Work selling off old PC - Advice please

edwardcasbon1 · 23 Dec 2018 at 10:21

Hi all,

I work for a software company, and every now and then they sell off some of the older dev PCs.

I enquired about the spec that's available, and they said the following:

* 80 Plus 350w PSU
* Seagate 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
* Intel 530 240GB SSD
* 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 RAM
* HD 5450 1GB DDR3 fanless VGA, HDMI, DVI-I
* Windows 7 Pro (Will look to purchase and upgrade to Windows 10 Pro)
* Intel Haswell Core i5-4670 3.4-3.8 GHz 4 Cores, 84W, HD Graphics
* Asus H87M-E LGA1050 uATX

Please could you let me know what you think of the setup? I'm a Mac person, looking to get back working with Windows. Would this setup feel slow, or faster than a MacBook Pro?

FYI, I'd be able to get it for £100, if that helps?

Thanks,

Edward

tamzzy · 23 Dec 2018 at 11:02

edwardcasbon1 said:
Please could you let me know what you think of the setup?

it's very decent

edwardcasbon1 said:
Windows 7 Pro (Will look to purchase and upgrade to Windows 10 Pro)

don't need to purchase a win 10 key. see here: https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/yo...ws-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

bremen1874 · 23 Dec 2018 at 11:20

Try installing Windows 10 using the Windows 7 key before spending any money. It was working a couple of months ago.

Edit: didn’t read post above properly, but it does work.

Quartz · 23 Dec 2018 at 11:34

For what are you going to be using the PC? Are they selling it with Monitor, keyboard, and mouse?

If you want to game on it you will need to buy a GPU and probably a PSU. For low-end gaming, just plug in a GTX 1050 Ti - no need for a new PSU.

Steveocee · 23 Dec 2018 at 12:23

£100 for a PC that spec is pretty decent but won’t be very strong if you wanted to use it for gaming.

LuckyBenski · 23 Dec 2018 at 13:44

The CPU is fine for most gaming so it's down to adding a graphics card and power supply, IF you'll be gaming much.

The rest of the PC is very solid as a desktop machine and at that price, a steal.

edwardcasbon1 · 26 Dec 2018 at 20:35

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

I've been reading a bit more, and because I have a 4K monitor, I need to run 4K @ 60Hz over HDMI, so will need a graphics card with an HDMI 2.0 output. From research, it looks like the cheapest is an nVidia GT 1030, or an nVidia GTX 950, is that correct?

Thanks again, and for the tip about the Windows 10 key.

Edward

LuckyBenski · 26 Dec 2018 at 20:38

I'd double check about the 950 as i know the 970 has HDMI 2.0 but seem to remember a question mark for lower cards. Otherwise yes, the 1030 is usually the cheapest

Nikumba · 28 Dec 2018 at 11:28

If you want to get back into Windows, why not just run bootcamp on your Mac?

Mujja · 28 Dec 2018 at 12:03

That's a decent PC for £100 and good enough to the usual office type tasks.

Check the of case has room for a larger graphics card. Would still be good value if you bought another case and transferred the components across.

Apone70 · 28 Dec 2018 at 12:21

cant really go wrong for £100 if you wanna use it for browsing the net etc

edwardcasbon1 · 28 Dec 2018 at 17:14

Yeah, I'm a web developer by trade, so will be using for development, browsing, youtube etc. Like I mentioned above, I've a 40" 4K display, so will likely get a gt1030 so I can run 4K @ 60Hz.

There's no particular reason for going back to Windows, other than Mac's starting to annoy me by being so expensive for the spec, and my MacBook Pro beachballing all the time. I was toying with the idea of building my own PC, but then saw that work sell off old dev PC's, so thought I'd dip my finger back in that way, being a much cheaper option (albeit much lower spec).

I'd probably look to move the components into a different case (Liking the look/price of the Corsair 275r at the moment), and adding some RGB bits and bobs.

Thanks for all the help and feedback.

ExoMale · 28 Dec 2018 at 17:29

i dont know how the hd 5450 that system has compared to the gt 710, but i tested my 710 on a 4k tv and i did full display @ 60hz and everything fitted on the screen perfectly, that was just for general desktop/usage of a test, no software or demanding stuff. only mention this as a 1030 is a lot of money for what they are and a 1050 not much new and about the same price used.

LuckyBenski · 28 Dec 2018 at 19:41

ExoMale said:
i dont know how the hd 5450 that system has compared to the gt 710, but i tested my 710 on a 4k tv and i did full display @ 60hz and everything fitted on the screen perfectly, that was just for general desktop/usage of a test, no software or demanding stuff. only mention this as a 1030 is a lot of money for what they are and a 1050 not much new and about the same price used.

Was that over DVI?

ExoMale · 28 Dec 2018 at 20:17

LuckyBenski said:
Was that over DVI?

nope, i used the hdmi port.

this is the computer i was using at the time, but like i said this and go on browser/folders was all i did, i was setting this computer up for sale, so i didnt want to do too much.

the 1030 is miles ahead of the old 710, but i dont think its £60-80 worth unless you need more from it and cant fit a 1050.