Purchasing a laptop PC info.

[Kyle1886]

tl;dr (wife needs a lap top)

I think I replaced the chip-set fan in my wife's PC (Win-XP) for the fifth and final time. We had another power outage the other day and I think the fan is on it's last leg.

She wants a lap top this time otherwise I'd delegate my aging desktop to her as is usual practice since our first computers (1986-7). That's a no go this time.

The last several PC's have been custom builds by a third party to my needs. I know nothing about lap tops and honestly funds are tight. (Computers are tools to me; technology passed me a long time ago).

I'm not to "brand conscious" but most of my motherboards in the past have been Asus and builds around that.

Her basic needs are typical, Internet, some photo, bacic light photo editing, word processing, some gaming, moderate YouTube, and video streaming of government hearings.

She accustomed to using a mouse, having CD/DVD access and the normal desktop goodies..

Looking on the Costco site I see a lot of laptops do not have CD/DVD slots or a way to hardwire to a router as well as WiFi.

Budget of 800.00 or below is the aim.

What to avoid and items needed and ways to keep price down will be helpful. Any guidance is appreciated

Respectfully
Kyle

[KSH]

Go to Costco, pick something out. Great prices.

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[Cuda440]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154733

This is the one I bought my wife for christmas, same budget of $800. This was the best specs in one of the top rated brands I could find, it has be really great and extremely fast so far.

GeForce GTX 1050 2 GB GDDR5
Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700HQ (2.80 GHz)
8 GB Memory
1 TB HDD
128 GB NVMe SSD

And the wife really like the backlit keyboard

[Kyle1886]

Thanks for the info so far, greatly appreciated.

Respectfully
Kyle

[Dragunov]

I can vouch for this seller, He's legit, and his stuff is in good, working condition. I've purchased from him before.

I can also vouch for this model of computer. Tough as a brick, and runs great! Very fast Ivy Bridge computer, and it won't break the bank.

If she doesn't need, nor care if it's new, this is a superb value! I have several of these exact models. Can't beat 'em at that price!!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T430-14in-500GB-Intel-Core-i5-3320M-2-6GHz-8GB-Win-10-Pro/122829126757?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D47300%26meid%3D2eec5a81426e49caaa59471dbcf2dc1c%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D162873820607%26itm%3D122829126757&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851#viTabs_0

Best thing about it? You can upgrade it to an i7, the ram upgrades to 16gb, and the Hard drive is EASILY upgradable, even for a 9 year old!

[KSH]

Well, less than a cell phone. At that price, specs look fine. Probably worth it.

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[theLBC]

mid range lenovo from costco

https://www.costco.com/Lenovo-Ideapad-320-17-Laptop---Intel-Core-i7.product.100376390.html

large screen
12GB ram
still has a dvd drive (higher end models don't
i7 chip set
good deal

[Creampuff]

Lenovo thinkpad are built to last. I have an e570 model, and it isn't tiny like the little chromebooks and mac book airs, but it will last.

https://www.adorama.com/le20h500a9us.html?CategoryID=57202

Don't let the DVD drive or lack thereof be a major decision point, because less and less software is being sold as a DVD. And even if you need it you can purchase a portable USB DVD drive.

One essential thing, is most laptops don't have spinner hard drives anymore (HDD) but if you should encounter one, don't get it. The performance you get with a SSD is worth the extra money.

[remusrm]

Go to Costco since their warranty is the best and never spend more than 500. Just make sure has the most memory for that price. Everything else is useless unless you do cad or 3d rendering! Oh yeah and in light of Meltdown and Spectre CPU bugs get an AMD.

[sonofeugene]

I was going to make a recommendation, but my recent purchases have been closer to 3000 with the most recent at 3500. (Built for CAD.)

For what it's worth, they've all been Lenovos.

[Marauder2003]

AMD is not immune from the bugs.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/bad-docs-and-blue-screens-make-microsoft-suspend-spectre-patch-for-amd-machines/

[Dragunov]

Lenovo thinkpad are built to last. I have an e570 model, and it isn't tiny like the little chromebooks and mac book airs, but it will last.

https://www.adorama.com/le20h500a9us.html?CategoryID=57202

Don't let the DVD drive or lack thereof be a major decision point, because less and less software is being sold as a DVD. And even if you need it you can purchase a portable USB DVD drive.

One essential thing, is most laptops don't have spinner hard drives anymore (HDD) but if you should encounter one, don't get it. The performance you get with a SSD is worth the extra money.

That depends what's more important:

More storage? Get a mechanical drive. A 1tb mechanical drive can be had between $40, and $75.
A 1tb SSD can run from $275-$500. I have three mechanical, Seagate hard drives from 2002, and they're still going!

More performance, less storage (MUUUUCH less), go SSD.

For what that T430 costs, it would be within your budget to purchase a 512gb SSD. I recommend either SanDisk Ultra II, or Samsung 840/850 EVO.

My new DD is a Lenovo T440p, Win8.1 (FTW), i7-Quad core/3.4ghz, 16gb/Ram, 1tb SanDisk SSD, 1tb standard HDD, and a 1600X900 display. Bought it broken, and most of the parts to fix it off Ebay. I rebuilt it, and had it up and running in an hour. Cost me a total of $375, and it's a frikkin' beast!

Win8.1, Classic Shell, a few performance tweaks, and it's faster than Windows 10, and more stable.

I agree with you on Lenovo... How good are they? When I rebuild them, they come off my bench with a limited lifetime warranty! I've been rebuilding Lenovo since 2012. I have YET to have a SINGLE ONE come back for anything but maintenance (Fans cleaned, dusted, CPU/GPU re-gelled, software clean up, HDD tested and replaced if needed), all covered by warranty.

[Creampuff]

That depends what's more important:

More storage? Get a mechanical drive. A 1tb mechanical drive can be had between $40, and $75.
A 1tb SSD can run from $275-$500. I have three mechanical, Seagate hard drives from 2002, and they're still going!

More performance, less storage (MUUUUCH less), go SSD.

For what that T430 costs, it would be within your budget to purchase a 512gb SSD. I recommend either SanDisk Ultra II, or Samsung 840/850 EVO.

True. Forgot to mention, the E570 is so much larger than these ultra small notebooks, that it has an extra bay in case the OP wants to add on extra space for storage. Most other laptops you would have to strip out the DVD caddy and put the secondary storage in that spot.

[Dragunov]

True. Forgot to mention, the E570 is so much larger than these ultra small notebooks, that it has an extra bay in case the OP wants to add on extra space for storage. Most other laptops you would have to strip out the DVD caddy and put the secondary storage in that spot.

Yes. I installed a HDD caddy in my ultra bay, with a second, 1tb, mechanical HDD in my T440p. If you have an extra bay in that E570, I'd recommend you find a 7200rpm HDD to install, of at least 320gb, for the same reasons I did:

1) I need the extra storage, and don't wish to use my SSD for that.

2) I have Windows, and everything else, place their temporary files on the mechanical HDD, so they're not using read/write cycles on the SSD.

3) I don't use a swap file, as I have 16gb/Ram, and don't need one. However, if the need SHOULD arise, the swap file can go on the mechanical drive.

4) I use Macrium Reflect to image my SSD (C: ), to an image file on my mechanical (D: ) drive.

My computer is set up to maximize SSD life, and to use as few write cycles on it, as possible.

If I need a DVD player/burner, I have an external, USB drive for that.

I also have a Lenovo, Y410p (nice gamer), that will be set up in a similar fashion.

I haven't had the opportunity to use the E570 yet. Maybe I can pick up a broken one, or a used one off Ebay.

[Kyle1886]

I cannot imagine not having two drives. I think the only time I had a single drive was with an Apple IIc. Even my Apple IIe had a duo drive.

That's an area I overlooked with a laptop, thanks for mentioning that.

Thanks for the discussion folks. appreciated.

Kyle