Looking at replacing an old laptop. This will be used primarily for checking emails, surfing the internet, etc. I plan on having Office 360 or something similar to do letters, etc. but no real heavy-duty use. Looking for something around the $500 range</font id=“red”>.
For you computer nerds (experts), I had a couple of questions.
Wireless -I know ac is the newest wireless technology. Should I stay
away from anything that is not ac?
Hard Drive - Any real reason to go SSD vs. SATA? And, if I went SSD,
is a 256 GB HD big enough or will I regret getting one
that small? Should I just stick with a SATA and go big?
Optical Drive - I notice quite a few laptops no longer have DVD
drives. Is this a big deal? Need one or not?
RAM - I know more is better. Is 4 too little or should I at least go 6 GB?
I’m looking at ASUS, Lenovo and Dell. Any constructive input on these brands or on any you recommend would be appreciated.
We just got a windows surface pro 4 256gb ssd. We absolutely love it. It is lightening fast, lightweight, compact, touch screen is amazing.
We bought directly from Microsoft store online. Added a wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, and tumi sp? case. Price was right at $1700 shipped to house.
I know this piece of equipment is way more than we need for media and emails etc. but we use it for everything including traveling, some work, emails, editing, our son plays games, streaming, you name it, it gets used for it.
If you went this route, my only suggestion is you get a larger monitor for day to day use around the house emails etc.
Disclaimer, I am not a computer geek by any means. I just tend to believe you get what you pay for. I know there are comparable machines out there for a whole lot less money but I don’t know what I am doing when it comes to shopping for such things so I just bought what most people told me was top of the line.
“Endeavor to Persevere.
Give,Give… Never Take.”
EC
I’ve carried a Dell laptops for work for the past 2 decades. Very robust machines and hold up well to lots of abuse.
Solid state drives are lightning fast and you never have to worry about a drive motor or tracking head failure.
256 gb should be plenty unless you plan on downloading and storing a lifetime supply of videos
I haven’t had a disc drive in my last 3 laptops and haven’t missed it once. Anything I want to transfer goes to a geek stick or memory card.
I use Apple computers; so much easier to use than something running windows. Windows just sucks out loud, IMHO. No re boots, crashes, etc. User interface is so much better.
Just my preference, I’ve used windows boxes in the past, hope I never see another one.
Apple is double or triple the cost for inferior hardware. Never understood why Apple people complain about interface. In my opinion Windows is easy to use and conceptually the same as Macs. Same buttons or key bindings different location. Why buy a $1500 Mac to last you 6 years when you can get a $500 PC every 3 years and each PC will have significantly better hardware. The 2nd and 3rd PC will be light-years ahead of the old Mac.
I have a 3-4 year old Toshiba with an i3 processor and have had ZERO issues with it. It’s a beast and gets used A LOT. Got it for $425 with a case, mouse, and flash drive at Best Buy.
It’s probably hard to find anything with less than 6gb ram. 6gb+ is best nowadays. SSD will likely be 300+ outside your price range. It’s probably about time for most people to buy a USB optical drive since they are getting phased out of laptops. I wouldn’t worry about if your laptops has one or not.
I’ve liked Dell and Toshiba. Both Lenovos I’ve had (work an school) sucked.
quote:I thought you just bought a new one like 6 months ago?
Yes, I did buy a laptop. It wasn’t for ME. Occasionally I like to buy myself something.
Not remotely interested in a Mac, way more money than I want to spend and I work with 2 guys that have been through 4 laptops between them. Both have sworn off Apple at this point. I’ll take a look at Chromebooks as I haven’t up to this point.
Thanks for all of the input (except you Pea).
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”, but really, who cares?
I like Toshiba Laptops, I’ve owned/bought 5 of them, they all worked up till I got rid of the older ones. Still have and run 3, the warranty service is great. I dropped one and ruined the hard drive, it was on at the time. They sent me to a UPS Store that had a box ready, they packed and shipped. Came back about 13 days later. SSD drives are a solid state drive, and I have converted everything to SSD for the Operating System. The speed difference is incredible, Hard Drives are good for their capacity but SSD is the way to go.
Backup! I would buy a USB Hard Drive and put any information on it you want to keep long term. 2 to 3 TB(Terabytes) should hold everything you would ever need. But still backup the important stuff elsewhere, like a DVD.
Wireless - do you have an ac router is my first question?
HD - I’d go SSD. The difference is incredible in your OS, seriously it’s nanoseconds. There’s so much cloud storage now you don’t need giant HD’s really, but i’d at least go 500ish
Optical - almost all software is cloud based/downloadable/SAS. If you buy something on a disc, a USB DVD drive is a cheap fix.
RAM- 4 isn’t enough for Windows 10 to run well. I’d get at least 8.
I have a 5-6 year old 2nd or 3rd gen i5 laptop that i ‘refurbished’ for s+g by bumping up the RAM to 8gb and a tiny 120 gb SSD for ~100 bucks last year and it loads win10 faster than it took to type this out.
I use it for little programming projects and general surfing/ms office it flies. We have long since passed the point of having to spend $1k+ to get something reliable and efficient… the “old” laptop is almost as fast on routine stuff as my monster i7 hex-core homelab
Here are some laptop deals I found that I would pull the trigger on if I needed - (assuming no need for video card for gaming etc) -
asus 15" 7th gen i5, 256gb ssd, 8gb ram - has dvd-r + ac wireless $549 - not a SCREAMING deal but good fit
Acer with 7th gen i5, 256 gb ssd, 8gb ram - there are some reviews that the display is not the best and that the trackpad is not great… but $479 and no assembly
