I found I needed more power.

[irv]

This is crazy, but I have an Asus i7 laptop with a 250 gig SSD and 8Gig of memory, but it was struggling to render videos when exporting from OpenShot video editor. So I picked up a refurb Dell desktop with a 512 SSD and 16 Gig of memory. It also had an i7 processor. All this for a little over 300 bucks.
It really made a difference, Maybe it was just the 16 Gig of Ram, but now Everything just runs faster and no crashes. This refurb system came with Windows 10 like most pcs you buy, but that didn't last long. I have been totally a Linux guy since Windows 10 came out. When I started up this system I setup Windows and used it for about 15 minutes, and then put my USB with Ubuntu 19.04 and rebooted it and installed it. About a half-hour later it was installed with all the programs I use. (Not to worry about data files, there are all in the cloud and on my 3 Tb external hard drive.)
Here is a couple of snapshots of the new system. Buy the way I picked up the two dell monitors for 150 bucks for both of them. Not bad, uh.
283758283759

One thing nice about using Linux is when some Windows person asks me to help them I just tell them, I don't know anything about Windows, I am a Linux guy.

[cruzer001]

I have found 24G+HDD is not really a big player in performance. With SSD+Ram I think the weak link has been replaced and 8 or 16G is a far better choice than 4gig. As you have found out with the programs you run. I also think more core is needed and that requires a i9 be in my dream laptop :)

Nice find on that desktop

[sevendogs1337]

I am still running (as my server) an HP z800 CAD workstation circa 2010. I got it for $500 and upgraded ram to 96gb. It has 2 6-core Xeons (24 virtual cores) and even though it is 9 years old, still smokes. I can compile ~700 FreeBSD software packages, including Libreoffice, Firefox, Chromium, llvm and gcc in under 3 hours. That's with 2 15k rpm SAS drives (RAID), not even SSDs. I like keeping old things alive, to a point.

[sudodus]

So I picked up a refurb

I can also recommend refurbished high-end computers. You get more value for the money that way compared to buying brand new consumer class computers. And linux works very well, because the hardware drivers have been developed and debugged for the computers that have reached the age, when they are sold as refurbs.

[Skaperen]

my challege with a new PC is to avoid using Windows at all, so i can "sector image" the whole drive or SSD to an external drive, compressing along the way. so i need to be quick on that very first boot and bring up Ubuntu Live from some external medium (CDROM or memory stick). then i plug in one of my big external drives that has the tools i need and oodles of space. one i have that image, i can always put Windows back into the "i'm fresh from the factory, never having boot up before, ready to assault my new owner with popups".

[irv]

sudodus had the right idea. Buy refurbished high-end, save money and get a pc that works with Linux out of the box. Beefing up memory and using SSD's really speeds up things. And cruzer001's idea of an i9 processor would be great but they won't give me that kind of money at the bank. When they come out with the next new processor and the price comes down on the i9 I will probaly be dead.

[cruzer001]

Hex core i7 laptops can be less than $1000US. I have seen them for 8. If ever I see one for 5 I may not be able to resists.

[Dennis N]

So, If I order a refurbished computer, am I informed what was done to refurbish it? What new parts? Or do they just clean it?

[irv]

Dennis N, Here is what I order and got. I even got more than what the description said.
Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H63TWZC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

[irv]

Hex core i7 laptops can be less than $1000US. I have seen them for 8. If ever I see one for 5 I may not be able to resists.

When they first came out with the i7 I got my new Asus laptop I have listed in my signature below for a little over $800, I got two of them at that time. One for me and one for the Sunday School teachers.

[Dennis N]

Thanks for the information.

OK, to use that one on Amazon as an example, I can look it up on the Internet and see it was introduced in 2011. Fine. I see the word reconditioned. What does that entail? I would like to have information on what parts were replaced in the machine, if any, so that I know what not to be concerned about as I start using my refurbished computer. Some components not replaced could pass functionality testing, but still be close to requiring replacement after 6+ years on the job, like a power supply, or disk drive. Will I need to buy a new one soon? Possibly I am being too cautious.

But, that aside, I'm glad you got something that does what you want. May it live on for many years!

[Dennis N]

This spec sheet for Optiplex 990 might be useful!
https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/optiplex-990-spec-sheet.pdf

[irv]

If you buy from Amazon you can always ask questing at the bottom of the product page, just before the reviews. I believe everything is tested and if they test okay they are not replaced. Power supplies are either good or bad. When they go they go. Memory and the hard drive can show a problem and might be replaced, the same goes with motherboards. Since the late 70's I have only had to replace 2 power supplies, 1 memory stick, and 1 hard drive. I have replaced hard drives with SSD but the hard drives were still working fine.

[Dennis N]

Good points. Did you see the spec sheet for Optiplex 990 I linked in post #12? I thought it might be informative.

[irv]

Yes, I did Dennis N, thanks a lot.

[mastablasta]

i was doing a bit of research and it seems refurbished here are quite expensive. if i check the passmark a comparable CPU (and usually better) costs me only 50 EUR more than the used one.
sure the used machines are inspected and come with a 1 year warranty, but still this is excessive.

for example:
HP Compaq Elite 8300 CMT Intel® Core™ i5-3470 (3.2 GHz / Turbo boost 3.60 GHz), 4 GB DDR3, 500 GB HDD, DVD-RW, Intel HD Graphics, Windows 7 Pro COA would cost about 250 EUR (let's say arround 280 USD)
passmark: 6718

i've setup a system with AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, 8 GB DDR4 ram, 1TB HDD, DVD RW and it would cost: 305 EUR (approx 340 USD)
passmark: 7314

so similar CPU, more powerful GPU, better/stronger PSU, twice the hard disk space and twice the RAM, and all for only about 50 EUR more. and it comes with a 2 year warranty. OK there is no OS pre-installed but since we talk about installing linux it doesn't matter. and win7 is nearly dead anyway.

something is really not OK here. i know business grade should be better made, but if you ask me such an old PC should cost no more than 100, maybe 150 EUR (approx 170 USD).

[lammert-nijhof]

This whole century I did buy refurbished ex-lease computers. I have been especially happy with the last two.

An 2008 HP dc5850 (DOP 8000/ US $ 160), which I used from early 2014 till May 2019. I upgraded the PC with 8GB DDR2, 128GB SSD, 3 HDDs (2 disks I owned) in total 1.82TB; two $8 Chinese PCIe cards for SATA-3 and USB 3.0; front-panel USB 3.0, 1GB GeForce 8400GS and an AMD Phenom II X4 B97 (3.2GHz). Only case, power-supply, motherboard and DVD are original.

An 2012 HP Elitebook 8460p (€194/$217), a laptop I bought in June 2017 with an i5-2530m, 8GB DDR3 and I replaced the 320GB HDD with a 1TB SSHD.

I never had any complaints about those PCs. They had good performance using Ubuntu Mate on ZFS. In my opinion 11 years was getting somewhat old for the 2008 HP dc5850 and 74 is a nice age to buy a new PC once again, so I did build a Ryzen 3 2200G with 16GB DDR4 in May.

I still had parts of a 3rd ex-lease PC I bought somewhere in 2009; a 2003 HP530 SFF and I used that HP-SFF till the power supply died on me in 2014. In 2019 I moved the motherboard and Pentium 4 HT (3.0GHz) to a Tower, put my IDE DVD and IDE HDDs in it and I use it now again as back-up server with 0.89TB :)