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Laptop shopping!

Monketi Ghost

Confusion Reactor
Monketi Ghost
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
25,141
Gonna replace my old Gateway from '07.
That's right, I run em into the ground. Have been using workarounds to keep the one I have functioning.

So: I'm getting another Windows system. My needs are simple: playing music and videos, and that's about it. I don't need a lot of the bloatware that usually comes on laptops, spreadsheets and so forth.
That probably wouldn't affect price though.

My old laptop has listed 452 gig capacity. The replacement has to have at least that.

Obviously I'm way out of the loop. Fielding all recommendations ASIDE FROM "Buy some stupidly overpriced shiny Apple product for idiots with more money than sense."
 
I went to the Toshiba site and had mine built to my selected preferences. It probably cost a lot more than just getting one from Best Buy or some such (and I may have been just as satisified with one of those).

I hardly use the new one yet because it has Windows 8 (I have it set to show Desktop instead), but my older one has all the programs on it already and I know exactly where everything is. It's going to take weeks to migrate or re-install to the newer one.

Just make a list of the features you absolutely must have and go from there.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
My old laptop has listed 452 gig capacity. The replacement has to have at least that.
Click to expand...

I'll just note that you can get really cheap storage in the form of USB connected hard drives if you tend to use your laptop at home a lot. Although, most hard drives will be 500g anyway, so that may be a moot point unless you delve into SSDs, which undermine your value proposition.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
Gonna replace my old Gateway from '07.
Click to expand...

Good for you grandad.


Monketey Ghost said:
So: I'm getting another Windows system. My needs are simple: playing music and videos, and that's about it. I don't need a lot of the bloatware that usually comes on laptops, spreadsheets and so forth.
That probably wouldn't affect price though.

My old laptop has listed 452 gig capacity. The replacement has to have at least that.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, after researching laptops for my sis last xmas:

i5 processor
4GB RAM
1TB HDD
Intel on board gfx HD4400 (willing to be corrected on this).

In the UK you could aim to get something like that for around £350-400, which likely translates to the same amount of your earth dollars.
 
Get Windows 7. Then wait for Windows 10 and install that.

Or put everything you have onto DVDs and buy a DVD player? Buy a smart one and it would even play Youtube!
 
Can you explain why you need the drive space and will spend weeks "reinstalling" if all you do is watch videos and play music? I'm not being snarky, it sounds like you have some unstated needs.

If you aren't doing any heavy duty processing/computation, look at something with the new Core M chips. They require no fans, and the result is a silent system if you also have an SSD.

If you plan for another 5-7 years, you may want to buy enough computer to work for that long. Especially if you are interested in the thin and light computers, as things like memory are soldered onto the motherboard, and hence not upgradeable.

Quad HD screens are great, but current software does not support it well now. Some icons are tiny, other software scales the resolution up but poorly, so the image is blurry. In that sense you are better served with a 1920x1080 screen. But in a few years that stuff will be ironed out, and if you are going to live with this laptop for 5-7 years you may be disappointed. Quad HD will make your video viewing experience much better.

SSD drives are the bees knees. In 2.5 format you can get 512GB for $200, so soon it will be free. If you end up buying a computer with a spinning disk you can upgrade in a year or so for next to free, or just do it now and avoid the annoyance.

Does battery life matter to you (those overpriced Macs will run for 12 hours, compared to 4 hours for a cheap Windows laptop)?

Does ruggedness matter to you? For example the thinkpad series are built for the road warrier, and are tough as nails. Also bulky and heavy.

Does weight/size matter? an ultabook typically has very long battery life, is very slim, but often has soldered on components to make that thin size possible.
 
roger said:
Can you explain why you need the drive space and will spend weeks "reinstalling" if all you do is watch videos and play music? I'm not being snarky, it sounds like you have some unstated needs.

If you aren't doing any heavy duty processing/computation, look at something with the new Core M chips. They require no fans, and the result is a silent system if you also have an SSD.

If you plan for another 5-7 years, you may want to buy enough computer to work for that long. Especially if you are interested in the thin and light computers, as things like memory are soldered onto the motherboard, and hence not upgradeable.

Quad HD screens are great, but current software does not support it well now. Some icons are tiny, other software scales the resolution up but poorly, so the image is blurry. In that sense you are better served with a 1920x1080 screen. But in a few years that stuff will be ironed out, and if you are going to live with this laptop for 5-7 years you may be disappointed. Quad HD will make your video viewing experience much better.

SSD drives are the bees knees. In 2.5 format you can get 512GB for $200, so soon it will be free. If you end up buying a computer with a spinning disk you can upgrade in a year or so for next to free, or just do it now and avoid the annoyance.

Does battery life matter to you (those overpriced Macs will run for 12 hours, compared to 4 hours for a cheap Windows laptop)?

Does ruggedness matter to you? For example the thinkpad series are built for the road warrier, and are tough as nails. Also bulky and heavy.

Does weight/size matter? an ultabook typically has very long battery life, is very slim, but often has soldered on components to make that thin size possible.
Click to expand...

I think you confused my post with someone else's.
I never said anything about weeks or reinstalling.
All needs stated.

The rest of your reply is helpful, as are all others, with thanks, folks.
 
After lots of thought...
I'm probably going to buy a notebook style laptop, a big screen TV, and just run my drives through the HDMI hookup.
It seems the best solution.

So now I'm shopping notebook style laptops!
I'm sure I can judiciously get a two year old laptop for pretty cheap. Don't need the latest stuff.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
:D
That was outdated me trying not to sound outdated.
I knew of notebook laptops but didn't know if it was appropriate to refer to all dinky laptops as notebooks.
Click to expand...


I think these terms are synonymous. Maybe you meant "netbook".

Seriously, is there anything really out of order with your current thing? If it's just slow or the software is a mess, you should really try it with what I recommended in my first post in this thread.

In addition, as others have said external hard drives are dirt cheap these days.
 
Childlike Empress said:
I think these terms are synonymous. Maybe you meant "netbook".

Seriously, is there anything really out of order with your current thing? If it's just slow or the software is a mess, you should really try it with what I recommended in my first post in this thread.

In addition, as others have said external hard drives are dirt cheap these days.
Click to expand...

My current laptop is seven years old and failing. I've had to use a logon workaround for months, some shortcuts no longer work reliably or at all, mouse functions are different every day, sometimes she doesn't boot up unless I coax her. Nearly toast.

But nice as your suggestion is, I'm not going to use a new OS.
I simply need a Windows notebookorwhatever that's not so recent that it hasn't dropped in price.

And since I don't own a tv, I may as well set my thing up in a way that integrates a few components. That way my computer is still portable.
So I'm going to buy a sensibly priced notebookorwhatever, an external drive for backup to the one I already have, and a big screen teevee.
 
Last edited:
Monketey Ghost said:
My current laptop is seven years old and failing. I've had to use a logon workaround for months, some shortcuts no longer work reliably or at all, mouse functions are different every day, sometimes she doesn't boot up unless I coax her. Nearly toast.
Click to expand...


All sounds like a messed-up OS nobody took care of. What I suggested is to download a 100MB file for free, burn it to a CD (as an .iso), boot your computer from it and see if the "commercial" promised too much. It barks when it's ready. ;)

Anyway, good luck with your shopping.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
Gonna replace my old Gateway from '07.
That's right, I run em into the ground. Have been using workarounds to keep the one I have functioning.

So: I'm getting another Windows system. My needs are simple: playing music and videos, and that's about it. I don't need a lot of the bloatware that usually comes on laptops, spreadsheets and so forth.
That probably wouldn't affect price though.

My old laptop has listed 452 gig capacity. The replacement has to have at least that.

Obviously I'm way out of the loop. Fielding all recommendations ASIDE FROM "Buy some stupidly overpriced shiny Apple product for idiots with more money than sense."
Click to expand...

Go for at least a TB of memory if you can!!! Many now have two.......
 
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