And from the glowing reviews it’s clear that

  1. W11 doesn’t actually need a new PC to run and the limitations are completely artificial

  2. For many people, a ten years old PC is fast enough (or even faster than a brand new Intel N100 PC that is officially W11 compatible). They won’t even notice that’s something from 2015, as long it has a shiny new case, enough RAM and SSD

  3. Amazon doesn’t care that the PC comes with pirated software, or that someone is scamming their customers, as long they get their 15% cut from marketplace sales (the cost of a genuine license of W11 pro and office exceeds the price of those ewaste specials)

  • nthavoc@lemmy.today
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    53 minutes ago

    Thrift stores and pawn shops have some great deals on PC’s that will run Linux just fine if you’re concerned about Amazon prices and e-waste. If you have a local radio-shack-like mom and pop shop, those are treasure hunts and you’re guaranteed to find gold. Encourage folks to go local.

  • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    I keep repeating this, my i5 750 (2009 pc), oc at 3.6ghz can do any fucking thing most people do with their computer. With a 1060 gpu, It plays like 90% of the games , I’ve made pro audio and video projects on it, even a small vr game.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Serious question, why haven’t you upgraded to an i7 yet? They’d have to be super cheap at this point, right?

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        I mean, it’s not my work PC anymore, but this one has been my main entertainment system for years now. I really don’t need to upgrade and create e-waste to gain a little bit of performance. I haven’t even installed Linux on it yet, still on win 10, but that will make it even faster. It’s my firm belief that like 80% of the people would be fine with 15+ years old computers.

        • The_v@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          My newest computer is 5 years old. I see no reason to upgrade anything.

          I use my 11 year old laptop with Linux mint on it as well. I maxed out the RAM on it and swapped in a Sata SSD, it boots in under 40 seconds and does everything I need it to do. It’s one of those cheap underpowered Celeron processors as well.

          • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 hours ago

            Id still be using my clamshell iBook if it worked and supported a modern-ish browser.

            My eeePC only got sidelined because 4gb of ram is now too little for kubuntu releases. (I was going to install Debian, but after 30 min on it’s SLOW SSD it failed and I haven’t tried again) And I had issues with the screen resolution being too low for the smallest settings window before.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      6 hours ago

      I used to have that CPU, but found it absolutely dying on it’s arse for VR Chat (which is notoriously badly optimised). I got a i5-8400 instead, which is about twice as fast for single threaded work (which is still the main bottleneck for most games). Your overclock would take it a decent amount of the way there, but most people aren’t going to do that, and it was getting a bit iffy even when I replaced it. Runs hot as well, I expect.

      Since then they’ve got about twice as fast again. You don’t have to spend a lot on them to get that either. A Ryzen 9600X will have me set for the next 15 years (assuming they don’t ditch x86 CPUs altogether). AMD being competitive again has down wonders for performance boosts. Motherboards seem a lot more expensive these days though.

      • Übercomplicated@lemmy.ml
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        2 hours ago

        It’s only the AM5 mobos, you can still get very cheap AM4 mobos, even with PBO (performance boost overdrive, huuuuge performance boost for me at least). The new AM5 mobos are like 200 bucks WTF? Aaaand they have shit audio 😭

    • Pendorilan@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I dont think that GPU could handle any game in the past 5-10 years though. So 90% of games doesn’t seem right.

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        I don’t play online games, but otherwise I have a library of 200+ games and they all work fine so far. At 1080p, sometimes I put it at 720p to get higher fps.

        Lately, I’ve been playing It takes 2, Little Nightmare 2, Fallout 4, Hades, Sable, Doom 2016 among others, no issues.

      • DireTech@sh.itjust.works
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        4 hours ago

        1060 is probably more powerful than the steam deck and that things run almost everything. You don’t have to play at 4k/ultra.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    This is so wrong

    • Windows 11 requires 8th gen Intel or newer. You can bypass it but you lose official support and more importantly things will break down the line.

    • Those listing are not what I would call “full price”

    • You can buy a old 8th gen Intel system off of eBay for less than 100€

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      6 hours ago

      Yeah, those are basically Mini PC prices. The CPU alone used to cost more than that.

      The specs look perfectly adequate (I’m still running very similar for daily use), and 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM should keep you going no matter how many tabs you open or how bloated your PC gets.

      Personally I’d get a new Ryzen Mini PC for that kind of money just for the form factor, but they’re hardly a scam. The main issue is that the crowd this is aimed at have very little use for a PC these days.

  • AstaKask@lemmy.cafe
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    9 hours ago

    It’s Amazon. Of course it’s a scam. I always tell elderly people it’s a criminal enterprise scamming old people when they ask about it.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      6 hours ago

      I just got an N150 Mini PC for about that. Should be decent as a Jellyfin server.

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    10 hours ago

    Could you explain why you consider these overpriced/scam? If those use new parts and come with warranty, at least the top one, seems fine. Can you do a breakdown of what it should cost?

    My Windows PC has i5-6500 in it and I definitely don’t consider it e-waste.

      • Farid@startrek.website
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        5 hours ago

        Not officially, but I have, in the past, installed W11 on a computer from 2010. And it worked fine, all things considered.

        • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          microsoft is building newer versions of the kernel to rely on cpu instructions that are not present in old CPUs. you can’t “hack” around that. At some point, the kernel will ask the CPU to do something it doesnt understand.

          • Farid@startrek.website
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            5 hours ago

            Ok, I think I now understand the point of this thread. The implication is that some people might assume that these are brand new machines that will have software support for years to come. Even though, that’s confusing to me, as no new machine with those specs costs only 200 Euros. Like, that CPU alone, if used, cost 40-60 Euros. But IMO it’s still a stretch to call this a scam, as they are selling what they are selling. Can these machines run W11 right now? Yes. If the buyer expects something else for that price, it’s on them. The target audience could still be tech-savvy ppl who just need an older machine for simple stuff and W11 is pre-installed there just for convenience.

    • Moonrise2473@feddit.itOP
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      8 hours ago

      I call it ewaste because it is coming from that. Banks and corporations change computers every 3-5 years because accounting love to lease rather to buy

      Those computers go to ewaste centers, then some not honest sellers take the components (that usually were left on 24/7 because in offices nobody bothers to turn off computers) and put them in brand new cases

      That’s why is a scam, selling old stuff that came from an ewaste center as brand new

      • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        So keeping it from being actual ewaste it’s now going to be used by someone… That seems like a good thing.

        The only downside I see is that it isn’t disclosed

        • Moonrise2473@feddit.itOP
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          7 hours ago

          My gripe with that is that the seller is scamming inexperienced people, they think that they are buying a brand new PC while instead it’s not

          (The fact that a 400 euro PC includes 600 euro of software licenses should ring a bell about the legitimacy to the buyer, though)

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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            7 hours ago

            How are they scamming? They list the specs right there again the only issue is that they are used parts potentially, but I’m not sure how you know these examples are specifically sourced as you claim.

      • LilB0kChoy@midwest.social
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        6 hours ago

        Banks and corporations change computers every 3-5 years because accounting love to lease rather to buy

        3-5 years is a pretty standard depreciation schedule for IT equipment like computers, peripheral accessories etc.

        Computers and laptops (using Straight-line method): 31.67% with a useful life of 3 years.

        Computers and laptops (using Written Down Value method): 63.16% with a useful life of 3 years

        It really has nothing to do with leasing vs. buying.

      • Farid@startrek.website
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        8 hours ago

        But “e-waste” means something so outadet that it’s useless. Or unrepairable. Those computers are perfectly fine for 80% of users.

        And are they explicitly saying that these are new? While you know for sure it’s heavily used equipment?

          • Farid@startrek.website
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            5 hours ago

            But are you certain they aren’t new and this is a scam? I’m interested to know how you determined those are used.

            Btw, where does it say “Nuovo”? I can’t find it. Is it not on the screenshot?

    • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      It can’t be legitimate because licences for the bundled software cost more than the machines are being sold for. Also, the hardware included isn’t officially Windows 11 compatible, so selling it with Windows 11 installed is misleading the customer into thinking they’re buying something much more recent than they really are. For a decent number of people buying these, they’re likely to own something just as new already, and could get a free upgrade to Windows 11 by doing the same configuration tweaks as the sellers did.

      • Farid@startrek.website
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        8 hours ago

        Do you mean you wouldn’t consider it a scam if it has W10 preinstalled instead? How much is MS Office anyway? I know there are $5 W11 keys all over the place.

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          The $5 Windows keys have never been legitimate - either they’re just people selling keys they’ve generated with a keygen or bought with a stolen credit card, or it’s students reselling free keys they’ve got from Dreamspark or a sysadmin selling keys from their employer’s enterprise licence, which, in Microsoft’s eyes, are all piracy. An OEM copy of Windows 11 Pro is about €150 and can’t be transferred to a different motherboard, and a retail copy which can be transferred is about €300. A one-time purchase copy of Office is about €120 (it’s also available as a subscription). These machines either have at least €270 of software on them, or €0 worth of pirated software on them.

          • Farid@startrek.website
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            5 hours ago

            What does it matter that Microsoft considers it piracy? If they got the keys for cheap somewhere, it’s a real licensed version anyway and will work fine.
            I can order retro emulation handhelds from China and it will arrive with 1000s of ROMs, which is literal piracy, but that doesn’t make it a scam.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      8 hours ago

      The only time a tried to buy a laptop from Amazon it was advertised as 16Gb of RAM. What was delivered was 8G with an 8GB SD card taped to the box and Amazon refused to give me an actual refund. So i just assume any computer you buy on Amazon is fraudulent now

  • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    I got the one on the top (minus storage and ram) from a local university surplus store for $30 a few years ago. Lenovo brand but same form factor.

    • Moonrise2473@feddit.itOP
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      16 hours ago

      Windows 11 doesn’t actually need the tpm. They just check: “oh it’s Intel 6th gen, it’s trash from the last decade, sorry incompatible ewaste, buy a new one”

      Intel 6th gen + tpm chip = still “incompatible”

      Their marketing told us the lie “it needs tpm and secure boot” but they actually check if it has introduced to the market after 2018 or not

      In those units the scammer patched the install image to install without the check. Who buys this will get a surprise when in the next months the next update comes out and refuse to install (25h1?)

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        Yes it does

        Anything else isn’t supported by Microsoft. You really don’t want to screw around since you need security updates from Microsoft.

      • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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        15 hours ago

        Just block W11 updates entirely.

        https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-8/

        It’s mostly bullshit that one absolutely needs the latest Windows updates; if you use uBlock Origin in your browser and don’t download/run random .EXE/.MSI shit from the internet you’ll be fine. Keep Windows Defender up to date once a month just in case as well.

        But really the best option is to switch to Linux.

        • SSUPII@sopuli.xyz
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          15 hours ago

          There is a lot of misinformation regarding the security of older OSes.

          There are some people online fabricating videos of older Windows (moslty XP and 7) “getting hacked in 5 minutes by idling”, with one of these videos even clearly having a web browser open in the taskbar with the title “virus download”. And when it is pointed out that this doesn’t happen, they get defensive that it will if you are raw connected to the internet. But pretty much everyone owns a modern router that would block direct connections by default, and most ISPs gift one even.

          I have a Windows Vista VM that I use to play period correct and older games, even online. ClamWin is installed, OS is fully updated via LegacyUpdate and a modern browser (r3dfox) is used. There is nothing wrong with it despite hours of use, and I can keep playing with the huge nostalgia bonus of having the VMWare graphics overhead match pretty spot on the performance of a mid-range PC of the time on my hardware.

          I will never let go of the 2010s

          • Moonrise2473@feddit.itOP
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            12 hours ago

            But indeed it you expose all the ports to internet (not just connect under nat) windows XP, you gonna get infected by blaster within 5 minutes

          • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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            14 hours ago

            On the other hand, there were some exploits without user interaction even in the last few months.

          • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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            15 hours ago

            Thank you.

            If you’ve ensured your home network’s firewall is sane first, there’s no big issue.

            If you dual-boot to Windows occasionally to run that one stupid program that can’t run under Linux, and you aren’t downloading stuff willy-nilly from the wild internet, and you haven’t previously installed all sorts of dodgy call-home programs, you can still be safe running while you’re in Windows. Hell, I have a Windows 7 box that runs just fine from my home network to the internet, thankyouverymuch. I even download stuff from there gasp, but I check the files first! Imagine that.

            Most people aren’t knowledgeable enough to maintain proper security however so I guess I should just stop commenting on posts like this, as I always get flak from people stating it’s impossible to run an OS more than 2 weeks old on the Internet without being instantly hacked :p.

            But still… as others say, I totally agree – move to Linux if you can.

    • salacious_coaster@infosec.pub
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      16 hours ago

      I’ve formatted and installed W11 on dozens of computers and never had it fail once. My gaming rig is an Optiplex from 2014, runs 11 just fine.