Turning Cheap Computers Into Useful Devices

Let’s face it, as much as we wish it were otherwise, we don’t all have endless amounts of money to spend on the latest computing powerhouse. The good news is that the rapid advance of computing power has made the world of cheap computers more effective and affordable than ever. The trick is knowing how to maximize the performance of what you have, and being sure you are matching your computer to its intended purpose. The objective here is: Everything you need, nothing you don’t.

Being practical, if you have heavy-duty computing needs, it’s going to be hard to do much on a tight budget. If you are into playing the latest and most popular triple-A video game titles, editing 4K or even full-HD video, or doing other intensive tasks, you are basically going to be in a position where “you get what you pay for” is the rule of the day.

However, if your needs are outside of these high-intensity computing activities, you have lots of inexpensive and practical options that can save you serious money. And the used market is where the best values are.

Match The Computer To The Intended Use

For users whose needs are more in the range of general household and business computing, you may be surprised at what a few tweaks to old and cheap computers can get you. Activities like: web browsing, email, streaming video, downloading media, document creation and handling, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, financial accounting, editing photos and basic graphic design all require only modest amounts of computing power and memory.

If learning more about computing in general is what interests you, just about any old computer can be used as a learning platform. You can run Linux and practice running commands and scripts on the command line on just about anything. Spinning up virtual machines requires some memory, but doesn’t need a particularly up-to-date CPU. Same for fooling with servers and networking – none of it requires powerful and expensive hardware if what you are looking for is a learning experience more than anything else.

Cheap Computers Are Everywhere

The lesson here is to not give in to the “yeah, but I don’t have the money for that” mindset. There are a raft of ways to find cheap computers that are perfectly serviceable with just some minor tweaks.

You can:

• Shop for refurbished machines on Amazon.
• Find old PCs at the local Goodwill or flea market.
• Check online classifieds like Craigslist or eBay.
• Go to your local recycling center (most have electronics recycling and you’ll be surprised what people throw away).
• Canvass local businesses who may be looking to retire some of their hardware.
• There are lots of possibilities, so get creative!

Things To Look For

When looking at buying a used PC, you want to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck. Of course, any free PC is a great deal, but if you are shelling out your hard-earned cash, here are a few things to look for to get the best deals:

• Know your processors: often people will tell you a PC is from a particular year, when in reality, it’s much older. I like the Passmark Software site for comparing CPUs. You can search for any processor and see real-world performance comparisons, along with the date when the CPU was first seen in the benchmarking tool. If I have a fixed amount to spend, I want the computer that has the most recent and strongest-performing processor possible. Full details on CPUs can also be found on the Intel and AMD websites.
• Know your RAM: I like to see at least 8GB of RAM in my PCs, and these days that isn’t hard to find. More up-to-date RAM is also faster than older RAM, so choosing a PC with DDR4 over DDR3 is a good idea. While more RAM is generally better, I wouldn’t pay for anything over 8 GB unless I had a use-case that I knew would require more RAM than that to work well.
• Know Your Graphics: if you have a specific need, like you are using your PC as a home theatre and want to watch 4K content at 60 frames per second, make sure the computer you purchase has the capability. If the PC has integrated graphics, you’ll find that information in the CPU specifications. If it has a discrete graphics card, it will be in the graphics card specifications.
• Look for commercial PCs: businesses like banks, insurance companies, law firms and others go through a lot of PCs. These often end up on the used market and there is lots of availability. Manufactured by companies like Lenovo, HP and Dell (among others), there are usually all kinds of sizes and capacities, and these machines are generally well-built and reliable.

How To optimize Your Cheap Computer

Once you drag your shiny-new-for-you PC back home, don’t be surprised if turning it on leads to a bit of disappointment. Old PCs sometimes seem impossibly slow and useless when you first turn them on. There are a few things you can do to make sure you are squeezing out all the performance you can:

• Clean the inside: heat is the enemy of any computer, so the first thing you should do is open it up and look inside. If it’s full of dust, dog hair and toenail clippings, you need to rectify that. Make sure you use the proper tools and properly ground yourself to prevent electrostatic discharge, which is the other mortal enemy of computers.
• Ditch the old hard drive: old hard disk drives (HDDs) are usually slow and often noisy. When an older computer is slow to boot, or open and close programs, more often than not the bottleneck is with the old hard drive. SSDs (solid-state drives) are the way to go for putting some spring in that cheap computer’s step! Name-brand 240GB SSDs can be had for as little as $30, so this is an affordable way to greatly boost the usefulness of that cheap computer.
• Scrounge an old video card: often, an old computer will use integrated graphics to provide video output. This means the CPU and memory are being used for computing purposes, as well as to drive the video display. By adding an inexpensive graphics card, you remove that extra work from the CPU and memory. This drives an overall system performance increase.
• Add some memory: Any PC with 6 or 8 GB of RAM (memory) will absolutely work well for most tasks while running the latest installment of your favorite OS. If the motherboard has room for it, adding more memory doesn’t always have to be an expensive proposition, especially if you are buying used. If you are able to get your hands on multiple PCs, you can even swap RAM from one computer to use in another, as long as compatibility requirements are met.
• Start with a fresh install of your operating system: ideally, the previous owner did this prior to handing over the computer to you, but if not, it’s best to erase the drive and reinstall the operating system. People will download the craziest things that can seriously slow down your PC and expose your files to who-knows-what.

Note that if you choose to buy an already-refurbished PC, usually they will have been cleaned and equipped with a new SSD and fresh operating-system install already.

My Top Tip? Become A Packrat

One of the best ways to be effective at upgrading and deploying cheap computers is to become something of a packrat. Cables, sticks of memory, graphics cards, power supplies and cases are all generally universal-fit and can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Hold on to them. Keeping what you have is way cheaper than buying new, and you never know when it may get you out of a jam.

Be sure to check out the video on this page to see how one simple upgrade turned my free PC from an impossibly-slow paperweight, into a perfectly-useable learning platform!