HELP I need a new desktop PC

[Jos7000]

Well everyone else has said something and so far you've lucked out hardware wise, so...
My Win 8.1 laptop that ran classic shell and behaved like a win 7 machine, died earlier this year.
After a period of catchup I opted for a micro form factor. Ryzen 7 processor, 32Gb RAM, 1TB SSD running preinstalled Win 11.
Firstly, Win 11 is a terrible OS and spends most of its time trying to sell you Microsoft products that you don't want or need. I then looked into Linux OS and installed Linux Mint. Because Microsoft is so alien to me, switching actually made sense. You can download it for free and run it on a USB to trial it.
As for your screen issues, it's quite possible that your screen is struggling with the connection, hence staying dark. Older screens can have issues with newer display ports on PCs. My LG TV has a HDMI port but wont display anything if my new PC is in the BIOS and I'm connected via HDMI, but if I connect to my TV using a HDMI to VGA lead, all of a sudden the BIOS displays.

Anyway, I bought my micro PC direct from China on Aliexpress for £230 brand new and it does anything I ask of it, it'll run any OS and hopefully I'm future proof for at least another decade.

 

[ey_tony]

Here's what I did.
I built the computer I'm running now back in 2019 from reasonably medium spec components at the time and although technology has moved on since then, to be honest there's little need to upgrade this computer other than maybe add an extra hard/SSD drive and increase the capacity of the two SSD disks ( 250 & 500 Gb) and the regular 1tb drive due to getting toward their maximum capacity.
I could further add another 16gb of RAM to the already 16GB in there but that would be about it.
The processor is a 6 core Ryzen 5 2600X and the Graphix card is a GTX 1060. It has a regular CD/DVD drive and a multi-card reader.
It's a general purpose machine used for everything including music playing and even though I may be getting on in age, I'm quite heavily into daily online virtual gaming (Battle Tanks of WW2) against opponents of all ages from all parts of the World and it stands up very well against opponents who I've no doubt will have all the latest gear.

The operating system is Windows 10 which is good for about another year before Microsoft stops updates so I will transition to Windows 11 in the coming months.
I have a relatively cheap full HD 25" Iiyama 1ms gaming monitor and a 7.1 surround sound system which is superb.
I often have 20-30 window tabs open at once and I only use Windows Defender to protect my computer and have never had any issues.
I have it all housed in a decent sized gaming case and several fans to keep everything cool and the Gigabyte Mobo is excellent.
The Hyper X Alloy Core keyboard and mouse are excellent value and issue free and perfect for gaming.

Boot up time is getting slower as more software is added and where it once only took 7 or 8 seconds to boot up fully, now it maybe takes 20 or so seconds to be fully up and running but it's hardly deal breaking and I can clean it up if I really wish it to run faster.

Before building my first computer back in 2011, I used to buy computers from the likes Compaq or HP which were OK but they were constructed so that they only just did their job and it was difficult to properly upgrade them in order for them to sell you another machine therefore I'd advise building one for oneself or getting someone who knows how to and then if you want to upgrade later it can be done. It's sort of future proofing.

Again one of the failings of such as Compaq or HP machines in fact most mass produced pre-built machines is that power supplies (PSU) are barely adequate so that once again those machines are difficult to upgrade without replacing the PSU and PSU failure is quite common on mass produced computers.
This is why using better quality components gives more stability and fewer break downs.

 

[mudman]

I got fed up with my laptop filling up my desk so bought one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CFPRDQY8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 although at the time a 32GB Ram, 1TB hard drive version was available that I bought which increased the price to £469, although the spec in that link is showing as £279.20
I use it for normal work during the day and also for some quite intensive image processing with two large hi def monitors and it has been really rather good and I am very pleased with it.
I wouldn't bother messing about with the one that isn't working and just send it back.
I've also not had a problem with Windows 11. I have the Pro version on mine which is much better in my opinion than the Home version as you get several additional tools and capabilities but it does cost more and you might not need it. I've also never had an issue with Windows trying to sell me anything. I seem to recall that it might make things awkward for installing software from non-Windows store sources but this can be turned off.

 

[JSW]

Supposedly, sending out a replacement so still time yet for me to change my attitude.

Any sign of the replacement yet @HOJ ?

 

[HOJ]

Any sign of the replacement yet @HOJ ?

On it now, spent the day getting it all re configured, got a bit frustrated working my way through getting what I need back on board, emails all back and docs all moved over.

New one came with an HDMI screen connecter and worked straight out the box , windows 10 has been updated and re installed my office package, machine's very quick and quiet

It does look as if I'm screwed with my Sketchup programme though, so loaded the free SU 2017 trial version I'd kept on a separate USB for now, not sure I want to pay £250.00/year to subscribe to the latest version though, so may try and find a way to just use the old PC for that, and get a KVM switch, if they are still appropriate, rather than 2 of everything on my desk.

Bottom line is I'm happy with how it all turned out, and thanks for the heads up and help in the first place.

 

[JSW]

Bottom line is I'm happy with how it all turned out, and thanks for the heads up and help in the first place.

Great news!

There's a good chance you could clone your old hard drive onto a new SSD and it would boot, the BIOS might need a wee tinker with but I could walk you through that. Or you could just plug the old comps hard drive into one of the spare slots on the HP 800, hit F9 as it boots, then point it to the old hard drive and see if she boots. This was one of the main reasons for pointing you toward the HP 800, very very easy to work on, and capacity for 3 hard drives.

 

[artie]

Did the vendor elaborate on the fault with the original one.

I've been on zorin os now for a little while and experimenting with running windows programs. Some work some don't.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I find myself horrified at the amount of junk folk must be storing if they need terabytes of storage,

One terabyte gives you the option of storing roughly: 250,000 photos taken with a 12MP camera OR. 250 movies or 500 hours of HD video OR. 6.5 million document pages, commonly stored as Office files, PDFs, and presentations.

I could just about understand 250 movies - although they could be downloaded from a much larger catalogue as and when required.

Perhaps some have so prodigious a memory that finding a document in the 6.5m stored is trivial.

Personally I am trying to trim down data held. A holiday taken 10 years ago needs but a handful of images to recall the pleasure (or otherwise) - not 3-400 digital snaps taken with great enthusiasm but limited skill, most of which detail has been lost in the mists of time.

 

[Dabop]

I find myself horrified at the amount of junk folk must be storing if they need terabytes of storage,

One terabyte gives you the option of storing roughly: 250,000 photos taken with a 12MP camera OR. 250 movies or 500 hours of HD video OR. 6.5 million document pages, commonly stored as Office files, PDFs, and presentations.

I could just about understand 250 movies - although they could be downloaded from a much larger catalogue as and when required.

Perhaps some have so prodigious a memory that finding a document in the 6.5m stored is trivial.

Personally I am trying to trim down data held. A holiday taken 10 years ago needs but a handful of images to recall the pleasure (or otherwise) - not 3-400 digital snaps taken with great enthusiasm but limited skill, most of which detail has been lost in the mists of time.

Depends on the movies- if you have a lot of badly encoded ones, or in HD, they can soon start eating up even a 1Tb drive...
I got a 4Tb and two 1Tb external drives, the two smaller older ones are both full, and even he 4Tb one is nearly 2/3's full
Especially the kids movies seem to grow and grow...(due to my slower internet speed and the data limits before speed capping on my plan, I prefer to store rather than redownload them, its cheaper)