W10 boot and UEFI instead of BIOS

[Suff]

If you have a desktop and are happy with monitor, keyboard and mouse, my preference is these machines.

https://store.minisforum.com/collection ... 6661140641

There are quite a few, but that is a complete replacement with 0.5TB ssd, 16GB RAM, integrated graphics and Type C USB. You can add a laptop 2.5" hdd, either rotating or SSD quite simply by undoing the 4 screws on the bottom, clipping in the SATA extension cable and screwing the drive into the lid you just took off.

I have a MX400 from Amazon and a HX90 which I bought direct, barebones and fitted my own RAM and drives. If you buy direct there are some delivery charges but you can check the box and you get a bill from DHL. Mine was about €25.

Prices on Amazon UK are quite a bit more expensive. Possibly due to the windows install?? I never bother about that as I always use my own, but it doesn't look like the systems from the manufacturer come with Windows.

If you want a comparison of the CPU grunt, I chose the fastest processor from the Core 2 Quad range (2007 introduction) and compared it with this budget chip in the new box.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AM ... 3881vs1033

As you can see, it outperforms those processors nearly 3:1 and that intel chip was way over $1,000 when it was new. I doubt your current machine has a processor anywhere near that fast unless it got an upgrade at some time.

The differences in disk, memory and graphics are likely to be even more dramatic.

Just some options. As WM says, options with Laptops are also very wide. You can also go to ebay and buy a barebones system (as my father did), but you'd need to buy the drives, OS, etc and it would come out to the same in the end or more.

[TheOstrich]

Cheers, Suff.

It's a desktop, I prefer desktops to laptops, but currently the budget for any replacement has just been blown away by Storm Eunice. A fence repair / replacement has become the new priority ....

[Suff]

Gah, yes, that's a real pain.

The info won't age. If you can tell us the desktop model we can have a look and see what the options are. However My suspicion is that trying to upgrade will be counterproductive.

Just to highlight the age of your machine and just how slow it is, this machine is probably quicker than your current desktop (note it is 3019 on the cpu benchmark), and with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of in built SSD, it can probably hold anything you need on the OS. It also has room for a 2.5" drive to expand your storage.

This is the same processor and ram as I have on my high mobility laptop. It is "quick enough" just don't ask it to do too many things at the same time as it will go to 100% CPU and take a while to get back down. It does, however, run everything I need with office and the web.

It also has Windows 10 Pro. That's a big thing for me because Home misses a lot of stuff I use all the time. You may not though.

At £219.99, it is seriously cheap and gets a lot of good reviews where people's expectations are not too high. Personally I have a machine exactly like this but slightly less powerful which I use as a VPN server but using my laptop spec for day to day stuff? It is quite viable, I just have higher expectations and am willing to pay for them.

[update], for instance my X400 processor cpu benchmark is 19,899, but the processor alone cost £360. The difference between 3,000 and 19,000 is dramatic but not everyone needs it.

[TheOstrich]

Gah, yes, that's a real pain.

The info won't age. If you can tell us the desktop model we can have a look and see what the options are. However My suspicion is that trying to upgrade will be counterproductive.

Suff, it was custom built. Being an ex-accountant AND a kleptomaniac, I've been able to put my hands straight on the invoice!

I was out with the age. It's 2012 and originally W7.

Neil wot put it together said:
13/500GB/8GB/NVIDIA Graphics Card
DVD RW/WIN 7 HP 64 bit
MS OFFICE H/S/EXTERNAL FDD

Which tells you a lot of peripheral stuff, of course, but nothing particularly relevant about the hardware ......

(Got the invoice for our Panasonic vacuum cleaner in the same polypocket if that's any help? - thought not!! )

[Workingman]

Ossie, like Neil I used to build desktop PCs as a sideline but gave up years ago as I could not get the bits to compete with the big boys.

I see that even the hated Amazon has deals for as low as £150 from Dell, HP etc. They are ample fast enough for older guys like us who want to browse news sites and local forums, have a few spreadsheets and docs, do a bit of shopping at Damart and Dunelm for thermals and watch a few Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis music vids on YouTube.

The faster-than-light with all the bells and whistles machines are fine for avid streamers, gamers and business, but for those of us just strolling along a sturdy workhorse machine is ample enough, as Suff says

Shame the fence has screwed things up, at least for now. Can it be repaired by an odd-job man or is it demolished?

[TheOstrich]

Fingers crossed repairable, WM. I haven't had a good look at it as it's still stormy here, but I'm hoping a couple of new concrete-set wooden posts and a few new crossbraces might do the trick. But it's 30yo and there has to be a question mark over the rest of it.

[Suff]

Yep Frank, I still run stuff that won't play on basic machines. Yet I got my dad to buy a basic machine because he simply doesn't need more. He already had drives, monitors, the rest. In the end we settled for a barebones tower case to replace his tower case.

Requirements are shrinking. If you want to go craxy, this is what is running my CNC milling machine.



It is probably a bit more powerful than your machine Ossie and a hell of a lot faster to start.

[Workingman]

I have gone laptops for many years now - I needed them for work.

The latest is an ACER Aspire 3 15.6" Laptop Intel® Core™ i5, 256 GB SSD, 12 GB RAM, Black with Win 11 Home.

After a bit of haggling I got it for £400 cash at the counter.

It takes under 20 seconds to boot from cold - hit the button and be typing away - no pictures of this or login password for that. It is easy to do if only you or family use the PC / laptop. I also created a shutdown shortcut to sit on the taskbar. One click and it is dead in seven seconds - none of that click, get a menu, click again, choose and click again nonsense.

I have used the Advanced Systems Settings from a previous post to get rid of the fly-out windows, drop shadows, animations and other fluffy stuff and that makes it super fast and CPU and memory efficient.

[Suff]

I have just reviewed my preferences for what I define as "mobile" computing as opposed to "portable".

My Portable is my Mi Max 3 phone and my Teclast 15.3" lapatop with a Celeron N4120 processor, 1TB m.2 drive and 8 gb of RAM. It is light, lasts a good 6 hours with moderate use and gets the mobile job done.

Portable computing is different. I need the ability to run virtual machines at high speed and run meetings on them via teams; carry all my storage and keep my media with me when travelling. After a LOT of looking around at laptops I decided on this

this


With 64GB of RAM, 2TB NVME, 2TB of SSD and 5TB or rotating 2.5" drive. All internal.

Plus this



Plus this plus the case to go with it which is not very much.



Plus a 14TB WD Elements USB 3 drive.

Total price a little under £2,000. Equivalent laptop? None at any price. Fits in the rucksack.

Oh and I forgot the final part, I already own two of these.



Which makes my mobile desktop truly mobile.