Question (I don't know if this is in the right subforum!) System incompatible with Windows 11, what sort of computer should I look into?

[Fatalzo]

My PC is a 7-year-old HP Z220 Workstation, and it says it's incompatible with Windows 11 due to the lack of a TPM chip and an ancient processor.

So what sort of computer should I look for?
I really don't want anything heavy duty. My vision is a moderately cheap computer ($600-800) with an Intel CPU, Intel or NVidia GPU, and the TPM chip. I want it to atleast be able to run Roblox at minimum graphics without overheating, just like mine does now. I want it to last atleast 4 years under these conditions. I play Roblox a lot.

So what sort of computer should I be looking into?

Due to personal reasons, I have extremely severe trust issues towards AMD and I would like to stay away from AMD whenever possible. I won't get into too much detail, but long story short, I have had nothing but bad experiences with AMD and nothing but good experiences with Intel.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

you have a brain like me when it comes to pc bro, i have had several instances with windows on ssd's compared to hdd's the only thing that ssd's are actually good for in my eye's is faster boot times other then that. he's basically right ssd's are basically over rated, and umm i have no idea what you are talking about by no ones os's are just going poof bye bye off of ssd's. there's several post on just this forum of people shutting down thir pc one perfectly fine then all of a sudden next morning for school or something there's no boot device detected however ssd's are still being read.

Your terrible grammar and spelling makes my head hurt. I wish you were better at this.

No. While it's true that Boot Time is the biggest improvement with SSD, down from 5-10 minutes on HDD to around 20 seconds on a fast SSD, there are many, many other benefits.

You just have to use Windows for 10 minutes on SSD vs on HDD to see the difference. Apps load instantly, close instantly and perform significantly better on SSD. ALL apps. Games as well, load times in games drop by up to 90% on SSD, and it prevents stuttering when loading assets. In Minecraft, running a server on SSD removes basically any server lag whatsoever. In Civ 6, running the game from SSD reduces CPU turn time by over 75%. There's so many benefits its crazy, and all the negatives you mention are from 10 years ago and don't apply to SSDs any more and haven't for years.

Yes, you can find threads on Toms Hardware where people have lost their entire OS from a SSD, because it does happen, same as it does with HDDs. Its an extremely rare event however, and all those posts are from 6-8 years ago. It doesn't happen these days.

 

[white.a.drew]

Your terrible grammar and spelling makes my head hurt. I wish you were better at this.

No. While it's true that Boot Time is the biggest improvement with SSD, down from 5-10 minutes on HDD to around 20 seconds on a fast SSD, there are many, many other benefits.

You just have to use Windows for 10 minutes on SSD vs on HDD to see the difference. Apps load instantly, close instantly and perform significantly better on SSD. ALL apps. Games as well, load times in games drop by up to 90% on SSD, and it prevents stuttering when loading assets. In Minecraft, running a server on SSD removes basically any server lag whatsoever. In Civ 6, running the game from SSD reduces CPU turn time by over 75%. There's so many benefits its crazy, and all the negatives you mention are from 10 years ago and don't apply to SSDs any more and haven't for years.

Yes, you can find threads on Toms Hardware where people have lost their entire OS from a SSD, because it does happen, same as it does with HDDs. Its an extremely rare event however, and all those posts are from 6-8 years ago. It doesn't happen these days.

HAHAHAHA bro just stop your so full of yourself it's not even funny.... again i may only know 10% of what there is to know when it comes to pc's but i promise you i know more then what your talking about......... i have a pc sitting right next to me that has had windows 10 installed on it before that wouldn't game period to install windows xp has no issues this was less then a month ago. it's running 16gb ddr3 and a i5 3470 it would avg 25-30 fps with windows 10 because all the background usage xp same system and everything 200+

 

[white.a.drew]

Your terrible grammar and spelling makes my head hurt. I wish you were better at this.

No. While it's true that Boot Time is the biggest improvement with SSD, down from 5-10 minutes on HDD to around 20 seconds on a fast SSD, there are many, many other benefits.

You just have to use Windows for 10 minutes on SSD vs on HDD to see the difference. Apps load instantly, close instantly and perform significantly better on SSD. ALL apps. Games as well, load times in games drop by up to 90% on SSD, and it prevents stuttering when loading assets. In Minecraft, running a server on SSD removes basically any server lag whatsoever. In Civ 6, running the game from SSD reduces CPU turn time by over 75%. There's so many benefits its crazy, and all the negatives you mention are from 10 years ago and don't apply to SSDs any more and haven't for years.

Yes, you can find threads on Toms Hardware where people have lost their entire OS from a SSD, because it does happen, same as it does with HDDs. Its an extremely rare event however, and all those posts are from 6-8 years ago. It doesn't happen these days.

watch just for you i will post a benchmark of my pc running just the stress test but it will come back with 25% background usage

 

[USAFRet]

OK...to all involved...lets back off on the personal attacks.
Deal?

 

[Colif]

5-10 minutes on a hdd? lol. its not that slow. But once you can get 10 second boots on NVME, it can feel like it. WIn10 actually tries to reduce the difference between the 2 formats with fast startup.

some of the differences between 10 and XP include ability to take bare OS onto the internet without 3rd party AV and not get viruses randomly. None of those background tasks are there to slow you down.

win 10 and XP aren't that far apart in 1 category. amount of ram it takes for them to start
Win XP - 96mb
Vista - 224mb
7 - 192mb
8 - 168mb
10 - 140mb

Only xp, a 20 year old OS, needs less ram to run in to start (not be useful, this is just start) than win 10. Bloat? look at the ones in between. XP with 96mb of ram takes minutes to load anything. cause its mainly running off page file. See video

over rated. running a PC off low ram and a hdd just cripples it. XP with 96mb of ram takes 30 minutes to load command prompt. and thats off NVME. How many days do you have?

anyway, I wandered off topic like rest of thread has

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm sure I have before, but I'm not sure exactly when, I have seen so much fail in one thread. And that is definitely not pointed towards any one individual. It's rampant here. I'd listen to USAFRet, Delaro, Boju and Colif, they are just about the only ones offering actual, reliable, solid advice at all.

 

[Fatalzo]

Future proofing? Huh? Are you imagining some future where Windows 11 isn't available to install? This makes zero sense. If you ever needed Windows 11 in future, you could simply install it. You don't "proof" yourself from anything by installing it while it's still in Alpha.

Your star rating is irrelevant. I don't even know what you're talking about. Is this some benchmark thing in Roblox? Likely it went down because you installed a ton of junk on your laptop. Do a clean install (Of Windows 10) and your star rating will come back.

The laptop stopped working.
Within a year.
The only things I installed were Roblox, Discord, and my school stuff.

 

[USAFRet]

The laptop stopped working.
Within a year.
The only things I installed were Roblox, Discord, and my school stuff.

What failed on it?
1 year, still under warranty.
Replace, and recover the data from your backup...

 

[gremlinkurst]

I have administered every Windows platform since Windows 3.1 with the sole exception of Windows 8.1. Because of the "this Windows version is no longer supported" thing over the last several months and updating to "new full versions," I knew Windows 11 was on its way...but I'm not really all that eager to jump on the Windows 11 bandwagon (seriously: I thought they were going to call it Windows 12—my bad!). I've been keeping an eye out for user experiences with the new operating system, and what I've seen so far is leading me to respond as I did to Windows 8.1...which is not encouraging.

With Windows 8.1 it was one damned problem after another, most of them centered around arbitrarily removing user customization capabilities and introducing really weird ways to accomplish the same old tasks, introducing chaos and confusion to what should be seamless transitions for experienced computer users. Then there were crap ideas implemented that were just plain horribly bad ideas that didn't work as planned, and Microsoft's response to those complaints seemed to be, "Let's just wait for the problems to go away. Fixing it is a terribly silly idea—right, guys?" Yeah, Microsoft had released a bona-fide lemon. The only apology they offered was actually a pretty good one: A whole boatload of people got Windows 10 for free. That was how I transitioned from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Not encouraging: Windows 11 is smelling really lemony to me so far. I'm not going to be too hasty to judge, though; my hope is that Microsoft will not repeat their Windows 8.1 errors, that they will actually address the extant and coming development issues. But, how about we get back to Fatalzo?

I think I know what you mean by "future-proofing," but...you're basically gambling with whatever choices you make in that regard. My computer was custom-built for me while I was recovering from a roadkill incident in BAMC (Brooks Army Medical Center) December 2015, the roadkill in question being me. After going through over two deaths and fifty surgeries, I felt justified in spending $1,600 on a custom-built desktop., specifications then being:

Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P motherboard w/Intel chipset
16 GB Skilljaws DDR4 SDRAM
Zapotec nVIDIA GeForce GTX-970 / 4 GB DDR5 SDRAM
i5 6600K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core CPU (water-cooled)
650 W Power Supply
Windows 10 x64 OEM 1507

I had told the guy designing it for me that I wanted it to be able to run Space Marine 4,000, Saints Row the Third, and Watchdogs, and any graphics-intensive games that might come out in the next two years, that I wanted it to last at least six years, hopefully ten. My specs now:

Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P motherboard w/Intel chipset
16 GB Skilljaws DDR4 SDRAM
nVIDIA (Gigabyte) GeForce GTX-1660 Super Windforce / 6 GB GDDR6
i5-6600K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core CPU (water-cooled)
Crucial MX500 2 TB SSD
650 W Power Supply
Windows 10 x64 Home (OEM) 21H2
EP-9636GS EDUB LOVE WiFi 6 / Bluetooth 5.1 3K Mbps Networking card

It's just about as upgraded as it's going to get. I could get a slightly better CPU, but it already has the most powerful GPU the motherboard is capable of supporting. Upgrading the CPU would be stupid. I already have the next motherboard to allow even greater expansion of data and graphics processing capabilities, an MSI Z490-A Pro. Next in an i9 or i10 CPU. But, you don't want a gaming computer. Basically, you just want a decent workhorse. With that in mind, considering the current state of Windows 11 development, just stick with a new Windows 10 computer. My best advice is for you to consult a local non-chain computer store and tell them what your needs are, but not one of those crappy hole-in-the-wall places—you want a place with a bigger shop with more technicians on staff. AllGen Computer Warehouse @ allgen.com did mine. Their website is really plain and barebones, definitely not intended to impress with glitz and flash, but AllGen's owner, Dave, put his investment dollars where it does his customers the most good. I've been a customer of theirs since 2005, mostly to buy home OEM components. I know you're not local, but I think it might be worth it to you to pick up your phone and give them a call. If they can't design, build, and ship a desktop to fit your needs and budget, talking to them should give you an better idea of what to look for closer to home.

 

[Fatalzo]

What failed on it?
1 year, still under warranty.
Replace, and recover the data from your backup...

It WAS still under warranty, however HP strongly denied to repair it for some reason. They never told us why.

The CPU died, hence why I have extreme trust issues with AMD.

When we took it apart to see why HP didn't repair it, we noticed the inside of the case and the nearby PCB is scorched.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

It WAS still under warranty, however HP strongly denied to repair it for some reason. They never told us why.

The CPU died, hence why I have extreme trust issues with AMD.

When we took it apart to see why HP didn't repair it, we noticed the inside of the case and the nearby PCB is scorched.

Seems like you were running it too hot and not getting it enough air. Laptops are awful for gaming and if you were using it as a full-time gaming rig without paying attention to your temps or maintaining the cooling solution then I can see why they would refuse to repair it.

Also never touch HP, they are a corporate OEM and tried to shut down their consumer PC business a couple of years back. They had to keep it open because closing it was too complicated. They make no money from consumer systems and would prefer it if they didn’t exist, so that’s the level of care and attention you get in their products these days.

 

[John Chesterfield]

It WAS still under warranty, however HP strongly denied to repair it for some reason. They never told us why.

The CPU died, hence why I have extreme trust issues with AMD.

When we took it apart to see why HP didn't repair it, we noticed the inside of the case and the nearby PCB is scorched.

Your logic is screwed up. ANY chip will crash and burn if the cooling solution around it is not good enough. All of your ire should be directed at HP, who implemented that cooling solution and not AMD. The irony of it is, that AMD now make the coolest running chips. So you could very easily take an HP Intel system right now in a laptop and have it fry itself, because HP are garbage at producing good prebuilts or laptops. They can't even get their driver pages right on their website, they are totally incompetent. If I was to get a 5950x and slap a Hyper 212 Evo on it and the chip overheats, it's my fault for implementing an inadequate cooling solution, just like the demise of your AMD-based HP laptop was HP's fault, for implementing an inadequate cooling solution.

As for future proofing, W10 is supported until 2025. The stupid people will upgrade straight away, the smart people will wait at least a year before doing that.

 

[USAFRet]

When we took it apart to see why HP didn't repair it, we noticed the inside of the case and the nearby PCB is scorched.

Excess heat will not "scorch" a PCB.

Some electrical fault might, but not because it got too hot.

 

[Fatalzo]

Seems like you were running it too hot and not getting it enough air. Laptops are awful for gaming and if you were using it as a full-time gaming rig without paying attention to your temps or maintaining the cooling solution then I can see why they would refuse to repair it.

Also never touch HP, they are a corporate OEM and tried to shut down their consumer PC business a couple of years back. They had to keep it open because closing it was too complicated. They make no money from consumer systems and would prefer it if they didn’t exist, so that’s the level of care and attention you get in their products these days.

Wait, I'm sensing a pattern.
Newer HPs seem to have lower reviews than older ones, as far as poor condition used ones have higher reviews than new ones.

Your logic is screwed up. ANY chip will crash and burn if the cooling solution around it is not good enough. All of your ire should be directed at HP, who implemented that cooling solution and not AMD. The irony of it is, that AMD now make the coolest running chips. So you could very easily take an HP Intel system right now in a laptop and have it fry itself, because HP are garbage at producing good prebuilts or laptops. They can't even get their driver pages right on their website, they are totally incompetent. If I was to get a 5950x and slap a Hyper 212 Evo on it and the chip overheats, it's my fault for implementing an inadequate cooling solution, just like the demise of your AMD-based HP laptop was HP's fault, for implementing an inadequate cooling solution.

As for future proofing, W10 is supported until 2025. The stupid people will upgrade straight away, the smart people will wait at least a year before doing that.

Yes, but apart from that I have always used HP and had 0 issues. This computer I'm using, I have had from 2 years and it's an 8 year old used HP prebuilt.
However, it seems that HPs built after 2018 like my old PC are much, much weaker and I see that laptop everywhere on IT repair channels, and not just in the AMD variant, although it's more common.

I can understand now, if I go for a new prebuilt in the future I will go for Dell. My computer might just be competent since it's an 8 year old computer, so it was built before the drama happened inside of HP.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

Wait, I'm sensing a pattern.
Newer HPs seem to have lower reviews than older ones, as far as poor condition used ones have higher reviews than new ones.

Yes, but apart from that I have always used HP and had 0 issues. This computer I'm using, I have had from 2 years and it's an 8 year old used HP prebuilt.
However, it seems that HPs built after 2018 like my old PC are much, much weaker and I see that laptop everywhere on IT repair channels, and not just in the AMD variant, although it's more common.

I can understand now, if I go for a new prebuilt in the future I will go for Dell. My computer might just be competent since it's an 8 year old computer, so it was built before the drama happened inside of HP.

Dell is a corporate OEM just like HP and should be avoided for that reason. Their laptops are good but never consider a Dell or HP desktop, always go for a smaller boutique OEM such as CyberPowerPC or the equivalent in your country.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

my son loves his R5 3500U HP notebook. so do I. he only uses it for work, medical research among other univeristy classwork. It should last him at least 7-8 yrs i would think.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

my son loves his R5 3500U HP ultra notebook. so do I. he only uses it for work, medical research among other univeristy classwork. It should last him at least 7-8 yrs i would think.

Fair. 7 years is optimistic to say the least. I give it 3.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Fair. 7 years is optimistic to say the least. I give it 3.

no way, the last HP notebook I had lasted 7, and I updated the bios to latest and reformatted it and gave it to my best friend. It's still going. remember we don't game, it's only work related or school as in my sons case

if i were to game with the R5 then yeah 3-5 yrs max

the 3500U can run VMs and any dev or research software you want, and is win11 compatible for sure

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

no way, the last HP notebook I had lasted 7, and I updated the bios to latest and reformatted it and gave it to my best friend. It's still going. remember we don't game, it's only work related or school as in my sons case

if i were to game with the R5 then yeah 3-5 yrs max

im just going on what I see coming on the horizon. 3 years from now windows 12 will be the standard os and you will need specific hardware not present on the old laptop to access secured workspaces for research etc.

In the last 7 years you could get by with old hardware for productivity only, but big changes are on the near horizon. Embedded Cryptography, secure boot / TPM, biometrics and more.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

yeah, we both have nice new rigs so I am not worried. both pass the win11 prereq test per MS

I only let the old notebook go because I wanted a faster machine--but 7yrs and it's time for a new PC is what I say