Laptop purchase advice needed please

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lazza58

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#198145 28-Jun-2016 11:52

Hi y’all. Usual story from someone who isn’t too up on what’s what who needs a new laptop, asking for a hand.

I work almost exclusively with Chrome,Google apps, etc but I need hard drive storage (500GB would do), and to be able to run various programmes which allow me to access work, etc.

Windows, not Mac.

I’d prefer a 15” screen but slightly smaller wouldn’t be an issue. Not into gaming.

Budget up to around $1200

Any suggestions for a reliable supercomputer are greatly appreciated

Thanks.

timmmay

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#1581832 28-Jun-2016 12:20

Key things to look for are Intel processor, for you i5 is great and i3 is probably fine. SSD / solid state disk is important for fast boot and good performance. 8GB RAM should be adequate.

This Lenovo i3 with a 15.6" screen and a 192GB SSD would be good. If you really need more storage you can use an external disk, or simply buy the cheapest disk and add a bigger SSD yourself. You'd void the warranty. Windows 10 with common applications stored only takes up 50GB max.

Alternately Asus do good laptops, though I can't recommend specific models or suppliers.

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#1581873 28-Jun-2016 13:02

Your $1,200 budget is at the price "sweet spot" - you have lots of good value-for-money options.

The 15" screen size gives best value for money.

I suggest an i5 processor and a SSD drive, as above.

Unfortunately SSD drives on laptops tend to be "too small", but they do give a huge boost to performance.

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gzt

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#1582059 28-Jun-2016 15:01

I would not buy a windows laptop without SSD. If you really need the 500GB get an external slim drive and slip it in the carry. You will hardly know it is there.

Personally I like Lenovo they stick with the same design for years makes them a bit ugly but strong usually.

lazza58

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#1582670 29-Jun-2016 13:34

Thank you folks. I really appreciate your feedback on this. It's been very helpful.

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#1583309 30-Jun-2016 13:09

Buy the laptop from a real computor shop/seller & have them fit a 500Gb SSD.
SSD makes a huge difference , often more difference than a faster CPU .

Personally, I dont like the way Asus laptops split the hd into 2 partitions , with recovery partition in the middle so partions cant easily be merged into 1.
Its just stupid, many users just cant cope with that .

Whatever you buy, chances are it will be riddled with pre-installed crapware . Ideally go for the laptop with the least pre-installed crap.
HP & Lenovo are quite bad with the amount of crap they shovel into new systems .