Workhorse for less than $500

I am looking to get a desktop that will be on 24/7. Does not have to be the fastest slickest or brand new (refurbs are OK), but it must be super dependable. Something that I will turn on next week, give it a fair amont of use for the next 3 years without ever needing to open the side cover. What do you guys recommend?
Does Dell still produce something that is hard to kill?

 

Just buy a Dell, add on the 3-year "deluxe" warranty, and off you go, no fuss no muss.

 

Lenovo ThinkStation

 

+1 to random capital's suggestion re dell. however re your point of "not opening the side cover" - i strongly suggest you open it at least once a year to clean it out. unless you're buying a liquid cooled cpu (and i guarantee you if you're spending $500 or less you are not) - you will need to clean out the inside of the computer. if you don't it will collect massive amounts of dust and overheat.

all you need is a couple cans of compressed air and about 15 mins once a year and you're done. if you take care of your cpu, it'll take care of you.

if you think i'm making this up about dust in computers, go to youtube and type in "dust computers" and just see how disgusting and dangerous it is to not clean your computer for years. trust me, the last thing you want is to be in a trade and suddenly the screen goes blank b/c you're motherboard melted.

 

this works.

much easier to pull the trigger on your trades.

the 2 laptops are backup.

s

 

Here's a different perspective. Build your own mini-cube PC. I think that what I'm gonna do with my next computer. I built my current PC with a very nice minitower Lancool case. Components were selected for excellent value/performance ratio. But at the end of the day, only thing I really upgraded was the RAM. So I had this heavy box that I had to move around sometimes.

There is a wide selection of mini-ATX mobos and cube cases. They are small enough to keep on your tabletop or take on the road.

 

pls post up some hardware links.........

s

 

I've used a lot of different computers and Lenovo gets my vote as far as good bang for buck IMO especially at their outlet site.

http://lenovo.com/us/en/#ss Regular site

http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrar...:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Portals/Outlet Outlet






I also personally like ibuypower.com for custom builds. It is more geared toward gaming but , high performance graphics is something I like as well as processing performance.

 

This is exactly what I sell to a lot of traders.

Dell Precision 490 Workstation - get one on eBay for ~$150-$200, upgrade the RAM + HDD + CPU's and for less than $750 you have an awesome workhorse that will rival a new/modern i7 machine.

If you have any questions PM me. Happy to recommend a shopping list for you to DIY or I can build one for you.

(please know i'm laid up right now after being on the losing end of a bad car vs. motorcycle accident so i have one hand in a cast and tons of dr's appts... might take me a while to answer your PM)

 

Wow, Winston, here's hoping you get better quickly.