Home PC?

A Samsung EVO 512GB SSD costs around 60 pounds these days, 1TB costs around 95 pounds. So it’s not that expensive, it would also be an easy upgrade to do at a later point, if there is a need for more storage.

I’m sorry Mike but i’m not buying it. I have been building my own PC’s since i was about 10, so for about 35 years now, and what you say just doesn’t compute.

Either way, @JimDog can decide for himself what suits him best.

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I’m not sure anyone suggested he couldn’t but you seem to be looking to point score.

The key here is budget and balance. The number of people who buy a PC for one task, maybe two, but who then go on to discover it has other uses is huge. The kids (or @JimDog) might want it for homework and Fortnite right now but the latter is a big clue. Lifespan of such things is probably a couple of years. When the next game requires a big install but they don’t want to lose Fortnite…

I just think it’s bad advice. Spinning disks are notoriously unreliable, i’ve had more than one of those WD’s failing over the years. I’ve personally never had an SSD fail since i started using them about 15 years ago, and they outperform traditional disks tremendously.

Nowadays it does’t make much sense to ‘spec’ for 5 or 10 years in the future, technology is improving rapidly and the cost is lowering quickly. If in 5 years you run out of space, just buy a new or extra 5TB SSD then that will probably cost around a quarter of what they cost now. There is no reason to put a large amount of unused storage in a computer right now that wouldn’t be filled in years, and would be based on obsolete technology when it would finally be put to use.

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You “think” it’s bad advice! Wow.

You might want to look up some IT training courses on building a PC. It’s standard practice i.e. it’s what IT professionals are taught routinely and has been for about 20 years.

The plural of anecdote is not evidence in any sense. Any hard disk can fail. I’ve had no HDD fail in 20 years and 3 SSDs do so. So what. Reliability is a moveable feast. A certain HDD manufacturer went through an awful period with first HDD then SSD. Ditto others. One SSD manufacturer, not to be named here for obvious reasons, had a year of extraordinary fail rates before things were on the up again. They can fail in a week or a decade regardless of type.

Anyway, I’m out. Offered my perspective as someone with a specific qualification in building and with just under 200 builds to my name over 15 years. All still in use and no upgrades.

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I’m by no means a specialist in this area, but I got a Lenovo laptop just before lockdown (and thank goodness I did, given the amount of use it was going to get) and was strongly advised to get one with an SSD. Not only has it been noticeably faster than any other new machine I’ve ever used, but in about a year of very hard use it hasn’t slowed down noticeably, unlike the previous HDD machines I’ve had.

Of course, for all I know, this lack of performance drop-off could be due to any number of other innovations in hardware or software, but it’s certainly in line with what I was promised by those who told me I’d be glad I went for SSD.

Mark

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A traditional harddisk basically works like a turntable, with a moving magnet that reads the data. As the harddisk fills up, files are constantly written and removed again and gaps start to occur, this causes the data to get physically fragmented across the disk. Since the magnet has to move back and forth more as this happens, it will gradually get slower over time (and slightly more prone to mechanical failure).

Another factor is that because of how a disc spins, the read and write speed will be dependent on where the data is located on the disk. The outside of the disk will perform (spin) up to 50% faster than the inside. Most spinning harddisks start writing data from the outside in, so this is another reason why the disk gets slower with time.

An SSD is basically just a memory chip, data can be read from all over the disk at the same time and at the same speed. It will not get slower over time or if the disk fills up with data.

Just my ha’pennyworth - I’ve build numerous PCs and would now tend to spec an SSD for the OS and a HDD for storage…

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C:\ park

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Jim is probably best contacting a local shop and getting them to put one together that matches his requirements. It may be more than 500 quid though. :scream:

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Well, that’s my understanding too. I was phrasing my answer carefully so as not to incur the wrath of anyone on the other side of the discussion - I’m not in the mood for a barney right now.

Mark

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What I do. Stick the OS on a disk that mainly reads and when you want it to boot quick.
But for data, stick in a D drive that is a traditional HDD. And use a NAS for backing up the D drive.

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For under £100 you can buy a raspberry pi 400 bundle, that’s everything you need apart from a monitor. The pi is inside the keyboard.


The pi, running raspbian os, is powerful enough for all your basic needs. It might not manage fortnite* but it will do everything else. All your word processing, spreadsheets, internet browsing. For kids doing homework in google classroom you wont need more power.
Just an alternative option for you.
Review link https://www.wired.co.uk/article/raspberry-pi-400-review

  • apparently it will handle fortnite just fine.
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At the risk of having a heap of scorn poured upon me by those who obviously know all there is to know, I’d suggest the OP take a look at the Mesh Computers website. A nicely specced PC, including 256 GB SSD and 1TB HDD, with a 22” iiyama monitor, for £650.
Many years ago I too used to put together my own PCs (started with 486s, through lots of Pentiums), then realised I could no longer source the parts for less than the same spec Mesh machine. I had 2 or 3, plus machines for the kids, until I parted company with the PC world and defected to Apple in 2012. All the Mesh machines were superbly put together (a little reminiscent of Naim under the hood!), and I never had a problem with any of the hardware.

Worth a look, IMHO, but will don flame-proof overalls just in case.

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It’s true, desktop pc’s are generally better and more upgradeable than laptops.

However, kids (and many adults) don’t really like desktop computers and I fear they’ll stop using it after a while and then start bugging you for a laptop. Additionally if you’re not technically savvy, would you actually upgrade your pc? Upgrades to hardware are pretty easy but software migration to new hard drives, OS upgrades etc can be a real pain.

I’d go for decent laptop if you can. There are some great deals if you go online so £500 should be enough to buy a laptop that’ll last you around 5 years or longer. You could even look at the used market to get more bang for your buck. Most laptops will allow you to upgrade harddrives and ram easily enough, the kids can use it in the same room as you so you can be sure they’re not looking at something dodgy and you won’t have to put up with a big ugly pc in one of your rooms.

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I was about to throw away a 10 year old laptop, but bunged in an SSD (£20), extra 4GB RAM (£12), installed Win10 (free)… works a treat and handy for one of the kids now home schooling again!

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For a few years now I have been buying refurbished Dell desktops and laptops. About 30% off the normal price and they have all worked perfectly. For £500 you could get a good machine for what you want.

Also, I know that PCWorld does refurbished machines and a friend got one from there and was happy with it.

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@JimDog, The Lenovo Business range is very good vfm. They come with W10 Pro, which is really good for Remote Access. They are sold direct these days. Don’t underestimate the benefit of the M3 (?) SSD. I use OneDrive without worrying about using the cloud so a large HDD is not important with fast internet.

From liking the iPad because of PC boot/program load times, I now prefer the PC albeit an i9/16GB. I turn it on and it’s ready to go! The SFF boxes aren’t really upgradable because the cards have to be less than 15cm. Just need to know what you want. NUCS are overpriced.

Phil

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Consider a used desktop with a good graphics card. My son picked up a pc for nzd450 (about £250) with an excellent graphics card, good cpu and 500GB SSD, including Windows 10. Post Christmas there will be good deals as people swap out their old gear in lieu of Santa’s visit.

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Where would people try to sell their old pc?

On fleabay??

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I second @trickydickie reply, one of the first posts. I buy refurbished computers from a company in Ontario. They have many used ones available, so I can get pretty much anything I want in the way of specification. For an i5 spec computer, with USB3 and other current specs, they cost about $250 to $300 cad, delivered to my door. Never had any problems with them.
It also just seems like a good idea to me to be reusing this stuff as opposed to it ending up in a dump site in China somewhere.
I use Dell, but they also have Lenovo and HP.

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