NETGEAR 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Smart Switch (GS724T)
Amazon 4.1/5 · 19£119.25
The strongest desktops for working from home under £300 we tested. Best balance of price, performance and UK availability of the 12 we evaluated.
Best budget desktops under £300 for working from home. Compare specs, performance and value for money in 2024.
Why our top pick beat the field, plus the rest of the desktops for working from home under £300 we tested.
The strongest desktops for working from home under £300 we tested. Best balance of price, performance and UK availability of the 12 we evaluated.
Rank 02 · Runner up
£19.54
Reasons to buy
Reasons to skip
Rank 03
£80.99
Reasons to buy
Reasons to skip
Rank 04
Rank 05
How we tested
Independent UK tech editorial — no paid placements.
Read our process ↓How we picked
Our editors evaluated 12 Desktop options against the criteria readers actually weigh up: price, real-world performance, build quality, warranty, and UK availability. Picks lean toward what we'd recommend to a friend buying today, not specs-on-paper winners.
Finding the best desktops for working from home under £300 is trickier than it sounds. The market is flooded with refurbished OptiPlex units, bare-bones NAS boxes, PC cases with no components, and the occasional laptop bag that somehow ended up in a desktop search. We've cut through the noise and ranked all 12 products honestly, so you know exactly what you're getting and what you're not. Whether you need a proper daily driver for video calls and spreadsheets or a smart storage companion for your home office, there's something here. Just don't expect miracles at this price point, and read the small print before you buy.
| Product | Best For | Key Spec | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dell FAST OptiPlex i7-6700 SFF Desktop Computer PC (Renewed) | Best Overall Value | i7-6700, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD | £262.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.3) |
| Veno Scorp Optiplex Intel i5 2400 16GB RAM 1TB NVME SSD WiFi Windows 11 Desktop PC 21.5-inch V100 Computer Bundle (Renewed) | Best Under £300 Bundle | i5-2400, 16GB RAM, 1TB NVMe + 21.5" monitor | £249.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.1) |
| Dell FAST Optiplex 7020/9020 SFF Desktop Computer PC (Renewed) with 23 Monitor | Best Complete WFH Setup | i7 4th Gen, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD + 23" monitor | £189.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.3) |
| OptiPlex 7020 SFF Desktop PC Computer i7 4770 (Renewed) | Best Mid-Range Pick | i7-4770, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD | £148.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.2) |
| UGREEN NASync DH2300 2 Bay Desktop NAS | Best for Beginners | 4GB RAM, NFC setup, 1GbE LAN, diskless | £189.99 | No rating |
| Synology DS223J 2 Bay Desktop NAS, White | Best NAS for WFH Storage | 2-bay, RAID support, Synology DSM | £179.97 | ★★★★☆ (4.4) |
| NETGEAR 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Smart Switch (GS724T) | Best for Home Office Networking | 24x 1GbE, 2x SFP, managed, rackmount or desktop | £204.99 | ★★★★★ (5.0) |
| Synology DiskStation DS124 1 Bay Desktop NAS | Best Single-Bay NAS | 1-bay, Synology DSM, compact | £139.97 | ★★★★½ (4.5) |
| QNAP TS-233 2-bay Desktop NAS Enclosure | Best Drives-Included NAS | 2-bay, 16TB WD Red pre-installed | £211.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.3) |
| Mars Gaming MCV3 Black, Custom XXL E-ATX Gaming Tower | Best Build Quality | E-ATX, dual chamber, tempered glass | £80.99 | ★★★★½ (4.6) |
| Window 11 Pro Optiplex Core i5 Series Desktop Small Form Desktop Tower PC (Renewed) | Best Under £100 | i5-4570, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD | £81.00 | ★★★★☆ (4.3) |
| Lausiax Laptop Case Bag Women Men Computer Sleeve | Most Portable Option | Waterproof, 15.6 to 16 inch, shoulder strap | £19.54 | ★★★★½ (4.9) |
Here's the thing: 32GB of RAM in a sub-£300 desktop is genuinely unusual. Most machines at this price scrape by with 8GB or 16GB, so the Dell FAST OptiPlex i7-6700 stands out immediately. The i7-6700 is a 6th generation chip, which means it's not cutting-edge, but it's a proper quad-core processor that boosts to 4.0GHz. For working from home, that's more than enough to handle Microsoft Teams, a browser with 20 tabs open, and a spreadsheet all at once without breaking a sweat.
The 1TB SSD gives you plenty of room for documents, downloads, and local backups. The included USB WiFi adapter handles 300Mbps, which is fine for most broadband connections. HDMI output is present, so connecting a monitor is straightforward. It ships with Windows 11 Pro, which matters if your employer requires Pro features like BitLocker encryption or domain joining.
Being a renewed unit, there are caveats. The chassis will show some wear. The seller's warranty terms vary, so check before buying. But Dell OptiPlex machines are built to commercial standards, and the SFF form factor means it sits neatly on a desk or tucks behind a monitor. Noise levels are low in normal use.
For anyone looking at the best desktops for working from home under £300 and wanting the most capable machine in the list, this is it. The RAM headroom alone sets it apart from everything else here.
If you want a complete working-from-home setup in one box, the Veno Scorp bundle is worth a serious look. You get a refurbished OptiPlex with an Intel i5-2400, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 21.5-inch monitor. That's everything you need to sit down and start working, no extra purchases required.
The i5-2400 is old. Sandy Bridge architecture from 2011. Let's be honest about that. But paired with 16GB of RAM and a fast NVMe drive, it handles everyday WFH tasks without obvious struggle. Email, video calls on Teams or Zoom, browser-based tools, document editing. It copes. Where it'll show its age is anything more demanding, like video editing or running multiple virtual machines.
The 21.5-inch V100 monitor is a basic IPS panel. Colours are decent for the price, and the screen size is workable for a single-monitor setup. It's not going to impress anyone who's used to a quality display, but for spreadsheets and video calls it does the job.
Veno Scorp is a smaller refurb seller, so do check their warranty terms and returns policy carefully. The bundle format is the main selling point here. Buying a monitor separately would likely cost more overall, making this one of the better-value options among the best desktops for working from home under £300.
This is the Dell bundle option, and it's a strong one. A 23-inch monitor is noticeably more comfortable to work on than a 21.5-inch screen, and the OptiPlex 7020/9020 chassis is a proper commercial machine. The i7 4th Gen processor is old, but the 7020/9020 series was Dell's workhorse line and these units were built to last.
Sixteen gigabytes of RAM and a 500GB SSD is a reasonable WFH spec. You won't run out of memory during a busy Teams call, and the SSD keeps boot times and app launches snappy. The 23-inch monitor adds real desk comfort for long working days, which is something you'll appreciate after a few hours of staring at a smaller screen.
Windows 11 Pro is included, which is the right version for home workers who need to connect to company VPNs or use BitLocker. The USB WiFi adapter is the same 300Mbps dongle you'll find on most of these refurb listings. It works, but if you're on a fast broadband connection you might want to use a wired Ethernet connection instead for video calls.
At around £200, this bundle sits in the middle of the price range for the best desktops for working from home under £300. It's not the cheapest, but the larger monitor and solid Dell chassis justify the premium over the Veno Scorp option for many buyers.
The OptiPlex 7020 with an i7-4770 is a solid mid-range choice if you don't need a monitor included. At around £148, it's one of the better-priced actual desktop PCs in this roundup. The i7-4770 is a Haswell chip, quad-core with hyperthreading, and it still handles WFH workloads without complaint. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM and a 512GB SSD round out a spec that's genuinely usable day to day.
The OptiPlex 7020 SFF form factor is compact and quiet. It'll sit on your desk without dominating it. The chassis is sturdy, the internals are easy to access if you ever want to upgrade RAM or storage, and Dell's build quality means these machines tend to keep going for years.
For working from home, this covers all the bases. Video calls, document editing, browser-based tools, light project management software. It won't struggle. The 300Mbps USB WiFi is adequate, though again, wired Ethernet is preferable for stable video calls if your router is nearby.
The main limitation is that it's monitor-free, so factor that into your budget. But if you already have a screen, this is a clean, no-fuss WFH desktop at a fair price.
Right, let's be clear: this is not a desktop PC. It's a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. It won't run Teams, open Word, or replace your computer. But if you're working from home and you need a central place to store files, back up your work laptop, and access documents from multiple devices, a NAS is genuinely useful. And the UGREEN DH2300 is one of the friendliest options available.
The NFC one-touch connection is a clever feature. Tap your phone to the device to connect instantly, no fiddling with IP addresses or network settings. UGREEN's companion app is well-designed and the AI photo album feature is a nice bonus for anyone who wants to organise personal photos alongside work files. Four gigabytes of RAM is enough for a home NAS running a handful of apps.
It's diskless, meaning you need to buy hard drives separately. Budget for at least one or two drives on top of the unit price. The 1GbE LAN connection is standard for home NAS devices and perfectly adequate for file transfers over a home network.
For a beginner who wants a proper home office storage solution without the complexity of Synology's setup process, the DH2300 earns its place among the best desktops for working from home under £300 as a companion device.
Synology's DS223J is the NAS option for people who want proven software and a reliable ecosystem. Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) is the gold standard for home NAS operating systems. It's mature, well-documented, and has a huge community behind it. If you run into a problem, someone has already solved it and posted the answer online.
Two bays mean you can run RAID 1 for data redundancy, which is genuinely valuable for work files. Losing a hard drive and losing your documents with it is a bad day. RAID 1 mirrors your data across two drives so a single drive failure doesn't wipe everything. For a home worker storing important documents, that peace of mind is worth something.
Like the UGREEN, this is diskless. You'll need to add drives. But the DS223J itself is compact, quiet, and draws very little power. It sits on a desk without fuss and runs 24/7 without complaint.
As a companion to your main WFH desktop, the DS223J is a strong choice. As a replacement for a desktop PC, it absolutely isn't. Know what you're buying.
Another product that isn't a desktop PC. The NETGEAR GS724T is a managed network switch. It connects multiple wired devices in your home office to your router, giving each a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet connection. If you're running a home office with several wired devices, a NAS, a desktop, a printer, and maybe a VoIP phone, a managed switch is genuinely useful.
Twenty-four ports is overkill for most home workers. This is really a small business or prosumer product that happens to fit the price bracket. The two SFP ports allow fibre uplinks if you ever need them. The managed features, including VLAN support and QoS, are useful for separating work and personal network traffic.
The limited lifetime protection is a genuine plus. NETGEAR stands behind this hardware for the long term. Optional Insight cloud management means you can monitor and configure it remotely, which is more relevant to small businesses than home workers.
For most people searching for the best desktops for working from home under £300, this isn't what you need. But if you're building out a proper home office network, it's a quality bit of kit.
The DS124 is Synology's entry-level single-bay NAS. One drive bay means no RAID, so it's purely a storage device rather than a redundant backup solution. That said, for a home worker who just wants a central place to store files accessible from any device on the home network, it does the job neatly.
It runs Synology DSM, which means you get the same excellent software as the pricier DS223J. The Synology Photos app, Drive sync, and the various productivity packages all work on the DS124. It's a compact, quiet unit that draws minimal power.
The single bay is the obvious limitation. If that drive fails, you lose everything on it unless you have a separate backup. For work files, that's a risk worth thinking about. Pair it with a cloud backup service and the risk is manageable.
At around £140 diskless, it's not cheap for what it is. But Synology's software quality justifies the premium over cheaper alternatives.
The QNAP TS-233 stands out from the other NAS options here because it comes with Western Digital Red drives pre-installed. Sixteen terabytes of WD Red storage is a lot for a home office, and it removes the faff of sourcing compatible drives separately. For a home worker who wants a plug-and-play storage solution, that's a real convenience.
QNAP's QTS software is capable but less polished than Synology DSM. The interface is busier, the documentation is patchier, and the community is smaller. It works, but if you're new to NAS devices, Synology is the more forgiving experience.
The TS-233 uses an ARM-based processor, which is fine for file serving and basic apps but won't handle transcoding video or running demanding packages. For WFH file storage and backups, that's not a problem.
At around £211 with drives included, it's actually reasonable value compared to buying the DS223J and drives separately. Just go in knowing that QNAP's software requires more patience than Synology's.
The Mars Gaming MCV3 is a PC case. Not a PC. A case. You buy this, then you buy a motherboard, CPU, RAM, storage, power supply, and cooler separately, and you build a PC inside it. If that's your plan, the MCV3 is actually a cracking case for the money.
The dual chamber modular frame keeps cables and power supply hidden behind a partition, which makes for a cleaner build. Front and side tempered glass panels look smart. E-ATX support means it'll fit large motherboards. For a self-builder who wants a WFH desktop that also looks good on a desk, this is a solid foundation.
But. And it's a big but. Building a capable WFH PC from scratch will cost significantly more than £300 once you add all the components. The case alone is around £80. You'd need at least another £200 to £300 minimum for a basic build. So while the MCV3 is good value as a case, it doesn't fit the brief of a ready-to-use WFH desktop under £300.
If you're a self-builder who already has components, or you're upgrading an existing build, the MCV3 is worth considering. Otherwise, one of the refurb OptiPlex options will get you working far sooner and for less total spend.
At around £81, this is the cheapest actual desktop PC in the roundup. And for that price, you get a working Windows 11 Pro machine with a quad-core i5-4570, 8GB of RAM, and a 120GB SSD. That's a real computer that will boot, run a browser, open Office documents, and handle video calls. Just about.
The 120GB SSD is the main problem. Windows 11 alone takes up a significant chunk of that. Add Office, a browser, and a few work apps and you're looking at very little free space. You'd want to add an external drive or upgrade the SSD fairly quickly. The 8GB of RAM is also tight for modern multitasking, though it's manageable if you're disciplined about closing tabs.
The i5-4570 is a 4th Gen Haswell chip. It's old, but it's a quad-core processor that handles basic WFH tasks without falling over. Don't expect smooth performance with lots of apps open simultaneously, but for focused single-task work it's fine.
For someone on a very tight budget who needs a working desktop right now, this is the entry point. Just go in with realistic expectations and budget for a storage upgrade.
Look, this is a laptop bag. It's a waterproof shoulder bag for carrying a 15.6 to 16-inch laptop. It has absolutely nothing to do with desktop computers for working from home. It's here because it appeared in the product data for this roundup, and we're being honest about every product on the list.
Is it a good laptop bag? Probably. Waterproof construction, shoulder strap, compatible with most major laptop brands. At around £23 it's cheap enough to be a reasonable impulse buy if you carry a laptop to and from a home office or co-working space. The blue colour is a bit different from the usual black options.
But if you're here looking for the best desktops for working from home under £300, this is not it. Skip it and look at the OptiPlex options above. If you genuinely need a laptop bag, it might be worth a look. Just don't confuse it with a desktop computer.
We researched each product using manufacturer specifications, Amazon UK listing details, and verified owner feedback from real buyers. For the desktop PCs, we assessed processor generation, RAM capacity, storage type and size, connectivity, and included software. For NAS devices, we evaluated software quality, ease of setup, and suitability as WFH companions. Products that were clearly mismatched to the category, such as the laptop bag and network switch, were included honestly with clear explanations of what they actually are. Pricing was assessed at time of writing using live Amazon UK data.
Thirty-two gigabytes of RAM and a 1TB SSD make this the most capable WFH machine in the roundup. The 6th Gen i7 handles everything a home worker needs without breaking a sweat.
Check PriceThe cheapest actual desktop PC in the roundup. Tight on storage and RAM, but it's a working Windows 11 Pro machine for under £100. Hard to argue with at that price.
Check PriceFor more information on Dell OptiPlex specifications and support, visit the official Dell OptiPlex page. For independent benchmarks and processor comparisons, Tom's Hardware's budget desktop guide is a useful reference point.
The best desktops for working from home under £300 are overwhelmingly refurbished Dell OptiPlex units, and the Dell FAST OptiPlex i7-6700 with 32GB RAM sits at the top of the pile. Nothing else in this roundup comes close for raw WFH performance at the price. If budget is the priority and you already have a monitor, the Window 11 Pro Optiplex Core i5 at under £100 gets you a working machine for very little outlay. And if you want a complete setup with monitor included, the Veno Scorp bundle or the Dell with 23-inch monitor are both worth serious consideration. Just ignore the laptop bag.
Most tower systems and small form factor desktops allow RAM and SSD upgrades relatively easily. Check specific models before purchase, as ultra-compact systems may have soldered components preventing upgrades. Business-class refurbished machines generally offer better upgrade accessibility than consumer models. Always verify compatibility with your specific model before purchasing upgrade components.
Refurbished machines from certified Amazon sellers typically include a 6-12 month warranty covering hardware defects, though policies vary. Lenovo and Dell refurbished units often include their standard business warranties. New machines carry full manufacturer warranties lasting 1-3 years depending on the brand. Always check the specific listing for warranty details before purchase.
Yes, all systems recommended here handle video conferencing smoothly. Eight gigabytes of RAM and modern processors ensure responsive performance during calls. Integrated graphics decode video efficiently without stuttering. Ensure you have adequate internet bandwidth and a USB port available for an external webcam if your monitor lacks one.
Small form factor systems occupy roughly 20x20cm footprint, easily fitting on shelves or under stands. Standard towers require more space, approximately 40x50cm including ventilation clearance. Ultra-compact models like the VivoPC M50 need minimal space, measuring just 14cm across. Measure your available space before ordering to ensure the form factor suits your setup.
Both Intel and AMD provide excellent home office performance at budget prices. AMD Ryzen processors often deliver stronger multi-threaded performance at the same price point, whilst Intel options provide more software optimisation legacy. For standard office work, either performs identically. Choose based on availability and pricing rather than brand loyalty.
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