Shall I buy a PC, or build my own?

Lestratcaster

My PC running Windows 7 is coming into its 7th year this year and its starting to lag a bit but still runs fine. Have talked about upgrading/buying a new one but timings (tax bill back in Oct now car insurance/tax/MOT) get in the way of funds. Think I can manage for a another year before it really going to piss me off how slow it can be sometimes, it just freezes at moments then springs back into life a few minutes later.

57Deluxe

@joeyowen On my researching expedition to see what if anything useful could be done with a Raspberry Pi, I stumbled on this channel on YT which has become an must visit channel even though the guy is a weedy nerd, his delivery and knowledge is unsurpassed.

As a result, I found out about all the Pi's competitors and the variations thereof and of course Linux distros and that many of these single boards run Win 10 quite happily. - who needs a laptop in reality??

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbiGcwDWZjz05njNPrJU7jA

joeyowen

@57Deluxe ;

There is an error with the vid

57Deluxe

FTFY

joeyowen

ta, will check it out soon!

Snap

I've built my own and had no problems. But...it depends on your attitude to fixing stuff and problems etc. At least with a built to order PC you will have warranty and support and someone to sort any issues out, should you have one.

I can't be arsed with the build your own any more, you don't seem to save much either

crunchman

Lestratcaster said:

My PC running Windows 7 is coming into its 7th year this year and its starting to lag a bit but still runs fine. Have talked about upgrading/buying a new one but timings (tax bill back in Oct now car insurance/tax/MOT) get in the way of funds. Think I can manage for a another year before it really going to piss me off how slow it can be sometimes, it just freezes at moments then springs back into life a few minutes later.

Assuming it's a desktop, not a laptop, get a small SSD (ebuyer is advertising a 120GB drive at £42) and do a clean install of Win 7 on it - you should be able to use your existing product key.  Keep your existing HD for data storage.

I did that with a 7 year old machine and it was faster for most purposes than my wife's laptop that was only a year old. 

Lestratcaster

crunchman said:

Lestratcaster said:

My PC running Windows 7 is coming into its 7th year this year and its starting to lag a bit but still runs fine. Have talked about upgrading/buying a new one but timings (tax bill back in Oct now car insurance/tax/MOT) get in the way of funds. Think I can manage for a another year before it really going to piss me off how slow it can be sometimes, it just freezes at moments then springs back into life a few minutes later.

Assuming it's a desktop, not a laptop, get a small SSD (ebuyer is advertising a 120GB drive at £42) and do a clean install of Win 7 on it - you should be able to use your existing product key.  Keep your existing HD for data storage.

I did that with a 7 year old machine and it was faster for most purposes than my wife's laptop that was only a year old. 

Its a desktop yes. I think I've lost my product key however. Where else can I find it? 

And why is it lagging? Cos I've got so many programmes on it and the CPU can't keep up?

crunchman

One of these might help:

https://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/

Ihttps://www.lifewire.com/how-to-find-your-windows-7-product-key-2625112

Axe_meister

When you open task manager is your CPU running at 100%.
How many cores is task manager showing up.
If you are happy with the case, DVD speed, SD card reader, assuming you have a standard ATX case it may well be cheaper just buying a new motherboard/CPU/memory combo. 
If you are already running near 100% CUP capacity and SSD will not actually help much, other than boot times it may actually push your CPU into even higher utilization as it Can't keep up with the increased data feeds.

Lestratcaster

No its, not it fluctuates between 5 and 33% for some reason. Something's wrong here?

crunchman

Axe_meister said:

When you open task manager is your CPU running at 100%.
How many cores is task manager showing up.
If you are happy with the case, DVD speed, SD card reader, assuming you have a standard ATX case it may well be cheaper just buying a new motherboard/CPU/memory combo. 
If you are already running near 100% CUP capacity and SSD will not actually help much, other than boot times it may actually push your CPU into even higher utilization as it Can't keep up with the increased data feeds.

There might be a lot of rubbish that has got installed over the years.  It might still have bloatware from the original manufacturer as well. A clean reinstall would probably be significantly faster even on the original hard drive.

Putting an SSD and a clean Windows install in my old machine, that my daughters now use, made a huge difference.

scrumhalf

Lestratcaster said:

crunchman said:

Lestratcaster said:

My PC running Windows 7 is coming into its 7th year this year and its starting to lag a bit but still runs fine. Have talked about upgrading/buying a new one but timings (tax bill back in Oct now car insurance/tax/MOT) get in the way of funds. Think I can manage for a another year before it really going to piss me off how slow it can be sometimes, it just freezes at moments then springs back into life a few minutes later.

Assuming it's a desktop, not a laptop, get a small SSD (ebuyer is advertising a 120GB drive at £42) and do a clean install of Win 7 on it - you should be able to use your existing product key.  Keep your existing HD for data storage.

I did that with a 7 year old machine and it was faster for most purposes than my wife's laptop that was only a year old. 

Its a desktop yes. I think I've lost my product key however. Where else can I find it? 

And why is it lagging? Cos I've got so many programmes on it and the CPU can't keep up?

I think you miight be able to find it if you use something like Belarc Advisor.  https://www.belarc.com/en/products_belarc_advisor

Axe_meister

How many cores does the machine have? 33% is not that high a utilization. Does you PC have the option to restore back to original state? yes that will uninstall all of your software. You then delete any bloatware that came with the PC.
I know people will hate me, but also consider upgrading to windows 10. Installed on a clean SSD. You can still get it a free upgrade.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/microsoft-windows-10-free-upgrade-offer-assistive-features/

Lestratcaster

I think its one? Its a 3.2GHz intel Pentium so pretty dated.

I don't know about restoring it back to original state, would I lose all my files?

shrinkwrap

Do Microsoft let you move a license now?
Got a Dell and wondering about SSD but I thought MS get snotty about changing a start up disk?

darthed1981

shrinkwrap said:

Do Microsoft let you move a license now?
Got a Dell and wondering about SSD but I thought MS get snotty about changing a start up disk?

Typically a new HDD is no drama for activation

crunchman

shrinkwrap said:

Do Microsoft let you move a license now?
Got a Dell and wondering about SSD but I thought MS get snotty about changing a start up disk?

They can be fussy about motherboards, but they will let you change it a small number of times. HDs don't seem to be an issue.

Maynehead

Are you planning on overclocking?

If not, go for the cheapest option. If you are however, I'd go for a custom build, it will save you money in the long run.

The pre-built machines are normally not very geared for overclocking. You'll want to choose a high quality motherboard with overclocking options, along with fast RAM and a high performance heatsink/fan. The case is also important and is often overlooked. You'll want one with efficient cooling design and plenty of room to work inside. It might cost you more but the PC will last you a lot longer.

I have always built my own and overclocked them to within an inch of their lives. My current build must be about 8 or 9 years old now, from back when the i7s first came out. I bought the cheapest i7 920 (2.66GHz) at the time, a decent ASUS mobo, the best air cooler money can buy, and overclocked it to 4.2HGz. It's still running strong to this day, and competes well even with the latest generation of processors. All I need to do is buy a new graphics card from time to time.

I reckon I've probably saved myself the money of a complete upgrade once or even twice by going down this route.

joeyowen

I phoned Spire, who only build for businesses. So i'd have to find a business to buy through, which may up the cost.

I've also phoned the local PC shop, a bit poor of me to not consider them, but someone at work said they are priced competitively. 

One thing I didn't do (being a muppet) was upgrade over time, cpu one year, ram the next etc...  Which means I've got to shell out a lot in one go.  Instead of upgrading when I find a good deal etc.