Question Time to replace old faithful - New or refurb?

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kep55

kep55

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Dec 31, 2007
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Back in 2008 I built my 2nd PC. Here are the specs:
Product Name: GA-MA770-UD3 (1.0)
BIOS Ver: F9G
Brand: Nvidia pci x16 500mb
Model: Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Operating System: Win 10 64-bit
Brand: Kingston DDR2-667
Size: 16 GB
Power Supply: 800w
Memory Part No.: KVR667D2N5/4G
HDD: Western Digital 500GB
Monitor: TCL 6-Series 55" via HDMI

I currently use it with win10 24H2 19045.5371for web viewing, scanning photographs into my NAS, using a Fujitsu fi7140, online meetings, and word processing (LibreOffice). Obviously I don't need to get a Ryzen 9000X3D pumping thru a Radeon 7900 XTX and 32GB Kingston FURY Renegade Pro DDR5 RDIMM.

Anyway, it's taking up to 5-6 minutes for the kit to boot, and compared to my ACER TC-875-UR15 which replaced it, it's become a real bowl of molasses in Norway. Firefox for some reason won't load anymore, and forget about getting Zoom running. I don't use it that often so I really don't think a new box is necessary. And I'm cheap.

Any suggestions what I should keep in mind for getting a replacement? I'm leaning towards a refurbished unit five or fewer years old.Thank you.
 
You may not need the windows 7 disk. If you know the product key. You should just be able to download the windows 10 media creation tool and use that to create a bootable USB that you can boot from.

I notice you’re using a hard drive. Do yourself a favor and pick up a sata 500gb of 1tb ssd drive. Shouldn’t run much more than 50 bucks or so, and install on that. If you’re using a spinning hard drive now, you will be amazed at the difference. I can almost guarantee it will make your olderpc feel like brand new.

In fact I think the way I would consider doing it, some of the folks here could recommend some software, but get a 1tb ssd, then clone your hard drive onto that. Once done, unplug the hard drive and try to boot from the ssd. If it works well, all your programs and data should come back up but the computer should feel like a shored demon compared to what it was.

I think one of the popular programs is called disk genius. There are lots of others but seems like the last time I tried to clone a drive for my wife’s computer there were limitations on some of the others.
 
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kep55 said:
Hmmm...I didn't think of doing that. Now where did I put that win7 install disk?
Click to expand...
Why the Win 7?

No.

Just a reinstall of Win 10.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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kep55 said:
Did a clean install and everything does seem quicker. When I have time (& money) I probably will drop in a new drive.
Click to expand...
If you reinstalled Windows 10 on the hard disk, a cheap 240GB SATA SSD costing $15 will make a significant improvement to the start up time. Faster SSDs with DRAM cache are more expensive.

Even an old PC should boot up in just over a minute with an SSD, but it will still take a long time to run monthly Windows Updates with a single/dual core CPU.
 
kep55 said:
The CMOS appears to have died today. I'm thinking of getting a basic mini PC and use the VESA mounts on my TV for it.
Click to expand...

I have done several builds using an In-Win case with AMD CPU's with the integrated graphics and hung them on the back of inexpensive TV. Be aware to pay attention to the size of the VESA mount in that the common one for PC is typically smaller than the common one for AV use. I do apologize for my laziness in not looking those specifics up for you, but you will see it staring you in the face when you explore the idea. (adapter)

I enjoyed the experience and the space savings. The one thing I do rather recommend is to set yourself a calendar event for going back there and blowing it out. Out of sight, out of mind....or something like that.
 
I don't use that unit all that much, so building another kit really won't work. My current Pc is an ACER that I got for much less than a home brew would have cost me.
 
Right. I have a new PC with, unfortunately, win11 preinstalled. I want to ditch 11 and install 10. I know I can use the media creation tool to build an ISO of 10. The problem is, I have no way to determine to dead units product key. What options do I have?
 
kep55 said:
Right. I have a new PC with, unfortunately, win11 preinstalled. I want to ditch 11 and install 10. I know I can use the media creation tool to build an ISO of 10. The problem is, I have no way to determine to dead units product key. What options do I have?
Click to expand...
1. Why did you buy a PC with Win 11, knowing you did not want Win 11?

2. You do know that Win 10 falls off support in Oct this year, right?

3. There is little actual difference between 10 and 11.
 
1) The description said nothing about the OS
2)Win10 may fall off but I won't use win11. Period.
3) There's more than a little different. Start screen sux. More nags. More fault, security holes, more bloat. Mandatory mictosoft account for more spyware and data theft. OneDrive. Nag screens. Outlook (New). Constant patches, fixes, and bugs because of poor coding. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseum.
 
kep55 said:
The problem is, I have no way to determine to dead units product key. What options do I have?
Click to expand...
If you don't have that documented somewhere, and the old Win 10 system no longer works...your 2 options are Slim and None.

Possibly log on to your MS account, and see if the old system is listed there.
This, of course, assumes you linked that Win 10 license to your MS account.
 
There are many many youtube videos that if one wanted to take the time to search out are really informative and a guild on how to button up Windows 11 to be more private from Microsoft but get ready for how many boxes are checked yes beside those we uncheck during an install of Window 11 that are deep that you will like I said learn about and have control of with some research.
 
kep55 said:
1) The description said nothing about the OS
2)Win10 may fall off but I won't use win11. Period.
3) There's more than a little different. Start screen sux. More nags. More fault, security holes, more bloat. Mandatory mictosoft account for more spyware and data theft. OneDrive. Nag screens. Outlook (New). Constant patches, fixes, and bugs because of poor coding. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseum.
Click to expand...
This sounds way more like stubbornness and fear of change than legit concerns. USAfret is right: it's basically the same OS with some minor differences and many of them can be reverted back with minor tweaks.

Start screen sux? Come on?!?! More faults, security holes? Win 11 is more secure than any previous Windows, 10 included. Mandatory Microsoft account? Not at all, I configure new Win 11 machines with local accounts almost every week. OneDrive can be completely disabled and document folders moved to local, no problem here either. Nag screens? I am not sure what you are talking about but you can disable pretty much all the widgets and other annoying news and ads. Constant patches, fixes and bugs? This has been Windows for the last 20 years. If 10 doesn't get so many anymore it's because it's an almost dead OS.

And yeah, after October, support for 10 is over, so you gonna have to either accept the change or keep using an unsupported OS and all the risks that come with it.
 
kep55 said:
3) There's more than a little different. Start screen sux. More nags. More fault, security holes, more bloat. Mandatory mictosoft account for more spyware and data theft. OneDrive. Nag screens. Outlook (New). Constant patches, fixes, and bugs because of poor coding. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseum.
Click to expand...
Install StartAllBack (the license is $5), and with that Windows 11 is basically 10 with rounded corners. Task bar re-alignment, uncombined task bar buttons, customizable start menu and file explorer, and so on. I highly recommend it for 11 users. That doesn't excuse the changes Microsoft made, but at least there's a way to undo them. There are other options that do similar things, like ExplorerPatcher and Stardock's Start11.

There's a registry fix to get the old context menu back if you want it. Most Microsoft bloat (which 10 also had) can be uninstalled or disabled. There are ways to use it without a Microsoft account, though Microsoft certainly doesn't want it to be easy.

The old mail app being retired and forcibly replaced with Outlook (new) is bad, I'll give you that.

I get not wanting to upgrade; I'd still be on 8.1 if it were feasible. But 10 is going to be left behind, first by Microsoft and then eventually by other developers.
 
JayGau said:
This sounds way more like stubbornness and fear of change than legit concerns. USAfret is right: it's basically the same OS with some minor differences and many of them can be reverted back with minor tweaks.

Start screen sux? Come on?!?! More faults, security holes? Win 11 is more secure than any previous Windows, 10 included. Mandatory Microsoft account? Not at all, I configure new Win 11 machines with local accounts almost every week. OneDrive can be completely disabled and document folders moved to local, no problem here either. Nag screens? I am not sure what you are talking about but you can disable pretty much all the widgets and other annoying news and ads. Constant patches, fixes and bugs? This has been Windows for the last 20 years. If 10 doesn't get so many anymore it's because it's an almost dead OS.

And yeah, after October, support for 10 is over, so you gonna have to either accept the change or keep using an unsupported OS and all the risks that come with it.
Click to expand...
I NEVER had any security problems with win7. I didn't get patches, bug fixes, et cetera every week under 7 and only slight more under 10. I've yet to see any convincing reason to use 11. I realise mictosoft will force its sycophants to cripple their software so it will only work on 11, just as happened with 10.
 
kep55 said:
I NEVER had any security problems with win7. I didn't get patches, bug fixes, et cetera every week under 7 and only slight more under 10. I've yet to see any convincing reason to use 11. I realise mictosoft will force its sycophants to cripple their software so it will only work on 11, just as happened with 10.
Click to expand...
I do admit I do know my way around when it comes to windows I am not a believer that every time Microsoft does an anniversary big update I want it and just let it pass.

Security updates are another thing and I'm all patched up on them.

I have a couple of computers that still run week one release of Windows 11 with just security updates. Not one issue.

Other computer have 23-H2 and some 24-H2 and I still prefer the week one first edition of Windows 11 less bloat and is solid stable.

I did like 7 as well and after I put service pack 1 & 2 on I killed Microsoft ever invasive updates for my own good that would hose a perfectly functional working computer.

Same with XP put the service packs on and killed the forced updates and ran just fine. I didn't like service pack 3 for Windows XP
Now were at OMG 10 is going off line with updates in October and it's a calamity the sky is falling.

Just be prepared and have your back up of a clean installed Windows 10 with all updates pre made in a safe place and TEST it before October rolls around. Keep it as your master copy moving forward.

Being as Microsoft no longer makes service packs like in XP and Windows 7 days you have to go the extra steps and just have it made your self with a fresh copy of Windows 10 and I stress fully updated just before October and that's the best we can do.

Window 11 was a seek and find chore to get to know where all the NO buttons are and than some but once that's done Windows 11 has been a dream.

Windows 11 also runs better on older Unsupported CPU's than Windows 10. Go figure!
 
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