Looking to buy a new computer

My wife needs a new computer. They are now showing 2 types of desktops, a small one and then the standard towers. She wants to run windows7. Looking at refurbished as she doesn't need a power house. She likes to watch videos, surf, email and work with photos. Which one would be the better type. We have DSL but it is not a great one as it places about 10th in the tests. CenturyLink is what it is. Supposed to be 10mb download but not sure if that is right as it uses a site close to the server which is about 400 miles from me. Any help would be appreciated.

Probably need 6gig memory, have not kept up on Cpu's or memory boards.. Would like an upgradable one. On set income so cannot go very high on price. Like I said running Windows 7. I used to know a lot about these but have not kept up on them.

dakota37 said:

Probably need 6gig memory, have not kept up on Cpu's or memory boards.. Would like an upgradable one. On set income so cannot go very high on price. Like I said running Windows 7. I used to know a lot about these but have not kept up on them.

You haven't said if wife needs portability. If yes, get a laptop. If no, get a desktop. Laptops have the portability advantage, but are inferior in other areas: price, fragility, ability to upgrade, "bang for buck", etc.

Regardless, one of the least expensive Intel i3 processors should be about all she needs. Not likely you'd need more than 4 GB of memory.

I doubt if you'd have to spend over $400 unless you needed a new monitor, printer, etc.

Here's a pile of refurbs:

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more - Newegg.com

I'd desperately try to avoid the very lowest tier, say 250 and under (if new). Some of the stuff I've seen in that area from major suppliers like HP is outright embarrassing.

Here's a list of 82 Dell refurbs from Newegg. You might want to look at the Dell Factory Store at Dell also.

Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com

If you can spend 400 or more, I'd probably look at new as well as refurb.

WHS:

I'm guessing that thing has an E6550 processor? There's several Core 2 Duo CPUs that run at 2.33.

I used to have a very similar E6600 machine. Yeah, it's snappy enough as a basic Internet/email/watch videos machine and would be more so with an SSD.

My only question would be what does "refurb" imply in this case? How many hours on the hardware? I know some refurbs are effectively unused, but I imagine others have 15,000 hours on them and would be more accurately described as "used". I dunno how you sort that out as I've never owned a refurb. I don't have the slightest idea what "Microsoft Authorized Recertified" means.

But the OS alone is worth most of the cost if it's got a sticker and Product Key.