New PC reccomendations

[Neil Lukins]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade our PC but would like some hints, tips and reccomendations on where and what to buy.

It will mainly be used for both personal / business so needs to be fast.

No streaming or gaming.

Just too many variables - budget is about £750 - £850.

 

[billybob99]

It depends what you mean when you say personal/business.

Are you going to be running Photoshop? Editing stuff? Or just the browser and watching YouTube videos?

Assuming by your business name - you're not.

You need to start somewhere here.

 

[Neil Lukins]

I forgot about Scan and they are not too far away. I'll see what they can offer.
Thanks.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Tips what you want in your budget and can be done.

Intel i5 or equal Amd Ryzen cpu
16GB Ram
NVME SSD 512 - 1TB
same size sata hard drive for daily backups
Dell Ultrasharp LCD

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I forgot about Scan and they are not too far away. I'll see what they can offer.
Thanks.

Use a personal credit card in that case then.

 

[The Byre]

I forgot about Scan and they are not too far away. I'll see what they can offer.
Thanks.

Having just spent £20k last month at Scan, I discovered that they provide the best after-sales service I have yet come across for any computer dealer - and I've dealt with suppliers from all over the EU.

Somewhat bizarrely, I couldn't find the on/off switch on a 16-SSD-drive server and the tech (they provide a phone service until 10pm and even have support staff there on Sat and Sun) asked for the build number and could immediately see a plan of the housing and tell me where it was.

Their prices are very keen too.

 

[Darkterror]

Basically it's way too powerfull PC if you are not plan to game or so, you can have nice one without the monitor for something like 4th of that price really. Go for Ryzen 2200G, some cheap case, like max 500w PSU, A320M AM4 socket motherboard, something like NVM M.2 128GB SSD PCI-E, something like 256 GB or so SSD SATA3 and like 8GB of DDR4 fast one.

 

[Neil Lukins]

I've been over to Scan today and they have recommended the following. I just wanted to check if it was a good system.

H16i, Intel core i5, 8gb ddr4, 240gb said, 1tb, win10.

Its within budget and sounds a good system

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I've been over to Scan today and they have recommended the following. I just wanted to check if it was a good system.

H16i, Intel core i5, 8gb ddr4, 240gb said, 1tb, win10.

Its within budget and sounds a good system

Seems like the wanna get rid of their old stock. A 240GB SSD + 1TB combo indicates it is an older setup. SSD's came down in prices quite a bit lately so it seems odd they go for such a small ssd.

What brand and total price did they quote.

 

[Neil Lukins]

Seems like the wanna get rid of their old stock. A 240GB SSD + 1TB combo indicates it is an older setup. SSD's came down in prices quite a bit lately so it seems odd they go for such a small ssd.

What brand and total price did they quote.

They quoted £491 ex vat or £589 inc vat.

Product code LN78736

 

[Nico Albrecht]

If you asked me I would go for a HP 285 . I recently bought one for a client and was surprised how fast it was. https://www.ebuyer.com/843031-hp-285-g3-amd-ryzen-3-pro-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-win-3va15ea-abu

Not a huge fan of AMD but this one was quick using an NVME SSD and only 1 ram slot at 8GB so upgrading to 16GB is no problem without dumping old ram. On this one a wifi is optional but at £431 incl VAT worth it. NVME SSD in system is still rare or only at high end stuff. So all in good machine and HP business support which is better than DElls at the moment.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Do not buy Product code LN78736. It is a weird custom system setup, gaming ram and board but very slow 240GB WD Green SSD and the worst Storage Drive 1TB Seagate HDD on the market. There are better systems for less on the market.

 

[Neil Lukins]

Do not buy Product code LN78736. It is a weird custom system setup, gaming ram and board but very slow 240GB WD Green SSD and the worst Storage Drive 1TB Seagate HDD on the market. There are better systems for less on the market.

Thanks Nico - just the advice I was looking for.

With your recommendation for a HP how does this one look. It's a little more expensive than the one you recommended but its within budget and I'm looking for a fast PC both online and with MS office

https://www.ebuyer.com/878852-hp-285-g3-amd-a8-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-win-10-pro-3ku60ea-abu

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I would still go with the cheaper version as you would not notice any difference in real world application. The one I had and did the setup had a boot time under 15 seconds and office 2019 apps opened in under 2 seconds.

Not sure how much fast do you want. Rather go with the cheaper one and upgrade it to 16GB Ram and dont forget to order a wifi card. This one has an m.2 slot and intel wifi cards cost around £20. More Ram would be better than more cpu cores and speed.

The HP 285 is just my current suggestions as it priced very well for the performance. Also the HP 285 G3 is being sold by Amazon too if you have prime. HP business pc comes with 2- 3 years and better warranty compared to their consumer products.

If you use google chrome a lot get 16GB Ram , it eats it like cake..

 

[HFE Signs]

Personally I'd always over spec, mainly due to developments in software, you don't want to find yourself with a pc that can't handle or is on the limit of a software update and then runs terribly slow.

 

[Inva]

Get a tiny Asrock A300 with a Ryzen APU. The whole thing will cost less than 500.

 

[mannierichardson214]

For that budget you can definitely get: 8 GB of RAM or more, Intel i7, a nice SSD, free DOS and Full HD display at least. HP, Acer and Dell all have some good models in that price range.

 

[The Byre]

Seems like the wanna get rid of their old stock. A 240GB SSD + 1TB combo indicates it is an older setup. SSD's came down in prices quite a bit lately so it seems odd they go for such a small ssd.

I think you'll find that has more to do with proven reliability - a company with £130m turnover p.a. hardly has old stock lying around!

 

[Clinton]

I know the Scan guys. When I owned an IT business, some 15-20 years ago, Scan was one of my suppliers and I remember the owners coming to my offices in Essex to meet with me. Nice guys.

Anyway, I have a tip (that you may or may not like given there's a budget). When I need a new PC or laptop I usually buy TWO of the exact same make and model and keep one as a spare, for parts (or to provide emergency computing should something go wrong with the first one).

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I think you'll find that has more to do with proven reliability - a company with £130m turnover p.a. hardly has old stock lying around!

That's why my link went to a HP business line model that is covered under an actual business warranty. Most consumer hardware actually excludes business use. Having old stock around is a very common issue in that industry with products life of 8 - 14 month before they release the next version ( purely marketing ) The one from scan quoted is a nice left over special with old stock parts. Nothing wrong at that but the price would be to high by 25%.