New desktop required

[dontlookdown]

My ancient Lenovo AIO PC has finally expired. Should I replace it with:

1) Another AIO
2) A tower, they are cheaper and more versatile
3) A Mac mini, even though it doesn't have enough ports.

Also, should I go for one of those build it yourself sites or a pre-built system?

I use it mainly for WFH - lots of browser tabs, word, excel, powerpoint, google suite etc. I'd like it to be fairly quick with decent storage but I don't need heavy graphics lifting.

Budget - hoping to get everything (monitor and keyboard etc) for £1k max.

[grumbledoak]

Any £500+ PC will do what you mention.
Will you want to upgrade it, ever? Buy a tower.
Prefer to throw it away and get a new one? Get an All In One.
You have ruled out the Mac mini yourself!

[dontlookdown]

grumbledoak said:

You have ruled out the Mac mini yourself!

True, on one level it seems like good value for a Mac but is quite compromised once you get beyond the price.

[Mr Pointy]

For your use case I'd look at a refurbed Optiplex:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134122476966?hash=item1...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155171377931?hash=item2...

That's just a couple of examples. The 7060 is the first model with a Core 8 processor & always buy the RAM & SSD you need as it's expensive to upgrade, although you easily add a second HDD to these machines. Keep it cheap & just replace it in a few years.

[arfur]

Last year I was in the same place !

I ended up getting a Lenovo P340 Tiny ..

It's super specced and extremely silent - can not knock it at all

Looks like it's been superseded now - but I would not hesitate to buy another as and when

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/workstations/p-series...

[grumbledoak]

arfur said:

Last year I was in the same place !

I ended up getting a Lenovo P340 Tiny ..

I love those little things, still miss mine. But you do have to accept that they are not upgradable at all. So I would spec at least an i5/16GB/512GB for some longevity.

[dontlookdown]

Mr Pointy said:

For your use case I'd look at a refurbed Optiplex:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134122476966?hash=item1...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155171377931?hash=item2...

That's just a couple of examples. The 7060 is the first model with a Core 8 processor & always buy the RAM & SSD you need as it's expensive to upgrade, although you easily add a second HDD to these machines. Keep it cheap & just replace it in a few years.

That is interesting as I was wondering about refurbs. It's just a tool for work, I have a Macbook for when I need a status symbol at client meetings;)

I do have quite a lot of stuff stored on HDD so I would prefer an SSD for OS and HDD for storage. You say it is easy to add an HDD to those Dell's - is it really easy, or just easy if you know how? I do not, but am willing to learn if it's fairly straightforward.

[arfur]

grumbledoak said:

arfur said:

Last year I was in the same place !

I ended up getting a Lenovo P340 Tiny ..

I love those little things, still miss mine. But you do have to accept that they are not upgradable at all. So I would spec at least an i5/16GB/512GB for some longevity.

Mine is an I7 with 1x16Gb plus 256gb and 1TB plus the upgraded graphics, usb-c etc etc

I suspect it will last me 5 years as the previous I7 NUC did

I do not expect having to need to upgrade it at all - for me it's a perfect bit of quality kit

[RizzoTheRat]

If your macbook is a decent spec do you need a desktop or would a docking station, keyboard and monitor do the job? If it has USB-C you can usually rune everything through that, my work Dell laptop has a single USB-C connection to the docking station, which then has connections to power, keyboard, mouse, dual monitors,headset, etc.

[dontlookdown]

RizzoTheRat said:

If your macbook is a decent spec do you need a desktop or would a docking station, keyboard and monitor do the job? If it has USB-C you can usually rune everything through that, my work Dell laptop has a single USB-C connection to the docking station, which then has connections to power, keyboard, mouse, dual monitors,headset, etc.

I did think about that, but I like the redundancy of having a spare machine for times, like now, when one of them dies.

Also, I like having a Mac laptop and a PC desktop. Perverse I know but I've worked that way for years;)

[dontlookdown]

arfur said:

Last year I was in the same place !

I ended up getting a Lenovo P340 Tiny ..

It's super specced and extremely silent - can not knock it at all

Looks like it's been superseded now - but I would not hesitate to buy another as and when

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/workstations/p-series...

That is very neat, but I'd be paying for smallness I don't really need. Desk has space for a full size machine.

[arfur]

dontlookdown said:

arfur said:

Last year I was in the same place !

I ended up getting a Lenovo P340 Tiny ..

It's super specced and extremely silent - can not knock it at all

Looks like it's been superseded now - but I would not hesitate to buy another as and when

https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/workstations/p-series...

That is very neat, but I'd be paying for smallness I don't really need. Desk has space for a full size machine.

Fair enough, my wfh desk has a 14inch lenovo laptop on it with a separate 24 IPS and the P340 with 2x Dell 27 IPS screens. For me. I've used NUCs for a while and got used to the size and the silence. The P340 is bigger, but does pack a lot of punch. It's also 99% of the time silent.

[Mr Penguin]

If you're able to put a pc together then a tower will be cheaper in the long run because you can swap parts as you need to, including the monitor. You can also get smaller cases and motherboards down to a mini itx if you don't want the full tower.

[Mr Pointy]

dontlookdown said:

Mr Pointy said:

For your use case I'd look at a refurbed Optiplex:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134122476966?hash=item1...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155171377931?hash=item2...

That's just a couple of examples. The 7060 is the first model with a Core 8 processor & always buy the RAM & SSD you need as it's expensive to upgrade, although you easily add a second HDD to these machines. Keep it cheap & just replace it in a few years.

That is interesting as I was wondering about refurbs. It's just a tool for work, I have a Macbook for when I need a status symbol at client meetings;)

I do have quite a lot of stuff stored on HDD so I would prefer an SSD for OS and HDD for storage. You say it is easy to add an HDD to those Dell's - is it really easy, or just easy if you know how? I do not, but am willing to learn if it's fairly straightforward.

It's so easy you don't even need a screwdriver - the Optiplex is built for toolless maintenance & basically if it's coloured blue then it's a clip or a lever you press or move to get bits out of the chassis. The Small Form Factor chassis can be a bit fiddly to work on becasue of the size but the towers are easier. I'd avoid the Ultra Small size though.

Just pick the seller carefully & accept you're not going to get a three year RTB warranty - hence not spending too much.

[dontlookdown]

Mr Pointy said:

It's so easy you don't even need a screwdriver - the Optiplex is built for toolless maintenance & basically if it's coloured blue then it's a clip or a lever you press or move to get bits out of the chassis. The Small Form Factor chassis can be a bit fiddly to work on becasue of the size but the towers are easier. I'd avoid the Ultra Small size though.

Just pick the seller carefully & accept you're not going to get a three year RTB warranty - hence not spending too much.

Tks, that's definitely an option to consider then.

[dontlookdown]

For those of you still on tenterhooks as to my decision, I did go for a refurbed Dell, but another AIO not a tower. I am happy to pay a bit more for fewer cables etc, and don't have a monitor already.

It's from EuroPC in Glasgow who seem very good. 850 quid, 3 yr Dell next day warranty. 24in full HD screen, i7, 8GB, 256 SSD plus 1TB HDD. 5 USB 3.0 ports which is great. Arrived in two days and is now sat in my office. Fully height adjustable too, which is rare in AIO's but most welcome..

Only downside so far is a carp keyboard. Terrible action. Will have to do something about that.

[xeny]

Is there anything to stop you using the keyboard from the old machine?

Standard bundled keyboards suffer from having been cost cut to death, we generally scrap them to save another desk visit when the person using it complains.

[Brother D]

Mr Pointy said:

dontlookdown said:

Mr Pointy said:

For your use case I'd look at a refurbed Optiplex:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134122476966?hash=item1...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155171377931?hash=item2...

That's just a couple of examples. The 7060 is the first model with a Core 8 processor & always buy the RAM & SSD you need as it's expensive to upgrade, although you easily add a second HDD to these machines. Keep it cheap & just replace it in a few years.

That is interesting as I was wondering about refurbs. It's just a tool for work, I have a Macbook for when I need a status symbol at client meetings;)

I do have quite a lot of stuff stored on HDD so I would prefer an SSD for OS and HDD for storage. You say it is easy to add an HDD to those Dell's - is it really easy, or just easy if you know how? I do not, but am willing to learn if it's fairly straightforward.

It's so easy you don't even need a screwdriver - the Optiplex is built for toolless maintenance & basically if it's coloured blue then it's a clip or a lever you press or move to get bits out of the chassis. The Small Form Factor chassis can be a bit fiddly to work on becasue of the size but the towers are easier. I'd avoid the Ultra Small size though.

Just pick the seller carefully & accept you're not going to get a three year RTB warranty - hence not spending too much.

I haven't purchased a new PC in probably 20 years. Nor have I purchased a new PC of any of my friends or friend's businesses.
I typically use optiplex for friends and their businesses, but personally I run a large HP tower as I need the slots (but beware some of the older towers use a lot of power even at idle)! I think I paid $600 for my dual 3.6gHz zeon, 80Gb ram unit but I've added several SSDs to it and a RX 5700 which I think I paid $500 for.
Of the 30-40 pc's I look after I think at most 3 or 4 have died in the past few years and then just been swapped out for a later model, so I'm a big fan of the optiplex units and the ease of upgradeability.
Just one small caveat - it's only the later optiplex units that are offically compatible with Win11, and Win10 support is due to end 2025 so worth factoring that in as will come around soon.

[dontlookdown]

xeny said:

Is there anything to stop you using the keyboard from the old machine?

Standard bundled keyboards suffer from having been cost cut to death, we generally scrap them to save another desk visit when the person using it complains.

Only that I was using a Mac keyboard;) Like the action but the keystrokes, obvs, are a bit of a guessing game.

The supplied keyboard the old PC came with was quite nice to use, but died a couple of years ago.

I bought a couple of replacements but they were both awful and sent back. That's when I started using an old Mac keyboard that I had lying around.

I'd like to get a pC keyboard with a decent action as using the Mac keyboard on a PC is not ideal.

[paulrockliffe]

Get one with mechanical keys, the sort where you can pop the keys off and replace the mechanical thingys for different coloured ones depending on how you want it to feel. You won't need to change the mechanics, but you'll know it's quality. The sound is super-therapeutic too.