Refurbished or new?

To be honest, I did not know whether to put this in the Win 10 or 11 forums. Both forums would no doubt contribute something due to the knowledge of the members. I'm placing it here in Win 10 because it seems logical considering what's at issue.

I recently suggested to a friend that he buy a refurbished computer. He doesn't need any gaming features or something to handle intense processing tasks. Just good video and sound and he's good to go. I've owned 2 refurbished computers in the past and they lasted quite awhile with no hassles.

I checked Best Buy for him and found some possibilities at under the $400 mark. But each one - even with an i7 processor - fell short of the required 8th generation Intel processor necessary for a Windows 11 upgrade.

Those who frequent these forums probably already know the dialogue about this that it's just to make you buy a new computer. Needless to say, I've read many comments that are negative about all of this. But then there are comments from others where they say you can update to Windows 11 if you make some slight changes to the registry or other things like TPM or Secure Boot.

Win 10 will supposedly be supported till October 2025. Will that be the actual date or will Win 10 also get extended security like Win 7 did? I don't know the answer to that and other aspects but what it comes down to is if I tell my friend to just get the refurbished rather than a newer 'compatible' which can be twice as much or more in price if considering an extended warranty/service.

And of course, there are rumors even now about Windows 12. Since according to many reviewers, among them Michael Murchmore from PCmag.com, the changes in Win 11 are mostly visual, design, thus we can say it's more cosmetic changes than anything else. Makes me wonder if years from now people will speak of Win 11 as being as 'transitory' as Windows 8.

So, do I tell my friend to just get the refurbished EliteDesk 800 G3 Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 16GB Memory - 512GB SSD - Windows 10 pro and enjoy it till October 2025 and consider that changes could happen between now and then, or do I tell him to go for a higher price range?

Thanks

Excuse my ignorance, but since 've always been an AMD guy... isn't it possible to upgrade from a 7th gen processor into 8th gen? Or are they different sockets? I mean, he could later go for a new CPU in case he absolutely needs to upgrade to Windows 11.

Also... well, there are several methods out there to force an upgrade. Windows 11 doesn't provide that much, that is different from 10, except from the butchered Start Menu and native emulation of Android apps (and slight more RAM usage, but very slight), so, all those "not recommended" advises about forcing an upgrade are just fearmongering. Even Microsoft has provided their own ways to skip the system checks. (And there are some unofficial ones, that are proven to be more effective for offline installations).

Either way, you got some options for that PC. If he has no more money than that, go for it!

different sockets

Visit ---rufus.ie ---and read the abilities of ---rufus 4.1 ---which is the latest version.
Might save money and uncertainty.

Thank you to all who took the time to respond.

I sent the link to my friend so he could see the responses. Will post back as to his decision.

Update:

My friend decided to go the new PC route so he got a HP - Desktop - Intel Core i3 (12thgen)- 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD - Dark Black. Bought it on sale for $399 which is cool since by next week it went back up to $499. Extended his warranty (Geek Squad) and with the possible forthcoming addition of an external DVD/CD, etc. player the package comes to just around under $550-600. He bought Microsoft Word for $150 but I told him that was a waste since there are free word processors out there (LibreOffice, OpenOffice) that do the same. He cancelled MW.