11-18-2022, 12:56 PM
Many businesses like to upgrade their computers regularily, and sell their old stuff really cheap. You can find these computers used at very cheap, sometimes less than $100!!
Searching eBay seems to get better prices for laptops, and Amazon seems to have better prices for desktops.
The cheapest models are usually Dell Optiplex or Lenovo Thinkpad, these were pretty high quality models too
Desktops usually have far more performance for the price than the laptop
Make sure the computer has Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7, (Most of these do not have AMD processors) and the higher the number behind the i#, the better it is. For example, Intel Core i5-6500 is better than Intel Core i5-2500 by a little bit.
4GB RAM is probably fine but get 8GB or more if you can find it.
If the computer has no HDD, no SSD, no OS, it wont boot,but thats OK because you can really easily get an SSD and install an OS to it in a few hours. Would recommend Apollo SSD from https://mobilesentrix.com or Crucial MX SSD (not the BX though). Had to replace a lot of Samsung Evo so maybe avoid those. HDD make the computer feel really slow so if it does come with an HDD you may want to upgrade that too. Used hard drives arent recommended since they are more likely to fail but if you dont store anything important on them they can be cheaper
With a desktop, if you want to turn it into a gaming computer, all you need is a new power supply, a graphic card, and probably an adapter to plug in the power supply to that weird non-standard motherboard a lot of these business computers seem to have. DO NOT cheap out or buy used power supplies, as they CAN explode, and CAN break EVERY PART on the computer! Everything else is fine used.
You can install whatever operating system you want other than macos on the computer with a USB flash drive, all you need is to download the .iso file for the operating system, and use a tool like rufus (its free) to burn it to the flash drive. This could take a little bit to do and installing another operating system is not usually necessary but its your preference. If the computer is locked then you may need to.
With this new computer you will be able to actually run apps, games, professional audio/video editing programs, etc. nothing will be blocked, and it should last you a VERY long time ! Good luck!
Searching eBay seems to get better prices for laptops, and Amazon seems to have better prices for desktops.
The cheapest models are usually Dell Optiplex or Lenovo Thinkpad, these were pretty high quality models too
Desktops usually have far more performance for the price than the laptop
Make sure the computer has Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7, (Most of these do not have AMD processors) and the higher the number behind the i#, the better it is. For example, Intel Core i5-6500 is better than Intel Core i5-2500 by a little bit.
4GB RAM is probably fine but get 8GB or more if you can find it.
If the computer has no HDD, no SSD, no OS, it wont boot,but thats OK because you can really easily get an SSD and install an OS to it in a few hours. Would recommend Apollo SSD from https://mobilesentrix.com or Crucial MX SSD (not the BX though). Had to replace a lot of Samsung Evo so maybe avoid those. HDD make the computer feel really slow so if it does come with an HDD you may want to upgrade that too. Used hard drives arent recommended since they are more likely to fail but if you dont store anything important on them they can be cheaper
With a desktop, if you want to turn it into a gaming computer, all you need is a new power supply, a graphic card, and probably an adapter to plug in the power supply to that weird non-standard motherboard a lot of these business computers seem to have. DO NOT cheap out or buy used power supplies, as they CAN explode, and CAN break EVERY PART on the computer! Everything else is fine used.
You can install whatever operating system you want other than macos on the computer with a USB flash drive, all you need is to download the .iso file for the operating system, and use a tool like rufus (its free) to burn it to the flash drive. This could take a little bit to do and installing another operating system is not usually necessary but its your preference. If the computer is locked then you may need to.
With this new computer you will be able to actually run apps, games, professional audio/video editing programs, etc. nothing will be blocked, and it should last you a VERY long time ! Good luck!
