I used to get a new computer every couple of years...

[Bogie]

...and this one hit the streets back in 2007.
 
I think it's time.
 
I'm cheap. I bought this one as a refurb from Microcenter back in 2013. And I'm looking at more refurbs.
 
Any knowledge out there - I want to run a pair of monitors - likely going to be HDMI these days? If one of them can be a television, that's fine with me.  I'm using a 24" Acer I got at the same time.
 
Since I got this, it has probably logged less than 24 hours turned off.
 
Probably won't need serious crunching capability - I may do some graphics or CAD, but I've got more time than money.
 
(fwiw, this is a Dell Precision T3400 workstation, and was a bit more than a secretary machine when I got it)

[K Frame]

I got a really good deal on my laptop at NewEgg a couple of years ago.

I think running two monitors is primarily a function of the software that's on it so you'll need to research that.

[Boomhauer]

If a laptop then you will need a hub to use two monitors. HDMI is common, my monitors at work use DisplayPort though for some reason.

I use two Dell Ultrasharp 24” monitors at work and I have two Asus 22” monitors for my home office. The Asus ones are very nice and reasonably priced. The Dells are very nice but I don’t know the cost since my work supplied them. Plenty of monitors also on Marketplace as well.

[cordex]

Lots of the off-lease business machines use DisplayPort, but adapters are cheap too. Most of the business refurb desktops have at least dual monitor ports.

SSD or NVMe for the primary storage. If you’ve got a lot to store, a spinning disk can always be added.

32gb+ ram

Easy to find something like this in the $275-$600 range depending on the vintage of the processor.

[WLJ]

Lots of the off-lease business machines use DisplayPort, but adapters are cheap too. Most of the business refurb desktops have at least dual monitor ports.

SSD or NVMe for the primary storage. If you’ve got a lot to store, a spinning disk can always be added.

32gb+ ram

Easy to find something like this in the $275-$600 range depending on the vintage of the processor.

W10 goes off support in 1 1/2 years so if you want to run W11 watch the CPU gen* on refurbs/off lease PCs. Generally as a rule if the CPU is supported it will have TPM 2.0

*There are hacks around the CPU & TPM requirements but it remains to be seen if MS will cut that off or not. So far they've allowed it.

[MechAg94]

Lots of the off-lease business machines use DisplayPort, but adapters are cheap too. Most of the business refurb desktops have at least dual monitor ports.

SSD or NVMe for the primary storage. If you’ve got a lot to store, a spinning disk can always be added.

32gb+ ram

Easy to find something like this in the $275-$600 range depending on the vintage of the processor.

I hate using video adapters, but they are necessary sometimes.  Most of the hardware at work uses Display Port, but it seems most of the monitors sold use HDMI as default so I have to be careful when buying monitors.  I also have some KVM extenders that use DVI plugs and they don't work well with adapters.

[cordex]

I hate using video adapters, but they are necessary sometimes.  Most of the hardware at work uses Display Port, but it seems most of the monitors sold use HDMI as default so I have to be careful when buying monitors.  I also have some KVM extenders that use DVI plugs and they don't work well with adapters.

I agree.  My preference for business use is to only buy monitors with both HDMI and DP options, but they aren't always the cheapest way to go.  For Bogie, I'd recommend picking the computer first, checking the video connectivity, and then just making sure whatever monitors he picks are compatible.

[dogmush]

Lots of the off-lease business machines use DisplayPort, but adapters are cheap too. Most of the business refurb desktops have at least dual monitor ports.

SSD or NVMe for the primary storage. If you’ve got a lot to store, a spinning disk can always be added.

32gb+ ram

Easy to find something like this in the $275-$600 range depending on the vintage of the processor.

That can not be overstated.

I recently swapped over to a NVMe SSD on a 10 year old Lenovo, and it went from "I might need to replace this POS Laptop" to "This thing is my go-to for travel and light work in the car"  I'm using it to start a Meshtastic Network build this weekend.

Literally, boot times went from 2:13  to 0:36.  Similar impovments in other software run times.  Swapping a SSD in for the Main/OS drive is now something I consider mandatory for anything more than a toy computer.  If you buy an older computer with a platter drive Bogie, I seriously would look at changing the drive out.

[K Frame]

I bought an SSD for my laptop at home. Crucial.

I tried dozens of times to get the new SSD to initialize and copy.

Never was able to do it.

Don't know if it was me, my laptop, the SSD, or Crucial's instructions.

I finally gave up.

[WLJ]

I bought an SSD for my laptop at home. Crucial.

I tried dozens of times to get the new SSD to initialize and copy.

Never was able to do it.

Don't know if it was me, my laptop, the SSD, or Crucial's instructions.

I finally gave up.

Should just show up as another HDD but on very rare occasions a PC may have trouble. Always the chance you got a bad one. 

[Ben]

I bought an SSD for my laptop at home. Crucial.

I tried dozens of times to get the new SSD to initialize and copy.

Never was able to do it.

Don't know if it was me, my laptop, the SSD, or Crucial's instructions.

I finally gave up.

I have found that the easiest SSDs for me to install are the Samsungs. Get the drive, download the cloning software, and the software has always found the old drive and new SSD and cloned it. Pretty automatic.

Edit: By cloning software I meant the Samsung software, which seems to work very well with their drives.

[dogmush]

I had to clone it twice.  The first one didn't "take" and even though I got a success message, when I installed the SSD, the computer wouldn't boot.  Did it again and second time was the charm.

I also learned the hard way that not all NVMe M.2 SSD's are SATA, and you need to get the right one for what your motherboard is expecting.

[cordex]

If I'm buying an SSD I get a Samsung.

I usually use a dedicated hardware copying device to copy drives, but not everyone wants to spend the whopping $35 on one.  I use it often enough that it is worth it to me.

[lee n. field]

I hate using video adapters, but they are necessary sometimes.  Most of the hardware at work uses Display Port, but it seems most of the monitors sold use HDMI as default so I have to be careful when buying monitors.  I also have some KVM extenders that use DVI plugs and they don't work well with adapters.

I've only ever had a problem once.  A customer had gone ahead and bought themselves some nice monitors.  Moving to a new PC, the picture quality wasn't good using the existing vga cable, plus hdmi or dp to vga adapter.  Running hdmi cable from pc to monitor fixed it.

[lee n. field]

That can not be overstated.

I recently swapped over to a NVMe SSD on a 10 year old Lenovo, and it went from "I might need to replace this POS Laptop" to "This thing is my go-to for travel and light work in the car"  I'm using it to start a Meshtastic Network build this weekend.

Literally, boot times went from 2:13  to 0:36.  Similar impovments in other software run times.  Swapping a SSD in for the Main/OS drive is now something I consider mandatory for anything more than a toy computer.  If you buy an older computer with a platter drive Bogie, I seriously would look at changing the drive out.

They had a PCI NVME in a 10 yo Lenovo?  Not SATA NVME?   Cool.

[lee n. field]

I had to clone it twice.  The first one didn't "take" and even though I got a success message, when I installed the SSD, the computer wouldn't boot.  Did it again and second time was the charm.

There's other complexities.  If you're booting off NVME, you'll need to enable UEFI if it's not, and convert to GPT partition table.

I also learned the hard way that not all NVMe M.2 SSD's are SATA, and you need to get the right one for what your motherboard is expecting.

No, they aren't.  PCI is faster.  And no, I don't have all the complexities sorted out.

[dogmush]

They had a PCI NVME in a 10 yo Lenovo?  Not SATA NVME?   Cool.

No I bought a PCIe M.2 SSC instead of SATA (and the wrong adapter) because I was trying to be cheap and went off of what YouTube said I had in there instead of opening it and looking for myself.   

I was also unaware of the difference between PCIe and SATA NVMEs at the time of purchase.

[bedlamite]

No I bought a PCIe M.2 SSC instead of SATA (and the wrong adapter) because I was trying to be cheap and went off of what YouTube said I had in there instead of opening it and looking for myself.   

I was also unaware of the difference between PCIe and SATA NVMEs at the time of purchase.

That wasn't trying to be cheap, that was trying to be lazy.

[Perd Hapley]

I've also looked at the Microsoft refurb machines, and the question I kept having was whether they could upgrade to Win 11.

Although this one is already running it:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/675080/dell-optiplex-5060-sff-desktop-computer-(refurbished)

I may just try switching to an SSD in the current machine, and just going with Mint, or some other Linux system.

[WLJ]

I've also looked at the Microsoft refurb machines, and the question I kept having was whether they could upgrade to Win 11.

Although this one is already running it:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/675080/dell-optiplex-5060-sff-desktop-computer-(refurbished)

I may just try switching to an SSD in the current machine, and just going with Mint, or some other Linux system.

For the money that's not a bad machine

[Bogie]

Anything I get is likely to get Linux Mint thrown at it after a while... The rarely touched living room music box has Windoze and Word on it if I need to double-check formatting coming from Libre Office...

[JTHunter]

...and this one hit the streets back in 2007.
 
I think it's time.
 
I'm cheap. I bought this one as a refurb from Microcenter back in 2013. And I'm looking at more refurbs.
 
Any knowledge out there - I want to run a pair of monitors - likely going to be HDMI these days? If one of them can be a television, that's fine with me.  I'm using a 24" Acer I got at the same time.
 
Since I got this, it has probably logged less than 24 hours turned off.
 
Probably won't need serious crunching capability - I may do some graphics or CAD, but I've got more time than money.
 
(fwiw, this is a Dell Precision T3400 workstation, and was a bit more than a secretary machine when I got it)

Interesting.  This Win. 7 desktop was built for me by a gentleman based on what I desired it to do.  It was built about the same time as yours.  And I'm still using Office 2000 and Photoshop 6 that I bought for computer classes I was taking in '01. 

[K Frame]

Mtnbkr build me the computer I'm working on right now back in 2011 or so.

It's running on Windows 7 and is still going strong.