I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11.
When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days. Mainly browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay. It's
a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out
of date now.
What should I build now?
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11.
When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days. Mainly >>browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay. It's
a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out
of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300 >bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular requirements
one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands you've >never heard of.
Theo
On 07/01/2025 in message <ASw*Rj23z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo
wrote:
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11.
When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days. Mainly >>> browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight
spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay. It's >>> a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out
of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300
bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular requirements
one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands you've >> never heard of.
Theo
"NUC" is a good search term to throw up mini PCs, you will have to pick
and choose, they don't all have mini prices!
On 07/01/2025 in message <ASw*Rj23z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo
wrote:
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11.
When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days. Mainly >>> browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight
spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay. It's >>> a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out
of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300
bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular requirements
one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands you've >> never heard of.
Theo
"NUC" is a good search term to throw up mini PCs, you will have to pick
and choose, they don't all have mini prices!
On 07/01/2025 20:52, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 07/01/2025 in message <ASw*Rj23z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo >>wrote:
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11. >>>>When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days. Mainly >>>>browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight >>>>spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay. It's >>>>a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out >>>>of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300 >>>bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular requirements >>>one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands >>>you've
never heard of.
Theo
"NUC" is a good search term to throw up mini PCs, you will have to pick
and choose, they don't all have mini prices!
I can get a N100 mini PC from Amazon for around £160, and I thought of
that, but I might want a bit more power. Also, I have got used to working >with the security of mirrored hard drives, although I am not sure I need
that since I've retired from work.
For £140, I can get:
£50 - 3200G
£60 - Mobo (seems to be A520 these days)
£30 - 16GB of DDR4
So, it's not like the N100 option is cheaper?
On 08/01/2025 in message <vllorn$2oj2b$3@dont-email.me> GB wrote:
On 07/01/2025 20:52, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 07/01/2025 in message <ASw*Rj23z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo
wrote:
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11. >>>>> When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days.
Mainly
browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight
spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay.
It's
a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two
out
of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300
bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular
requirements
one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands
you've
never heard of.
Theo
"NUC" is a good search term to throw up mini PCs, you will have to
pick and choose, they don't all have mini prices!
I can get a N100 mini PC from Amazon for around £160, and I thought of
that, but I might want a bit more power. Also, I have got used to
working with the security of mirrored hard drives, although I am not
sure I need that since I've retired from work.
For £140, I can get:
£50 - 3200G
£60 - Mobo (seems to be A520 these days)
£30 - 16GB of DDR4
So, it's not like the N100 option is cheaper?
My last new build was a Z790 motherboard so I am quite a way behind the curve!
I tend to try and keep my old kit going as it runs Window 8.1 which
treats me as grown up when it comes to updates!
I tend to try and keep my old kit going as it runs Window 8.1 which
treats me as grown up when it comes to updates!
Windows 8.1 won't have troubled you much with updates over the last two >years!
On 07/01/2025 20:52, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 07/01/2025 in message <ASw*Rj23z@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo
wrote:
GB <NOTsomeone@microsoft.invalid> wrote:
I want to build a new PC which will meet all the requirements for W11. >>>> When I think about it, I'm really quite a light user, these days.
Mainly
browsing and TBird. A bit of word processing and lightweight
spreadsheets.
I built a PC for my DW 4 or 5 years ago, and it seems to work okay.
It's
a 3200G CPU with a A320 motherboard. That seems a generation or two out >>>> of date now.
What should I build now?
Do you actually need to build? There are cheap mini PCs in the <£300
bracket, using laptop CPUs. If you don't have any particular
requirements
one may suffice. Check Amazon, Aliexpress - mostly Chinese brands
you've
never heard of.
Theo
"NUC" is a good search term to throw up mini PCs, you will have to
pick and choose, they don't all have mini prices!
One advantage of the N100 PCs is that the power usage is much lower on standby, and my PC is on standby most of the time.
I can get a N100 mini PC from Amazon for around £160, and I thought of
that, but I might want a bit more power. Also, I have got used to
working with the security of mirrored hard drives, although I am not
sure I need that since I've retired from work.
For £140, I can get:
£50 - 3200G
£60 - Mobo (seems to be A520 these days)
£30 - 16GB of DDR4
Why not try a Raspberry Pi 5? They work, Geekbench rates them not much
slower than a 3200G.
On 08/01/2025 14:52, Pancho wrote:
Why not try a Raspberry Pi 5? They work, Geekbench rates them not much
slower than a 3200G.
Indeed. They work well.
I have an 8GB Pi5 in an Argon NEO 5 NVME case with a 1TB SSD. It's just
like an ordinary PC ... rather boring for a Pi.
You'd pay ... (in round numbers, inc VAT)
Pi 5 8GB £77
Case £35
SSD £50
PSU £12
Micro-HDMI cable £6 (or adapter)
So about £180 for the neatest little PC you've ever seen. One might want
to add a fiver for a battery for the onboard real-time clock in case the
Piis ever unplugged and is then run it without access to network time.
A micro-SD card or a USB flash drive would be needed to boot it to get
the OS onto the SSD.
Of course, it won't run Windows, but that's not a downside.
[Well, it will run ARM builds of Windows 10 or 11, but that's not
supported (by either MS or RPi) and a huge amount of Windows software is
only available in x86(64) builds, so what's the point?]
On 08/01/2025 18:23, Daniel James wrote:
On 08/01/2025 14:52, Pancho wrote:
Why not try a Raspberry Pi 5? They work, Geekbench rates them not
much slower than a 3200G.
Indeed. They work well.
I have an 8GB Pi5 in an Argon NEO 5 NVME case with a 1TB SSD. It's
just like an ordinary PC ... rather boring for a Pi.
You'd pay ... (in round numbers, inc VAT)
Pi 5 8GB £77
Case £35
SSD £50
PSU £12
Micro-HDMI cable £6 (or adapter)
So about £180 for the neatest little PC you've ever seen. One might
want to add a fiver for a battery for the onboard real-time clock in
case the Piis ever unplugged and is then run it without access to
network time.
A micro-SD card or a USB flash drive would be needed to boot it to get
the OS onto the SSD.
Of course, it won't run Windows, but that's not a downside.
[Well, it will run ARM builds of Windows 10 or 11, but that's not
supported (by either MS or RPi) and a huge amount of Windows software
is only available in x86(64) builds, so what's the point?]
I have a pi4, for my little robot, and I have a Jetson Orin on back
order, but this needs to run Windows.
On 08/01/2025 20:48, GB wrote:
On 08/01/2025 18:23, Daniel James wrote:I got some new boxed NEW HP RP5 5810 F6H32AV Retail POS System PC i5 4th
On 08/01/2025 14:52, Pancho wrote:
Why not try a Raspberry Pi 5? They work, Geekbench rates them not
much slower than a 3200G.
Indeed. They work well.
I have an 8GB Pi5 in an Argon NEO 5 NVME case with a 1TB SSD. It's
just like an ordinary PC ... rather boring for a Pi.
You'd pay ... (in round numbers, inc VAT)
Pi 5 8GB £77
Case £35
SSD £50
PSU £12
Micro-HDMI cable £6 (or adapter)
So about £180 for the neatest little PC you've ever seen. One might
want to add a fiver for a battery for the onboard real-time clock in
case the Piis ever unplugged and is then run it without access to
network time.
A micro-SD card or a USB flash drive would be needed to boot it to
get the OS onto the SSD.
Of course, it won't run Windows, but that's not a downside.
[Well, it will run ARM builds of Windows 10 or 11, but that's not
supported (by either MS or RPi) and a huge amount of Windows software
is only available in x86(64) builds, so what's the point?]
I have a pi4, for my little robot, and I have a Jetson Orin on back
order, but this needs to run Windows.
Gen 4GB RAM 500GB HDD Win 10
On e bay £149.99
If helps, I can do you one £100 delivered.
[Well, it will run ARM builds of Windows 10 or 11, but that's not
supported (by either MS or RPi) and a huge amount of Windows software is
only available in x86(64) builds, so what's the point?]
Thanks for the kind offer, Raj, but I'm looking for a machine to meet
all the requirements for W11.
On 09/01/2025 10:26, GB wrote:
Thanks for the kind offer, Raj, but I'm looking for a machine to meet
all the requirements for W11.
When I bought my new machine a couple of years ago I got
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
as the CPU, 32GB of RAM and an NVME SSD.
That at the time was the top AMD CPU with built in graphics. The RAM
helps a load of things, often just by being disc cache - even though
that "disc" is pretty fast.
AMD plus built in graphics was a lot LOT cheaper than Intel plus a
separate graphics card. (I suppose I could have used my son's old gaming card, but I like my quiet!)
Andy
On 09/01/2025 10:26, GB wrote:
Thanks for the kind offer, Raj, but I'm looking for a machine to meet
all the requirements for W11.
When I bought my new machine a couple of years ago I got
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
as the CPU, 32GB of RAM and an NVME SSD.
That at the time was the top AMD CPU with built in graphics. The RAM
helps a load of things, often just by being disc cache - even though
that "disc" is pretty fast.
AMD plus built in graphics was a lot LOT cheaper than Intel plus a
separate graphics card. (I suppose I could have used my son's old gaming card, but I like my quiet!)
Andy
I can't find any upgrade to the 3400G. Is that the latest one withThe 3400G is still available.
inbuilt graphics?
Care to share the approximate price?
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