Buy, build or rebuild?

Toft

Hi, I'm trying to decide what to do about my trusty desktop. I bought a medion pc from aldi/lidl (I forget) about 8 years ago, a vista 64. I've worked the hell out of it, using it for all my media, watching films, tv, torrenting a tonn of stuff. Aside from frequent restarts its been running 24/7 since I got it. But it's glitching, thee video card is cutting out every week or so, and it's not cooling as well as it should. I did lower the settings for performance rather than visuals.

So, for the last year or so I've been waiting for aldi/lidl to bring out another desktop but I reckon they've stopped. Now I'm trying to figure should I buy a new desktop, w10, but who from? Or try to build a new one, perhaps using parts from my old pc? Also I've a wrecked laptop could I use the w7 os from it in a new desktop build and get a free w10 upgrade?

I wouldn't be using it as a gaming rig but I'd like it to be able to run a few programs simultaneously with out reducing its lifespan.

If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them and if I've missed a considerations let me know

Thanks
Toft

Digital Solitude

Buying is probably the most convenient for you, if you look at the likes of dabs then you can get well priced machines.

Building is the cheapest idea and gives you total control over the parts you want.

I suppose have a look at prebuilts and see if there's any you like for the price you're willing to pay

TerrorFirmer

If you've been getting on OK with a machine that old until now, a decent i5 based machine for about 400 will be perfect for you and will last the same length again. Something like this.

Self building allows you to build a more rounded machine - for example with a solid state drive for ultra fast boot times and a normal drive for storage. Most pre-builts that offer SSD's though come with a small SSD and no storage drive. For example for a bit more you could getthis - but you'd need to install a 2nd storage drive internal or external.

Toft

I wouldn't mind trying my hand at building. I've done some simple stuff i.e. replacing ram, fitting networking cards, and removing/swapping harddrives.

If I go the build route should I limit myself to maplin, dabs crucial for parts?
I'd prefer w10 dual boot for integration with my xbox one, whats the best(cheap) way to get w10?
I'll be showing how out of date I am with this question; is a second internal HD just for the OS still an advantage?

Digital Solitude

Amazon is probably better priced that those three.

1 HDD vs 2 HDD won't make a big difference, but 1HDD vs 1 SDD and 1 HDD is a difference of day and night

If you want to try your hand at building can you fill out the template in the first sticky on the forum (maybe the second sticky I forget)

TerrorFirmer

Putting Maplins and Dabs/Amazon in the same sentence is like comparing Dutch Gold and champagne.

The SSD would be used as your main drive for OS and frequently used programs and a standard hard drive would serve as a storage drive for movies/photos/etc. If you're willing to pay for a big enough SSD, you don't need a secondary drive - or if you're willing to settle for a small-ish SSD drive alone. I personally have a 250GB SSD in my machine and nothing else and it's fine for my uses - games and editing. I have two external hard drives for storage.

Cheapest way to get W10 - buy a cheap Win7 key on reddit/ebay/adverts for €20 and upgrade to W10 for free, but it's technically non-legit and there is always the possibility of it being revoked, even if slim. Other option is just to buy a proper copy of W7/W8 and upgrade or W10 outright.