New desktop

Ozzy said:

Price looks cheap enough, assuming this should read Windows 11

Going for 16GB of RAM will make a massive difference to the PC performance. 8GB is genuinely a bit tight and will imped the PC performance.

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Nico Albrecht said:

Just looking at the specifications again, I honestly don't think the £550 asking price represents good value.

The Ryzen 3 4300G is a 2020-era consumer CPU, so you're essentially looking at a 5–6-year-old platform. For consumer hardware, I would generally consider around three years a sensible practical life expectancy if reliability is the priority. At this age, I would regard the machine as approaching e-waste rather than something I'd want to invest £550 into.

The 8GB RAM is also already below what I'd recommend for a new office machine, and while the 1TB SSD sounds good on paper, the age and health of the drive would also need to be considered.

For roughly the same £550, I'd do something completely different.

I'd look at a refurbished HP Pro 400 G9 SFF with:

• Intel i5 12th Generation
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB NVMe SSD
• Windows 11 Pro

These are available around £350. ( some include VAT some dont )

Then spend roughly £200 on a brand-new Samsung 32" 4K monitor. ( VAT included )

That gives you a much newer business-class PC, twice the RAM, a newer platform and a brand-new 32" display — all for roughly the same £550.

I also wouldn't bother buying a 24" monitor at this point unless space is a specific issue. 32" monitors have become inexpensive enough that they make much more sense, particularly for office work. Even entry-level models are perfectly adequate now. I'd simply look for something with around 300+ cd/m nits brightness.

So, for me, the choice is quite simple:

£550 for an ageing Ryzen 3 + 8GB + 24" setup = poor value.

£550 for a refurbished 12th-gen i5 + 16GB + NVMe + brand-new 32" 4K monitor = considerably better investment.

If reliability is the objective, I'd also consider putting a new SSD into the refurbished machine rather than relying on an older drive. SSDs are cheap enough compared with the potential cost and disruption of a failure.

I'd personally go with the newer setup every time.

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Nico Albrecht said:

When you compare the options side by side, the £550 asking price makes even less sense.

For virtually the same money, Currys is selling a brand-new Lenovo IdeaCentre bundle with an Intel i3-14100, 512GB SSD and a 27" QHD monitor for around £564. Yes, I'd want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB, but that's a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

The alternative being offered is:

• Ryzen 3 4300G (2020-era CPU)
• 8GB RAM
• 1TB SSD
• 24" monitor
• Approximately 5–6 years old

The Lenovo bundle is:

• Brand new
• Full warranty
• New SSD
• New power supply
• New motherboard
• New monitor
• New everything
• 27" QHD display instead of a basic 24" monitor

I'm not necessarily saying buy the Lenovo specifically. My point is that when new hardware is available for essentially the same money, the risk-versus-reward calculation changes completely.

With the used system, you're buying hardware that is already several years old. It may run perfectly for years, or an SSD, motherboard or power supply could fail next month. Nobody knows.

With a new system, you start with fresh components, a warranty and a much longer expected service life.

That's why £550 for the older Ryzen 3 machine doesn't stack up for me. The issue isn't whether it works today. The issue is that you're being asked to pay almost the same money as a brand-new system.

When the price gap between new and used is this small, buying the older machine simply doesn't make financial sense. The savings aren't large enough to justify the additional risk.

For me, this comes down to one simple question:

Would I rather spend £550 on a 5-year-old PC with unknown component wear, or spend virtually the same amount on a brand-new system with a warranty?

The answer is obvious.

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