Desktop pc under $300 - pc stick, tower or something in between? - UPDATE in OP

If you're going to do any type of productivity on a regular basis, you really don't want to bother with those compute sticks or nano/pico/whatever cubes. They are what I'd consider a novelty at this point. Not powerful enough to be daily drivers (outside of using it as a streaming media center), but limited practicality to replace laptops.

For anything other than very occasional or niche use, consider the starting point to be the small footprint desktops like the Dells you noted. You still don't get much for $300, but you'll at least get more from a product that wasn't designed with the primary goal of making it tiny.

Unfortunately, that's where the market is shifting for low-budget PCs. Laptop processors in a cube, cloud storage, etc. Because of that, this would be a scenario in which you'd get a lot more for your money by custom building it (and perhaps torrenting Windows). But I won't go into that unless you have even the slightest interest in it.

For now, my recommendation is to raise your budget by $80-100 and grab something from Best Buy that has at least an Intel Core i3/AMD A8, and 4GB of RAM (and they'll pretty much all come with a basic 500GB or 1TB hard drive).

quote:

---

If you're going to do any type of productivity on a regular basis, you really don't want to bother with those compute sticks or nano/pico/whatever cubes. They are what I'd consider a novelty at this point. Not powerful enough to be daily drivers (outside of using it as a streaming media center), but limited practicality to replace laptops.

---

Ok, this is kind of what I was afraid of with those. Good to know.

quote:

---

For anything other than very occasional or niche use, consider the starting point to be the small footprint desktops like the Dells you noted. You still don't get much for $300, but you'll at least get more from a product that wasn't designed with the primary goal of making it tiny.

---

quote:

---

For now, my recommendation is to raise your budget by $80-100 and grab something from Best Buy that has at least an Intel Core i3/AMD A8, and 4GB of RAM (and they'll pretty much all come with a basic 500GB or 1TB hard drive).

---

Good deal. How do these look:
DELL Desktop PC Inspiron i3646-2600BLK Pentium J2900 (2.41GHz) 4GB DDR3 500GB HD - $245. I could do the Windows 10 upgrade and be in business.

or

Dell Inspiron 3252 Desktop PC with Intel Pentium N3700 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive and Windows 10 - $260 - Is this a better processor or about the same?

quote:

---

Unfortunately, that's where the market is shifting for low-budget PCs. Laptop processors in a cube, cloud storage, etc. Because of that, this would be a scenario in which you'd get a lot more for your money by custom building it (and perhaps torrenting Windows). But I won't go into that unless you have even the slightest interest in it.

---

I've done builds before but really just want to order something at this time. I know I'll get a more powerful machine for less if I go that route, but I don't want to spend the time on researching and ordering the right components.

So A6 is no bueno?


Lenovo Black 90BH0037US H50 Desktop PC with AMD A6-6310 Processor, 6GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive and Windows 10

quote:

---

So A6 is no bueno?

---

If I was going to use AMD, I'd stick with an A10. I'd still recommend an i5 and 4GB RAM.

*edit*
My wife is a PT. The PC I built for her is probably overkill, but I won't hear any complaints from her.

Newegg typically has offlease HP business machines for around a $100 with an i3/8gbs Ram. Practically brand new in most cases. Throw in a cheap ssd and you have a decent machine.

quote:

---

My laptop is a 5 year old A6 and it runs just fine for what he is describing. Granted it also has 8GB RAM and a SSD to help it along, so its not like it hasnt been upgraded at all. Point remains, there are more important components than CPU in a general use computer.

---

Cool.

I don't know exactly what he means by "medical programs", but my point remains as well. I doubt it's "general use" or will remain that way. If his wife is in a medical field, she'll likely need it sooner rather than later.

quote:

---

He also clearly stated none of the programs were resource intensive and he would like to remain in a $300 budget.

---

He also said she'll need VPN and will be using "medical programs". My own personal experience says this goes beyond "general use". You can stay well within a $300 budget without settling for an A6. A8 should be the minimum.

*edit*
I should add that I'm still not certain on what the medical programs she'll be using are, so it's entirely possible an A6 may be sufficient. If they're anywhere near what my wife uses, she'll be frustrated early and often using an A6 equipped machine.

quote:

---

Sometimes you have to tailor your reqs to the client's needs.

---

Sometimes you also have to understand what those are, even if they don't. For his purposes, an A8 would be minimum for my recommendation. I'd push it to an A10 for the minimal cost because his wife will likely need it. I've done a lot of work for local hospitals and doctors, and I'm fine with them underestimating their needs and ignoring my recommendations because it keeps me employed. There's no reason to do that here.

quote:

---

He also said she'll need VPN and will be using "medical programs".

---

She is doing research during her residency as well as inputting orders from home during home call situations, so she needs to be able to reliably remote-in to the hospital network and access their patient care software via the VPN.

Some of the work is done via remote desktop and accessing servers or programs that way. Other times she runs an app that uses her credentials to access the network and patient files.

She really has no patience for computers that run slow and would prefer a mac but most of the software she uses isn't compatible with it so that's a no go. I would rather increase my budget to $350-400 if it'll get me into a machine that'll do what she needs for the next 5ish years than settle now and buy again in 2 or 3 years.

quote:

---

She really has no patience for computers that run slow and would prefer a mac

---

Most of that magic is ssd

quote:

---

She really has no patience for computers that run slow and would prefer a mac but most of the software she uses isn't compatible with it so that's a no go. I would rather increase my budget to $350-400 if it'll get me into a machine that'll do what she needs for the next 5ish years than settle now and buy again in 2 or 3 years.

---

Sounds like she has a taste for filet and a budget for beans and weenies. Think of low end machines not as something you buy, but something you rent - at a rate of between $75 to $150 per year. Anything over that is gravy. For what you have described about her a SSD is a must. Take Ilike's i3 machine and do the SSD upgrade.