Computer help

Davey Crockett

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
13,691
Likes
1,194
Points
553
Location
Boondocks
My Old desktop computer finally took it's last breath and nothing will bring it back to life so I'm ready to drop the hammer on a desc top computer or probably Just the tower. Not looking for anything fancy but want something functional and up to date. What would your minimum requirements be ? I found out I need an "Air" printer to print from our tablets. Haha , I thought air was wi-fi till I tried printing a shipping label.

Also I am seeing some pretty good prices on refurbished should I run or are refurbished electronics just as good as new ?
 


Davey Crockett

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
13,691
Likes
1,194
Points
553
Location
Boondocks
No idea, It was a cheap Dell that I bought for my Mom about 10 years ago and the fan was so loud that it sounded like a jet . It just started getting slow to start after being shut down and finally gave out. The only thing I know for sure is that I have no intentions of fixing it.
 

NDwalleyes

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Posts
2,431
Likes
459
Points
323
Location
Bismarck, ND
+1 on getting a laptop.

One other thing to consider is ND State surplus. You wouldn't believe the computers/laptops you can get for dirt cheap at that place. The one caveat is that you would most likely need to purchase an operating system. ie. Windows. Something to consider.
 


Ponyroper

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2015
Posts
1,041
Likes
19
Points
201
Location
Mandan
I just bought a super nice used Dell laptop off BisMan last week. The guy picks up clean used units at the ND State surplus dept. and refurbishes them with updated memory, solid state drives and installs a new version of Windows 10 Professional. Its got an i7 Intel processor, a high end graphics card, 8 GB new memory and a 512 GB solid state drive. It's got a bright clear 15.6" screen and full keyboard with number keys. It has built in wi fi but no web cam or blue tooth but I never used the web cam on my old Toshiba in 5 years and I added a blue tooth plug-in for about $10. The solid state drive makes this so fast it's amazing. The only thing wrong with it is that it could use a new battery as the old one only lasts about half an hour but I never unplug it anyway as it just sets on the end table by my recliner 24/7. It looks and runs like a new unit and I love it. It's a business level unit that sold for around $1,800 4 or 5 years ago and that was without the solid state drive. I paid $275 for it and when I checked around for new computers with similar features I would have to shell out around $800-1,000 for a comparable unit. I saw several other nice units on BisMan for about the same price but this one was an exceptional deal.

Edit: When I looked for a different computer my requirements were: i7 or equivalent processor, minimum 8 GB RAM, top level graphics card, built in wi-fi, minimum 15.6" screen, and a good brand name solid state drive. Regular SATA hard drives are super cheap and most new computers now days have 1 Terabyte size or bigger but solid state drives are so much faster that there is literally no comparison between the two and if you have one you will never want to go back to the SATA drive. Solid state drives are more expensive especially the bigger ones like the 512 one I got so some people are going the route of two drives, a smaller cheaper solid state like a 126 GB for start-up and running the operating system and a big 1+ Terabyte SATA for cheap data storage.
 
Last edited:

Jiffy

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Posts
1,682
Likes
799
Points
343
Location
West Fargo
apple IIe.jpg
 


shorthairsrus

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Posts
8,422
Likes
486
Points
383
damn those video cards are high priced --- damn miners and gamers

- - - Updated - - -

monitors hook up to usbs too now adays. I run two monitors on my laptop --- one via usb and the other hdmi.
 


shorthairsrus

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Posts
8,422
Likes
486
Points
383
all that bloatware stuff is on those "brand names" --- get something w/o the bloat
 

Davey Crockett

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
13,691
Likes
1,194
Points
553
Location
Boondocks
I'm learning. Good call on laptops, Looking into those. The reason I was leaning against them is I too like to look at a big screen. I was set up this way years ago but the old monitors had VGA ports and they don't hold up with frequent plugging in and unplugging on the laptop end, At least mine didn't. I already have three 20'' flat monitors with VGA ports and now I see they make converters for VGA-Hdmi and USB so I can get by with my chromebook and a port converter for now till I decide for sure what I want/need and find a decent price.
 

Sluggo

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 14, 2015
Posts
2,574
Likes
415
Points
333
Location
Bismarck
Davey, what do you primarily use the computer for? Emailing, internet surfing (on NDA), word processing, printing, gaming, etc. Do you run/install a lot of apps? Do you save a lot of files/images? Most people buy more computer than they need.
 

Davey Crockett

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
13,691
Likes
1,194
Points
553
Location
Boondocks
Davey, what do you primarily use the computer for? Emailing, internet surfing (on NDA), word processing, printing, gaming, etc. Do you run/install a lot of apps? Do you save a lot of files/images? Most people buy more computer than they need.


Emails , selling on ebay , Internet surfing ,printing and once in a while I crank up some old songs on you tube. That's about it. In the past we saved way too many images and I think we overloaded the systems resulting in failure so this time we won't save near as many images.
 

Sluggo

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 14, 2015
Posts
2,574
Likes
415
Points
333
Location
Bismarck
Emails , selling on ebay , Internet surfing ,printing and once in a while I crank up some old songs on you tube. That's about it. In the past we saved way too many images and I think we overloaded the systems resulting in failure so this time we won't save near as many images.

Based on what you said, most of what you do is internet related so your connection speed from your provider is very important. Your desktop was most likely using a wired connection but if you go with a laptop, you will probably use wifi in which case, your wifi router needs to be decent. You can still use the wire with a laptop too. You don’t need a solid state drive necessarily or any high powered machine to use the internet. Memory for storing files/images is generally quite large in even cheaper machines nowadays so I wouldn’t worry about storing too many images. For example, 250-500 gig to a terabyte is pretty common. I wouldn’t pay extra for a touch screen. I would make sure it has a decent number of ports, usb and hdmi.
 


Recent Posts

Friends of NDA

Top Posters of the Month

  • This month: 159
  • This month: 135
  • This month: 120
  • This month: 110
  • This month: 105
  • This month: 87
  • This month: 84
  • This month: 76
  • This month: 76
  • This month: 75
Top Bottom