You May Still Get a PC With Old Price

[marcus]

From https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/microsoft-just-found-another-way-040219117.html
Title : Microsoft just found another way to make PCs more expensive, because apparently they weren’t pricey enough
By Rachit Agarwal , August 2026

... ASUS (the world's 5th largest PC supplier) shared an especially eye-opening number .. Compared to the 4th quarter of last year, some of its products are now selling for almost 30% more (mostly due to memory hike)...

... Last July Windows' price hikes were between 7% and 10% (faster PCs pays more), a noticeably bigger jump ...

 

[marcus]

I normally buy used fan-less mini PCs (with less than 10 W Intel processors) because :
a) they work as new (except that the OS doesn't comes automatically due to their depleted coin battery) ;
b) they are very reliable ;
c) I pay around 50% of their original price (usually released around 5 years ago when the prices were lower & stable) ;
d) I install newer free Linux OS on them ;
e) these lower cost PCs are more than capable of doing all usual functions that an average retired expat needs .

Notes :
1. The last I bought recently : ECS Liva Mini PC Intel N3350 (TDP 6W) , 8 GB RAM & 128 GB , Rp770k
2. Not suggested for playing intensive video processing games

 

[jstar]

Tablets like an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab completely meet our needs (together with the smartphones of course). Unlike a couple of years ago, the banking and tax* software (e.g. Coretax) work well even for PDF with digital signatures, as long as desktop mode is selected.

Notes:
The only PC’s here are the gaming laptops of the son. Which are real beasts.
In M2 (Mangga Dua) many of the Razer, ACER, Asus, …. are priced in USD btw.

* in the tax office they have PC’s and support for those who can’t make it work at home

 

[marcus]

Tablets like an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab completely meet our needs (together with the smartphones of course)...

I have/had all these portables (but not Apple , Samsung phones only) , but around 98% of the time I use only the desktop PC . I only use the portables when I cannot do the thing with the PC (like getting discounts at online shopping or banks that operate online only through Android's & Apple iOS's app) .
My reasons :
a) 26 years using cheap PCs , never had a single failure , except multiple failures of mouses (US$1) & keyboards (US$4) , and 1 failure of the display's external power converter) . Anyway I have backups of everything at home ;
b) battery is not a concern in a desktop PC (its coin battery is not essential) ;
c) to me nothing can replace a mouse with all its functions ;
d) I can choose (anytime) from a lot of free updated Linux OS .

 

[Jaime C]

I’ve been using my ipad 98% of the time for almost 10 years. My handphone 1.9%.
And my wife’s laptop .01%. Given my chronic lower back pain, just sitting up for more than an hour is pretty painful.

 

[pantaiema]

I normally buy used fan-less mini PCs (with less than 10 W Intel processors) because :
a) they work as new (except that the OS doesn't comes automatically due to their depleted coin battery) ;
b) they are very reliable ;
c) I pay around 50% of their original price (usually released around 5 years ago when the prices were lower & stable) ;
d) I install newer free Linux OS on them ;
e) these lower cost PCs are more than capable of doing all usual functions that an average retired expat needs .

Notes :
1. The last I bought recently : ECS Liva Mini PC Intel N3350 (TDP 6W) , 8 GB RAM & 128 GB , Rp770k
2. Not suggested for playing intensive video processing games

For those who do not want Lynux/Ubuntu to be installed in old PC.
You could get Windows 11 product key for less than US$10.
You could also get the MS office product key for less than US20.

And it is genuine, not the pirated version which might contain a malware. Keep in mind all you need to do is to download these softwares from Microsoft official site and input the Product key when asked during the installation.

If you could get an old powerful Workstation PC, or Gaming PC half price (or much less), even without on OS, it is really worthy as working from these sort of PCs especially for multi tasking are miles better and faster than working on Laptop or tab of the same price range.

 

[marcus]

....
c) I pay around 50% of their original price (usually released around 5 years ago when the prices were lower & stable) ;
....
The last I bought recently : ECS Liva Mini PC Intel N3350 (TDP 6W) , 8 GB RAM & 128 GB , Rp770k ...

Notes :
i. the ECS mini PC I bought was released 9 years ago , a lot more than 5 years ;
ii. Google AI says its new price was around Rp3 million , so I paid around only 26% of that for this used one (but I spent a lot of time to find it online) .

For those who do not want Lynux/Ubuntu to be installed in old PC.

Nowadays not many people choose Linux Ubuntu . At https://distrowatch.com/ list , it is only the 9th most popular Linux OS .

You could get Windows 11 product key for less than US$10.

Why don't you explain how to get it ?

---------------------------------

From https://www.techpowerup.com/350557/windows-11-pro-has-dropped-to-just-usd-10-through-july-19 , 18 July 2026 , Title : Windows 11 Pro Has Dropped to Just $10 Through July 19

In other words you had only 1 or 2 days to get it .

---------------------

From https://www.pcworld.com/article/397575/how-to-get-windows-11-cheap-or-even-for-free.html , Oct 2025

Buy a discounted OEM Windows 11 license : Around $60–$160

Buy a very cheap key from a third-party marketplace (these keys have limited support, may come from gray-market or volume-licensing channels, and occasionally can stop working later) : Often under US$30

If you could get an old powerful Workstation PC, or Gaming PC half price (or much less), even without on OS, it is really worthy

Any PC does basic things , not everybody needs a "powerful" PC . I myself always did buy the "weaker" ones , and all were worth .

Probably all used PCs have already a OS installed . Very few new PCs are sold without OS (the ECS Liva being one of them) .

From what I saw , the Indonesian market for old computers & phones is very big .
In my view buying used phones , laptops and tablets is risky due to the battery . But old desktop PCs are mostly worth buying , in my view .