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The Water Cooler
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Help purchasing a lap top
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<blockquote data-quote="NightShade" data-source="post: 3262009" data-attributes="member: 29706"><p>[USER=15054]@swampratt[/USER] </p><p></p><p>The laptop you are looking at should be fine except for one thing. Windows S-mode. <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/354057/what-is-windows-10-in-s-mode/" target="_blank">https://www.howtogeek.com/354057/what-is-windows-10-in-s-mode/</a> Basically that means if she wants to use chrome or firefox, no dice. If she wants to install something the school requires but isn't in the "store" provided she is SOL. You can turn it off so don't let that limit you but my guess is when you pull it out of the box it will be a pain and not understand why there is an issue. I also personally dump the OS and reinstall it from scratch to get rid of the bloatware. They ALL have it, the question is how much. Not to mention that windows 10 includes bloatware now too.</p><p></p><p>I would suggest you go look at the weight then add another pound or two for accessories and then put that in a suitcase/duffel bag/briefcase and tell her to go to the store and walk around with it on her shoulder. If it's too much it's probably a good idea to step down to a smaller size screen. At home you can usually plug in an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and use them. So far the ONLY wireless mouse I have had good things to say about is the Logitech G602 <a href="https://amzn.to/2KCJCUD" target="_blank">https://amzn.to/2KCJCUD</a> I ran wired 100% till I tried this one and it's not that much more than the cheapo you find at the local big box store. Just buy some AA batteries and enjoy. It will run on a single battery as well so if you don't like the weight of two it's all good. In the "Green" mode two will last for about 6 to 8 months of usage for me. She will want a mouse for use most of the time, touchpad's work in a pinch but only just especially if you are used to a mouse.</p><p></p><p>SSD's are great to have. Very fast especially when you have an NVMe drive that hooks direct into the board. With that said they do wear over time but at this point you are looking at similar lifespan compared to a spinning drive which also has parts that wear. The issue is that if you are writing a lot of stuff to the drive a SSD will wear out faster while a HDD wears the motor, bearings, and the heads if they park and unpark a lot. I have wore out an SSD and it was working fine one day and then poof it wasn't. Most HDD's have given some sort of an error for me before dying so I had time to back up the data and switch.</p><p></p><p>Memory, 6GB is bare minimum today and even then it is anemic. 8GB is what I consider bare minimum and 16GB is more ideal with big apps or any games outside of some really old or small stuff (yes I know gaming is not the ideal but I am sure someone out there has a kid who will want to spin up a game and want to know) or using apps for video editing etc. Basically if the app you are installing takes a lot of space or is going to use the processor at 100% you need 16GB of RAM. With an SSD you may even want it for smaller apps as you can shift the temp file writes to a ram drive. <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/imdisk-toolkit/" target="_blank">https://sourceforge.net/projects/imdisk-toolkit/</a> it will speed things up even more and you can use it to put temp files on among other things like the swap file. </p><p></p><p>Optical drives (CD/DVD/Bluray) are nice to have but I agree a big flash drive can be easier to work with in a lot of situations. A portable so that you can read from a disc when needed is a must have but for writing most people look at them like the old floppy drives, no longer relevant.</p><p></p><p>I agree that you want to backup the data on the computer especially if you have projects that can't be lost. To do this get a portable HDD and some software. <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/free-backup-software-tools-2617964" target="_blank">https://www.lifewire.com/free-backup-software-tools-2617964</a> Or have a server to backup to.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NightShade, post: 3262009, member: 29706"] [USER=15054]@swampratt[/USER] The laptop you are looking at should be fine except for one thing. Windows S-mode. [URL]https://www.howtogeek.com/354057/what-is-windows-10-in-s-mode/[/URL] Basically that means if she wants to use chrome or firefox, no dice. If she wants to install something the school requires but isn't in the "store" provided she is SOL. You can turn it off so don't let that limit you but my guess is when you pull it out of the box it will be a pain and not understand why there is an issue. I also personally dump the OS and reinstall it from scratch to get rid of the bloatware. They ALL have it, the question is how much. Not to mention that windows 10 includes bloatware now too. I would suggest you go look at the weight then add another pound or two for accessories and then put that in a suitcase/duffel bag/briefcase and tell her to go to the store and walk around with it on her shoulder. If it's too much it's probably a good idea to step down to a smaller size screen. At home you can usually plug in an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and use them. So far the ONLY wireless mouse I have had good things to say about is the Logitech G602 [URL]https://amzn.to/2KCJCUD[/URL] I ran wired 100% till I tried this one and it's not that much more than the cheapo you find at the local big box store. Just buy some AA batteries and enjoy. It will run on a single battery as well so if you don't like the weight of two it's all good. In the "Green" mode two will last for about 6 to 8 months of usage for me. She will want a mouse for use most of the time, touchpad's work in a pinch but only just especially if you are used to a mouse. SSD's are great to have. Very fast especially when you have an NVMe drive that hooks direct into the board. With that said they do wear over time but at this point you are looking at similar lifespan compared to a spinning drive which also has parts that wear. The issue is that if you are writing a lot of stuff to the drive a SSD will wear out faster while a HDD wears the motor, bearings, and the heads if they park and unpark a lot. I have wore out an SSD and it was working fine one day and then poof it wasn't. Most HDD's have given some sort of an error for me before dying so I had time to back up the data and switch. Memory, 6GB is bare minimum today and even then it is anemic. 8GB is what I consider bare minimum and 16GB is more ideal with big apps or any games outside of some really old or small stuff (yes I know gaming is not the ideal but I am sure someone out there has a kid who will want to spin up a game and want to know) or using apps for video editing etc. Basically if the app you are installing takes a lot of space or is going to use the processor at 100% you need 16GB of RAM. With an SSD you may even want it for smaller apps as you can shift the temp file writes to a ram drive. [URL]https://sourceforge.net/projects/imdisk-toolkit/[/URL] it will speed things up even more and you can use it to put temp files on among other things like the swap file. Optical drives (CD/DVD/Bluray) are nice to have but I agree a big flash drive can be easier to work with in a lot of situations. A portable so that you can read from a disc when needed is a must have but for writing most people look at them like the old floppy drives, no longer relevant. I agree that you want to backup the data on the computer especially if you have projects that can't be lost. To do this get a portable HDD and some software. [URL]https://www.lifewire.com/free-backup-software-tools-2617964[/URL] Or have a server to backup to. [/QUOTE]
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