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)

 

[mudman]

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.

I do astrophotography and that entails taking a lot of images of the same thing and that leads to very large amounts of data being stored. I have several hard drives full of data and a local unarchived folder that is at about 150 GB. It builds up very quickly. 1TB is 1000GB (or 1024GB if you follow the old definition) and a lot of astrophotographers would need a lot more space than that.

 

[JSW]

Large amounts of data storage, whether Movies & TV, Photography, or whatever, are better stored on a separate drive to the Operating System, whether it be internal or external.

That way if the OS drive were to fail, you still have all your data intact, it's good practise

 

[mudman]

Large amounts of data storage, whether Movies & TV, Photography, or whatever, are better stored on a separate drive to the Operating System, whether it be internal or external.

That way if the OS drive were to fail, you still have all your data intact, it's good practise

This is true. I just wish I was more organised in how I store all my data and documents. Currently I'm banging my head against all the cloud storage that seems to be sucking files from all sorts of places. I have duplication all over the place and am trying to come up with a strategy to manage it better.

 

[Spectric]

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

Yes and thats on a Pc, look at the size and energy consumption of the servers that store vast amounts of junk from social media and smart phones.

The people who need storage are the photographers, file sizes are now huge with 55 Megabyte RAW images.

 

[Dabop]

I use exernal USB drives- I have a 4 way 'switched' USB hub for the 'movie' HDDs- so I can kill power to them when not in use, and although the USB is 'slow'- it is perfectly fine for video playback purposes, even on HD movies...
Plus you aren't tying up HDD slots- and you can have as many fitted as your OS allows...
Secondary bonus- you can unplug them and take them with you (eg on holidays, to the kids friends places etc- just plug them into a laptop, computer, media player or most modern TVs and play them wherever...

 

[JSW]

I use exernal USB drives- I have a 4 way 'switched' USB hub for the 'movie' HDDs- so I can kill power to them when not in use

Hah, I have the exact same setup, all plugged into a wall mounted Ikea Koppla 6-way socket with 6 switches, very rare for more than one to be turned on at a time, easily accessible (£12 is a bargain BTW)

There's also a docking station plugged in for salvaged hard drives (cheap 2nd/3rd backup option)

 

[Dabop]

I got one of those too- a handy littlle beast (I used to do computer repairs/builds, but not worth it any more) still got a stack of old 300-500Gb drives in a box in the corner of the shed I have been slowly working my way through...

I'm still using an old 'ex gaming' laptop- high end for its day, but now running Ubuntu 'Bionic Beaver' (got to love the Ubuntu names lol)- it was originally Win XP but has been Ubuntu now for almost a decade (it does fine as my 'surfing the net and other stuff' computer)- and it comfortably runs a 'netsafe' OS where I wouldn't let an XP loose on the net these days...

Most people don't even realise it isn't running windows- when my mum last visited, she had no problems using it, and she is so hidebound with using anything 'new' that I dread her old win 8 box dying- she takes YEARS to handle any change to her system lol- I use Firefox myself, but it has Chrome on it as well, so she feels 'right at home' using it... even set up her own profile on it that basically looks identical to her Win box, same icons in the same places, soshe knows 'where to find stuff' when she visits...

 

[Spectric]

I find that the world of the Pc has become a train that once you get on it then to stay on it you are forced to update this and replace that which now I feel has become more marketing driven than technical and it makes you wonder how we got anything done when we had the old Pentium 286 running at 12Mhz and no windows, everything was DOS and USB unheard of but we managed.