The journal.
Longer pieces on what we build, how we build it, and the decisions that keep changing our mind. Written by the people on the workshop floor, published when we have something to say.
Why 87,000 UK buyers chose Birmingham AV
Nine years, 87,000 units shipped, 24,756 buyer feedbacks at 98.9% positive. Here is what that volume actually buys you when you order a refurbished PC in 2026.
What a 98.9% feedback score across 24,756 reviews actually means
A statistical look at what 98.9% positive across nearly 25,000 UK buyers really tells you about defect rates, dispatch reliability, and long-term risk.
Kitting out a small business: 10 refurbished workstations under £5,000
Ten proper desktops for a growing UK office, all in for less than the price of two new HP business towers, with the fleet maths and warranty logic behind the number.
SFF, Micro and Tiny: the three business PC form factors explained
A specialist's guide to the three business desktop shapes on the UK refurbished market, with the trade offs on cooling, upgrade paths and real world use cases.
RTX 5070 vs RTX 5070 Ti: gaming benchmarks and the £150 question
Two cards, one price gap, one honest question. Where does the extra £150 for the Ti stop paying you back in frames, and where does it earn its keep.
NVIDIA RTX 5060 vs RTX 5060 Ti: which one for 1080p gaming in 2026?
The 5060 Ti has more VRAM and more shaders, but at 1080p high most players will never see the extra frames. Here is the honest split by game, budget, and future headroom.
NVMe vs SATA SSD explained: when the upgrade actually matters
NVMe is roughly six times faster than SATA on paper, but the felt difference depends entirely on what you actually do with the machine. Here is where it matters and where it does not.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 refurbished: worth £500 or worth avoiding?
The Surface Laptop 5 is a beautifully built machine with real weaknesses. Here is when a refurb makes sense and when it does not.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny: the sleeper hit of home office PCs
The 1 litre ThinkCentre M900 Tiny keeps outperforming its £150 price band in 2026. Here is why a used i7 6700T in this chassis is still the best pound per inch buy for a home office.
Intel Core i5 vs Core i7 in 2026: which your use case actually needs
The honest breakdown of i5 versus i7 across five generations, so you spend on the tier your workload will actually feel.
Homelab starter guide: pick your first refurbished server class PC
The 2026 homelab community has quietly moved past Raspberry Pi clusters. Here is how a used Lenovo Tiny or HP EliteDesk Mini earns its place as the sensible first node.
Getac Toughbook explained: when a rugged laptop is worth it
MIL-STD-810H, IP65, sunlight readable screens and drop ratings sound like marketing until a laptop dies on a wet job site. Here is when a Getac earns its price and when it does not.
Dell OptiPlex Micro buyer guide: the office workhorse decoded
A specialist walkthrough of the Dell OptiPlex 3070, 5070, 7070, 3080 and 7080 Micro, covering chassis, chip generations and real refurbished pricing.
Buying refurbished on eBay: why seller reputation is the whole game
A refurbished PC is only as good as the person who tested it. Here is how to read a seller's feedback like a pro before you spend a penny.
Best streaming PC for Twitch OBS at 1080p60 in 2026
Streaming to Twitch at 1080p60 is a solved problem in 2026 if you pick the right encoder and leave real CPU headroom for the game. Here is the specialist take.
Best refurbished PC for video editing under £700 in 2026 (Premiere and DaVinci)
A tested Intel i7 refurbished desktop with RTX 4060 12GB, 32GB RAM and NVMe scratch that handles 4K timelines in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve without breaking £700.
Best refurbished mini PC for a home server or Plex box in 2026
A quiet 1L box that idles under 10W and transcodes 4K without breaking a sweat. Here is how the Lenovo Tiny, HP EliteDesk Mini and Dell OptiPlex Micro compare, and which one earns the shelf space.
Best 4K gaming PC under £1200 in the UK for 2026
Native 4K 60 on a £1200 budget is real in 2026, provided you pick the right CPU and GPU pairing and stop chasing ultra presets in every title. Here is the specialist take.
Behind the scenes of a Birmingham AV custom build
A single custom build passes through six hands and eleven checkpoints before it leaves Bromsgrove. Here is what actually happens on the bench.
AMD Ryzen 7800X3D gaming PC guide: the 3D V-Cache advantage
Why AMD's cache stacked Ryzen 7 7800X3D still tops the gaming CPU charts in 2026, and the ASROCK build that gets the most out of it.
Windows 11 on old hardware: is the upgrade worth it in 2026?
Windows 10 lost security patches in October 2025. If your machine is a 6th to 10th gen Intel box, here is the honest answer on whether to force Windows 11 or replace the hardware.
Why UK PC builders are back: the Birmingham AV story
Post 2020, the UK pre-built PC scene stopped apologising for itself. Here is what changed, and how a Bromsgrove workshop turned 87,000 sales into a benchmark for the sector.
What refurbished actually means: a buyer checklist
Refurbished is a spectrum, not a label. Here is what separates a properly reconditioned PC from a wiped box with a fresh sticker, and how to tell the difference before you pay.
Is a Ryzen 5700X still worth it in 2026?
Four years after launch, the Ryzen 7 5700X is still the value pick for 1080p and 1440p gaming. Here is where it wins, where it does not, and the exact build we ship for it.
RTX 5070 Ti explained: who actually needs 16GB VRAM?
A specialist walkthrough of the RTX 5070 Ti spec sheet, DLSS 4 ray reconstruction, and the real 1440p games that push past 12GB in 2026.
Refurbished versus new laptop: the true five year cost of ownership
A £700 new laptop and a £180 refurbished ThinkPad look worlds apart on day one. Priced over five years, including repairs and resale, the gap looks very different.
Refurbished Dell Latitude versus HP EliteBook: head to head
Two families dominate the UK refurbished business laptop market. Here is how the Dell Latitude 5000 and 7000 compare with the HP EliteBook 840 and 850 on the things that actually matter.
Intel i7 14th gen SFF desktops: the home office buyer guide
A specialist's guide to picking an Intel Core i7 14th gen small form factor desktop for a UK home office, with real numbers and a like for like comparison against Dell and Lenovo at retail.
How to spot a scam refurbished laptop listing
Six warning signs a refurbished laptop listing is a scam, three green flags that mean it is not, and the questions any honest seller will answer before payment.
The gaming PC bottleneck problem: balancing CPU and GPU in 2026
A practical guide to matching processor and graphics card for real frame rates at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, with three tested pairings that avoid wasted spend.
DDR4 versus DDR5 in 2026: do you actually need the upgrade?
DDR5 wins the benchmark charts, but the FPS gap at 1440p is smaller than the price gap. Here is when a DDR4 platform still makes sense in 2026, and when it does not.
Custom PC versus pre-built: when each option makes sense in 2026
The custom build discount cracked in 2025, and the numbers now favour tested pre-builts for most UK buyers. Here is when a self-build still wins.
Best refurbished HP EliteBook for students under £200
A refurbished HP EliteBook 840 or 850 at £200 gives a student the keyboard, battery and build quality that a new £400 consumer laptop cannot match. Here is how to pick the right one.
Best budget gaming PC under £500 in the UK for 2026
Sub £500 is still a legitimate 1080p gaming budget in 2026, but only if you pick the right GPU and skip the marketing traps. Here is the honest specialist take.
Twelve month warranty versus no warranty refurb: the real math
Refurbished PCs and laptops fail at predictable rates in year one. Work out whether a 12 month warranty pays for itself, or whether the no warranty listing is the smarter buy.
What "refurbished" actually means here
Every refurbished unit passes the same twenty-four-hour burn-in as a new build and carries the same warranty. A short account of what the word means on our workshop floor, and why we are not apologetic about it.
How to pick a refurbished laptop in 2026
A practical walk through what refurbished means, what grades matter, and what to insist on in a warranty. By the end of this piece you should be able to judge a listing in under two minutes.