Old PC for WFH can I update it?

Irish Gunner

Ok WFH and just use the basics and MS Office

Also use it for IPTV and using My IPTV Player as installed Blue stacks but it slowed PC down

It takes a while to boot up and removed all unused apps and all files etc and moved them to external HD

Just wondering is there anything I can do to speed it up or get more memory. I was thinking of updating the PC but why as if its not broken not point in fixing it and I don't game online

What spec I can get are below


Processor AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 635 Processor 2.90 GHz
Installed RAM 4.00 GB (3.75 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Display Adapters
ATI Radeon HD4250
Citrix Indirect Display Adapter
Baseboard Manufacturer MSI
BaseBoard Product 880GMA-E45 (MS-7623)
BaseBoard Version 3.0

Is it worth updating in the new year or stick what I have for what I use it for?

If I do want to speed up boot or have ability to install Bluestacks what would I require

Cheers

minitrue

It's barely worth upgrading but if you are determined, have the slot(s) free and can find it cheap (perhaps cex) then getting it to 8GB would drag more life out of it as would a "cheap" ssd.

CoBo55

Go to the crucial website and run the scanner, it will tell you what you can get to add more memory and what type of SSD is compatible. You don't have to buy from them but jot down the memory type it recommends and work from there. I put an SSD in an old Lenovo laptop my son had discarded, new clean install of W10 and it's flying it.

minitrue

Not sure what speed the ram you have is or if you have 4*1, 2*2 or 1*4 in there, but it's probably €4 or €5 for 2*2 from cex. They don't have any 4GB in stock, in theory you could up it to 4*4GB (up to 1600MHz DDR3) but best case (where you have 1*4GB already) that's €24 and I'd guess more than the rest of the PC is worth!

Noticing the "speed up boot" question, well that's where an ssd would help most but really that machine is fit to be retired!

If you want another excuse to upgrade, that system probably uses 100W or more just idling! If you have it on for 8 hours a day a modern machine could knock €50/annum off your electricity bill

Irish Gunner

Yeah was thinking it was on its last legs

Was going to get a new PC but not looking for pre built as I am not going down to the road of self build and I know there are loads of you tube vids etc

What are the best sits for pre built and is it better to wait till afte the Redman comes and I dont mean the rapper;)

Ok whats best option on below specs and should I need to change anything?

https://www.awd-it.co.uk/gaming-pcs/home-and-office-systems.html

minitrue

I guess it's safe to say you have no need for gaming or development or video editing or anything at all demanding and don't foresee anything?

Of those I'd be torn between suggesting the 3200G or 3600 based machines and with either you could bump the ram to 2*8GB 3600MHz and the ssd to ~500GB NVMe to get the most from them and also make sure by the time you thought maybe you should upgrade ram or ssd the entire machine should be as obsolete as your current PC

Amusingly you might be better off with one of the gaming builds! In particular this one caught my eye: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-falcon-ryzen-5-3400g-with-vega-graphics-pc-for-gaming.html

That improves to the 3400G, has a bronze rated psu and also includes a copy of Windows (the others will come with windows installed but unlicensed which you can use as is or buy a "cheap" key to get rid of the watermark)! Again bumping the ram and SSD would tempt me if it's not breaking the bank and you would rather a "one and done" purchase that should last a decade rather then at least feeling tempted to upgrade in 5 years time. The 500GB in particular might be overkill if you are the sort of person who re-installs windows clean every year or few but otherwise I suspect 240GB would fill up and need cleaning before the machine is obsolete and getting replaced.

Remove the crappy anti-virus trial!

JoyPad

minitrue wrote: »

Amusingly you might be better off with one of the gaming builds!

This is where things have been going for the past few years. Gone are the days of the Xeon as a workhorse, separate from a Core CPU for gaming.

You look at these Ryzen CPUs and they have more cores, higher core clock, higher IPC, so there's now a very fine line between the workhorse and a gaming rig, namely the GPU. If I was to build a work machine today, I would still go with a Ryzen 7 or 9 as my CPU, and get a cheap GPU to complete the build.

Irish Gunner

minitrue wrote: »

I guess it's safe to say you have no need for gaming or development or video editing or anything at all demanding and don't foresee anything?

Of those I'd be torn between suggesting the 3200G or 3600 based machines and with either you could bump the ram to 2*8GB 3600MHz and the ssd to ~500GB NVMe to get the most from them and also make sure by the time you thought maybe you should upgrade ram or ssd the entire machine should be as obsolete as your current PC

Amusingly you might be better off with one of the gaming builds! In particular this one caught my eye: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-falcon-ryzen-5-3400g-with-vega-graphics-pc-for-gaming.html

That improves to the 3400G, has a bronze rated psu and also includes a copy of Windows (the others will come with windows installed but unlicensed which you can use as is or buy a "cheap" key to get rid of the watermark)! Again bumping the ram and SSD would tempt me if it's not breaking the bank and you would rather a "one and done" purchase that should last a decade rather then at least feeling tempted to upgrade in 5 years time. The 500GB in particular might be overkill if you are the sort of person who re-installs windows clean every year or few but otherwise I suspect 240GB would fill up and need cleaning before the machine is obsolete and getting replaced.

Remove the crappy anti-virus trial!

Thanks

I also need Wifi so what is the best one to choose?

Also whats best but not breaking the bank for the below

PC MEMORY UPGRADE DUAL DDR4
PSU
MOTHERBOARD
GRAPHICS CARD
PRIMARY HARD DRIVE

Could Budget up to probably 500 but dont want overkill

Also might want to be able to switch between the current desktop and the above or better to just get an enclosure for the drive and dispose of it?

Or keep it as spare?

Cheers

minitrue

Opinions will vary on "overkill".

My first choice (for a "WFH" PC which is likely to see a decade of use without tinkering/upgrades) would be to go with the:
16GB AData 3600MHz
Leave the PSU as stock
Leave the motherboard as stock
Leave the graphics as onboard
AData SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD
1200 Dual Band internal wifi (if you could use powerline adapters instead of wifi I'd do that).

But that would be £480.95 with DPD shipping or about €536.

To get under €500 with their prices my instinct would say to just drop back to the stock 240GB BX500 ssd which would make it about €483 (or €460 without the wifi card which would leave enough to get a powerline kit, if you got the tp-link 600Mbps one from them it would be €492). The upgrade price for the 512GB AData SX8200 Pro isn't great (it isn't horrible either though) so that coupled with how much more likely I imagine it is you might do an SSD upgrade/addition down the road then change the ram is why I'd go that way. If you really want to shave more off go with the Team Group 16GB 3200MHz which would also leave you just enough to get one of the cheap 480GB/512GB SSDs if you know you really need or want the extra space straight away.

If in hindsight €500 really is too much and you want to save every cent now then just leave everything at stock except the wifi/powerline and remember to upgrade the ram in a year or two rather then waiting 10 years to think about it

As for the old machine, with WFH I'd guess it's handy to have it as a spare "in case of emergency". I'm going to guess it's disk is small enough and you don't have mountains of data on it so I'd just pop the disk into the new machine for long enough to copy everything across and then pack the old machine into the attic so you can dig it out for an emergency

Irish Gunner

minitrue wrote: »

Opinions will vary on "overkill".

My first choice (for a "WFH" PC which is likely to see a decade of use without tinkering/upgrades) would be to go with the:
16GB AData 3600MHz
Leave the PSU as stock
Leave the motherboard as stock
Leave the graphics as onboard
AData SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD
1200 Dual Band internal wifi (if you could use powerline adapters instead of wifi I'd do that).

But that would be £480.95 with DPD shipping or about €536.

To get under €500 with their prices my instinct would say to just drop back to the stock 240GB BX500 ssd which would make it about €483 (or €460 without the wifi card which would leave enough to get a powerline kit, if you got the tp-link 600Mbps one from them it would be €492). The upgrade price for the 512GB AData SX8200 Pro isn't great (it isn't horrible either though) so that coupled with how much more likely I imagine it is you might do an SSD upgrade/addition down the road then change the ram is why I'd go that way. If you really want to shave more off go with the Team Group 16GB 3200MHz which would also leave you just enough to get one of the cheap 480GB/512GB SSDs if you know you really need or want the extra space straight away.

If in hindsight €500 really is too much and you want to save every cent now then just leave everything at stock except the wifi/powerline and remember to upgrade the ram in a year or two rather then waiting 10 years to think about it

As for the old machine, with WFH I'd guess it's handy to have it as a spare "in case of emergency". I'm going to guess it's disk is small enough and you don't have mountains of data on it so I'd just pop the disk into the new machine for long enough to copy everything across and then pack the old machine into the attic so you can dig it out for an emergency

Thanks that budget would be ok just want it to last.

I currently have PC Hardwired to Internet so thats ok but want the option of wifi should I have to move the PC

Yeah moved what I could from current PC to external storage and can move / reinstall any software that I require

Would the above be able to hold enough for Bluestack emulator so that I can put some android apps on it

minitrue

I very much had in mind the idea that you want longevity and hence saying things like just stick in the 16GB of fast ram from the outset (and giving that machine points for not just including the cheapest of the cheap power supply).

I wouldn't bother sticking in a wifi card now for the sake of a possible future move, if nothing else by the time you move it you might want a better wifi card or know powerline will suit the new location. Or if you do want to just have something so you know you can use wifi on the spot then grab one of the cheap usb wifi dongles.

I don't really know bluestacks but it's "emulating" Android which runs on puny hardware by comparison (though your old machine would struggle in a fight with new Android devices) and combining that with a quick look at it's minimum requirements says that sort of machine should handle it with ease no matter which upgrades you go with (but 16GB over 8GB would make it less painful to give bluestacks a good chunk of ram).

Irish Gunner

minitrue wrote: »

I very much had in mind the idea that you want longevity and hence saying things like just stick in the 16GB of fast ram from the outset (and giving that machine points for not just including the cheapest of the cheap power supply).

I wouldn't bother sticking in a wifi card now for the sake of a possible future move, if nothing else by the time you move it you might want a better wifi card or know powerline will suit the new location. Or if you do want to just have something so you know you can use wifi on the spot then grab one of the cheap usb wifi dongles.

I don't really know bluestacks but it's "emulating" Android which runs on puny hardware by comparison (though your old machine would struggle in a fight with new Android devices) and combining that with a quick look at it's minimum requirements says that sort of machine should handle it with ease no matter which upgrades you go with (but 16GB over 8GB would make it less painful to give bluestacks a good chunk of ram).

Thanks

Will just go with your suggestion

Is it best to wait wait for few weeks see if any more reductions or that unlikely

minitrue

I don't think there's any reason to expect reductions on that any time soon bar getting lucky with a "black Friday" type sale. FTR if I try and roughly match that build I'm at £390 without Windows and using the cheapest fair (to them) substitutions I can so they probably don't have a lot they could do even for a sale.

Irish Gunner

minitrue wrote: »

I don't think there's any reason to expect reductions on that any time soon bar getting lucky with a "black Friday" type sale. FTR if I try and roughly match that build I'm at £390 without Windows and using the cheapest fair (to them) substitutions I can so they probably don't have a lot they could do even for a sale.

Cheers

Just for pricing and value any of below pc worth looking at or is difference small

Bought monitors from here before

If not any pre built suggestions just to compare

https://www.cclonline.com/pc/home-pcs/

minitrue

The main difference with CCL from what I can see is they use really cheap power supplies on all the machines you would be looking at (and cases but that doesn't really matter much as they are building it and tbh you might prefer the duller look) and they don't give you the option of fast ram or ssd so you get the very basic performance out of it rather than the most out of it.

The big price difference depends on your attitude to Windows licensing You can just use unactivated windows with a watermark on screen for €0, you can buy a "cheap" license from all kinds of places for maybe €20 but legalistically they are dodgy or you can pay €100ish to be perfectly above board.

Finally, I'd say the cheapest of the CCL cpus (Athlon 3000G) would be ok for a while but you won't be running it for a decade without at least going looking for the price of an upgrade. The question of how far to upgrade that, ram and ssd is really about whether you want a machine you won't be thinking about upgrading and will just run it until you can't take it any more or one you might keep thinking "maybe I should try and improve it".

The windows question is a big one. I think something like https://www.cclonline.com/pc/business-pcs/standard/ccl-amd-standard-business-pc/0000000203000000000001/ is about the CCL equivalent of what we were looking at and if you don't care about the windows watermark/licensing then it's a good chunk cheaper with the biggest "problem" being cheaping out completely on the power supply (but it's also holding back the performance with the ram/ssd), if you put windows on with them it's basically the same price as the AWD one but without the sane enough power supply and big performance improvements.

I'd love someone else to jump in here and offer another perspective to you

Irish Gunner

minitrue wrote: »

The main difference with CCL from what I can see is they use really cheap power supplies on all the machines you would be looking at (and cases but that doesn't really matter much as they are building it and tbh you might prefer the duller look) and they don't give you the option of fast ram or ssd so you get the very basic performance out of it rather than the most out of it.

The big price difference depends on your attitude to Windows licensing You can just use unactivated windows with a watermark on screen for €0, you can buy a "cheap" license from all kinds of places for maybe €20 but legalistically they are dodgy or you can pay €100ish to be perfectly above board.

Finally, I'd say the cheapest of the CCL cpus (Athlon 3000G) would be ok for a while but you won't be running it for a decade without at least going looking for the price of an upgrade. The question of how far to upgrade that, ram and ssd is really about whether you want a machine you won't be thinking about upgrading and will just run it until you can't take it any more or one you might keep thinking "maybe I should try and improve it".

The windows question is a big one. I think something like https://www.cclonline.com/pc/business-pcs/standard/ccl-amd-standard-business-pc/0000000203000000000001/ is about the CCL equivalent of what we were looking at and if you don't care about the windows watermark/licensing then it's a good chunk cheaper with the biggest "problem" being cheaping out completely on the power supply (but it's also holding back the performance with the ram/ssd), if you put windows on with them it's basically the same price as the AWD one but without the sane enough power supply and big performance improvements.

I'd love someone else to jump in here and offer another perspective to you

Thanks for the input and very detailed

Okay will more than likely go with your original suggestion

MenloPete

The difference an SSD can make to an old machine is amazing.
If you check the Task Manager you can see whether the CPU, memory or disk is maxed out.
Typically it's the disk, so an SSD will really help.
I've revived several laptops that way.

Irish Gunner

MenloPete wrote: »

The difference an SSD can make to an old machine is amazing.
If you check the Task Manager you can see whether the CPU, memory or disk is maxed out.
Typically it's the disk, so an SSD will really help.
I've revived several laptops that way.

Just going to keep old machine as back up or just put drive into enclosure and bin the rest. I just want something quick and can manage any task thrown at it for what I do.

No gamer and will have few applications (ms office, anti virus, Adobe etc) on new desktop.

Could work from 2 but that's another post

CJhaughey

I bought the older version of this machine, with an Athlon 220G instead of the 3200G, apart from that its identical.
Its actually perfect as a machine just for websurfing etc, I bought a copy of Windows 10 and Office and the total was €26 euro.
https://www.caseking.de/en/ck-express-system-pure-office-amd-3200g-sipc-316.html