raymac46 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 My daughter asked me recently to recommend a new "budget" laptop for a relative of her husband. Anybody bought one recently? My take: Most of the major brands - Dell, HP, ASUS, Acer, etc are pretty similar so it won't matter that much what brand you get. Go for Core i3 if Intel is your choice - Don't waste your time with Celeron or Pentium processors. If buying AMD get a quad core - A8 maybe, although the new A6-5200 "Kabini" doesn't look bad. You'll get stuck with Windows 8 but you can fix it with Classic Shell. Don't bother with a touchscreen. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Well if possible, I would go with an i5 as you get a huge performance gain over the i3. The rest sounds good except for the touchscreen part. I would go with a touchscreen laptop with a keyboard if given the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 A touchscreen actually makes the Metro UI usable... so I would not forgo it right away, unless the added cost is too much. Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Unfortunately both i5 and touchscreen put it out of the budget. If I were buying for myself I'd choose the i5 - but maybe the touchscreen is a better choice for a casual user. This is an older guy who just wants to surf and get email. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 If you can not go touchscreen then don't go W8, stick to W7. You can still get new Dell's with W7 for $400 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 A couple options at local type stores/online store Staples.com with Intel Core i5, 6-8GB and a touchscreen: Dell Inspiron I14RMT-7500SLV 14" Touch Screen Laptop - $799.99 less $200 instant savings, price: $599.99 Comes with: 4th gen Intel Core i5-4200U processor 1.6GHz up to 2.6GHz 3M Cache 8GB (DDR3, 1600MHz, 2 DIMM) 1TB Hard Drive (5400RPM) SATA HP Pavilion 15-N046US 15" Touch Screen Laptop - $779.99 - $39.00 - NOW: $740.99 less Instant Savings: $91.00 less Rebate: - $50.00 - Price: $599.99* Comes with: 4th generation Intel® Core i5-4200U Processor, 1.6GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz 8GB DDR3L SDRAM 750GB 5400RPM hard drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection I think the first one is a better deal, but both are nice. If they are not gamers, then Intel Core i3 might work and be a better choice price wise and still get touchscreen and decent RAM: Toshiba C55-A5285 15.6" Laptop - PRICE: $549.99 less Rebate : - $50.00 - Price: $499.99* Comes with: Intel® Core™ i3-3120M 2.50GHz 3MB Cache Processor 6GB DDR3 Memory 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive Personally for a laptop, I would not go with AMD. They tend to run hotter than Intel Core i3 or i5 all things being equal. Hope one of those works. It's funny, Best Buy used to be such a good deal and not so much anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 An i3 may work fine today... but I think the user may be ultimately unhappy with the performance of the laptop in the future. How many years are they expecting to get out of it? Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 An i3 may work fine today... but I think the user may be ultimately unhappy with the performance of the laptop in the future. How many years are they expecting to get out of it? Adam That was my thoughts as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 These are people who are probably running an XP desktop from 2004, so anything will be an improvement. I doubt they'd ever tax a machine hard enough to see the difference between an i3 and an i5, and $100 more would seem like a lot to them. The touchscreen might be cool enough that they'd consider it. I'll recommend one with and without and see how it goes. My SIL's parents are coping with Windows 8, so they probably could help the other folks. As far as AMD goes they have come a long way with the APUs and I don't have too much concern about them being too hot in a laptop. Besides I have a quad core "Daneb" AMD laptop myself and it has crappy battery life but otherwise is a fine performer. My daughter has an HP Sleekbook with an A6-4445M ULV dual core that runs very nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 The touchscreen is not a cool factor, it is really needed with Windows 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) Even if you install Start 8 or Classic Shell and bypass the Metro stuff completely? I have no experience with Win 8 whatsoever. Edited December 31, 2013 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I am just saying that if they get an i3, it will probably work fine. However, as software gets update, it becomes more heavy. Will an i3 be enough to last the next 5-6 years? Even if it comes with Windows 7, it is not going to run very well now, much less later. I would not recommend and i3 to anyone except those who I am reasonably certain will be replacing the machine in 2-3 years. Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 You don't have to sell me, I have an i5 myself. I am at least trying to get them to consider an i3 at minimum and not buy a Pentium or Celeron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I hear ya raymac. Doesn't really matter, there will still be things where touchscreen makes life so much easier and less frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Of course those that have already purchased one without touchscreen have had the frustration of having to learn all the ins and outs without it. Not worth it to me...I would want a touchscreen personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveydoom Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) These are people who are probably running an XP desktop from 2004, so anything will be an improvement. I doubt they'd ever tax a machine hard enough to see the difference between an i3 and an i5, and $100 more would seem like a lot to them. Hi Ray. I'm not far from you in Ontario and I bought two of these (see below) on Black Friday weekend at Future Shop: http://www.futuresho...b/10274201.aspx They were only $399 at the time and have 8 Gig of RAM although the CPU is only a Pentium 2117U. However, these are for our kids who will be using them for Word processing, surfing, watching YouTube, using email, Facebook, etc. For the price I thought it was a good idea since they won't be pushing the limits of these things and I fully intend to get 5 years out of them. They boot up to the Desktop (using Classic Shell) in about 15 seconds (roughly) and run very fast for their needs. You'd be surprised at how many people I come across locally who are still using laptops that are 5 - 8 years old running XP Pro SP3 or Vista with 2 Gig of RAM or less. The laptops I just bought are leaps and bounds faster than those old ones. There's no CD/DVD drive but that keeps the weight down and fewer moving parts to get broken. The kids won't even notice, they've never used the optical drives on my old laptops that they've been using for the past year. Anything they want or need can either be downloaded and installed or copied from CD/DVD on another PC then transferred to a USB stick and installed that way. That's what I did with our copy of M$ Office Home and Student 2010. Their school work is always transferred using USB sticks and has been that way for years. The people you're inquiring about might be ok with something like this in my opinion if they only want something for a few years to surf the internet and if money is a major factor. They would have to be ok without an optical drive also . It's not for everyone. However, I completely agree with you and everyone else that an i5 is better for anyone who plans on keeping the laptop around for long time and who will be taxing their system. Software will continue to bloat . Edited January 5, 2014 by daveydoom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 ASUS makes great laptops but terrible quality desktops, go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 ASUS makes great laptops but terrible quality desktops, go figure. Which seems odd because as far as I know they make great motherboards. Acer often gets a reputation as a shlock maker but I have a first class Veriton M desktop from them - even assembled in the USA. A bit weak in power supply and had wimpy Intel graphics but the rest is industrial strength. I fixed the PS and graphics soon enough. Of course my roll your own Linux desktop has the best components. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 It's not the guts that are bad, it's the cheap and think cases, with poorly made DVD drives, etc. The motherboards I am sure are there usual great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Find out the purpose for the computer. If it is mainly surfing, email and streaming YouTube and Netflix, you can get away with a netbook. You do not need top of the line hardware for tasks like that. We have two Acer 11.6" netbooks purchased two years apart, both with Windows 7. The lack of an optical drive is not a problem. The first one cost $220 and I handed it over to my husband when I bought a 2nd one for myself. He has it mear his recliner and uses it to get and send emails, read the news and look up anything he heard mentioned in a news program. When he needs to do work, he heads to the basement and fires up a 2K (off the internet) or an XP (soon to be pulled from the internet) with both an Office Suite and a WordPerfect Suite installed. He also has a refurbed desktop with Win 7 that he'll be able to do work on and be connected to the internet. These people can continue to use the 10 year old computer, pulled off the internet, to do work, and use a netbook for safe surfing. Of course if they intend to e-cycle the desktop and use a laptop as the main computer, that is an entirely different set of requirements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I know several folks with ASUS Windows 7 laptops and the are very sturdy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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