Looked back in the archives and didn't find any recent discussions on this. Since it's an ever-changing technology, and I don't really keep up on what's good/bad with computers, steer me oh beeb. My current home-use laptop just turned 9 years old. Hard to believe. It's an Acer Aspire Intel I3 from Tiger Direct and has really been quite reliable. I wiped it and restarted it a couple of times, but I think it's time for an upgrade. Like I said, home use. No games. The most demanding application it will probably see is I'm planning to transfer a bunch of VHS/8MM/miniDV tapes to digital. Otherwise it's typical internet surfing, Excel/Word. I do have a free trial for SolidWorks that I'd like to check out, but I don't plan on using this laptop for any hard-core engineering or CAD work on any consistent basis, if at all. My price point is $800 or less. That's pretty firm. I have no idea if Intel>AMD these days? What processors are best, how much RAM, SSD vs hard drive, etc. There are tons of places and options out there, I just need to know what to avoid & what is good. And why would I read reviews on CNET or other reputable sources when I can get all I need here, from peyote to colonoscopies to conveyor belts. What'cha got?
I'm using an Asus right now and this thing is showing no signs of slowing down. To give you an idea of how old it is the model is U46E. Only thing it lacks is an ssd. I dearly love my macbook air though.
Macbook Pro - work bought it. I've had multiple Dell laptops and they have always been pretty good. https://deals.dell.com/en-us/category/clearance This looks to be pretty good: https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/28tm
Also not up on the latest technology, but, 2 things for sure...SSD and get an external drive to back up all of your stuff. You can get a couple TB of storage for less than $100.
+1 for Asus. I hate their big cumbersome socket mounted power supplies, but the rest is top notch and mine is going strong after 4 years.
if u are going to keep the laptop for another 9yrs, spend your entire budget and get the highest spec u can. go for a faster processor and more ram. there's no sense in living with a shitty laptop for almost a decade. SSD disk space is usually ez to upgrade in Windows laptops later. a friend just bought an Acer E15 and is enjoying it. i5, 256GB SSD, dual GPU, 8GB ram. the only thing I wish it had was more ram. with some extra $$, id def look to bump up to an i7 and 16GB ram. https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7?th=1
Replaced my 10yr old Dell Studio 17 with a new Inspirion 17. The Studio still works fine, needs new hinges again (common issue with them), has a 500GB SSD (which I put in to replace the 320GB HDD it came with) and a 2tb HDD . Inspirion has a 12GB M2 SSD and a 2TB HDD. Did get 8GB ram to work in the Studio even though they say it wont recognize more than 4GB. New one has 16GB. Also bought a Dell inspirion 11 2n1 for a travelling laptop. Only one I have without a SSD. Oredered both Inspirions directly from Dell since Best Buy doesn't stock or carry any Dell laptops that have an optical drive.
We actually just had a topic on this back in December that I started. Don’t get hung up on SSD. It’s cheaper to buy a regular hdd model then image the OS onto a SSD you buy an amazon. That’s what I did. Bought a Lenovo with 1gb hdd, 500 gb SSD on amazon for $80. Bought a hard disk caddy that replaced your laptops cd drive with another hard drive slot. Imaged the OS into SSD, put the 1tb in the extra slot and saved about 250 bucks over comparable SSD models.
Hmm, I’ll have to look up that thread. Everything you said sound cool but I have no idea how to do that lol
Look at the new AMD Ryzen powered systems. I have a Ryzen desktop and it is amazing for the price. I have played on the Ryzen laptops, and dollar for dollar they blow an Intel one out of the water. Plus, the integrated graphics chip is amazing. I sat all this while I type on my Acer Nitro 5 intel gaming laptop. Ha.
I would buy a laptop with an SSD already in. Most laptops are not as easy to upgrade as they used to be. And if you are not comfortable taking them apart then it isn't worth it.
I'm replacing my ~ 9 year Acer Travelmate and another Travelmate in the next week or two and I'm getting. . . . a Lenovo T580. I've bought Acers, Asus and a turd HP and Acer travelmates are by far the best bargain for taking a beating, longevity and just bang for the buck for me, until now. It's just time to see if the Lenovo hype is true and I need a change.
If available in your price range, I would try to get a laptop with M.2 2280 form factor SSD slots. Lower profile and higher performance SSDs make for a much more responsive laptop. I'm typing this from a laptop I've spent nearly $4,500 on in total, but I primarily use it for CAD, rendering and gaming.
Oh yea. My biggest take away from last discussion is to also check the generation of intel I processors. An i5 8th gen will blow away an i7 from previous gen. Apparently the 8th gen is a big leap in performance.
Not necessarily. 7th and 8th gen are both Kaby Lake architecture. Basically the same processor with some refreshments. I have seen benchmarks showing both to be faster then each other. It really all depends on use case. But I will agree that if you can get one with M.2 Nvme support you wont be disappointed. But you want an nvme drive not a sata. Nvme is way faster.
