Hard Core Shopping: Best Laptop Buy For The Buck SSD ?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

14" is fine as long as the downsizing buys performance or quality. Yep, I'm a novice. No gaming. Internet mostly.

[pianotuna]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
14" is fine as long as the downsizing buys performance or quality. Yep, I'm a novice. No gaming. Internet mostly.

Mex I have an I7 with 16 gigs of ram and an SSD drive.

It is by far the fastest computer I've ever owned.

Unfortunately it has "chicklet" keys. There is no microphone input. Other than that it is the best machine I've ever owned.

I purchased through costco which doubled the makers warranty.

[Gdetrailer]

Twix, the last post of the thread was June 1st of 2020, bringing a long dead thread back to life..That IS 7 months ago, I suspect the OP has already made a choice and long gone from monitoring this thread..

Looks like you are freshly minted poster..

Yes, I have done the same thing, best to check dates before posting to a very old thread.

[APT]

Any $150 Chromebook can browse the internet and watch videos. Spend a couple extra bucks for more RAM and better screen resolution. Get USB C for charging and expansion. A $50 USB C hubs can support extra monitors, extra USB A ports, and audio combined.

Otherwise, I'd recommend a MacBook. You cna often find good deals @ Apple Refurb Store and Microcenter.

[twix228]

TurnThePage wrote:
I too will throw my support behind SSDs. I do IT in a shop with nearly 10,000 PCs to support. After that initial hiccup, they are rock solid and FAST.

Windows 7 lack of security could bite you bad regardless of your financial status. As previously mentioned there are front end software products that will make Windows 10 act and behave just like XP or Win7.

IF you live where Internet is not guaranteed, Windows is worlds better than Chromebook.

Even an i3 processor will perform well with at least 8 GB of RAM and an SSD.

I personally won't go smaller than a 15" display now, and the cost is minimal. Sometimes 15" models are cheaper than 14" models that are otherwise identical.

I second the recommendation to buy directly from Dell too.

During these COVID times, it can be quite a challenge finding good laptops. At least it has been for us. We have had to settle for Lenovo models. They are starting to grow on me. A lot of bang for the buck for sure.

JMHO

It is best to switch to Windows 10 and not sweat it, because at the time of hacking the Windows 7 system is much easier

[bighatnohorse]

Okay, I think I'm getting the picture.
15-20 minutes of chair time doesn't leave much time to learn a new OS such as Windows 10
Thus, you prefer Win 7.

Security: There are hacker idiots out there that would happily "brick" your computer just for fun.
And/or they would divert your SS check to Nigeria.

Okay - so you would take your chances.

I'm not sure that Win 7 is capable of operating an SSD
Plus, printer drivers won't be available when your printer ***** out and you need a replacement.

I also get the drift that your home operates off an inverter - not the local power company juice.
Thus the need for a low power consumption, fast SSD.

So, to summarize, you need a low cost SSD laptop with a Win 7 interface.

An i3 or i5 Intel chip would be fine.
A small SSD boot chip
A 14 or 15 inch screen.
A standard USB port.

[TurnThePage]

I'm way out of practice with Classic Shell and its brethren, so I couldn't offer legitimate advice. This link seems like a great place to start though.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-make-windows-10-look-like-windows-7/

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Thanks again. Are there better and worse 10 to 7 shell programs.?

[TurnThePage]

I too will throw my support behind SSDs. I do IT in a shop with nearly 10,000 PCs to support. After that initial hiccup, they are rock solid and FAST.

Windows 7 lack of security could bite you bad regardless of your financial status. As previously mentioned there are front end software products that will make Windows 10 act and behave just like XP or Win7.

IF you live where Internet is not guaranteed, Windows is worlds better than Chromebook.

Even an i3 processor will perform well with at least 8 GB of RAM and an SSD.

I personally won't go smaller than a 15" display now, and the cost is minimal. Sometimes 15" models are cheaper than 14" models that are otherwise identical.

I second the recommendation to buy directly from Dell too.

During these COVID times, it can be quite a challenge finding good laptops. At least it has been for us. We have had to settle for Lenovo models. They are starting to grow on me. A lot of bang for the buck for sure.

JMHO

[Heisenberg]

I have built north of 55 PC's and I will say that your SSD is likely to outlive you. It is the greatest performance gain I have ever seen. In other words you will notice the difference especially at boot.
Once I built a Windows 7 on an SSD of 128 GB I have never gone back. On a laptop that would have a good chance of being too small. But you can use the cloud and microsd. My Dell has 256GB as ordered.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Yeah I forgot I want to update photos of my granddaughters just about monthly on my printer. Dang they're growing like weeds. When the eldest gets married then Great Grandfather will appear as my moniker.

Battery means a big and bigger Lifeline batteries running through a Samlex pure sine wave inverter. With one of the strictest cuarantinas on the planet where could I go?

And sitting in a chair is limited to 15-20 minutes
Then it's back to bed. Spine is decomposing. Meaning the vertebrae.

The kids are lucky. The family lives at the seashore the place where everyone else wants to go on vacation. Fantastic opportunity to make photos, frame them all over the house here 2,000 miles away from home

Windows 7 is fine for me. I tried the symbol heavy Windows 10 and repeatedly got so lost then deeper and deeper I went trying to extract myself friends had to help me find my way back. I do not need that level of complexity. I refuse to choose digital clocks. Do I need to know the hour, minute, and second when I arise or make coffee? Humans have analog brains, not digital. At least I do.

I used a tiny sliver of hard drive disc capacity on my last laptop then the disc died. Blue screen.

Arguments roar about people who spend a fortune on RAM upgrades only to find a solid state drive was the real answer?

I could care less about so called security. With a 750 dollar month social security who is going to rob me?

Like my car. Thoughts of stealing it would have a robber rolling on the floor.

Multitasking means cooking while watching a clock. If I have two windows open it means I forgot to close one.

None of my laptops worked wirelessly with the bluetooth Canon printer until distance closed to within 3 feet. So I bought a cable connector

Endless thanks for your suggestions. They are of immense help.

[T18skyguy]

wa8yxm wrote:
A lot depends on what you want it for.
Record keeping, A good business model
On line (or offline gaming other than solitare) a good gaming model
Simply browsing the web and online business. Hard to beat a chromebook in terms of bang for buck.. I run two of 'em most of the day.. One doing "nuttin-much" (Publishers clearing house) and the other.. Well I'm typing on it now.

Not much storage (But the will hold a few hours of video HD video)
Not much productivity software
I need to use a Windows box to print (Either move the file or as a server)

But for the value it spends all day on the internet with battery left.

Yea, it doesn't need any fan to cool it cause it doesn't overheat. That saves a good bit of battery. I don't know how much, but I would think it's a significant battery draw.

[wa8yxm]

A lot depends on what you want it for.
Record keeping, A good business model
On line (or offline gaming other than solitare) a good gaming model
Simply browsing the web and online business. Hard to beat a chromebook in terms of bang for buck.. I run two of 'em most of the day.. One doing "nuttin-much" (Publishers clearing house) and the other.. Well I'm typing on it now.

Not much storage (But the will hold a few hours of video HD video)
Not much productivity software
I need to use a Windows box to print (Either move the file or as a server)

But for the value it spends all day on the internet with battery left.

[T18skyguy]

dieseltruckdriver wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

dieseltruckdriver wrote:
If you mainly do internet, maybe light word processing and spreadsheets a Chromebook would be perfect.
My mom has the first one I ever bought, and it still works like new. It has to be 5 or 6 years old now. Both my wife and I use our Chromebooks much more than the Windows 7 or 10 machines.

Edited to add:
You can work with spreadsheets and word processing without internet, and you can get by with a $200 to $300 computer that will work faster than Windows 10.
Just wanted to add that before someone says they don't work without internet.

Chromebooks are not a real substitute for all things "PC".

You do realize that a Chromebook is nothing more than a highly crippled Android OS?

Has very limited processing power, very limited on board RAM, has very limited onboard drive space, pretty much all of your "APPS" sit out on the "Cloud" not on your Chromebook, your "data files" sit out on the "Cloud", your printing sits out on the "Cloud"..

Want to install some PC software you have, NOPE, not going to happen on a Chromebook..

Can your Chromebook PRINT directly to a printer without the Internet? NOPE, not going to happen there.. Have to use an Internet printing app..

Can you plug in anything USB? Nope, not even close, some do, most do not.. The ones that might have a USB port, well most likely will not support say optical drives, printers or anything other than a flash drive..

Heck an Android phone has pretty much everything you need except for a bigger screen. But Mex WAS asking about a PC, not a wannabe pretend PC, a PC where you can install your own software LOCALLY, store all of your FILES locally, operate at 100% even without Internet.

Sure, it may be possible to do SOME very limited stuff on a Chromebook, but to REALLY do most anything it REALLY NEEDS 100% Internet connection, something that Mex does not have the luxury of.

The only thing the Chromebook has going is the cheap, cheap price, it really does not compare to a real Laptop running a Windows version of some sort for compatibility with the world..

If you want limits and be cheap then Chromebook is definitely your cup o tea..

:R
I deleted most of what I originally replied because it was getting too long.

You are right about the printing, I forgot about that, and should have mentioned that. Many of your other points are incorrect.

Standard USB is available on every Chromebook I have seen. Every USB device I have tried works the same as on a Windows machine. This includes keyboards, mice, and optical drives, I have several 1 and 2TB external drives that work the same as Windows.

No they can't run Windows software, that shouldn't even need to be said. Expecting them to is honestly ridiculous.

I stand by my original post, if all you need is offline Word or Excel compatible work and online surfing, a Chromebook CAN NOT BE BEAT for the price compared to a RAM hog Windows machine. 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for most casual users. Plus there are no moving parts inside a Chromebook to go bad, so they handle vibration much better, in my experience.

One of the reasons Chromebooks are so speedy, is that their only pushing 4.5 million lines of code compared to Windows 50 million. They don't need the fastest processor or the most memory for a number of reasons. Their designed to do one thing extremely well and that's surf the net. Just as in everything else, you get what you pay for. A low end Chromebook is just as disappointing as a low end PC. Another Chromebook advantage is you don't have to buy or run antivirus. Google takes care of that. Plus no hourglass or blue screen of death. I use to use google cloud print, but that's being discontinued the end of the year, but there are replacements like ezeep.com( I haven't tried it). I think Microsoft, in trying to be all things to all people, has become a bloated scruff filled mess that can't get out of it's own way. I think that's partly the reason people look back fondly on Windows 7. I didn't know that PC's are specially made for Walmart? So the Walmartian's get their own class of junk? Not surprised really. Walmart also gets all their eggs from China. I won't be eating those either.

[bighatnohorse]

Windows 7 ????
No more security updates for that dinosaur.

Did you know that Ebay probes computers when visiting that site?
If Ebay does it, so do others. Still want Windows 7 ?

See: Ebay probes computers