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Dad's been asking me to buy a Laptop for him since I "know about computers". I haven't bought a laptop in awhile and I'm not up on who's making good machines now. Some advice on a good brand and/or price would be much appreciated. Basically looking for: 14-15" anti-glare screen midrange cpu (i3/i5) SSD would be nice win7 (or win 8.1?) integrated graphics is fine very reliable and robust - dad tends to break poo poo all the time He'll be using it like 99% for word processing and checking email. Low weight and battery life are wanted but not the highest priorities. I'm hoping to be able to buy this for around $600-700, no more than $800. Any suggestions are much appreciated!
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Sep 23, 2014 17:10
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Vermouth posted:Dad's been asking me to buy a Laptop for him since I "know about computers". http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3TX2064547&cm_mmc=SNC-Twitter-_-HotDeals-_-NA-_-NA Thinkpad T420 Refurb i5 2520m 8gb 120gb ssd Windows 7 Professional $529
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Sep 23, 2014 17:36
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Lblitzer posted:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3TX2064547&cm_mmc=SNC-Twitter-_-HotDeals-_-NA-_-NA "I sent the item back to be replaced and they sent it back without replacing it, there were scratches all over the item, there are pieces missing and the computer stopped working the next day I opened it." There are a few like that. Risk it?
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Sep 23, 2014 18:44
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I ended up buying a refurbished T420 from Arrow on ebay (seller is shop-arrow-direct). They're a fairly well known company that sells a lot of off-lease and refurbished PCs. The first one I received was nearly perfect except that it had an issue where after coming out of sleep mode it would hard crash (no event logs or anything, just turned off). They have a 30-day 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 60 day warranty, so I called them up and they offered three options. Option 1: return it (with a provided UPS shipping label) for exchange if they have the same kind of unit available (and they have a ton of them), Option 2: Full refund, Option 3: 50% refund and keep the unit (in case you could fix it yourself). I've sent it back to them via option 1 and we'll see how long it takes them to get me a replacement out but I'm pretty impressed with their customer service so far. The only downside was that the initial shipping took about 11 days to get the unit to me, and now I had to return it so I may end up spending a month getting a working unit, but for me it wasn't a high priority purchase and I expect to keep it for years so I'm not too concerned. I almost went for option 3 except that I spent a while troubleshooting it and had no luck with a reinstall of Win7 with various power management drivers, Win8, or Ubuntu. I suspect there was a bad component on the power system on the mainboard so it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to figure that out for me. I can't say for certain if I recommend them as a seller yet but so far my experience has been good, I just don't currently have a laptop in hand and I purchased on August 29th.
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Sep 23, 2014 21:36
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So, my 5 year old laptop is now dying (battery lasts 2 hours tops, fan's dying, etc.), and I think I'm gonna go for a Yoga 2 Pro. I know one of the yogas had/has a ghosting problem. I can only find stuff on the Thinkpad Yoga doing that, though. Does the Pro ghost too? Also, what's the thread's recommendation for screen resolution to minimize scaling issues?
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Sep 24, 2014 00:19
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Rexxed posted:I ended up buying a refurbished T420 from Arrow on ebay (seller is shop-arrow-direct). They're a fairly well known company that sells a lot of off-lease and refurbished PCs. The first one I received was nearly perfect except that it had an issue where after coming out of sleep mode it would hard crash (no event logs or anything, just turned off). They have a 30-day 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 60 day warranty, so I called them up and they offered three options. Option 1: return it (with a provided UPS shipping label) for exchange if they have the same kind of unit available (and they have a ton of them), Option 2: Full refund, Option 3: 50% refund and keep the unit (in case you could fix it yourself). I've sent it back to them via option 1 and we'll see how long it takes them to get me a replacement out but I'm pretty impressed with their customer service so far. The only downside was that the initial shipping took about 11 days to get the unit to me, and now I had to return it so I may end up spending a month getting a working unit, but for me it wasn't a high priority purchase and I expect to keep it for years so I'm not too concerned. That's unfortunate, but I'm glad they're making it better. Please keep the thread updated - I've had my eye on this seller for a while and am waiting for the right laptop to pick up.
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Sep 24, 2014 00:53
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Tom Guycot posted:Do you mind refurbished? I picked up a yoga 2 pro with the nutso high res screen for 650 refurbished and it looks brand new. check the Lenovo outlet maybe and see what's available? I don't mind refurbished. There is some good stuff on the Lenovo outlet, but that also reminded me that people recommended the Dell outlet earlier in the thread. Does anyone have experience with refurbished Latitudes? There are some deals that provide most of what I want. Flipperwaldt posted:Intel wi-fi stuff That's really odd, I haven't had problems with them before. But I did search around and from what I can tell, you are absolutely right, this is a common problem. Really bizarre, especially considering that the Parts Picking thread has always recommended their desktop adapters. If I do end up getting a laptop with an Intel adapter, I will definitely report back to this thread.
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Sep 24, 2014 04:41
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The little poo poo we bought a W540 for told me "I'm not real impressed with these Lenovo laptops"
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Sep 24, 2014 13:37
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Rexxed posted:I ended up buying a refurbished T420 from Arrow on ebay (seller is shop-arrow-direct). They're a fairly well known company that sells a lot of off-lease and refurbished PCs. The first one I received was nearly perfect except that it had an issue where after coming out of sleep mode it would hard crash (no event logs or anything, just turned off). They have a 30-day 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 60 day warranty, so I called them up and they offered three options. Option 1: return it (with a provided UPS shipping label) for exchange if they have the same kind of unit available (and they have a ton of them), Option 2: Full refund, Option 3: 50% refund and keep the unit (in case you could fix it yourself). I've sent it back to them via option 1 and we'll see how long it takes them to get me a replacement out but I'm pretty impressed with their customer service so far. The only downside was that the initial shipping took about 11 days to get the unit to me, and now I had to return it so I may end up spending a month getting a working unit, but for me it wasn't a high priority purchase and I expect to keep it for years so I'm not too concerned. So glad to read this. I just bought one of the lower end one T420s (4gb ram, 1366x768 screen) from them for my mom and it should be here tomorrow. Goodbye Dell laptop from 2006 with Windows XP, destroyed screen, lovely hinges, Core Duo CPU and 1gb ram!
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Sep 25, 2014 07:47
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Cactus Jack posted:So glad to read this. I just bought one of the lower end one T420s (4gb ram, 1366x768 screen) from them for my mom and it should be here tomorrow. Goodbye Dell laptop from 2006 with Windows XP, destroyed screen, lovely hinges, Core Duo CPU and 1gb ram! When I printed the UPS return label Arrow customer support provided me, they had me email them the tracking number on it so they could tell when it arrived back at their facility (they have a lot of facilities). I sent it out from a UPS store on Friday afternoon and it arrived on Tuesday around 1pm. My replacement arrived today (Thursday) showing it was shipped on Tuesday. The replacement is in better physical shape than the original one I got (almost no blemishes while the first just had a couple of small scuff marks). It also has the bluetooth module which wasn't guaranteed to be included in the ebay listing (it said may or may not include, and the first one I got did not have BT). For the previous T420 I received it had wrist area wear and trackpad wear, although nothing major (it was a B grade listing for quality). For the replacement it seems like the original owner didn't use the keyboard or mouse at all or they were replaced when it was refurbished, and the hard disk only has about 3000 hours on it. I'm going to run memtest and do some other checking but so far the replacement they shipped me seems to be in better shape than the original and doesn't have the same sleep mode issue. Since the original shipment took 11 days it was a nice change of pace to send in the old unit for RMA and receive a replacement in 6 days. I still have to make sure that this one doesn't have any small problems but so far it's fine and I still have a month of warranty in case anything shows up. After testing I'll pop in the SSD and hopefully it'll be good for 5 years or so. I'm also going to check if the battery is one of the recall units just in case (they may have taken care of this while it was being refurbed but it doesn't hurt to check since if it is a recalled battery you get a new battery replacement for free): http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/hf004122
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Sep 25, 2014 20:34
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That Lenovo plastic may be light and durable but it certainly shows wear easily (the wrist rest area on my two year old T430s is now completely smooth and shiny). BTW that bumpy surface on the track pad is just a sticker - if it gets too worn (and it probably will) you can peel it off and grab a smoother replacement. Ex corporate machines are a but of a crap shoot second hand - where I work half of our Elitebooks look like they've been through a literal war, the other half have never even left their docking stations.
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Sep 25, 2014 21:01
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I'm looking for an alternative to a thinkpad. The prices are massively inflated in the UK and with the screen and trackpad issues I don't think they're worth it. Ideally I'd like i3/i5, 8GB RAM, 13/14 inch screen, <2kg, a metal frame or at least a solid construction, and decent driver support, although I don't mind compromising on a few of these. I'm probably buying more laptop than I need, It's mainly going to be used for engineering work (CAD modelling, MATLAB) and stuff like web browsing and sucking at TF2. My budget is £700. Any ideas?
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Sep 26, 2014 19:51
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ihopeirememberthis posted:I'm looking for an alternative to a thinkpad. The prices are massively inflated in the UK and with the screen and trackpad issues I don't think they're worth it. Refurbished Thinkpads, HP Elitebooks or Macbook Airs are the only way you are going to get close the £700. Getting metal frame or at least a solid construction for under £700 is going to be really hard.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:13
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Dell also has Inspirons that span from cheap lunchboxes to basically Macbook Airs construction wise.
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Sep 27, 2014 00:17
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Aphrodite posted:Dell also has Inspirons that span from cheap lunchboxes to basically Macbook Airs construction wise. How is the construction on the Inspiron 15 7000? I'm looking for a 15 inch laptop for watching films, Internet use and some light gaming. I work at sea so weight and battery life are slightly less of a concern than screen and build quality. What else should I be looking at? Up to around 2000USD? Think pads are probably out of the question as they are way more expensive in the UK than the US.
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Sep 27, 2014 04:50
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I need to recommend a laptop for someone who will be doing video editing (Adobe Premiere). Will the Intel HD Graphics GPU cut it, or does she need a GeForce?
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Sep 27, 2014 15:44
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Stupid Decisions posted:How is the construction on the Inspiron 15 7000? I'm looking for a 15 inch laptop for watching films, Internet use and some light gaming. I work at sea so weight and battery life are slightly less of a concern than screen and build quality. The 7000s right now have aircraft aluminum and are built very well. I have a roommate with the 15 7000 and really like it. The 15" 7000 and 5000 don't have optical drives but the 17" do if that is something you care about. There will be a new 7000 that replaces it around holiday season. It will be thinner/lighter and have a curved edge rather than the more square-like case on it now. It will be silver aluminum on the outside and black on the inside to match the current 5000s. However the 10-key numb-pad is gone and I have no idea why. I actually prefer the 7000 in its current state now to the new one but the new one will boast newer processors - the current ones have the i7-4510U with HD 4400s except the top option that has a dedicated nvidia GT 750M. New 7000 specs will become available over the next few months. Because you're at sea, I would honestly recommend looking at a few business class options simply because they have field use in mind. HP and Lenovo have business class options that are worth looking at. Dell Latis/Precisions have steel hinges, corning gorilla glass screens and a few other features usually based around security so I would think other manufacturers do too.
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Sep 27, 2014 18:19
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My wife needs a new laptop. Currently she's using an 8 year old Dell and the only thing that annoys her is how slowly it starts up (also it's 6-7 lbs), but I'm worried it could die at any moment. She will just use the laptop for basic word processing/internet browsing. She thinks the Surface Pro looks cool, but I'm a little hesitant because I think it's more powerful than what she needs and there's something a little annoying about paying $1,200 for a laptop/tablet. Regardless, she wants a laptop/tablet that she can use for everything. I know there are some other Windows 8.1 laptop/tablets out there, and I've looked at the Asus Transformer, Acer Aspire Switch, the Dell Venue, but the reviews seems to swing wildly between positive and negative. Any suggestions? HiddenReplaced fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 19:08
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Size preference? Dell just started selling their 13" 7000 2-in-1 so maybe that covers both bases of you needing a laptop but mentioning tablet options? http://www.dell.com/us/eep/p/inspiron-13-7347-laptop/pd?oc=dndnw5013hda&model_id=inspiron-13-7347-laptop
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Sep 27, 2014 19:17
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blargle posted:I need to recommend a laptop for someone who will be doing video editing (Adobe Premiere). Will the Intel HD Graphics GPU cut it, or does she need a GeForce? Is it Premiere Elements or Pro? Assuming Pro, Adobe doesn't specifically say you need a dedicated card but does list support for most cards -hinting that you might consider one. Also having used the program myself along with After Effects, Vegas and several other timeline editing programs you actually do benefit from a dedicated card if you do a lot of rendering. You can get away with a lot on Intel HD cards, but Adobe suites and other creative softwares do plan on users having dedicated cards so it may come down to how you actually use it. GeForce and Radeon cards are a great starting point and suit most peoples needs. Quadros and FirePros are for heavy users and Teslas are for render farms. I don't know how to compare the Yogas but they have a lot of praise in this thread and I think some sport dedicated GPUs. Listing some options will let other people throw out some good suggestions. Screen size/Weight, features and budget would help.
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Sep 27, 2014 19:33
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ellic posted:Size preference? Dell just started selling their 13" 7000 2-in-1 so maybe that covers both bases of you needing a laptop but mentioning tablet options? I think something between 11-13 would be good, but getting close to 4LBs might be a bit heavy if she wants to use it like a tablet, too. Maybe I should just get her a Kindle Fire HD along with a normal laptop.
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Sep 27, 2014 20:14
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HiddenReplaced posted:My wife needs a new laptop. Currently she's using an 8 year old Dell and the only thing that annoys her is how slowly it starts up (also it's 6-7 lbs), but I'm worried it could die at any moment. The Pro 3 comes with an i3 and 64GB storage for $799, without the keyboard. That isn't too bad, but I'd also look at computer stores at all the different types of convertibles. She may find the Yoga style preferable.
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Sep 27, 2014 20:19
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Here's a bit of an odd case: I need a laptop for game jams, game development parties, and hanging out on the couch while my wife plays games on the TV. It needs to be "portable" in the sense that I have no interest in carting around a monitor and a full computer; anything smaller than that is probably fine. It will spend 99% of its life plugged in - a half-hour battery runtime is completely fine. It does need to be rather hefty in terms of processing power because I'm going to be doing Unreal Engine 4 development on it. Here's the recommended specs: * Desktop PC or Mac * Windows 7 64-bit or Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later * Quad-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster * NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD series card or higher * 8 GB RAM I personally require a 1080p monitor (comedy option: find me something better than 1080p), and I really want it to be expandable to 16gb RAM if not higher. All this, and I'd like it to be as cheap as possible. For comparison, I've been using an Inspiron 1720 for the last many years. Yes, it's a 17" laptop. It's the size of a small farm animal and works just great for my needs, except that it's getting quite long in the tooth. If that makes it cheaper, and probably even if it doesn't just for the sake of screen real estate, then I want a 17" "laptop". I'm hoping to pick something up in the $1000 range. I'd looooove an SSD but suspect I won't be getting one for this price. Future expansion is a good thing - give me the option to spend $50 to be able to upgrade to 32gb in the future, I'll take it without hesitation. Any suggestions?
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Sep 28, 2014 00:04
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Not sure about the HP and Lenovo options, but new from Dell I only see one option. Inspiron 17 7000: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-17-7737/pd?oc=dncwj1907b&model_id=inspiron-17-7737 The Dell.com/outlet can have a few options though and I'm sure some of the other guys can recommend HP and lenovo options. ellic fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 02:29
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Alright Goons, I'm looking for a laptop for my brothers girlfriend who's looking to start going back to school online, her budget according to my brother is ~$600. Now I've read the OP and looked at the Thinkpad T430 but I can already tell that she's not going to be a fan of the Thinkpad. I've been poking around Newegg because I don't know dick about laptop hardware, and I found Dell's Insperon 15's which seem quite attractive. any thoughts? The laptop isn't going to be used for anything seriously intensive, just school work, web-browsing, and playing music / movies. I'm hoping I can convince her to spend $650 and pick up this Inspiron 15 i5547. If she won't go for it any thoughts on this slightly lower specced Inspiron 15 i3542? I should also probably mention that build quality counts for something, there is a child in the house. Diametunim fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 21:32
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The i7 (your first link) looks to be one of the 5000 series, its nice for that price and aluminum on the outside versus the i5 (second link), which looks like one of the 3000 series - an all plastic chassis but does sport a DVD-RW that the 5000 doesn't have. Honestly most people here will argue that the performance gain of an i7 over an i5 is negligible unless doing some intensive work and it doesn't sound like she'll be doing that - making the i5 option more appealing for needs and price.
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Sep 28, 2014 22:43
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ellic posted:The i7 (your first link) looks to be one of the 5000 series, its nice for that price and aluminum on the outside versus the i5 (second link), which looks like one of the 3000 series - an all plastic chassis but does sport a DVD-RW that the 5000 doesn't have. Thanks for your advice Ellic, I went ahead and told her to pick up the 3000.
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Sep 29, 2014 00:12
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ellic posted:The 7000s right now have aircraft aluminum and are built very well. I have a roommate with the 15 7000 and really like it. The 15" 7000 and 5000 don't have optical drives but the 17" do if that is something you care about. There will be a new 7000 that replaces it around holiday season. It will be thinner/lighter and have a curved edge rather than the more square-like case on it now. It will be silver aluminum on the outside and black on the inside to match the current 5000s. However the 10-key numb-pad is gone and I have no idea why. I actually prefer the 7000 in its current state now to the new one but the new one will boast newer processors - the current ones have the i7-4510U with HD 4400s except the top option that has a dedicated nvidia GT 750M. New 7000 specs will become available over the next few months. Thanks for the advice. I will probably wait until around Christmas to see what new options are available then, I am in no particular rush to order now. I'm also looking at the business options as well, my parents bought a Latitude earlier this year and I was impressed.
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Sep 29, 2014 03:16
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Gave someone two quotes, an X1 and a T440, $1200 and $1300 ish each. "Why can't we buy one from Sams club for $600" Get hosed.
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Sep 29, 2014 15:00
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How does a T440 cost $1300?
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Sep 29, 2014 17:55
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sarehu posted:How does a T440 cost $1300? Go play around on the Lenovo website. It's not hard to build one that ends you up in that price range (although I agree that it's kind of egregious).
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Sep 29, 2014 18:24
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The OP informs me that netbooks are dead, but I'm pretty sure that that's basically what I need. My old macbook just died after 7 years, and I need a small-ish replacement, primarily for web browsing, PDFs, and LaTeX documents. Is there anything out there in the sub-500 dollar range that will work for that? I'd prefer a linux distro to windows, if that matters.
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Sep 29, 2014 22:54
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a foolish pianist posted:The OP informs me that netbooks are dead, but I'm pretty sure that that's basically what I need. My old macbook just died after 7 years, and I need a small-ish replacement, primarily for web browsing, PDFs, and LaTeX documents. Is there anything out there in the sub-500 dollar range that will work for that? I'd prefer a linux distro to windows, if that matters. You want to browse and read PDFs, and want a small portable machine? Look at Chromebooks, particularly the Dell Chromebook 11.
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Sep 29, 2014 23:15
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Twerk from Home posted:You want to browse and read PDFs, and want a small portable machine? Look at Chromebooks, particularly the Dell Chromebook 11. I was checking those out, but I also really want a LaTeX compiler, and it doesn't seem like there are any good solutions for that on Chrome OS. Can a chromebook run a standard linux distro?
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Sep 29, 2014 23:35
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a foolish pianist posted:I was checking those out, but I also really want a LaTeX compiler, and it doesn't seem like there are any good solutions for that on Chrome OS. Can a chromebook run a standard linux distro? You can get a non-ChromeOS Linux on them but it might be a pain. sarehu fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 23:47
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sarehu posted:You can get a non-ChromeOS Linux on them but it might be a pain. If you use anything Intel I've found it to be crazy simple. Use xfce or something instead of Unity.
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Sep 29, 2014 23:52
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a foolish pianist posted:The OP informs me that netbooks are dead, but I'm pretty sure that that's basically what I need. My old macbook just died after 7 years, and I need a small-ish replacement, primarily for web browsing, PDFs, and LaTeX documents. Is there anything out there in the sub-500 dollar range that will work for that? I'd prefer a linux distro to windows, if that matters. They come with very little storage, but I assume it wouldn't be too much of a hassle otherwise to put some Linux on it. I don't know, I'm somehow pretty desperate for the netbook to return, but the pickings are slim. Read some reviews, because I have no idea whether things like build quality are as bad as the price tag might suggest.
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Sep 30, 2014 00:31
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Some of the ASUS laptops seem like my best options, at least pricewise. I basically need something to write my dissertation on when I'm not at my home desktop, and I don't want to wait. I'll probably pick up one of the cheaper ones from amazon, just so I can experiment and get to writing this week.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:10
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ASUS T100 may work for you. I got the 64gb version from office max for like 320 bucks. Not sure if that has enough hard drive space for you.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:27
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Twerk from Home posted:You want to browse and read PDFs, and want a small portable machine? Look at Chromebooks, particularly the Dell Chromebook 11. Just an FYI, Dell doesn't sell its chromebooks new to individual consumers. Only resell websites have them like the occasional woot.com or maybe the Dell outlet as refurbished. HP and Acer do though.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:32
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