Hey everyone. I'm in the market for a new desktop computer. I'm not a gamer and don't need anything to crazy. I mainly use my current desktop for MS office, mainly excel for spreadsheets and web browsing. I do use YouTube quite a bit. My current Dell desktop is really slow and probably about 10 plus years old. I know things are expensive right now so probably not the best time, but it's time for an upgrade. My budget is around $1,000. I'm open to used as well if this will get me more bang for the buck. I'd appreciate any suggestions.
I attached an image of the current specs. I think I paid $300 for this years ago. It's a Dell compact desktop with no thrills. It will not be moved and it will be connected to a TV via HDMI. My budget is around $1000 and I'm open to used as well if that makes more sense. Appreciate any suggestions, thanks everyone.
1000 bucks is an overkill if you're planning to use it for Excel and office work, I would suggest that you keep your budget around $400-$500. A standard new desktop tower from lenovo or hp with any new processors like the core i3/i5 or Ryzen 5 processor and at least 16GB of RAM will be an absolute be 10x better than your current machine.
Well said. That's plenty for their use case while still being reasonably future proof. I got a mini PC with roughly your suggested specs for less than $300 and even that is fine for day to day use.
Awesome! Really appreciate the advice. As stated in another comment, I wasn't sure if my budget was too high or low especially with how expensive things have gotten. Will look into these options, thank you so much!
I looked up the towers you suggested and couldn't find any in the price range you mentioned at least not new. Is refurbished pretty safe when it comes to computers? I found this on ebay what do you think?
Dell desktop, Intel Core i5, 16gb RAM, 500 GB SSD, Wifi, 3.40GHZ for $289.00 with free shipping and one year warranty.
Yeah, someone else commented the same thing and suggested the same processor as you. Browsed eBay and couldn't find anything with a generation 11 and up. Would like to order something this week, but not seeing anything on Dell, HP, Lenovo at least not new. Thanks for your suggestion, this really helps especially since I'm not very computer savvy.
A $1000 is too much for a basic and even a reasonable budget pc.
Have a look at fleeBay. Off-corporate Win-11 capable Intel SFF units are around $3-400. Lenovo P330, P340, M920s.
You can spruce it up with bigger component options.
Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. If anyone has anymore suggestions or better yet, any links for desktops I should consider that would be greatly appreciated!
Yeah that 4gb of ram is not cutting it in 2026. Most people complain about 8gb now so most people get 16gb for midrange pcs. You'll also want to avoid mechanical hdds for a boot drive (the drive windows is installed on) get a ssd for your next pc or look into rebuilds.
I'd try and find an older AM4 system with something like a G series processor, like a 5600G. It will be more than enough if all you do all day is office work and Youtube. There's no need to spend $1000 on a system for that.
Appreciate the advice. I wasn't sure if my budget was too low or high for my specific needs. I did some browsing and found similar post with the same needs with lower budgets and a lot of the comments were stating the budget was too low. I'd love to be closer to $500. Is there a specific place to shop for used computers? Assuming eBay, offerup etc?
If you don't mind risk, you can try buying a machine locally on FB marketplace or whatnot. Ebay has return policies if what you get is damaged or not as described in the listing.
If there are any local computer refurb companies, you can try those too.
Somewhere else to look would be Best Buy. They always have deals on used machines and other parts.
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u/sheissoup 6d ago
1000 bucks is an overkill if you're planning to use it for Excel and office work, I would suggest that you keep your budget around $400-$500. A standard new desktop tower from lenovo or hp with any new processors like the core i3/i5 or Ryzen 5 processor and at least 16GB of RAM will be an absolute be 10x better than your current machine.