Help purchasing a lap top

[swampratt]

Wife needs a lap top to do college work.
She asked me if I knew what a good one was.
I have no idea.

Any of you guys know.
I did a search and those threads are old and things change year to year.

 

[Glock 40]

Whats your budget? That is the biggest factor. Its all made in China in foxcon city. They just put someone else's name on it depending which building its coming out of. Biggest thing is finding a deal in your price range.

 

[Shadowrider]

Dell has an outlet site that can save you some money. And you still get the warranty. At least they used to, I moved to Apple years ago so I haven't bought from them in forever, but I bought "used" from their website several times and had good luck.

 

[swampratt]

I would think a decent one could be had for under 500. Or am I wrong. Not doing any gaming not storing videos or music on it unless it is for school
She is using the 10 year old compaq 2GB desk top for now and it works fine but she needs a lap top that can hook to internet by cable and wifi.
That is what she told me.

 

[Glock 40]

You can do that for $500 no problem. The most important thing is get a SSD hard drive. That is the biggest bottleneck on a computer especially a more economical one. I would take her to best buy or some place just to look at them. I have been using one daily for 15 years and size does matter. If she is hauling it around all the time don't go over 15 inches. They get to heavy and are a pain to deal with. Do you want to buy local or are you okay with online purchase?

Edit - There are deals to be had not due to back to school sales. Something like this would work for what you are talking about. If you come in under budget you can also get a 21-22 in monitor and wireless mouse and keyboard to use at home. That will make her life much happier if she likes to work at a desk.

Link

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Are we back to pro-SSD's again? Last year they still had a shorter lifespan than typical SATA disc drives. Thought the processor was the important thing?

 

[Glock 40]

@TwoForFlinching check this thread the 3rd or 4th post in I talk about the machine I built in Jan 2012 that I am on right now was built with 128gb SDD. Its 7.5 years old and now that drive has 3240 Power on hours still with 93% life. SSDs are the only way to go.

 

[dirtrider73068]

I have a hp laptop thats seen better days, I have had it going on about 4 or 5 years still works great like the day I bought it, catch is I didn't buy it in a store I ordered straight from HP. I have heard if you buy in store you could be buying already outdated computers that are not that could in a couple years and then you end up buying another. I was told to if you order straight from the manufacturer you get the current parts in it, not sure how true it is.

I had a gateway my first desktop it was ok for the first year then went down hill fast, got a HP desktop that I had for long time it started to get slow and laggy, got a dell lap top it last about 3 years before the screen messed up would go very dim had to use a external monitor, now I have my hp laptop I am very pleased with it, my other half has a hp desktop but its in storage and is using a acer touch screen laptop that works good. Most of my files I also keep in a external hard drive I don't keep alot of files saved on my laptop unless I need them, otherwise they go on a external hard drive other wise I use what I need and delete open that HD space up helps make it run better, oh I also never turn my laptop off or reboot much, just close the lid and put it sleep.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

@TwoForFlinching check this thread the 3rd or 4th post in I talk about the machine I built in Jan 2012 that I am on right now was built with 128gb SDD. Its 7.5 years old and now that drive has 3240 Power on hours still with 93% life. SSDs are the only way to go.

I'll admit, I've been eyeing a Surface Pro to replace my macbook15. It's been a fantastic photo/video machine, but the lack of continuity between mac and windows is appalling, and I really don't want to convert to a big mac.

 

[TerryMiller]

Wife was in IT for years. Because of the advances in technology, we have purchased her new computers about every 3 years. In all the years of buying both laptops and desktops, we've found that HP has served us well.

One might pay more, but it could very well be worth it, depending on how much she may need it for schooling and for used after "graduation."