Laptop recommendations.

[Pezza24]

My 15 year old MacBook isn't really cutting it at the moment. The school my 5 year old goes to is insisting we upload work to teams and even though I'm doing it all through the "hwb" platform it's continually crashing my laptop.

New one required. Specs for normal usages but a decent sized screen and decent storage. Any recommendations?

Will be used for homework and internet browsing. And trying to sort out the millions of photos SWMBO has on her phone. She's also allergic to technology so the simpler the better.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

@Pezza24

I have moved this out of the other laptop thread as it was 4 pages long and a lot of the helpful stuff got lost in the general chat i am sure those members will post their views again.

Could you give us a maximum price.

 

[Pezza24]

Ah thanks I just stuck it in the top search. Wouldn't want the spend more than £300-£400 really

 

[dad_of_jon]

Dell often do end of line cheap business ones. They don't come pre loaded with lots of junkware either. My daughter got a good 6 years out of the Dell Vostro we got her for uni.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I like ACER laptops and this is the cheapest i have found that has 8GB RAM (the minimum advised in the other thread) and a 256GB SSD (solid state drive) its £49 above your budget but i bet if you shop round you could get something very similar within it.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/848...02d80a180514&dclid=CPeX7Z_xpe4CFSMUBgAdC4YIKw

About this product
The Acer Aspire 3 is a brilliant all-rounder, giving you all the performance you need whether at home, school or work. With a powerful AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a super-fast 256GB SSD inside, it'll feel lightning fast no matter what you're doing – from working on documents to web-browsing to streaming your favourite movies & music. The Aspire 3 also has a super-sharp full HD (1920x1080) 14 screen, so all your photos and video will look amazing too. Plus the bezels have been slimmed down, keeping unnecessary size and weight to a minimum.

Picture Perfect: The 14 Full HD (1920x1080) display features vibrant colours and crisp, clear details to help you feel totally immersed in your photos and videos. And with Acer's BlueLightShield technology built-in, you'll be protected from eye-strain no matter how long you use it.

Powerful Productivity: The Aspire 3 packs a lot of power thanks to the AMD Ryzen 5 CPU. With it's 4 powerful cores and integrated AMD Radeon graphics, backed up by 8GB of DDR4 RAM, it'll supercharge your laptop for work and play.

Model number: A314-22.

Part number: NX. HVWEK.00A.

General features:

• Size H1.99, W32.8, D23.6cm.
• Weight 1.9kg.
• Up to 9.5 hours battery life.

CPU, Memory and Operating System:

• AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor.
• Quad core processor.
• 2.1GHz processor speed with a burst speed of 3.7GHz.
• 8GB RAM DDR4.
• 256GB SSD storage.
• Windows 10 Home.

Display features:

• 14 inch screen.
• Full HD Display.
• Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels.

DVD optical drives:

• Disc drive not included.

Graphics:

• AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics card.
• Shared graphics card.

Interfaces and connectivity:

• 1 USB 2.0 port.
• 2 USB 3.1 ports.
• 1 Ethernet port.
• 1 HDMI port.
• Bluetooth.
• Wi-Fi enabled.

Multimedia features:

• HD webcam.
• Built-in mic.
• Built-in audio sound system.
• 30 days Norton Security.

General information:

• Manufacturer's 1 year guarantee.
• EAN: 4710180932676.

 

[Pezza24]

Thanks Chippy. That looks really good actually. Why was 8gb RAM the lowest people would reccomend? The one you've suggested seems to be quite cheap for that specifocation.

 

[LED_ZEP]

Why was 8gb RAM the lowest people would reccomend?

4gb is at best borderline for the current Windows OS and it means you've got a little futureproofing for the next few years.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

4gb is at best borderline for the current Windows OS and it means you've got a little futureproofing for the next few years.

@Pezza24

I have an ACER laptop with 6GB RAM its getting on a bit but still performs well for what i use it for which is basically forum and internet use it plays HD video with no problem but if i was buying a replacement today i would go with 8GB if i could afford it, you can never have too much RAM.

My last laptop had 4GB RAM and as you can see below 4GB will do the job (depending on 32-bit or 64-bit) but when i bought my current Laptop i did notice the difference so for me its a no brainer go with 8GB if you can afford it.

4GB RAM
If you're running a 32-bit operating system then with 4GB of RAM installed you'll only be able to access around 3.2GB (this is because of memory addressing limitations). However, with a 64-bit operating system, you'll have full access to the whole 4GB.

The difference in performance between a system with 2GB of RAM and one with 4GB is like night and day. Even on a 32-bit system that limits the RAM to a little over 3GB, the performance boost is well worth the cost. Not only do applications run faster, but you can also run more applications simultaneously, which comes in handy if you run suites like Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Cloud (say you want to run Microsoft Word and Excel, or Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom).

If you have a 64-bit operating system, then bumping the RAM up to 4GB is a no-brainer.

All but the cheapest and most basic of Windows 10 systems will come with 4GB of RAM.


8GB RAM
Now we're into performance territory. If you're serious about your PC, then I consider this to be the new default. If you're buying or building a machine dedicated to photo or HD video editing and rendering, or just want a fast system, then 8GB of RAM is the minimum you should consider to avoid frustration.

This is the amount of RAM recommended by Adobe for users running Creative Cloud applications.

8GB of RAM is not expensive. Sure, get the OEM to fit it into a new system and you're likely paying a premium (especially if that OEM is Apple), but from an aftermarket supplier, this can be had for under $40.

8GB is the minimum amount of RAM new Macs ship with.


https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-windows-10-pc-need-2019-edition/

 

[obscure]

My view first if you are going second hand best to go for an ex corporate one, They tend to have a better physical build quality.

Secondly go for a SSD it makes a difference better a 256GB SSD than a 2TB mechanical drive. It was a couple of laptops ago but I re,e,ber the difference it made when I swapped out the mechanical drive for an SSD.

Also if you have the space consider a full size monitor, keyboard and mouse, (and even a desktop you will get a lot more hardware for your money) laptops are fine but a proper keyboard mouse and screen make a big difference when using a pc all day but I appreciate that space and budget concerns may mean this is not an option.

 

[Pezza24]

It's not really about the space for the Desktop. It's the fact that I won't really be using it all day. It's just for a casual bit of browsing for insurances etc and right now doing the kids learning while they're stuck at home. Ill definitely be looking for an 8gb with SSD though. Cheers for all the help so far.

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Have a look at this web site

Recently bought two from here - pleased with them

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/
You set your budget and it comes up with what is available

Maybe consider a reconditioned one?

 

[Leon103]

Recently bought one for the wife and had to source one for a friend and that did limited stock around, especially at the lower end of the price range. Keep an eye out on the outlet sites such as dell outlet.

 

[BrewMeHappy]

If you don't have already, I'd seriously look at cloud storage for your photos and stuff too.

I had Amazon Drive for a few years but they have just changed some of their policies and also stopped access from Synology NAS drives (which I use to mirror between the two) so have recently opted to use Google Drive. I forget the exact cost now, but it was about £70 for the year for 2TB. If you add family members to it, they can also share the storage capacity and 2TB is a lot of space.

 

[DavidDetroit]

+1 on the Acer plus Asus' have been reliable. The hp I'm using and have used, anecdotally only, seem to run into cooling issues.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I am not knocking cloud storage but being an old fart I would rather keep my stuff on USB flash drives etc the limited size of these used to be an issue back in the day but they are huge now.

 

[Hanglow]

Everyone went for laptops with lockdown last year and it's still going on, a grade A refurb might be your best bet unless you can up your budget to over £500. The ryzen 3xxx processors aren't really worth it, the 4xxx up were a substantial upgrade

here's a couple above your budget
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...d-ryzen-5-256-gb-ssd-silver-10207935-pdt.html
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/-co...sp?wgu=272145_116019_1610737655013_0dddec243d
This seller is good on ebay for refurbs. be sure to get an SSD .

http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/The-Bes...42754014&_sid=690763154&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

 

[BrewMeHappy]

I am not knocking cloud storage but being an old fart I would rather keep my stuff on USB flash drives etc the limited size of these used to be an issue back in the day but they are huge now.

I know what you mean regarding USB drives and that is one of the reasons I have a NAS drive at home, but mirroring it to Google Drive means I have all of my files available to me on my phone and any PC with a browser where I can log in. It synchronises both ways so I can upload directly to Google Drive and it appears on my NAS and vice versa.

 

[Cestrian]

3 years ago I bought a reconditioned Dell Inspiron from europc.co.uk and it's still going strong. I think they specialise in refurbished Dell & HP laptops and desktops. Spec of mine seems to be similar to what you are looking for 15" screen, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive & 256GB SSD. Would recommend them and Dell laptops.

 

[Plumb bob]

I'm a software engineer who's had two children off school in lock down.
Refurbs are a great way of getting good hardware at a reduced price.
As others have said 8Gbyte RAM is the minimum you need for decent performance.
The other must have is a full HD display 1920x1080, avoid anything less like the plague bars along the tops of apps and webpages are forever getting thicker consuming more and more of the limited vertical screen space. Try also to look for an IPS display and try to avoid TN.
A decent external keyboard and mouse make a big difference too.

It might be possible that a compete reinstall of the operating system on your Mac book might fix the crashing. Only do this after backing up. If you want to use cloud services the Microsoft 365 family is a great investment.

As online schooling is all through a web browser my children actually use raspberry pi 4s but I don't recommend this.

 

[feemackenzie]

Late to the thread.
I went the other way,,,,,,. Secondhand iMac. Huge quality display. The usual Apple stability. Yes it is in one room but doubles as a streaming/TV when not used.
£300 off Gumtree.

TBF it's running 4gb, and needs a few more but never crashed. I use it for light video editing, Google Classroom work, zoom, etc .... I'm the teacher