When I last purchased a computer for my shack, I had three or four goals in mind:
- Powerful enough to run amateur radio apps like fldigi and N1MM logging software.
- Portable enough so that we could use it during Field Day and other portable operating events.
Cheapinexpensive.
With those goals in mind, I chose an HP 2000 laptop. On sale at Best Buy, it cost about $250.
Unfortunately, I went a little too cheap. While it mostly satisfied my requirements, I found its performance to be lacking. So much so that I found that programs such as JS8CALL (a derivative of WSJT-X, which supports the FT8 mode) didn’t really run quite right unless they were the only program open.
After suffering through this kind of thing for a year or so, I decided it was time for a new shack computer. The first thing I did was ask on reddit what they all were using for a shack computer. I got a lot of great answers, but the one that caught my eye was the suggestion to purchase a refurbished HP elite 8000 with an Intel Core 2 Duo 3 GHz processor.
I found one on Amazon for $130. It included 8GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a DVD player, and Windows 10 Professional. It also came with a mouse and keyboard. About a week later, it appeared on my doorstep.
I’ve been very pleasantly surprised with this purchase. So much so, I wish I’d bought one a long time ago. First of all, it’s much faster than the laptop. For example, Windows 7 updates on the laptop could take up to 15 minutes to complete. Windows 10 updates on this computer take a tenth of the time or less. I’m also able to run JS8CALL and the web browser with computer power to spare.
Another nice thing about this computer is that it has ten USB ports. To connect all the devices that I wanted to connect to the laptop—including a wireless mouse adapter, a Bluetooth adapter, my keyer, and the IC-7300—I had to hand a port extender on one of the laptop’s USB ports. On this computer, I don’t need such a kludgey solution. All of my devices plug right in to the computer.
I was also a bit worried about running Windows 10. I’ve read numerous accounts of ham radio apps not running well on Windows 10. I’m happy to say, though, that I haven’t had a single glitch. I’ve installed N3FJP logging software, N1MM logging software, and JS8CALL, and they all seem to work great.
I thought I’d hit a snag when I couldn’t get the computer to talk to the IC-7300, but then I remembered that I had to download the driver from ICOM. Ten minutes later, I had the driver installed and the rig talking to the logging program.
In the future, I plan to install antenna modelling software, SDR software and try remotely controlling the station. I can only imagine that this computer will work much better for those applications than the laptop.
All in all, this has worked out quite well for me. The computer was inexpensive, and it works much better than the laptop. As I said earlier, I should have done this a long time ago.
Barry Brown says
I have an 8300 that I put an SSD in, and it flies running Windows 7. I got it on ebay for around $100 with a decent graphics card a couple of years ago, and it’s one of the best computers I’ve ever had!
Dan KB6NU says
I should consider putting an SSD into mine.
John says
Definitely put an SSD in. I would recommend a Samsung brand- they offer a free migration tool that will clone your existing hard drive to the SSD so you will not have to reinstall the OS and applications. Connect the new SSD as a secondary drive, migrate your existing hard drive data over, the hook up the SSD in place of the hard drive. Boot it up and you’re done. I’ve done this on multiple laptops and desktops successfully. Samsung has a very good reputation for SSD drives.
Dan KB6NU says
Wow. They’re cheaper than I thought. Amazon is selling a 500 GB Samsung SSD for only $83.
John says
If you choose to go with a Samsung, look for the “Samsung Data Migration Software for Consumers” on their site. I just put an 860 in my HP laptop over Christmas. Huge improvement in boot and response times when opening programs. Windows 10’s Superfetch updates were horrible with the hard drive, making the system sluggish when waking from hibernation (I don’t shut down, I hibernate, only rebooting when Windows wants to update). Now I don’t see that sluggish response. 73s
Dave New, N8SBE says
Be aware that HP desktops went through a period of awful power supply issues. Like, they would just quit and wouldn’t boot. I have no idea what era your machine is from, but having a spare power supply might not hurt.
On the other hand, my work place threw out all the Dell machines a few years ago, and switched over exclusively to HP, all 10,000+ machines. So far, I’ve had very little problems with the now-3-yr-old laptop I’ve been using, a ProBook. It’s about to get replaced tomorrow (because the lease is up) with a newer HP ProBook.
I’ve also picked up a couple of used HP ProBooks at hamfests for my wife’s use. One had Windows 7 and the other Windows 10. They both work fine. These are all Core I5 machines, by the way.
I have an old Sony Vaio running Windows 7 as my shack machine. It was my former Photoshop machine and is now almost 10 years old. Sony has stated they will not support Windows 10 on this machine, and I did try the update and it failed, so I guess I’m stuck. Microsoft is sun-downing Windows 7 early next year, so I’ll have to replace it with something. I really like the laptop form factor, so I don’t think a desktop is in my future, though. I use both the laptop and an external display so I can run N1MM or HRD along with things like a web browser and/or WSJT-X. One of the unique things about the Sony was that it had a firewire port, which was important in the day, much less so, now.
Neal says
I bought a pair of HP refurbs for $200 each. One stayed loaded with Windows and the other reloaded with Linux. Swapped the HDs out for SSDs which make a big gain in performance. Eventually I upgraded the graphics as well. Works very nicely.