Your Computer Specs and Price Paid

[alexa9]

I use an Intel NUC 7th Gen i3 ($270), 250GB Samsung 960 SSD($120), 8GB RAM DDR4 2400 ($90) $480 Total Amazon
and a Dell Inspiron 3567, 7th Gen i3, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM $290 used eBay
I am happy with both but wondering what else is out there and what others use.

[Moem]

I live on the cheap... my current weapon of choice is a Thinkpad X201. It has a Dual core Intel Core i5 M 560 and 8GB of RAM. There's a 240 GB SSD inside. It cost around 120 € refurbished... can't remember whether the SSD was already in there, most likely not. Not sure how much it cost.
These machines are easy to find, quite portable and sturdy. They're also easy to install Mint on.

[rado84]

I think this topic should be in the "Chat" section.

Total price payed (along with the case) - $540 for: AsRock B85M Pro4, Core i3-4170, Palit GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, Corsair CX750 PSU, Corsair 32GB DDR3-1600, Corsair Force LE 120GB, WD Caviar Green 500GB, WD Caviar Blue 1TB, Case Sharkoon S25-W.

[Moem]

I think this topic should be in the "Chat" section.

You're not wrong. Topic moved.

[KBD47]

The one I'm using right now is a X220 Thinkpad. I've become a big fan of these former business class machines available used or refurbished. Cost $113 incl. shipping. I put 2gb ram for 6gb total and it has dual core Sandybridge cpu.

[English Invader]

I'm using a PC that I got for £30 as a local pick up from eBay. It came in a lovely CIT Vantage case and has 4GB RAM, AMD dual core processor (2.3 GHz) and onboard Nvidia graphics. All I had to do was plug in my trusty HD5450 graphics card and wipe the Windows 7 for Mint. This has been my main system for the best part of 3 years.

[BenTrabetere]

My computer set me back $1500 when I purchased it in 2005. It sports a cutting edge (for the time) Athlon x2 4200+, and back then it had 1GB RAM and two 200GB HDDs.

Over the past 13 years I have replaced all of the capacitors on the motherboard, and replace both the power supply and graphics card due to bad caps. And I increased the RAM to 4GB and replaced the original HDDs with a couple of 1TB drives. I estimate these repairs and improvements set me back $500.

I my antique going to be the budget buster of the bunch? Quick math says I spent more for it than everyone else (so far) combined.

[lsemmens]

Most of my machines are so old the original displays came with hammer and chisel. My "newest" machine is a Toshiba Lappy with AMD E1 cpu and a 120Gb SSD that I purchased not that long ago for around $70AUD. MY oldest machine was built about 13 years ago and is still my most powerful with a QUAD core AMD Phenom chip with numerous Hard drives.

[jimallyn]

I am currently on a Toshiba laptop from about 2007. Intel Core2 Duo, Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller, 4GB RAM (was 2GB when it was given to me). 200 GB HD. Free. My home computer is one somebody assembled themselves, I believe. A friend gave it to me. Free. BIOS date is 2009. Intel Quad core i7, had 4 GB of RAM, upgraded to 12 GB, 2TB HD, soon to add a 4TB HD. Fastest computer I have ever owned. I also have a couple of older desktops. One had Win98 on it when I got it, it's now running antiX Linux, but doesn't get used much. 1GHZ AMD, (Duron?) if I remember correctly. No idea what I paid for it, if anything. And another one that's probably older than that, 450 MHz CPU, I think, can't remember how much RAM or HD. That probably has Xandros 1 on it, possibly dual booted with Win98, or maybe with Win98 in Win4Lin. I last fired that one up a year or so ago, to get some files off of it. I hate to throw things away, so maybe some day I'll put a very light, current Linux distro on it and see if I can give it away. I doubt anybody will want it (might make a good doorstop). No idea what I paid for that one, either. I was recently given a couple of EeePCs. No power supplies with them, but I ordered one, so I will be able to see if they work at all in a few days. Did a little research this morning, there is a Linux version made specifically for EeePCs and other puny hardware, and it's based on Ubuntu 16.x I think. Should be fun playing with those.

[Pierre]

almost all of my PCs were recycled win-xp desktops, and thus are all 32bit

but, most of them have been moved on, except for my Two Test Machines.
- recently I've bought a win-7 machine, that is 64bit & is thus my "New Test PC".
& that cost more to freight it over from Sydney, that it cost to get it at an On-line Auction House.
- - $70 + $80 p/p

prior to that, some years ago, I'd attended a local auction house & purchased several lots
of Ex Vista laptops. these were all erased by the Gov't Dept that disposed of them.
and they all work just nice with Linux Systems - - ~$140 each.
- this years project, is to convert some of them over to 64bit Linux Systems.


the thing is, that in Australia - - we do get Rather Ripped Off, when it comes to Technology Based Equipment,
with prices 30 - 50% higher for a similar spec'd product,, to what would be available in CONUS .. ..
- - and, unless you "into this stuff" like I'm doing, you would not be aware of that price difference.
even the New Local Presence of Amazon - - is a Big Price Disappointment,
and so much for the Big American coming DownUnder - - they're a Total Fraud:
https://www.computerworld.com.au/articl ... g-us-site/
is yet another issue with dealing with Foreign Companies . . . .
( who don't pay that much of Corporate Tax in Australia - either )

[jaymot]

My up until recently only computer was an old mid-tower with an ASRock A780GM-LE motherboard, an AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+ dual-core 2.6GHz CPU, 8GB of 400MHz DDR2 RAM (8GB is all it can take) and its onboard Radeon HD3200 GPU. I paid PHP (Philippine pesos) 2950 for it with a 160GB HD and 1GB RAM from one of those surplus computer stores and probably put another PHP5000 into it over the course of time in the memory upgrade and a 1TB HD. That would be around US$152 total investment at today's exchange rates.

My sister-in-law needed to borrow some money to travel and work overseas, and she had an extra almost-new laptop she wanted to leave with me to sell for her, so I decided just to go ahead and buy the laptop for myself so I could finally have a new computer, which I'd been wanting. It's an Asus Zenbook UX303UB, Intel Core i7-6500U 2GHz CPU, 12GB 1.6GHz DDR3 RAM (maxed out), 1TB HD, Optimus graphics with an Intel Skylake onboard GPU plus an Nvidia GeForce 940M with 2GB DDR3 dedicated VRAM, and a 13 inch QHD+ (3200x1800) touchscreen (that I have to run at FHD 1920x1080 in order to be able to read anything without a magnifying glass), and a backlit (which I like) flat, low chicklet keyboard with very little key travel (which I hate.) I paid her PHP28,000 (US$530) for it which was the amount she was asking to borrow, so I got a good deal on it. It could probably be sold for around PHP35,000 ($662) today. She bought it in Singapore and I have no idea how much it cost her, but a brand new one in the Philippines would probably sell for around PHP50,000ish. She gave me an external USB3.0 DVD burner along with it that she'd bought for it in Singapore as it doesn't have an internal optical drive - no room in this thin case. She probably bought it because her main laptop was in the shop for something and she needed a spare for work, to run AutoCAD. She's a bit rough on laptops but she commutes and travels with them all the time, so that's probably why. She doesn't abuse them or anything, and is good about getting things fixed when they need it. (The fan for the Nvidia GPU was making noise so she had it replaced just before she sold it to me, for example. In fact I picked it up from the shop on the day she left.)

The same sister-in-law accidentally dropped her old laptop (which is probably two or three laptops ago now) which broke the fan and damaged the screen and as she needed a laptop for her work she gave that one to us a couple of years ago and bought herself a brand-new one (not this Asus, it's her main laptop that she took with her.) The one she gave us is an HP Paviion dv6 2130TX and I don't know it's particulars other than that it has a 15.5 inch HD/720p screen, an Intel Core i5 CPU and real keys on its keyboard, plus an optical drive and four USB3.0 ports (vs. three on the Asus.) ISTR that it may have 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 350GB HD. As soon as I can afford it I plan to get it repaired and its RAM and HD upgraded (16GB/2TB), then keep it and sell the Asus. I need a bigger screen and better keys, and I don't like this touchscreen - if I accidentally bump the monitor it does unexpected and unwanted things. Plus I never have been able to get Optimus/Bumblebee working on it, not that I've really tried all that hard because I don't really need it, not being a gamer. I can always just switch GPUs to the Nvidia, then logout and back in if I want to use the discrete GPU.

I also have an old, cheap, junky Averatec brand 32-bit netbook here that I bought as a gift for my wife about 8 or 9 years ago. It came with Windows XP on it and has an Atom processor. I didn't know it was going to be such a piece of junk: I just thought its small size would be good for her to take with her to meetings to take notes as she was the (volunteer) manager of an animal shelter in another city at the time and it's small enough to fit in her (large) purse that she used at the time. Now it's sitting here with a dead hard drive, dead keyboard and dead touchpad. I'm thinking of bringing it along to the shop when I get the HP fixed to have the tech put the HP's old HD in it and bump up its RAM to 2GB from 1, then put a lightweight 32-bit Linux distro on it, then either keep it as an emergency spare, or maybe sell it or just give it away to a neighborhood kid or something. It worked OK with a USB keyboard and mouse (until the hard drive failed.) It may just be something simple like a loose ribbon cable that's causing the internal keyboard and touchpad to not work too, so the tech may be able to fix those. If it needs new ones I'll tell him not to bother as it's not worth the expenditure, and I doubt if he could find the parts anyway.

One thing in favor of the Asus: it's very fast. Jobs that took almost 2 days on the desktop get done in a couple of hours. I think the HP, though it has a slightly slower CPU, will also be fast enough for me though, especially if I max out its RAM to 16GB.

[MintBean]

Core i7 laptop with 8GB, Intel integrated graphics plus Nvidia GTX 850M,
Full HD screen,
250GB Samsung SSD.

Cost about £850, plus I added a 1TB Crucial SSD from an older machine.

[KBD47]

jaymot, if you get that old netbook working you might try AntiX on it:
https://antixlinux.com/download/
AntiX uses very little ram. I installed it on a converted Chromebook with only 2 gb ram and with four tabs open on Firefox it was only using 600mb ram.

[kenetics]

Main computer - Mobo: ASUStek M2NSLi with dual core AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+. Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5670. Memory: 4 GB. WD 500 GB drive. Total cost = $0, hand-me-down and salvaged parts from my son. (Hummm, I think I paid for these parts when they were new! )

[151tom]

.

[CaptainKirksChair]

iMac 9.1, 8GB Ram, Intel Core2 Duo, Clock speeds: 1: 1862 MHz 2: 2394 MHz, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 320GB Western Digital @5400 rpm.

$300.

[Fred Barclay]

Dell Optiplex 790, i5 processor, 8GB DDR2 ram, 500 GB hard drive.
$20 used from a local university -- but it didn't have a hard drive and had only 4 GB ram. I used a refurbished hard drive I'd bought earlier (don't remember price) and added the additional 4 more GB of ram (also don't remember price).

So... $45-60-ish?

[KBD47]

Lots of frugal people here recycling computers--I love it
My other main computer is a T420 Thinkpad. Dual core Sandybridge. I increased the ram from 4gb to 8gb, and replaced the cd/dvd drive with an extra hard drive bay. Paid $188 for it, probably a bit over $200 with the extra bay and added ram. If it was not in mint condition I would say I paid too much, but it's in great shape.

[Snafu]

Lenovo Think Centre A57. 2 gig ram, core 2 duo, 500 gb HDD Lenovo keyboard and mouse and a dell 19" monitor. Free. It had Windows Vista plus a scary number of viruses on it and was headed for the tip until I rescued it. Installed Linux Mint and it runs like new now

My laptop is a dell. Dual core i5 processor, 4 gig ram 1 TB HDD. I think I paid around $500AU for that one

[Portreve]

Well, let's see.

$3039.75

For an 8mhz (clocked down to 7.8ish mhz) Motorola 68000-based Macintosh Plus.

With 1 MB of RAM.

And a 9" (22,86 cm) black and white, 72 dpi display, no hard drive (but hey, the system came with a SCSI port!), an internal Sony powered eject 800kb floppy disk drive, one button mouse, and a keyboard.