ok for keeping the operating system and programs on, but not for keeping files on, but not sure that's still the general wisdom.
i'm thinking that my current PC (bought second hand / refurbished in 2016) might want replacing some time in the next year or so (it's not windows 11-able, and may be worth getting in ahead of the rush to upgrade when W10 becomes obsolete next year) and wondering if one of them might be a way forward.
when i got the current one (it's got a SSD and HD) the wisdom at the time was SSD's are ok for keeping the operating system and programs on, but not for keeping files on, but not sure that's still the general wisdom.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
As we've been talking about, there's no need for most people to bother with a conventional hard drive anymore unless they need a lot of storage. I'm a big fan of those little PCs. Here's a Dell for example. You can even fit a second SSD in there.
Dell OptiPlex 3070 Micro - i5-9400T - 16GB RAM - 240GB SSD - WIN11 - WITH WIFI | eBay
THIS SALE IS FOR A Dell OptiPlex 3070 Micro - i5-9400T - 16GB RAM - 240GB SSD - WIN11 WITH WIFI. Storage: 240GB SSD. Ports: 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 6 x USB, Gigabit Ethernet, headphone/audio jack.
www.ebay.co.uk
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I'd added SLIC tables to the BIOS of one of them about 10 years ago, but the rest were just PCs I'd built for people over the years. I've no idea why they're self-activating but I'm not complaining.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
It's hard to beat the value proposition on things like the below, but that's because they come with basically no warranty (AE will refund DoA, but past that you're on your own), are unrepairable and usually only the disk can be upgraded.
That said, plenty of people on HUKD have bought them and had no problems. So long as you keep backups, I think they're fine. I wouldn't trust them without it though.
Eg: 258.68ï¿¡ 21% OFF|Amd Offices|amd Ryzen 7 7735hs Mini Pc - 32gb Ddr5, 512gb Ssd, 8k, Usb4
7735HS (8 cores) 32GB memory and 1TB disk for just under 400 quid.
That said, plenty of people on HUKD have bought them and had no problems. So long as you keep backups, I think they're fine. I wouldn't trust them without it though.
Eg: 258.68ï¿¡ 21% OFF|Amd Offices|amd Ryzen 7 7735hs Mini Pc - 32gb Ddr5, 512gb Ssd, 8k, Usb4
7735HS (8 cores) 32GB memory and 1TB disk for just under 400 quid.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
And if they stop there are ways around it.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Maybe I'm slightly jaded at the moment, I've ordered a cheap one from AliExpress as a project and had no issues. However, more recently I've had an order show as delivered when it hasn't been and the experience of trying to deal with it is frustrating to say the least. To the point I'll probably give up as it's not a lot of money. So unless you've got a more specific use case, like you want a small PC with several network ports or really need 8 cores in a tiny box, I'd be much more tempted to go the re-conditioned eBay route.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I discovered how useless PayPal is if something shows as delivered but you didn't get it. They simply accept that it's delivered and tough shit. The only chance you have is with your card company, then PayPal will probably ban you, so unless it's an expensive item, sometimes it's easier to just chalk it up as an inevitability.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
It's been the lack of opportunity to speak to someone human, even the responses I've had to select have been multiple choice and they don't really fit. eBay is generally pretty good if you're a buyer.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
That's what I say to everyone who expresses an interest in buying from China. It's all good until something goes wrong, then see how far you get negotiating the language barrier between you and a Chinese bot that was programmed to keep your money at all costs.
