Black 'Week' - Laptop Bargains

RangeR · 26-11-2019 6:07pm

Didn't see it mentioned but that Argos laptop for 430 is Windows 10 S. That's a deal breaker for a lot of people. Just be careful. You can only install apps from the MS store, nothing else.

Apologies if someone else mentioned it.

DelBoy Trotter · 26-11-2019 6:09pm

RangeR wrote: »

Didn't see it mentioned but that Argos laptop for 430 is Windows 10 S. That's a deal breaker for a lot of people. Just be careful. You can only install apps from the MS store, nothing else.

Apologies if someone else mentioned it.

From the very first post.....

cherryghost wrote: »

NOTE: Some laptops come with Windows 10 'S' installed by means as a 'security feature' that basically limits what you can install. To install regular programs a simple switch to the regular Windows 10 is required. No extra purchase is neccessary. The upgrade is free.

26-11-2019 6:11pm

RangeR wrote: »

Didn't see it mentioned but that Argos laptop for 430 is Windows 10 S. That's a deal breaker for a lot of people. Just be careful. You can only install apps from the MS store, nothing else.

Apologies if someone else mentioned it.

takes about 60 seconds to opt into full Win 10 at no cost.

It's a complete non-issue.

26-11-2019 6:14pm

garv123 wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback. advice taken on board.

How about the likes of this.

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15s-fq1515sa-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i3-128-gb-ssd-white-10198288-pdt.html

that's decent. nothing wrong with it. for a 15.6 unit it's not that heavy at 1.7 kg.

you may want to upgrade to 8gb ram down the line but that's a 10 minute job with a screwdriver and the cost would be about €35 euro

RangeR · 26-11-2019 6:15pm

glasso wrote: »

takes about 60 seconds to opt into full Win 10 at no cost.

It's a complete non-issue.

I wasn't aware of a legitimate, legal way to upgrade Win10S for free. Thanks for your bold text, though. Made my heart warm.

26-11-2019 6:23pm

RangeR wrote: »

I wasn't aware of a legitimate, legal way to upgrade Win10S for free. Thanks for your bold text, though. Made my heart warm.

I could have bolded caps for extra emphasis!

Zardoz · 26-11-2019 6:37pm

RangeR wrote: »

Didn't see it mentioned but that Argos laptop for 430 is Windows 10 S. That's a deal breaker for a lot of people. Just be careful. You can only install apps from the MS store, nothing else.

Apologies if someone else mentioned it.

The screen is also a TN panel so its not great value .
Would be a good deal if the screen was IPS.

26-11-2019 6:46pm

Zardoz wrote: »

The screen is also a TN panel so its not great value .
Would be a good deal if the screen was IPS.

TN panels are nowhere near as bad as they used to be tbh.

Dogre · 26-11-2019 7:42pm

I have just purchased one of these https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SZ1DRSQ?ref=piup_aa&pd_rd_w=vH7Qi&pf_rd_p=21cb8167-cc64-479c-bfb5-f7051aa961e2&pf_rd_r=99b72391-1545-4683-bced-b0bfb5d5719e&pd_rd_r=99b72391-1545-4683-bced-b0bfb5d5719e&pd_rd_wg=o8hRg&tag=amz-mkt-chr-uk-21&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-a0049-win10-other-smile-uk000-gatwy-feature-REC
price new is £889, warehouse price £822.12. Free delivery, but the VAT saving made it better value to Parcelmotel it.

EmacB · 26-11-2019 8:09pm

When is best to buy? Is it better to buy now or wait til Friday or maybe Monday?

I'm looking for a gaming laptop around €650-€800. I realize that's probably on the low end of the scale for gaming laptops but since I already have an xbox one X, I was probably only going to use it for games which play better on a PC, such as strategy games (currently eyeing up divinity original sin 2 and ages of empires 4). Will that be enough?

To be honest though the main use, for the next 6 months anyway, will be for writing a thesis. So that'll involve having Chrome, onenote, MS word, powerpoint, a pdf reader, Mendeley and some other programs open at the same time. Often with some moderately big files. Would getting a specialised gaming laptop compromise on that?

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations? I appreciate the help.

duffer247 · 26-11-2019 8:35pm

I got my 12 year old an Asus Tp202n 11.6 flip/touchscreen laptop last year. Uses it once or twice a week for schoolwork, no streaming or social media etc. So it's perfect. €300
My younger daughter loves it and wants similar this year, haven't been able to locate one in that price range with similar features.
Grateful for any direction

26-11-2019 8:37pm

EmacB wrote: »

When is best to buy? Is it better to buy now or wait til Friday or maybe Monday?

I'm looking for a gaming laptop around €650-€800. I realize that's probably on the low end of the scale for gaming laptops but since I already have an xbox one X, I was probably only going to use it for games which play better on a PC, such as strategy games (currently eyeing up divinity original sin 2 and ages of empires 4). Will that be enough?

To be honest though the main use, for the next 6 months anyway, will be for writing a thesis. So that'll involve having Chrome, onenote, MS word, powerpoint, a pdf reader, Mendeley and some other programs open at the same time. Often with some moderately big files. Would getting a specialised gaming laptop compromise on that?

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations? I appreciate the help.

the OP's post with the gaming laptop for £600 with the 1650 card is the one to go for in that budget range as will be as good specs as you can expect to get for the money.

a gaming laptop can do all the normal stuff for a thesis that you describe above no problem.

2 things though - gaming laptops battery life is always poor (as bad as 2 hours) but if you can plug it in then that's not an issue.

2ndly it will be bulkier and heavier than normal laptops if you're moving it around a lot.

Homelander · 26-11-2019 9:28pm

I bought the 1650 laptop in the OP as well as i've needed a new one for a while for LAN games. realistically it'll give a better experience than the base xbox one/ps4 in multiplatform titles easily. Pretty similar to Xbox One X really, in that you can chose between 1080p ultra or 1440p medium or so and get a decent framerate. Take Fallen Order, it runs at 1080p 60 on the one x or ps4 pro in performance mode, or 1440p upscaled 30fps in visual mode. the gtx1650 will do either just as well if not better.

Homelander · 26-11-2019 9:38pm

Ps the 120hz screen is not at all a waste on a 1650. For a lot of people playing games like cs go, overwatch, etc it's an amazing opportunity to be able run games at high framerate. obviously if playing the latest aaa games it doesn't really matter, but definitely it's well worth it for esports games. even apex legends at medium settings 1080p would probably run at 90fps on that laptop.

Gyan84 · 26-11-2019 10:23pm

Thinking of getting a touchscreen notebook. Have a proper machine at home so would only be used when out so want to prioritize light weight, battery life and hopefully as cheap as possible. Would only be doing light coding and basic Microsoft Word stuff on it.

Is this a good option ? Obviously for the price I can't expect much but if it lasts a few years it'll be grand.

Degag · 26-11-2019 10:30pm

Bought a new laptop a few months ago and foolishly bought the cheapest i could find.

To be fair, my requirements are bog standard, browsing etc. But i do like a game of Football Manager every so often and alas this new laptop wont play it.

What would be the best budget laptop option to get in order to play it? Minimum requirements below:

OS: Windows 7 (SP1), 8/8.1, 10 (Update 1803/April 2018 or later) – 64-bit
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (64-bit), Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 – 2.2 GHz +
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 – 256MB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 7 GB available space
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

Cheers!

mttk · 26-11-2019 10:33pm

Dogre wrote: »

I have just purchased one of these https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SZ1DRSQ?ref=piup_aa&pd_rd_w=vH7Qi&pf_rd_p=21cb8167-cc64-479c-bfb5-f7051aa961e2&pf_rd_r=99b72391-1545-4683-bced-b0bfb5d5719e&pd_rd_r=99b72391-1545-4683-bced-b0bfb5d5719e&pd_rd_wg=o8hRg&tag=amz-mkt-chr-uk-21&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-a0049-win10-other-smile-uk000-gatwy-feature-REC
price new is £889, warehouse price £822.12. Free delivery, but the VAT saving made it better value to Parcelmotel it.

How does this compare with Lenovo y540 from Littlewoods?

Homelander · 26-11-2019 11:00pm

Degag wrote: »

Bought a new laptop a few months ago and foolishly bought the cheapest i could find.

To be fair, my requirements are bog standard, browsing etc. But i do like a game of Football Manager every so often and alas this new laptop wont play it.

What would be the best budget laptop option to get in order to play it? Minimum requirements below:

OS: Windows 7 (SP1), 8/8.1, 10 (Update 1803/April 2018 or later) – 64-bit
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (64-bit), Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 – 2.2 GHz +
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 – 256MB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 7 GB available space
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

Cheers!

your 'new' laptop won't play that? those requirements are comparable to a mid-range pc from 2007. what are the specs of your laptop?

Dogre · 26-11-2019 11:04pm

mttk wrote: »

How does this compare with Lenovo y540 from Littlewoods?

Product Description Lenovo Legion Y540

Operating System Win 10 Home 64-bit - English
Processor Intel Core i5 (9th Gen) 9300H / 2.4 GHz (4.1 GHz) / 8 MB Cache
Memory 8 GB DDR4 (1 x 8 GB)
Storage 128 GB SSD NVMe + 1 TB HDD / 7200 rpm
Optical Drive No optical drive
Display 15.6" LED backlight 1920 x 1080 / Full HD
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti / Intel UHD Graphics 630
Video Memory 6 GB GDDR6 SDRAM

Product Description ASUS TUF FX505DV

Operating System Windows 10
Processor AMD R7-3750H 2.3 Ghz (4.0 Ghz) / 6 MB Cache
Memory 16 GB DDR4
Storage 512 GB PCI-e SSD
Optical Drive No optical drive
Display 15.6" Full HD IPS level 120Hz thin bezel screen 1920 x 1080
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB
Video Memory 6 GB GDDR6 SDRAM

The Lenovo has Intel Core i5 (9th Gen) 9300H processor, 8 GB Memory, GTX 1660Ti gfx and 128 GB SSD / 1 TB Mechanical HDD

The ASUS has AMD Ryzen R7-3750H processor, 16GB memory, RTX 2060 gfx and 512 GB SSD

Homelander · 26-11-2019 11:12pm

9300h would be faster in games than the 3750h, and 1660ti and 2060 are very similar in the laptop forms. overall the asus would be a good bit better due to slightly faster gpu, more ram, more ssd space, 120hz screen for games.

also 1x8gb in the lenovo is stupid, single channel will give bad performance hit in some games.

Degag · 26-11-2019 11:22pm

Homelander wrote: »

your 'new' laptop won't play that? those requirements are comparable to a mid-range pc from 2007. what are the specs of your laptop?

It's this one i think:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-14-3482-laptop/spd/inspiron-14-3482-laptop

Intel® Celeron® Processor N4000
Ubuntu 18.04
Intel® UHD Graphics 600 with shared graphics memory
4 GB, 1 x 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz
500GB 5400 rpm 2.5" SATA Hard Drive

THe biggest issue may be the fact that it's Linux perhaps although apparently by changing a few settings in Steam you can play the game which i did but no luck

Skerries · 26-11-2019 11:22pm

EmacB wrote: »

I was probably only going to use it for games which play better on a PC, such as strategy games (currently eyeing up divinity original sin 2 and ages of empires 4). Will that be enough?

have a look at what the 1650 can do for modern games (scroll down)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1650-Laptop-GPU.416044.0.html

26-11-2019 11:25pm

Degag wrote: »

It's this one i think:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-14-3482-laptop/spd/inspiron-14-3482-laptop

Intel® Celeron® Processor N4000
Ubuntu 18.04
Intel® UHD Graphics 600 with shared graphics memory
4 GB, 1 x 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz
500GB 5400 rpm 2.5" SATA Hard Drive

THe biggest issue may be the fact that it's Linux perhaps although apparently by changing a few settings in Steam you can play the game which i did but no luck

this is a very very weak cpu. the n4100 or n5000, also celerons, would be nearly twice as powerful.

that's part of the issue for sure.

Skerries · 26-11-2019 11:28pm

Degag wrote: »

THe biggest issue may be the fact that it's Linux perhaps although apparently by changing a few settings in Steam you can play the game which i did but no luck

have a look at what it can play on that spec

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-UHD-Graphics-600-GPU.271820.0.html

Homelander · 26-11-2019 11:30pm

Degag wrote: »

It's this one i think:

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-14-3482-laptop/spd/inspiron-14-3482-laptop

Intel® Celeron® Processor N4000
Ubuntu 18.04
Intel® UHD Graphics 600 with shared graphics memory
4 GB, 1 x 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz
500GB 5400 rpm 2.5" SATA Hard Drive

THe biggest issue may be the fact that it's Linux perhaps although apparently by changing a few settings in Steam you can play the game which i did but no luck

very weak cpu but still above min requirements, is it that it literally won't run or that it just runs poorly with certain amount of games or leagues or whatever?

Degag · 26-11-2019 11:41pm

Skerries wrote: »

that thing would be lucky to run Pac-Man!
it's a cheap netbook that is only good for using as a doorstop, sorry to be harsh

Don't be. It's my own fault for buying it!

Homelander wrote: »

very weak cpu but still above min requirements, is it that it literally won't run or that it just runs poorly with certain amount of games or leagues or whatever?

Won't run. Basically when i try and play it through Steam, the "Play" button will change for a minute or so to "Initialising" but then change back to "Play."

So never runs.

SteelyDanJalapeno · 27-11-2019 12:42am

Sounds like a Linux comparability issue

dartboardio · 27-11-2019 12:45am

Can someone recommend a decent laptop I can buy my boyfriend for Christmas, it needs to be able to run Ableton/Photoshop etc somewhat seamlessly.

Would I get something like it for around €400?

27-11-2019 12:51am

Degag wrote: »

Don't be. It's my own fault for buying it!

Won't run. Basically when i try and play it through Steam, the "Play" button will change for a minute or so to "Initialising" but then change back to "Play."

So never runs.

even getting it up and running, that processor and a hdd will always make a database lookup game like FM play like a pig, youll be minutes waiting for background games etc to play

even anything like a recent i3 and an ssd would have no troubles tho

raxy · 27-11-2019 9:48am

dartboardio wrote: »

Can someone recommend a decent laptop I can buy my boyfriend for Christmas, it needs to be able to run Ableton/Photoshop etc somewhat seamlessly.

Would I get something like it for around €400?

Lenovo S340 in Argos for 429 seems to be the best deal atm at that price. I'm waiting until Friday to see what is on Komplett.ie before deciding what to get.

Atm i'm going between the lenovo S340, Acer Aspire 5 in Currys for 469 & Asus vivobook in Argos for 485. All have the same processor & ram.

Black 'Week' - Laptop Bargains

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