Help with pc tower upgrade

[juco]

Currently using a PC tower with win7 about 12 years old, as much as I would prefer to keep using win7 I reckon I need to update before it stops working so looking to get a win10 or win11. (most likely refurbished) My limited experience on win 10 is not good so anyone on here who has used all 3 versions and what would you recommend.
I use mainly for photoshop, uTube and spreadsheets plus email. I realise that 10 & 11 wont let me use my version of photoshp but can still use it on my win7 while it still works or even worse om my old winxp laptop

Opinions would be most welcome.

Not that I understand the terminology but is the RAM / Memory (and anything else important) and at what level, I don't do gaming. I did google it but to confusing for me.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

You have come to the right place. I dealt for recycled/refurb systems for years.
You are in a great place to buy right now or in the near future.
First I would look at Dell's commercial lines, i.e. Optiplex, Precision Workstations.
Look at fuller sized towers with Intel gen 7 CPUs. Technically they won't run Win 11 but if you alter a Win 11 ISO from Microsoft with Rufus, it will run Win 11 just fine.
I would look at the specs of the system on-line. I would shoot for a system that will allow 16GB, 32GB if you can afford it DDR4. Not sure if you have a requirement for an add-in graphics card.

Dells are extremely well built (the commercial lines). If you should require replacement parts the systems are very popular so parts are cheap and easy to find. They service quite easily and repair manuals are easily accessed on-line.

Now back to the good news. Just about every medium/large business I have worked in or on have a boatload of Dells all running Windows 10 Pro. Some have Intel gen 7 or lower CPUs which means they are technically not eligible for upgrade to Win 11. That's where Rufus comes in. Businesses this year like it or not are going to be forced to upgrade their hardware to accommodate Win 11 which will flood the market with otherwise great machines. Most commercial systems were covered under Dell care contracts and well maintained. All those systems have Win 10 Pro licenses embedded in their BIOS and allow upgrade to Win 11 after the Rufus tweak to the ISO.

So keep an eye out for good buys, there are many now and certainly more to come.
Good luck and ask any questions should you have any.

 

[juco]

My RAM is 6GB, Hard drive is 931GB.

I have in all the years only used 262GB and also use an external SSD for back up of files.

Photoshop is 6.0

I am located UK.

 

[juco]

Do you reckon this would be ok for my needs, priced £119 (win11) based on my info above.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

2nd gen i5? What model system is this? I really think you would be happier with 16GB RAM.

 

[juco]

Below is the detail, I can get the 16GB (£129)
I appreciate your help with this as I am at a loss with the technical stuff.

 

[AFFASocial]

Here is a good option and a good seller and I would focus on the i7 series with 32gigs of memory.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?Submit=Pers&pmid=F181A9B3-C333-461A-97B6-88F0AC690CD7&fbid=1&boin=9SIAKDCC8V1393&trid=5&gid=SingleGroup&ste=49&sid=10

 

[juco]

.............."Here is a good option and a good seller and I would focus on the i7 series with 32gigs of memory"..............
That link is for the United States. I am in the UK.

Are there any negatives regarding 'small form factor' V 'normal size tower'.

 

[AFFASocial]

.............."Here is a good option and a good seller and I would focus on the i7 series with 32gigs of memory"..............
That link is for the United States. I am in the UK.

Are there any negatives regarding 'small form factor' V 'normal size tower'.

Sorry about that Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=refurb...ished+dell,aps,242&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_4_16

 

[juco]

Sorry about that Amazon UK

Thanks for the link, lots of good options there.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

Couple of things.
I have a small army of microcomputers, 2 shipped with Win 11.
Downsides of Micros. No room inside the case. If you are lucky you can install a couple of NVMe M.2 SSD. Max of 2 RAM slots, some just 1. In some cases it's really a modified laptop board in a ATX Micro case. You are pretty much tied to USB I/O peripherals, HDMI and or a Display Port video output.
Upsides. Power supply is a brick outside the case. Universal, easily replaced. Keeps power supply heat out of the case.
This little guys take up very little space. Some of the cheaper Asian brands are a little sketchy, little or no support. I did just got a AceMagic for free. I opened the case and the build quality was impressive. I am still putting it thru the paces. I have a Minisforum i9 system, works pretty well, no support at all. The rest of my systems are Dell, HP and Lenovo.

I would suggest if you go with a Optiplex refurb get a i7-7xxx 7th gen CPU. They can't be upgraded to Win 11 normally so there are some great deals starting to appear. Only get a grade A. These are all from offices and maintained by Dell. Anything less than an grade A was mistreated and going to be a headache. (I was in the e-recycling business for a decade until COVID-19).

Don't be afraid of ebay. Only go with a seller who has a history and 98.5% good reviews and read them before you buy.

 

[juco]

Thanks for your information, with all the replies I have had now I feel in a better position now to make a purchase in the next couple of weeks. Being in my 70s now I have never really got into the technical side of things so these posts have been a great help.

Thanks to all that posted.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

Thanks for your information, with all the replies I have had now I feel in a better position now to make a purchase in the next couple of weeks. Being in my 70s now I have never really got into the technical side of things so these posts have been a great help.

Thanks to all that posted.

There's a lot of old heads in this forum if you should ever decide to try to get more technical.

 

[AFFASocial]

This would be a mega upgrade for you and cheap I use these systems even have one as my file server. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/31635251...LL4rxlhOUN6g8+EY0hp4UoIg==|tkp:Bk9SR9zx6prAZQ