Looking for a decent laptop...

I know zero about laptops. I've been living on a secondhand 2011 13" MacBook Pro I bought from a friend for a hundred english pounds. (I've no idea if that was a bargain or not)


TWO main questions here:

1. What should I buy?
I want something that supports MS Office, goes fast, and has a decent amount of storage space. Ideally I don't want another Mac. I don't really mind how heavy it is because I'm not lugging it around the place.
I use my laptop for writing, browsing, working, etc. I don't use it for gaming or for big programs like Photoshop or whatever.
I got told in Harvey Norman that MS Office is an extra so how do I get this for the lowest price?


2. Where should I buy it?
I was into Harvey Normans, PC World, and Power City yesterday and PC World generally seemed like it had the best prices but I can't be sure because I didn't know what to look for.
Which store is best or is it better to buy online or elsewhere?

SW98

Alessandro Late Punch wrote: »

I know zero about laptops. I've been living on a secondhand 2011 13" MacBook Pro I bought from a friend for a hundred english pounds. (I've no idea if that was a bargain or not)


TWO main questions here:

1. What should I buy?
I want something that supports MS Office, goes fast, and has a decent amount of storage space. Ideally I don't want another Mac. I don't really mind how heavy it is because I'm not lugging it around the place.
I use my laptop for writing, browsing, working, etc. I don't use it for gaming or for big programs like Photoshop or whatever.
I got told in Harvey Norman that MS Office is an extra so how do I get this for the lowest price?


2. Where should I buy it?
I was into Harvey Normans, PC World, and Power City yesterday and PC World generally seemed like it had the best prices but I can't be sure because I didn't know what to look for.
Which store is best or is it better to buy online or elsewhere?

Ok, so what you are looking for is a general use laptop that does not need too much power as it will only be doing light work. What I would do is look around online for a budget laptop, e.g. on Amazon. If you want it to be fast you should go with a laptop that has enough SSD storage for your OS and main programs and a regular HDD for the bulk of storage, e.g. documents and all that. Other than that an up to date intel pentium or core i3 along with 4GB+ of ram should have you a pretty fast general use laptop.

Are there good brands that I should be looking at? Are there some I should avoid?

Also, is 1TB storage a bit overkill? Or is 500 GB ok?

If I'm just using Chrome, MS Word + PPT should 4GB RAM be ok? Or should I be looking at 8GB?

I know nothing...

I was looking at a HP 15.6" laptop with 8GB RAM and 1TB harddrive, but there's also the same one for half the price with half the RAM and half the harddrive... (the 8GB one has an AMD A9 processor and the 4GB has an intel celeron processor, what does this mean???)

SW98

Alessandro Late Punch wrote: »

Are there good brands that I should be looking at? Are there some I should avoid?

Also, is 1TB storage a bit overkill? Or is 500 GB ok?

If I'm just using Chrome, MS Word + PPT should 4GB RAM be ok? Or should I be looking at 8GB?

I know nothing...

I was looking at a HP 15.6" laptop with 8GB RAM and 1TB harddrive, but there's also the same one for half the price with half the RAM and half the harddrive... (the 8GB one has an AMD A9 processor and the 4GB has an intel celeron processor, what does this mean???)

To be honest, most of the brands out there should be fine, anything like HP, dell, asus, acer, lenovo, toshiba etc are all good. With regards to the HDD size, its completely up to you with how much storage you need, 500GB will probably do you for a good while anyway. 4GB ram is sufficient for word processing and web browsing. However an intel celeron processor is very low end and I would avoid it, go for an up to date pentium or core i3.

Alanstrainor

SW98 wrote: »

To be honest, most of the brands out there should be fine, anything like HP, dell, asus, acer, lenovo, toshiba etc are all good. With regards to the HDD size, its completely up to you with how much storage you need, 500GB will probably do you for a good while anyway. 4GB ram is sufficient for word processing and web browsing. However an intel celeron processor is very low end and I would avoid it, go for an up to date pentium or core i3.

I would actually advise getting 8GB. It is the standard for almost all laptops these days and it should be considered a minimum moving forward. Chrome will eat RAM with more than a handful of tabs open.

OP what is your budget? Are we talking 400? 600? You should be able to get good laptops in both brackets.

As for storage and whether 500GB would be enough. I would say for most it is more than enough. The real question is whether an SSD is the way to go. (SSD stands for Solid State Disk, no moving parts, very fast). You might not get a laptop with one if your budget is low but it makes a huge difference in terms of speed. From pushing the on button to opening Chrome would likely take a matter of seconds. The drawback is less storage. Generally 128GB or 256GB.

Alanstrainor

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I would actually advise getting 8GB. It is the standard for almost all laptops these days and it should be considered a minimum moving forward. Chrome will eat RAM with more than a handful of tabs open.

OP what is your budget? Are we talking 400? 600? You should be able to get good laptops in both brackets.

As for storage and whether 500GB would be enough. I would say for most it is more than enough. The real question is whether an SSD is the way to go. (SSD stands for Solid State Disk, no moving parts, very fast). You might not get a laptop with one if your budget is low but it makes a huge difference in terms of speed. From pushing the on button to opening Chrome would likely take a matter of seconds. The drawback is less storage. Generally 128GB or 256GB.

I've got a budget of 600e but I'd like to spend less than that (but also I'll spend more if it means value for money)

Should I ask the staff at Harvey Norman etc about Solid State Disks then? Do you like the look of the HP 15.6 laptop 8gb 1tb? I've read very mixed reviews on Amazon but it's the one Harvey Norman recommended...

TerrorFirmer

If your budget is 600 then just buy online from the likes of Amazon or Laptopsdirect, for less than €400 you will get an i3 CPU and an SSD based laptop like this.

Celeron processors are horrible even for fairly basic tasks, AMD's A9 would be closer to an i3 and pretty OK but the best value by far will be had online.

SW98

Yeah I actually agree now when I think about it, 8GB of ram is the standard these days and it will be good to have if you ever have a few apps open. As I said in my first reply, try get something with an SSD for the OS and a HDD for your documents etc. My laptop was around €400 and it has 1TB HDD which I then replaced with 500GB SSD, a quad core pentium processor and 8GB ram and for basic tasks it is grand. I would try go for a core i3 if possible though.

dowling06

IMO I would stay away from brick and mortar stores like PC World and Harvey Normans...LaptopsDirect do great deals on open box laptops which have been opened and returned. I got one for my girlfriends sister and it was spotless. You can either of these laptops for 360 and they both come with the latest generation i3 processor with 8GB of RAM which is plenty for what you doing.

This one has a 128GB SSD so its a little low on the capicity side but if you have an external HDD to move your files to this would be great:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/refurbished-hp-pavilion-15-au176sa-15.6-intel-core-i3-7100u-8gb-128gb-ssd-a1-z9f62ea/version.asp

Otherwise this one has a 1TB HDD so it will be slower but you can save all your files directly to the laptop:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/refurbished-hp-pavilion-15-au172sa-15.6-intel-core-i3-7100u-8gb-1tb-window-a1-z9f54ea/version.asp

As for MS Office you can pick up a cheap copy on ebay.

Ok this is all very appreciated but I'm really very confused about the terminology here.. I'm sorry can someone please explain or list from best to worst the processors or harddrives? Like SDD and HDD and i3 and AMD etc because I've no idea.



I would like something with a bit of space. I'm looking at my Mac atm and it's using 180GB of storage. I'd say I could whittle that down a bit if I transfer some old files to the cloud but I'm not interested in buying external storage as I've had a bad track record with breaking/losing those things...

dowling06

Alessandro Late Punch wrote: »

Ok this is all very appreciated but I'm really very confused about the terminology here.. I'm sorry can someone please explain or list from best to worst the processors or harddrives? Like SDD and HDD and i3 and AMD etc because I've no idea.



I would like something with a bit of space. I'm looking at my Mac atm and it's using 180GB of storage. I'd say I could whittle that down a bit if I transfer some old files to the cloud but I'm not interested in buying external storage as I've had a bad track record with breaking/losing those things...

Basically there are two major CPU vendors on the market, AMD and Intel. Intel are quite a bit ahead of AMD at the moment in laptop processors so I personally would stick with Intel for now. Intel processors range from Celeron, Pentium,i3,i5 to i7, with i7 being the top end. These processors also have different generations with the latest one being the 7th gen. All new laptops will be more than likely 6th or 7th gen. I would go with an i3 as its perfect for what you want.

The major difference between SSDs and HDDs is that HDDs use mechanical parts and are much slower but are cheaper and have more capacity. SSDs are electrical and use memory cells to store the data as opposed to spinning disks, because of this they are much quicker and are a lot more expensive to buy large capacities.

Heres short vids on both
Video on CPU's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLSPub4ydiM
Video on SSD's vs HDD's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQEjGKYXjw8

huddlejonny

SW98 wrote: »

Yeah I actually agree now when I think about it, 8GB of ram is the standard these days and it will be good to have if you ever have a few apps open. As I said in my first reply, try get something with an SSD for the OS and a HDD for your documents etc. My laptop was around €400 and it has 1TB HDD which I then replaced with 500GB SSD, a quad core pentium processor and 8GB ram and for basic tasks it is grand. I would try go for a core i3 if possible though.

Any recommendations for a sub €100 SSD Drive!

SW98

huddlejonny wrote: »

Any recommendations for a sub €100 SSD Drive!

At the moment the crucial 275GB is probably the best value on Amazon. However, there are loads of other brands in and around the 250GB capacity such as Samsung, WD and SanDisk. Any of them should be fine, I have the 500GB version of the Samsung 850 Evo myself.

by8auj6csd3ioq

SW98 wrote: »

Alessandro Late Punch wrote: »

Are there good brands that I should be looking at? Are there some I should avoid?

Also, is 1TB storage a bit overkill? Or is 500 GB ok?

If I'm just using Chrome, MS Word + PPT should 4GB RAM be ok? Or should I be looking at 8GB?

I know nothing...

I was looking at a HP 15.6" laptop with 8GB RAM and 1TB harddrive, but there's also the same one for half the price with half the RAM and half the harddrive... (the 8GB one has an AMD A9 processor and the 4GB has an intel celeron processor, what does this mean???)

To be honest, most of the brands out there should be fine, anything like HP, dell, asus, acer, lenovo, toshiba etc are all good. With regards to the HDD size, its completely up to you with how much storage you need, 500GB will probably do you for a good while anyway. 4GB ram is sufficient for word processing and web browsing. However an intel celeron processor is very low end and I would avoid it, go for an up to date pentium or core i3.

what would be considered up to date in pentium?

SW98

Raul Sour Newspaper wrote: »

what would be considered up to date in pentium?

Any of the Kaby Lake (7th gen.) Intel Pentiums.

TerrorFirmer

Raul Sour Newspaper wrote: »

what would be considered up to date in pentium?

There are two types of Pentium which is really irritating as there's a huge difference - first is an Atom based Pentium, second is an i-series based Pentium.

First one is just about OK for basic web browsing and movies, second is pretty capable for heavy browsing, mild editing, multi-tasking, etc.

tylercheribini

I am really tempted to buy the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12.5 inch Laptop but its released over a year now without an announcement of an updated model. I know as soon as I order it they will announce the next iteration. Thing that attracts me the most to it is its portability/compactness, hate luggin around a brick. Ill prob bite the bullet with the current generation anyway, only need it for word processing,Photoshop and some basic video editing.

Alanstrainor

tylercheribini wrote: »

I am really tempted to buy the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12.5 inch Laptop but its released over a year now without an announcement of an updated model. I know as soon as I order it they will announce the next iteration. Thing that attracts me the most to it is its portability/compactness, hate luggin around a brick. Ill prob bite the bullet with the current generation anyway, only need it for word processing,Photoshop and some basic video editing.

I think it is a reasonable machine, and you can pick them up for pretty decent money these days. My only concern would be video editing on 8GB of RAM. Although nothing about that machine would be ideal for editing video. But for the price I don't think you would do much better.

Just looked them up on gearbest, I actually didn't realise there was a 12.5" and a 13.3" model. At around 550 quid (excluding any irish tax) you're getting a core i5, 256gb ssd and 8GB of RAM. Not too shabby.

tylercheribini

alright Alan, long time no see. Yea I reckon Ill go for 12.5", should meet my needs and I am a big fan of Xiaomi products, always good bang for your buck.