I'm so out of the loop on tech specs it's embarrassing. I'm probably going to need to buy a new desktop - new could be refurbished or even used if it's like e-bay or something where I'm purchase protected - one that's loaded with at least Windows 10 and with a generous amount of RAM and a sizeable hard drive. BUT not several hundred dollars either. I don't need a "gaming" rig or anything like that, just usual household stuff. So what kind of minimum specs do I need to filter for?
Do you mainly just do web browsing, e-mail and such? Do you run Excel, Word, etc.? Anything like Photoshop or video editing? Unless the answer to that last one is "yes," how about something like this: Dell Inspiron 3891 Or HP Slim
If it can run Windows 10, then the processor is probably going to be as fast as you need for what you do. So, what you want to look for is how much RAM the machine has. The more RAM, the better. I'd even go so far as to say that you should opt for a lower processor speed if that means you can get a machine with more RAM. And don't worry about how big the harddrive on the thing is, SSD external harddrives are dirt cheap and stupidly fast. If the machine has USB 3 ports, and you get an external SSD with USB 3, you can put everything but the OS on the external drive, and not have to worry about laggy load times when you launch a program. Woot.com often has cheap deals on refurb/scratch & dent PCs, as does tigerdirect.com Unless you're planning on getting a laptop, all the major manufacturers have about the same build quality these days. Laptops are complicated because, almost without exception, nearly every company out there has models of questionable reliability. Lenovo is about the only brand out there that I'd say one could buy without hesitation. I'd also suggest you opt for a model that has an AMD processor, as there have been some hardware flaws with Intel processors that are corrected by software, but they slow down the machine. AMD hasn't been immune to those flaws, but the fixes for them haven't had near the impact on performance that the ones for Intel machines have. A minor note about buying a refurb unit is that you might run into the issue that Windows says that you don't have a valid install of Windows, if you call MS and explain things to them, they'll walk you through the process to get rid of the notification. Alternatively, you can google around for ways to legally install a new copy of Windows 10, without much hassle.
my guy who does repairs for me thinks that the one I have has the architecture to be be to ramp up the ram and carry a bigger HD. He's gonna go in and look around and see what I need to basically refurbish this one, which will give me a baseline comparison of cost.
