Old pc update.

[artie]

My pc which is pretty old is giving some trouble and has been for some time.
I'm too lazy to turn it off and reboot each time, so I just set it to sleep after thirty mins of inactivity.
It then springs to life at the touch of a button or a wiggle of the mouse.

Except that increasingly it doesn't and has to be shut down and rebooted which is more inconvenient than shutting it down in the first place. It's small form factor and I don't know if I want to mess with it.

I have an even older tower, which I would be happier messing with.
The specs and a pic of the insides are below.
I expect I could get a more modern CPU and motherboard, but it's too complicated for me to pick as the options and specifications are endless.

Hopefully someone of you could tell me what would do.

My needs are basic just surfing, watching movies a little CAD.

I use a 50 inch TV for a monitor if that requires better graphics, I dunno

 

[porker]

I bought a small footprint HP Elitedesk mini PC off eBay a few months ago, i5 processor 8Gb RAM and 256GB of SSD storage for about £80. Does everything I want and is small and quiet. I have a few laptops as well but if you want a desk based system I'd say they are hard to beat for the money.

One caveat, it doesn't have a TPM module which is needed for Windows 11. There are ways around that but it's a bit of a faff

 

[TheUnicorn]

I haven't looked into it for a long time so my advice is a bit vague but I'd look into the various linux operating systems, many of which are very suitable for older pcs, being less bogged down with the bloatware of windows. there are two definate drawbacks, the firstly is there is a bit of a learning curve, it does work differently to windows (some operating systems feel more akin to windows than others) and you'll need to learn the quirks, secondly windows programs won't work out of the box, though I think there are various work arounds, there are any number of options for downladable programs but if you are working with something specific you'll want to research ahead of time. as an aside, I believe you can partition your hard drive, running windows and linux on the same machine, selectable when you reboot

Mod edit
Hi, please post in black, many find grey on white (if screens are not set to dark) difficult, thanks. Noel.

 

[artie]

I bought a small footprint HP Elitedesk mini PC off eBay a few months ago, i5 processor 8Gb RAM and 256GB of SSD storage for about £80. Does everything I want and is small and quiet. I have a few laptops as well but if you want a desk based system I'd say they are hard to beat for the money.

One caveat, it doesn't have a TPM module which is needed for Windows 11. There are ways around that but it's a bit of a faff

That might be the answer. £80 probably wouldn't buy a basic motherboard.

I'm not fussed about win11, it's not so long since I was on xp. I missed out 7 and vista entirely.

 

[Spectric]

PC's are much like lego but where you could upgrade with new mobo and Cpu and keep much of the other components things have been going through some changes in that you now can have your operating system on a solid state drive which just plugs directly into the mobo and cables / connectors will be different but loading the operating system is much easier. You might be better off looking at sites that can just supply you a system that meets your needs, one issue I have found is that the Pc market has become very gaming orientated with illuminated this and RGB that with the Pc being almost as much about looks as performance.

Look at places like Scan, ebuyer and Box.

 

[graham88]

Unfortunately I can guarantee none of that hardware will work with a modern motherboard, even the case might have the screw holes in different locations.

The size of the screen has no impact on the specs of the PC, just the resolution. If it's a HD screen then onboard graphics on any modern board will suffice, 4K might be a different story.

Any idea of budget? I'm happy to point you in a sensible direction.

 

[Robbo3]

As like Porker above, perhaps look into buying a refurbished PC. EG, a Dell Optiplex which come in 3 form factors, Midi tower, Small Form Factor (290x290x90mm) & Micro.
Then it's finding the best CPU, RAM, storage & ports for your money.
These are normally ex office machines which have been wiped & had Windows reinstalled.

 

[Yojevol]

@TheUnicorn Copied and re-presented so we can read it:-

I haven't looked into it for a long time so my advice is a bit vague but I'd look into the various linux operating systems, many of which are very suitable for older pcs, being less bogged down with the bloatware of windows. there are two definate drawbacks, the firstly is there is a bit of a learning curve, it does work differently to windows (some operating systems feel more akin to windows than others) and you'll need to learn the quirks, secondly windows programs won't work out of the box, though I think there are various work arounds, there are any number of options for downladable programs but if you are working with something specific you'll want to research ahead of time. as an aside, I believe you can partition your hard drive, running windows and linux on the same machine, selectable when you reboot

 

[Yojevol]

I've used.IJT Direct for a number of years. They specialise in superceded and refurbished kit. They offer several refurbished PC's with W10 Pro installed and upgradable to W11:-
https://www.ijtdirect.co.uk/pcs/ (use the W11 compatible filter)
I'm not sure if the upgrade would involve extra cost. Beware that MS will shortly ditch W10 for support.
Brian

 

[ajs]

Yes that machine with the spec you posted is past the point of economic upgrade, after perhaps 10 years, 15 in a pinch, you reach the point where any meaningful upgrade means a new motherboard, CPU and memory (since they are so closely coupled) at which point you have to start prcing anew machine. Particuarly as here you will probably be better off with a new disk (an SSD with twice the capacity and infinitely better performance is a matter of £20), and a graphics upgrade the economics look even more dodgy.

New PCs are how long is a piece of string thing, yes refurbs are an option, bought a little Lenovo ThinkCentre about 6 months ago I use as the token Windows machine. Tiny little thing, about 7" square by 2" deep, there is a fan but so quiet you can't hear it. ISTR that was about £40 plus another tenner to increase the RAM to 8GB. I'll get five years from it, by which time I figure it's paid for itself but after which it will probably be repurposed to some other role.

I'd think about your requirements before plungign for any old budget option though, CAD always used to be a heavy deman on a PC. These days it depends, simple designs and 2D CAD with free or budget packages won't push pretty much any machine you can buy. Complex 3D models in AutoCAD or whatever, you'll need to spend the money.

 

[niemeyjt]

Is your printer connected to that purple port on motherboard - and does your printer have other connections if so.

Best thing for an old PC is to download a copy of Linux Mint which is supported and far less hungry than the latest windows will be.

 

[artie]

Unfortunately I can guarantee none of that hardware will work with a modern motherboard, even the case might have the screw holes in different locations.

The size of the screen has no impact on the specs of the PC, just the resolution. If it's a HD screen then onboard graphics on any modern board will suffice, 4K might be a different story.

Any idea of budget? I'm happy to point you in a sensible direction.

The one I use daily is about 9 years old, an i5 with 16gb of ram a 500gb ssd and win 10 pro.
It does everything I need, apart from it's annoying habit of losing the picture and having to be rebooted.

 

[artie]

Is your printer connected to that purple port on motherboard - and does your printer have other connections if so.

There's nothing connected to that PC, it retired years ago. I was just thinking of reusing the case.

Best thing for an old PC is to download a copy of Linux Mint which is supported and far less hungry than the latest windows will be.

I tried ubuntu years ago on a dual install, as I needed windows for a design program.

I may try that route again.

 

[Spectric]

I was just thinking of reusing the case

The issue here is that a lot of ports and interfaces on the mobo come directly through an aperture on the Pc case and although the outline has only changed slightly over the years plus there are inserts your case may be to old. The other thing that has changed is that due to disk drive capacity cases provided space for many drives especiallythe tower cases but now with modern high capacity drives we use far fewer drives with the OS being on a plug in SSD on the mobo. I use a single 500 Gig M2 drive for my OS and programs but then four std 1 Tb drives in a RAID array for everything else, ie my files and data. As for your OS I am still using windows 10 because it runs all my software so you need to make sure any programs you want to use have a version for the OS, not all do and many are for just one.

 

[graham88]

The one I use daily is about 9 years old, an i5 with 16gb of ram a 500gb ssd and win 10 pro.
It does everything I need, apart from it's annoying habit of losing the picture and having to be rebooted.

In which case do you happen to know the make and model of the main one? A 9 year old SFF could probably donate some parts to a new build.

 

[artie]

In which case do you happen to know the make and model of the main one? A 9 year old SFF could probably donate some parts to a new build.

HP Elitedesk

 

[graham88]

Elitedesk 800 G1/G2 I'm guessing? You should be able to use the drive, but not much else. In which case I think your best option might actually be this:

I've used.IJT Direct for a number of years. They specialise in superceded and refurbished kit. They offer several refurbished PC's with W10 Pro installed and upgradable to W11:-
https://www.ijtdirect.co.uk/pcs/ (use the W11 compatible filter)
I'm not sure if the upgrade would involve extra cost. Beware that MS will shortly ditch W10 for support.
Brian

As correctly stated, Win 10 support will end soon, 14th October 2025. All of the Win11 machines on that page are more than capable of fulfilling your needs.

 

[Spectric]

Windows 11 might cause issues because as far as I know it is the first OS that is specific in hardware needs, ie that TPM module so if you have an old Pc they are forcing your hand in an upgrade. It is also possible to buy one and plug it in if your mobo has the socket but I have heard this can slow some things down. Why you ask, well one purpose is to lock software to a particular machine, office 365 uses it and it will block software piracy and dictate what you can and cannot run on your Pc.

 

[Richard_C]

I'm not fussed about win11

I think Win 10 gets unsupported status in the very near future, which might mean no security updates. If you are spending money on hardware then why not future proof as much as you can.

 

[trvlr]

I'd be inclined to use this PC for Linux; make it dual boot too - useful how to resources aplenty on the web.

Ubuntu is the standard flavour; even used in Dell and other big name machines...

Upgrading an older computer these days (and even not so long ago) wasn't always the better path. As already mentioned by others here, some motherboards may not align easily with your current case and port outlets in the case; and the cost of going the journey can sometimes be more than a current desktop/portable. And as win-10 support seems to be ending soon... one is inevitably going to find oneself at some stage looking for more upgrades so as to run the dreaded win-11 and later - which are/will become heavily hardware dictatorial.

I dropped away from the whole M$ scene over 12 years ago; was originally on '95/'98/XP and
NT4 and 2000 series before going over the Mac family and haven't regretted it. True there is a lot more software for windows (at least in some areas), and occasionally printer drivers are little less available for older printers; but otherwise for me Mac is the way to go. Biggest ouch... is they cost more of course. My desktop is Mac Mini - 2012 model; my MacBook Pro a 2010 model. The former cannot be software upgraded beyond OS X Catalina, and the latter is stuck one behind that. But eh "Mini" does al I need for no - though am considering a new laptop
(whichever model) in the near future - if only for convenience when traveling.

Any refurbished computer is going to have a somewhat shorter compatibility life cycle than a newer one; which is worth thinking about...?