Windows 7 Dream Machine

wutang112878

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Nov 5, 2007
6,066
I have a perhaps delusional dream.  But I want to buy a Windows 7 machine, laptop or desktop with 4gb ram, close to 3ghz and >250GB HD   I would really like a Dell or HP, but would also consider a Lenovo.  Now the delusional part, I want to pay $300 or less and I would buy a refurbished one from a reputable source but I want to avoid the 'off lease' ones.  I've searched around newegg, Staples, Bestbuy, Office Max & Depot but can get close to that price but cant get under it.  I really have to believe somewhere someone is stuck with some Windows 7 machines they want to unload but I need your help finding that place.
 

Murderer's Crow

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Jul 15, 2005
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Why 3ghz and why 4gb of ram? I'm asking because it basically sounds like someone wrote down some stats on a piece of paper and said "you need this." What are you going to be doing?
 

wutang112878

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Nov 5, 2007
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At work I got a HP Win7 with 4GB of memory and ~2.5ghz Intel, and I was pretty unimpressed with the speed.  I upgraded it to 8GB of memory and the performance was much better and I plan to do the same for my new home machine.  So I want to avoid 2 memory upgrades if possible and would like a faster processor if possible.
 
As for what I am doing, with my work machine I using Office 2007 and SQL server express which works fine.  But on my home machine I was hoping to use Office 2010, which based on testing it on my work machine seems like a memory/processor hog.  Which is why I want the machines to be basically the same if not slightly better.
 

Couperin47

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Well just a cursory investigation produces:
 
http://moofi.woot.com/offers/hp-dual-core-i3-desktop-with-1tb-hd-3?utm_campaign=Commission+Junction+-+10878264&utm_source=Commission+Junction+Publisher+-+404255&utm_medium=affiliate+-+Moofi+-+120x60
 
OK it's only 2.8 GHz, but it's a modern i3 and dual core, you get 8 Gig of ram and a 1 TB fast HD plus a full DVD burner and yeah Win 8...getting hard to find things preloaded with 7...
 
btw are you sure you're having a dream? sounds like the kinda mild nightmare I get from indigestion.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
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Jul 31, 2006
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Not entirely sure what you're going for but this is basically what you asked for only with Windows 8, which despite what you may have heard is actually better than 7 in just about every way as a desktop OS.
 
Moving to Office 2010 also seems a bit odd to me.  I just bought a year of Office 360 for 5 machines for $68 yesterday.  That's basically $5 a month to always have the latest version of Office.  For me that's a no-brainer.
 
I also have VS 2013 and SQL Express 2013 running (as well as My SQL and Mongo) on my laptop.  It's really pretty low compute these days unless you're doing constant and frequent writes. 
 
Edit:  As has been posted go check out the lenovo outlet beyond what I linked.  For about $150 more than the one I linked above you can get a modern i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM.  Also, as has been posted in the other desktop threads, buy yourself a SSD to put your OS on.  The difference it makes is hard to even put into words.
 

Harry Hooper

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Newegg had this i5 refurb rig (including 19" monitor) for $349 the other day. Maybe it will be on sale again.
 

wutang112878

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Nov 5, 2007
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Thanks for all the suggestions, the one thing is that Windows 8 is an absolute deal breaker for me.  Call me a stick in the mud, but the new interface and lack of the start button drive me bonkers.  I know its just a matter of getting used to it, but with the limited free time I have in my personal life I really dont want to spend time learning the new thing Microsoft thought would make my life easier.  3 years ago sans child, I dont have this problem
 
Going to Office 2010 is simply because I have a free version to use
 
The custom route I would have gone down 3 years ago too, it would have been a fun little project.  Now my daughter really likes to 'help' me, like when she helped me put her swing set together by hiding all the bags of screws all over my yard.
 
Basically I am a cheap, stubborn, shopper who wants to put in minimal effort with a minimal budget, so it might be a complete pipe dream.
 

Couperin47

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wutang112878 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions, the one thing is that Windows 8 is an absolute deal breaker for me.  Call me a stick in the mud, but the new interface and lack of the start button drive me bonkers.  I know its just a matter of getting used to it, but with the limited free time I have in my personal life I really dont want to spend time learning the new thing Microsoft thought would make my life easier.  3 years ago sans child, I dont have this problem
 
Going to Office 2010 is simply because I have a free version to use
 
The custom route I would have gone down 3 years ago too, it would have been a fun little project.  Now my daughter really likes to 'help' me, like when she helped me put her swing set together by hiding all the bags of screws all over my yard.
 
Basically I am a cheap, stubborn, shopper who wants to put in minimal effort with a minimal budget, so it might be a complete pipe dream.
 
Classic Shell is free, takes 5 mins to install and you can have Win 8 looking and acting exactly like Win 7, start button, start menus etc. If that's too much effort then,yeah, perhaps you are too stubborn to be helped...
 

jercra

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Couperin47 said:
 
Classic Shell is free, takes 5 mins to install and you can have Win 8 looking and acting exactly like Win 7, start button, start menus etc. If that's too much effort then,yeah, perhaps you are too stubborn to be helped...
I want to echo this and even extend it.  People have a really odd misunderstanding of Win8.  It's almost entirely additive to Win7.  There's no need to use the new interface.  Outside of the Start Button it's nearly impossible to tell the difference if you set it to boot to Desktop Mode.  Even the start button can be replaced, as noted, for free and in reality it's almost entirely pointless. You you can just hit start and then type letters and never need a bunch of mouse clicks to get to software wherever the devs thought it should go.  People are really adamant about how much they won't switch to Win8 and I'll never understand it.
 

Curll

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Jul 13, 2005
9,205
I bought an i5 Haswell Lenovo laptop for Christmas. People ask about it and say, "Oh, I see you went with Win 7! Great choice!" and then I hit the Windows key and show them it is actually Win 8 and there's no need to use Metro.
 
That thing has a mechanical HDD and it still boots faster than my Win 7 desktop with a SSD.
 
Also, I'd love to have Win 8 on an Ultrabook, but didn't realize how handy touchscreen monitors were on laptops until getting my Chromebook.
 

Harry Hooper

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If you've been swayed on Win8, eCost.com has a refurb HP Pavilion 500 for $349:
 
AMD Quad-Core A10-5700 3.40GHz
12GB DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM
2TB 7200rpm SATA
SuperMulti DVD
Integrated Graphics
Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit 
 
 
EDIT: Price lowered to $319.
 

kelpapa

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Feb 15, 2010
4,637
It's Windows 8, but a refurb here matches some of your other specs for $289.
  • Product number: H6U03AA
  • Windows 8 operating system
  • Intel 2.6GHz dual-core processor
  • 8GB RAM
  • 1TB hard drive
  • 6 USB 2.0 ports
  • SuperMulti DVD-burner drive
  • Weight: 13.2 lb.
  • Dimensions: 6.5" (W) x 14.32" (H) x 15.14" (D)
  • Includes keyboard and mouse
  • Technical specifications
  • 90-day warranty from HP
  • Condition: manufacturer refurbished
 

AlNipper49

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Microsoft made two errors, one which was defaulting to Metro.  Metro is decent on the right machine with the right acclimation period but alas they neglected that.
 
Also Office 2013 was such a steaming pile of shit UI-wise which completely forced people to change how they did work yet again (2007 to 2010 was a hige freaking jump too) that it's business users were just looking to hate on something without even thinking to question if there was another way to do things, and I don't really blame them to be honest.  2013 was such a swing and a miss that it's embarrassing to even use it.
 

wutang112878

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Nov 5, 2007
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Just wanted to thank everyone for the help.  I ended up getting an HP Pavilion 15-N028US   I caved on the processor speed, windows 8 so I could get a laptop rather than a desktop.
 
Also, with Classic Shell my Windows 8 problems are completely solved!  Thanks for the suggestion.  I guess I shouldnt have written it off after 30 minutes of experience while trying to fix someone elses machine.