Computer needed for 9 year old

Fio33

Hi,
My Daughter has been saving to buy her own laptop. We will be adding money to it. She uses it for school daily now on Microsoft Teams. She also does plenty of PowerPoints and surfs the web. She plays Sims4 most days and has loads of packs and custom content.
She is currently using an old Acer of ours but it can now take 15mins to shut down in the evening and is very slow. It is about 8-10 years old.
She has €390 saved. I want to get something that is good and will last. I know nearly anything will be an improvement on what she has.
Any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated as I don't know where to start looking other than walking into Harvey Norman or DID.
Thanks in advance
F

what's your maximum budget?

DID and Harvey Norman not usually providing great value for laptops

Pc World a bit better

online (Irish sites like Lenovo better and have full Irish guarantee)

same with amazon uk

if you go to lenovo

sign up for the lenovo newsletter on bottom left of page

get 10% off code sent to you (if used that email before need to use a new one)

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/ideapad/s-series/IdeaPad-5i-14IIL05/p/82FE004TUK

will work out less than 600 and it's decent

has the new 11th gen intel which has reasonable gpu capabilities

Fio33

Thanks Glasso. My budget would be about €650-€700.

Really what I am concerned about is the capabilities of playing Sims4 as I know most ordinary laptops might not have a good enough graphics card.

I'll check out the lenovo site.

that will handle sims 4 fine

the 11th gen i5 and i7 have upgraded igpu (integrated graphics) capabilities

otherwise your option is to go for an entry level gaming laptop

this one is a good option if it comes back into stock

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Pavilion-15-ec1001na-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B0877L4KMD/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1650+laptop&qid=1614183528&sr=8-3

Fio33

Thanks a million Glasso

BuCkoTroN

glasso wrote: »

that will handle sims 4 fine

the 11th gen i5 and i7 have upgraded igpu (integrated graphics) capabilities

otherwise your option is to go for an entry level gaming laptop

this one is a good option if it comes back into stock

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Pavilion-15-ec1001na-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B0877L4KMD/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1650+laptop&qid=1614183528&sr=8-3

While that is a good machine, you may get stung with customs fees and I'd recommend you source it from an EU site.

Elara when they have the stock perhaps:

https://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?manufacturer=HP&mancode=133W8EA%23ABU

I might suggest this one here if budget is an issue and it should tick all the boxes:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-3000/spd/inspiron-15-3501-laptop/cn30115

Processor
It has : 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1135G7 Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
Videocard
Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics with shared graphics memory
memory
8GB, 8Gx1, DDR4, 2666MHz
Harddrive
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

And if you want the same spec with a smaller disk 256GB it's 50e less.

Aodhan5000

BuCkoTroN wrote: »

While that is a good machine, you may get stung with customs fees and I'd recommend you source it from an EU site.

Elara when they have the stock perhaps:

https://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?manufacturer=HP&mancode=133W8EA%23ABU

I might suggest this one here if budget is an issue and it should tick all the boxes:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-3000/spd/inspiron-15-3501-laptop/cn30115

Processor
It has : 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-1135G7 Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
Videocard
Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics with shared graphics memory
memory
8GB, 8Gx1, DDR4, 2666MHz
Harddrive
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

And if you want the same spec with a smaller disk 256GB it's 50e less.

No customs fees on computers however you must pay Irish VAT on entry to the country. Amazon uk work it by removing UK VAT from the product and including Irish VAT in "Import fees deposit" at checkout. You will only pay what they charge you. If they underestimate the fees they will pay out what is needed from their pocket and not charge you. If they overestimate the import fees they will refund you. People REALLY need to do their homework on all this as lot of false information going around.

BuCkoTroN

BuCkoTroN wrote: »

While that is a good machine, you may get stung with customs fees and I'd recommend you source it from an EU site.

Amazon UK are fully Brexit compliant

pre-Brexit they were already paying Irish VAT on products shipped to Ireland for years and years.....

BuCkoTroN

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

No customs fees on computers however you must pay Irish VAT on entry to the country. Amazon uk work it by removing UK VAT from the product and including Irish VAT in "Import fees deposit" at checkout. You will only pay what they charge you. If they underestimate the fees they will pay out what is needed from their pocket and not charge you. If they overestimate the import fees they will refund you. People REALLY need to do their homework on all this as lot of false information going around.

Appreciate the heads up.

It's not exactly clear and this is what is putting me off looking at UK stores.

Can't you get stung for 12% customs duty on an item such as a laptop?

BuCkoTroN

BuCkoTroN wrote: »

Appreciate the heads up.

It's not exactly clear and this is what is putting me off looking at UK stores.

Can't you get stung for 12% customs duty on an item such as a laptop?

no duty - read this

https://www.moneyguideireland.com/vat-and-online-shopping-in-the-uk-after-brexit.html

pretty much no online UK outlets aside from Amazon UK have bothered so far to be Brexit compliant wrt Ireland for online sales so if you buy from them you will pay UK Vat on purchase then Irish VAT on top of that when you bring it to Ireland

laptopsdirect.ie are UK-based but have an Irish site.