After having laptops provided by my employer that have all had SSDs and large amounts of RAM, I don't really think I could go back to using a desktop. The portability alone keeps my hands firmly on a laptop.
If I had to get a desktop, I'd probably build my own desktop. I'd just purchase all the parts online and assemble it myself.
Unless I really needed Windows for what I would be doing I'd probably just download whatever my favorite Linux distro would be at the time and get up and running.
If you were on a serious budget, Raspberry Pi is never a bad option ;D
After having laptops provided by my employer that have all had SSDs and large amounts of RAM, I don't really think I could go back to using a desktop. The portability alone keeps my hands firmly on a laptop.
If I had to get a desktop, I'd probably build my own desktop. I'd just purchase all the parts online and assemble it myself.
Unless I really needed Windows for what I would be doing I'd probably just download whatever my favorite Linux distro would be at the time and get up and running.
If you were on a serious budget, Raspberry Pi is never a bad option ;D
I've also seen a lot of people taking their broken laptops and converting them into pretty cool machines:
youtu.be/vqeLHrJ68vg
youtu.be/c61ZwCchxn0