New PC for my dad - what spec?

[Taz]

Around 6-7 years ago I built a PC for my dad. It's been going strong and is used daily by him. However, he told me today that it occasionally freezes for a while and then returns to normal. Rather than trying to troubleshoot the problem, I told him that I'd get him a new PC and he should start noting down important folders that he wants to keep.

He uses his PC for web surfing, email, YouTube and Excel. I'll need to figure out how to carry the MS Office Home and Student license over to a new PC, and also how to keep his Windows 10 key - the PC was originally built with Windows 7 which was then upgraded to Windows 10.

Anyway, I would prefer to hand-build another PC for him. I'm just trying to get a 'best bang for the buck' spec given his needs. Is it worth building a modern budget system or should I just buy one from PC World / Scan / etc ?

My main question is with regards to motherboard and CPU. AMD Ryzen has made the decision a bit tougher.

[Ferral]

My mother in law a few year ago before she passed away needed the exact same thing, I went for the AMD A series backed up by 4Gb ram and just used the on-chip graphics, only thing I would change looking back now would be putting 8Gb ram in there. It ran nice with the stock PSU that came with the case, she didn't need anything to powerful, I stuck a 500Gb hard drive in there but she only ever put photos on it so plenty space.

With regards to the Windows license, take the key down and you should be able to use it to do a clean install of Windows 10 provided it isn't an OEM key (enter key once Windows installed and online or it won't recognise it). Once you have done this you then just need to erase the old hard drive and all should be good. If 10 is being a bit funny just install 7 and then upgrade to 10 using the iso burnt to disc from the Windows site.

[wazzickle]

Rather than trying to troubleshoot the problem, I told him that I'd get him a new PC

What the

Are you serious? You'd rather spend money, hours of effort and time to get a new PC whose capabilities will be woefully underused than simply give your dads OS a clean-up, which could take, maybe, 4-5 hours max, of which you probably won't even need to be there for more than an hour of it?

If you could give him a hand-me-down that would be a different story, but an entirely new PC, not even considering recycling parts?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It might be worth trouble shooting to see what is exactly wrong and could be just one part which needs replacing or even reinstalling windows.

What are the specs of the system?

AFAIK,Win10 is tied to a user account now.7

Regarding the specs,I would argue a Pentium G4560 would be enough TBF.

If you want to get onto AM4,as it should be a longer lived socket AFAIK,I would also argue a Bristol Ridge APU should be enough too.

[MrJim]

What the

Are you serious? You'd rather spend money, hours of effort and time to get a new PC whose capabilities will be woefully underused than simply give your dads OS a clean-up, which could take, maybe, 4-5 hours max, of which you probably won't even need to be there for more than an hour of it?

If you could give him a hand-me-down that would be a different story, but an entirely new PC, not even considering recycling parts?

I tend to agree with this. Given the relatively light demands being placed on the computer, I'd be inclined to simply back-up files first, & then erase the disk & reinstall Windows. Windows 7 - like pretty much every other previous version - does have a habit of slowing down significantly over time with use. Often a reinstall is all that's need to speed up a PC significantly. The OP doesn't mention the type of storage used by the PC, but adding an SSD would probably make a huge difference to the responsiveness of the system too.

[scaryjim]

... how to keep his Windows 10 key - the PC was originally built with Windows 7 which was then upgraded to Windows 10. ...

Since the anniversary update you've been able to associate the digital license from upgraded PCs with your Microsoft Account. You need to log in to the PC with a Microsoft account to do it, but once you have you should be able to transfer the license to the new PC.

That said, at this point it will probably be easier to just buy him a new pre-built PC from one of the major OEMs - which comes with he benefit of you not having to be the only point of call if anything goes wrong. And of course, a pre-built PC from Dell/HP/etc will come with a new Win 10 license anyway.

The one thing I would say in terms of spec is that, if you can hold off a few months, Ryzen APUs will be coming out. If you need to buy right now though, I'd be tempted to go for a Kaby Lake Pentium (that is, the G4560/G4600/G4620), which are dual cores with HT and built in graphics. Normally I'd suggest AMD's A-series APUs, but currently it's really hard to find ones for the new AM4 platform*, and I just can't bring myself to recommend FM2+ when it's known to be end-of-line...


* Scan have the A12 9800 in stock @ ~ £100. Ebuyer don't even have them listed. Google shopping struggles to find much of the range anywhere...

[Taz]

Thanks for all the advice and ideas. I think my old man actually wants a new PC as he called me today and asked me about where to get a new PC from. It was only when I asked if everything was okay with his current one did he mention the intermittent freezing issue. I've always been the provider of PCs in the family. I can't even remember the spec as it was so long ago. I'll be round there next weekend and check the spec via systeminfo.

It's one of those intermittent problems so may not be easy to get to the bottom of, hence my thinking about just getting him a modern cheap and cheerful base unit.

[wazzickle]

It may not be as easy as rooting around his OS trying to replicate the issue and troubleshoot etc, but in some ways - backing up, reinstalling OS - it's easier. It's on you to explain to him that it's uneconomical to buy a new PC everytime something goes wrong with his current one. Don't just provide the PCs, fix them too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBF,if its your parents and they are not that techy,on second thoughts it might be just easier to build or find a new PC for them,instead of having to fiddle around fixing it. Unless you live close,its going to be an issue if you keep having to patch up an old PC all the time. If it a simple fix,like a new HDD,that is one thing,but if it is something more than that,I am not sure I would bother.

After all it is 6 to 7 years old.

[EndlessWaves]

The trouble with prebuilts is finding them with a sensible spec, you tend to find i5s with 4GB RAM and other absurd combinations.

The Kaby Lake Pentiums are the obvious mainstream choice these days, a G4600 is the same speed as a laptop i7-7500U so there's no shortage of power there. High end chips like the Ryzen range are just overkill.

[Saracen]

Spec-wise, Taz, I'd be astonished if just about anything available new today couldn't cope with what you say your Dad uses his machine for, while standing on it's head, on a unicycle, with one hand tied behind it's back and whistling Rule Britannia.

My newest machine is older than your Dads, and it does all that and much, much more ... like multiple databases, WP with voice recognition and, of course, is an imaging workstation running Photoshop and supporting multiple film and flatbed scanners.

While I guess it's conceivable that the freeze could be a hardwae failure, or something preparing to fail (like a hard drive) I'd suspect more likely is either an OS issue, or some kind of application/resource clash.

It's up to you (and your Dad), of course, and if he actively wants a new PC because he wants a new PC, then fair enough. If, on the other hand, he wants a new PC because he thinks that's how to get rid of the problem, then I'd suggest at least having a once-over look.

A vouple of years ago, a friend of mine 'wanted a new PC' because it was freezing intermittently. I took a look and about the first thing I noticed was two memory-resident, running-in-back AntiVirus packages. I asked tgem which one they wanted, then carefully and thoroughly removed both, and reinstalled the one they wanted. No more intermittent freezes after that.

Then, a did a basic PC service. You know, go through everything they had and clean out tge detritus .... the things they installed over years, didn't like, don't use and that was still sitting there. Then, clean out unnecessary caches, streamline the registry, defrag the hard drives, and so on.

The net result was a delighted friend who said it frlt like a new PC, was so much faster, and yet everything was comfortable and familiar.


My strategy, on my own PCs, is to get them, like any tool, to to what I need, and given that, to spend the minimum time messing with them.


So .... if I were in your shoes, I'd be balancing the hassle of trying to sort the freeze, versus the hassle of transferring everything to a new PC. I know, if I have to transfer things, I'm at it for about a week, ensuring all data is backed up, then all applications are transferred and configured to my taste, and that includes all those useful little utilities, etc.

So, if I can spend a couple of hours, solve the freeze, and giving a neglected machine a bit of a clean-up, sweep out the software cobwebs, etc, it's much less hassle than getting a new machine, even ignoring the cost.

The risk, though, is that you spend a couple of hours, or a day, sorting the freeze and fail. At that point, you're back to a new machine, and have wadted those hours.


So I try to resolve problems but I keep one eye on how long it's taking before vutting my losses. In the case of my friend with two AV packages, it took about 5 minutes to diagnose the problem, and a couple of hours the fix and vlean the machine.

Fundamentally, I'm lazy, when it comes to PCs. I take the route that gets me where I need to be, with minimum effort. Often, though not always, that's by fixing, not buying new.

YMMV, of course.

[wazzickle]

Here's a couple of analogies:

You have dry rot. Do you fix it, or move house?

You have a ton of rubbish that you haven't bothered to throw away, and it's cluttering your house, making moving around difficult. Do you move house?

[scaryjim]

Here's a couple of analogies: ...

They're not analogies, they're absurdisms. The cost of the remedial work is orders of magnitude lower than the cost of a new house.

That's not the case when you can buy a perfectly reasonable replacement base unit, off the high street, for £400. The cost - in time and potentially new components - of repair is probably the same order of magnitude as the cost of replacement. And that's not even counting the fact that the user will be without a computer whilst the problem is hopefully diagnosed and resolved.

Sorry, but in this instance the cost of replacement is low enough to make it a perfectly valid response to thew situation.

[wazzickle]

Analogies don't have to be on the same scale, all they have to do is illuminate the kind of problem you're dealing with from a different angle.

Cost of replacement is a valid solution if and only if you're cash rich and both time and skill poor.

[Taz]

I'm going to spend a few hours there within the next few days to see what's happening with his PC. The plan is to check basics like Event log, make sure everything us updated, devices all working properly, etc. I'll take a full backup onto an external HDD while I'm there too, just in case the HDD is starting to die.

It was so long ago that I built this PC for him, that I cannot remember anything about the spec. I know the case is a mid-tower case. If it's ATX then I'll be able to keep the PSU and case at least, if I go for a new build. I've also looked at prebuilt systems that can do basic 'home' use and reasonable ones can be had for £400.

I'm very, very short of time at the moment, which is why I was considering a replacement for him. My main concern is his important documents and spreadsheets which I need to preserve as soon as possible.

[spacein_vader]

I'm going to spend a few hours there within the next few days to see what's happening with his PC. The plan is to check basics like Event log, make sure everything us updated, devices all working properly, etc. I'll take a full backup onto an external HDD while I'm there too, just in case the HDD is starting to die.

It was so long ago that I built this PC for him, that I cannot remember anything about the spec. I know the case is a mid-tower case. If it's ATX then I'll be able to keep the PSU and case at least, if I go for a new build. I've also looked at prebuilt systems that can do basic 'home' use and reasonable ones can be had for £400.

I'm very, very short of time at the moment, which is why I was considering a replacement for him. My main concern is his important documents and spreadsheets which I need to preserve as soon as possible.

Have you considered a Base model NUC? A barebones is the middle ground between prebuilt and having to build from scratch.