Laptop recommendations
- Thread starter stateofmind
- Start date
I'm guessing that I should get a 200 GB drive at least. I have an external drive that has around that and seems to hold it all. If I would go through and organize I'm sure that I could get by with much less.
Going for a larger battery frequently means that the battery is physically larger so there is a definite trade off of size to longevity. If battery life is a big concern I'd instead just make sure to target something with a new low power Haswell chip inside, if its designed well, they tend to have excellent battery life.
Getting a laptop with a SSD around that price point will be tricky, its still just much more expensive storage then a conventional HDD and 500 dollars is considered a budget laptop.
Probably out of your price range that you wanted but I would be looking at a laptop with a 500gb SSD. Then back it up to your external and also a cloud (Google drive works well). No matter how much ram you have, processor speed, etc. the SSD has made the biggest difference to me. Plus it uses less power, space, heat, noise, etc.
Toshiba or HP. My last laptop I had, I used for about 4 years without any problems. I gave it to my dad when I got a new one...it crashed in one day......very strange if you ask me
Yeah, the budget isn't my biggest restriction, that's my wife's... But I want something that can take care of our everyday needs, but I don't put my computer to a large test. So spending a lot to have bells and whistles is what I'm trying to avoid. But having something that is stable and large enough to handle our storage needs is where I'm looking. I'm a big fan of the SSD, and would love to have the added benefit of a removable tablet, but I realize it's like high-quality cheap shirts. I have one of those HP TouchPads, but the case is starting to crack and the android OS that I'm running on is a little flaky.
So this would take care of my wife's Dell that has been warning us that her HD is about to die, and replace my tablet.
So this would take care of my wife's Dell that has been warning us that her HD is about to die, and replace my tablet.
A few more things I want to put out there:
1) The feature you are looking at (the 2-in-1 combos) are going to price you out of the other features you want, such as a larger SSD, or having any real processor speed. Just about all the convertable/detachable laptop/tablet combos I saw either had small SSDs (less than 100GB), or slower HDDs (5400rpm).
2) If you go the traditional laptop w/ touch screen support route, there are more options out there. Plus, you could also pick up a cheap laptop w/ a HDD, and simply purchase a SSD separately to replace your HDD. Going prices for 2.5" SSDs these days are around 2GB/$1, so a 500GB SSD would be close to $250ish.
3) If you want, you could always go the route of a small internal SSD, with a larger external HDD to store anything extra that won't fit. The biggest benefit of the SSD comes from having your OS installed on it, making the computer more responsive overall.
1) The feature you are looking at (the 2-in-1 combos) are going to price you out of the other features you want, such as a larger SSD, or having any real processor speed. Just about all the convertable/detachable laptop/tablet combos I saw either had small SSDs (less than 100GB), or slower HDDs (5400rpm).
2) If you go the traditional laptop w/ touch screen support route, there are more options out there. Plus, you could also pick up a cheap laptop w/ a HDD, and simply purchase a SSD separately to replace your HDD. Going prices for 2.5" SSDs these days are around 2GB/$1, so a 500GB SSD would be close to $250ish.
3) If you want, you could always go the route of a small internal SSD, with a larger external HDD to store anything extra that won't fit. The biggest benefit of the SSD comes from having your OS installed on it, making the computer more responsive overall.
I have a 2 1/2 year old Toshiba satellite. thing is solid as a rock, Dropped It on concrete when my back broke on me twice. A little scratched but still working like new. Newer ones are tablet PC's.
So I bought a Lenovo Yoga 2 in 1 laptop, with an 11+ inch screen. 500 GB 4 MB DDR3. It's not a SSD, but the lady at Best Buy said it's not as big of a deal today that it was a year or more ago. I've been using it for a couple days and really like it. It's a little smaller than I wanted, but I'm going to share it with my 10 year old, and he wanted the smaller one. I started realizing that the size was good for flying and laying in bed. It's missing the DVD player that I wanted, but we can always take my work computer on trips if we want to watch movies in the car.
We got it on sale for $499. The lady talked me into Lenovo as she said she is very impressed with the construction. Asus was her second choice. The Asus was $100 more so I felt she was shooting me straight. Anyway, anybody have any experience with the Yoga laptops? Anything I should be wary of? I can take it back within two weeks, so I'm giving this a go. So far, so good.
We got it on sale for $499. The lady talked me into Lenovo as she said she is very impressed with the construction. Asus was her second choice. The Asus was $100 more so I felt she was shooting me straight. Anyway, anybody have any experience with the Yoga laptops? Anything I should be wary of? I can take it back within two weeks, so I'm giving this a go. So far, so good.
I would like to know what she meant by this statement.
Just reading a short review on it and it makes it sound like it has a hybrid hard drive with 500gb/16gb SSD?
Looks like a nice go between a laptop and a tablet.
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Reviews can be tricky, since they could get a different version. If he got this particular one from Best Buy, then no, it is just a 500GB HDD @ 5400rpm. No hybrid drive.
I'm curious to whether or not anything can be upgraded on it, though. Looks like the RAM is not upgradeable (according to Best Buy's site), so the likelihood of the drive being replaceable is slim.
All in all though, for the purpose and use that you bought it for, it looks like a pretty decent-to-good purchase. As big as streaming is nowadays, having a DVD drive isn't that big of a deal, and if you need to, you can always purchase an external DVD drive to use. Personally wouldn't waste the money getting an external Blu-ray drive, as the 11" screen's resolution is just 1366x768, unless you already own Blu-ray's that your kids are going to bug you about.
She either straight up lied to you, or she doesn't know what she is talking about. If it is a hybrid drive, or it has an ssd cache, that makes up a bit of the difference, but there is a huge difference between even the hybrids and a true ssd drive in terms of performance.
I've had good luck with HP. Solid, dependable, and excellent customer service. Then again, I don't use lots of bells & whistles on mine.
Suggestion: if you're looking for image storage, consider a storage drive (Western Digital makes quite a variety). Huge storage capacity, generally uses a USB connection so it can be moved to other computers, doesn't slow down your actual computer. We keep all of our home movies (digital), all of our images, and all of our MP3's (about 7000) on ours. We actually have two books. Family pictures & movies would be hard to replace. The second one is updated periodically and stored in the garage (at the opposite end of the house).
Suggestion: if you're looking for image storage, consider a storage drive (Western Digital makes quite a variety). Huge storage capacity, generally uses a USB connection so it can be moved to other computers, doesn't slow down your actual computer. We keep all of our home movies (digital), all of our images, and all of our MP3's (about 7000) on ours. We actually have two books. Family pictures & movies would be hard to replace. The second one is updated periodically and stored in the garage (at the opposite end of the house).
Agreed. The life expectancy on Dell laptops is right around three years, tops (lost 2 that way - on each one, the motherboard just simply croaked). So, switched to a Gateway. So far, so good, until MSoft stops supporting Windoze7.
Really? I have owned two Dells that have both lasted 10 years and going strong! Guess I should play a lottery if I can beat the odds like that...
As much as I like KCclone I have to give a warning in the opposite on HP.
I bought their top end Envy 17 a few years back, and it was a great computer, until it melted down a few weeks after factory warranty went off. I have also watched both my sisters crush two HP laptops in about a years use. I also added an Intel SSD drive after buying the laptop and was trying to reinstate all the special software that was on the computer, and their customer service was less than desirable. They never fixed my problem long in the short.
As much as I hate to say it, the only way to go on laptops is Apple. I don't buy Apple products, in fact I never have, but right now its your best value, period. You can run windows on it before you ask.
I bought their top end Envy 17 a few years back, and it was a great computer, until it melted down a few weeks after factory warranty went off. I have also watched both my sisters crush two HP laptops in about a years use. I also added an Intel SSD drive after buying the laptop and was trying to reinstate all the special software that was on the computer, and their customer service was less than desirable. They never fixed my problem long in the short.
As much as I hate to say it, the only way to go on laptops is Apple. I don't buy Apple products, in fact I never have, but right now its your best value, period. You can run windows on it before you ask.
