I have, some of you may noticed, a thing abount PCs and like to tinker, upgrade and generally muck about with old tech.

 

I was looking on eBay and came across a "but it now" PC for sale. No HHD,DVD, 4gb, G3420 CPU for £29.99.  I know the G3420 isn't hugely fast but I had used one on a gaming PC (now updated to a sh i5-4690k) and knew it was fast enough for most things. The model was a Dell SFF (small form factor) 7020 so I did some research and found that you can download the original OS from dell. So I bought it.

 

Once it was delivered, I cleaned up the outside of the case, it looked like had been splashed with something sticky (eww!) . This wiped off with a bit of elbow grease. 

The inside was pristine, I upgraded the ram with 12gb of ddr3 I had lying around and installed a 120gb SSD ( £15).

 

Used one of my other PCs to go to the Dell support site entered the PC support code and downloaded the OS image ( win 8.1) and burnt it to a thumb drive. Booted up the new PC and installed Win8.1,  then went to the MS update website and did the Update now option and installed win 10.

 

Once installed logged in using my mS account and have a fully functional activated and usable PC for less than £50.

Yeah I've found I can keep most kit running for well over 10yr now but it's arguable if it's worth the bother. I spent a bit of money on a new PC build but I find I'm not using it all that much, no time to game.

 

I've been quite surprised at just how powerful the Raspberry Pi is. TBH I think I could build a reasonably functional PC for under £50 new now. OK It'll be running 'nix but it'll work.

 

But if you've got satisfaction from building the machine on the cheap then jobs-a-good-un

I've also acquired an atomic pi. It's a single board PC which was about £40 and runs Linux. It's faster than a pi but not as fast as the Dell. 

 

I only do it really for the satisfaction of getting these things working.

Edited 19 June, 20197 yr by io1901

There is the new Pi4 now which is apparently much more powerful than the 3.

I have too many PIs. 

PI(E)s - I always to love the Teeside Butcher's home made ones. Steak & Onion/ Steak & Kidney/ Minced beef & Onion. Fresh out of the oven ,they were great. Trouble is that my tum shows signs of too many Pie(s).

Fruit ones- SWIMBO (Teeside Lass) makes a smashing Rhubarb/ Strawberry/ Raspberry/ mixed fruit PI(E).