ELDEMONIO Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 This one i've had for like 7yrs is breaking down now. some screws in the side are gone so it opens. And sometimes certain icons don't show up or go slow. Any laptop brands I should consider that is less than $500? >.> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdamizer Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 15 minutes ago, ELDEMONIO said: This one i've had for like 7yrs is breaking down now. some screws in the side are gone so it opens. And sometimes certain icons don't show up or go slow. Any laptop brands I should consider that is less than $500? >.> My wife loves her chromebook. She doesn't do any gaming or anything like that though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELDEMONIO Posted June 17, 2020 Author Share Posted June 17, 2020 4 minutes ago, Sawdamizer said: My wife loves her chromebook. She doesn't do any gaming or anything like that though I don't do any gaming on mine either. I use it to print stuff, connect it to my tv, and do office work like taxes and stuff. I do need it to have USB drive, CD drive, and a hdmi since it comes in handy a lot with my families old electronics. And slots for SD memory and produo memory thingy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Cloud_Overhead Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 Don't honestly know that much about the difference between computer brands, but I've been an HP laptop for past 8 years at least, and it still runs really well. Kinda surprised it's lasted this long on me, cuz the last laptop I had had all sorts of problems after only like 5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsar4 Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 CR has the Acer Aspire 5 A514-52-78MD ($550) as a "Recommended" buy. (14" screen) Everything else that they have as somewhat decent is a few hundred more. Stay away from Lenovo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doom Metal Alchemist Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 16 hours ago, Dark_Cloud_Overhead said: Don't honestly know that much about the difference between computer brands, but I've been an HP laptop for past 8 years at least, and it still runs really well. Kinda surprised it's lasted this long on me, cuz the last laptop I had had all sorts of problems after only like 5 years. How is that thing not slow as molasses by now, not because of it being bad, but rather obsolete? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Cloud_Overhead Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Don't honestly know. I use the clean the hard drive tool to get rid of old unnecessary files from time to time when it stars to slow down a bit, but other than that I don't do much of anything special and it keeps running pretty fine. I was thinking it wouldn't be long before I'd have to replace it a few years ago, but somehow it's still going strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distortedreasoning Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said: How is that thing not slow as molasses by now, not because of it being bad, but rather obsolete? i got a laptop thats almost as old and still runs fine. sure it cant be used much for gaming but for running the OS and light pc tasks, this thing gets the job done quite well. mines an early gen corre i7. long as it had quad core it should still be good. also help if you upgrade to nvme or ssd. that said, if i were to get a laptop at that $500 budget point that the op mentioned, i'd consider upping that budget to at least $650 and get one of the newer gen ryzen 4000 series cpu ones. budget laptops with those chips will cost $650 starting out but it gets you the latest tech. if you need to stick to $500 then i look at the best specs you can get at that price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackiemarie90 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Oh my god yes you need a new laptop. XD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilosipherStoned Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) Alienware is the only thing I want to sign off on willy nilly idk. Toshiba had some good shit back when I needed laptops a lil more, but that was years ago. Chromebooks are cheap, but looking at 'em always leaves me skeptical from a computer tech perspective. There is always Mac books and stuff, but since I'm not an apple computer fan I can't say much about them. Edited June 19, 2020 by PhilosipherStoned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELDEMONIO Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 On 6/17/2020 at 3:17 PM, Dark_Cloud_Overhead said: Don't honestly know that much about the difference between computer brands, but I've been an HP laptop for past 8 years at least, and it still runs really well. Kinda surprised it's lasted this long on me, cuz the last laptop I had had all sorts of problems after only like 5 years. I had a HP and it lasted for like 4 yrs. The one I have right now is a Sony VAIO. Maybe I got the bad type of Hp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELDEMONIO Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 On 6/17/2020 at 3:32 PM, tsar4 said: CR has the Acer Aspire 5 A514-52-78MD ($550) as a "Recommended" buy. (14" screen) Everything else that they have as somewhat decent is a few hundred more. Stay away from Lenovo. As long as it has a HDMI slot and CD slot then i'm ok with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELDEMONIO Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 23 hours ago, Distortedreasoning said: i got a laptop thats almost as old and still runs fine. sure it cant be used much for gaming but for running the OS and light pc tasks, this thing gets the job done quite well. mines an early gen corre i7. long as it had quad core it should still be good. also help if you upgrade to nvme or ssd. that said, if i were to get a laptop at that $500 budget point that the op mentioned, i'd consider upping that budget to at least $650 and get one of the newer gen ryzen 4000 series cpu ones. budget laptops with those chips will cost $650 starting out but it gets you the latest tech. if you need to stick to $500 then i look at the best specs you can get at that price. If I have to go to $600 I might do it. I have a credit card from Best buy so I can make payments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELDEMONIO Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 3 hours ago, PhilosipherStoned said: Alienware is the only thing I want to sign off on willy nilly idk. Toshiba had some good shit back when I needed laptops a lil more, but that was years ago. Chromebooks are cheap, but looking at 'em always leaves me skeptical from a computer tech perspective. There is always Mac books and stuff, but since I'm not an apple computer fan I can't say much about them. I've seen chromes in best buy. Apple is good for protection from what I've heard. Been a while since i've since the prices for them so they might of gone down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distinct Lunatic Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 Look into Lenovo, as far as laptops go Lenovo is top dog, and makes good and reliable laptops. Avoid Toshiba laptops like they're the plague. Also as far as laptops go, depending on your preferences if you can find one that has SSD storage even if only a couple hundred gigs of storage, go with that. I've worked on so many laptops (my mom's, sis's, friends, as well as my friends mom) and for some reason its like all laptop manufacturers go with the shittiest mechanical hdds there are, where like in no time at all you can feel how slow it is, and after 1-2 years it becomes very unresponsive. One of the things I've done for my mom and sis whenever I worked on their laptops was replace the shitty hdds in them with ssds, and it really brought new life to their old laptops. If you can find a laptop that has an AMD Ryzen processor in it, definitely go for that. You'll get better performance as well as thermals and power draw than if it used an Intel processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distortedreasoning Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 55 minutes ago, ELDEMONIO said: If I have to go to $600 I might do it. I have a credit card from Best buy so I can make payments. if you can go up to that price range then i would highly recommend you get one of the lower end ryzen 4000 series laptop. they are AMDs newest and they perform great. i been hearing great things about the lenovo ideapad 5 with the amd ryzen 5 4500u cpu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HardcoreHunter Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 If you're thinking about chromebooks and want to do taxes I'd research what software you are using. I believe that they have a contract with Turbo Tax, so other tax software can't be installed on them easily if at all. It's why my brother didn't get one since he uses Block. Check out facebook Marketplace in your area. I sometimes see people selling good gaming level stuff that isn't good for the newest games anymore, but will overpower any cheaper workstation at usually less cost. Also what you need can depend on which browser you're using. Chrome can easily use 2gb or more on it's own if you are using tabs and spreadsheets. So I'd suggest going with something with at least 8gb of ram if you run multiple apps at once. So if you have chrome running with a dozen tabs and a tax spreadsheet app going you're probably going to be hitting over 5gb of ram usage. As for CPU if you can find one with a cheep i5 great, if not an i3 or the ryzen cpu's will work. I also would suggest getting one of these hot swap usb devices. I use one, pretty much turns your hdd and ssd into a thumbdrive. It'll allow you to make use of your old laptop HDD, and use it to backup your stuff. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H11QT3S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NNN Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 On 6/17/2020 at 4:39 PM, ELDEMONIO said: This one i've had for like 7yrs is breaking down now. some screws in the side are gone so it opens. And sometimes certain icons don't show up or go slow. Any laptop brands I should consider that is less than $500? >.> facebook market or craigslist. always test the system before buying, and make sure its clean depends what you want it for; if just for work and posting anything will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilosipherStoned Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 On 6/19/2020 at 1:25 PM, Distinct Lunatic said: Look into Lenovo, as far as laptops go Lenovo is top dog, and makes good and reliable laptops. Avoid Toshiba laptops like they're the plague. Also as far as laptops go, depending on your preferences if you can find one that has SSD storage even if only a couple hundred gigs of storage, go with that. I've worked on so many laptops (my mom's, sis's, friends, as well as my friends mom) and for some reason its like all laptop manufacturers go with the shittiest mechanical hdds there are, where like in no time at all you can feel how slow it is, and after 1-2 years it becomes very unresponsive. One of the things I've done for my mom and sis whenever I worked on their laptops was replace the shitty hdds in them with ssds, and it really brought new life to their old laptops. If you can find a laptop that has an AMD Ryzen processor in it, definitely go for that. You'll get better performance as well as thermals and power draw than if it used an Intel processor. I had a Toshiba satellite laptop as my first computer, and I completely thrashed it for years learning a bunch of shit the hard way fucking around with sketchy programs, and running games most people wouldn't want to play on a laptop. Still that thing lasted me at least 7 years. It had good parts for the time, the latest windows, a decent web cam and everything. I don't feel Toshiba laptops are that bad, but there's a lot of other brands and designs I'd prefer over their laptops that being said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distinct Lunatic Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Just now, PhilosipherStoned said: I had a Toshiba satellite laptop as my first computer, and I completely thrashed it for years learning a bunch of shit the hard way fucking around with sketchy programs, and running games most people wouldn't want to play on a laptop. Still that thing lasted me at least 7 years. It had good parts for the time, the latest windows, a decent web cam and everything. I don't feel Toshiba laptops are that bad, but there's a lot of other brands and designs I'd prefer over their laptops that being said. At one point in time they were decent, just like Dell laptops and desktops used to be good. But at some point in the 2010's those two have become brands you wouldn't want to touch not even with a 10 foot pole. HP I think still makes decent laptops, but I don't know if I myself would purchase one again. Realistically I have no use for a laptop. I have two gaming PCs, one in the living room that also runs my plex server, and then my main gaming pc in my 2nd room. My laptop I've only used 2 or 3 times in the last 3ish years, it being a Samsung brand (will never buy another from Samsung, the Dell laptop I had before that one was more reliable). Mine died this year when I actually did want to use it again, I was able to get an old laptop from a friend of mine for no cost, me sticking an old ssd in it as well as upgrading the memory to 8gb, I then installed Linux Mint on it, and it works pretty good despite being close to 8 years old and having weaker hardware than my laptop which was made 7 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonSinger Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) *Pokes my head in here because I too am thinking about a new laptop* I've had Lenovo the past few times because they've been durable enough to survive my clumsiness. The specs I want in an upgrade are more expensive in this brand though, so I'm willing to cheat. Edited June 20, 2020 by DragonSinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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