question Current Best Value

[LiamC]

Spend another $100 on an SSD and you'll have a machine that's essentially indistinguishable from a brand new system.

Speaking of value: I can't believe that, now that we have sub-$100 240GB SSDs, none of them are making their way into modest consumer hardware. A trip to the usual retail suspects shows that the only thing with a 120GB+ SSD and price tag under $850 is the cheapest Surface Pro 3. Probably some kind of conspiracy or something.

And now we are getting into the whole upgrade conundrum. My main rig is an i7 2600K with a mild (4.0 GHz) overclock. I have no reason to upgrade it. An 1150 pin system might use a little less power, but not a whole lot. And it won't be a whole lot faster. Getting on towards three years old.

 

[ddrueding]

There is a seller on Amazon called "Computer Upgrade King" that sells Lenovo units with the RAM and CPU maxed, SSD swapped in, and Win 7 Pro downgrade already applied. Also prime eligible on some units.

I've bought quite a few of these without complaints. 5 more sitting downstairs right now.