The Cheap Challenge

Jolly

I think I'm going to have breakdown and buy another laptop. My old one is a Dell with a I5...Durn thing must be eight years old.

Anyway, I don't game or do a lot of productivity work. Online surfing, some YouTube watching, banking, emails, etc. Don't want a chromebook, would like to have a laptop.

How much oomph do I need and how cheap can I get by?

mark

I'm the wrong person to talk about "cheap" computers.

But, anything in the sub $1,000 range should do it for you.

Get 8GB minimum RAM, but I would go 16GB to be a little prepared for apps to suck up memory. Web browser tabs will do that.

512GB minimum SSD drive.

i3 or i5

Pick your screen size.

Loki

We have a six year old desktop and still hums just fine and even took free windows 10 like a charm. I’d spend the most on a big monitor. I suspect the cheapest desktop by acer for example would meet your needs for a long while.

Mik

MFR and I both have Lenovo Yogas. Both have loved them so far. If you don't want to be able to use it in tablet mode you might want to just look at a Thinkpad.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/deals/laptops?sort=price-asc&currentResultsLayoutType=grid&cid=us%3Asem|se|msn|iip_nx_lenovo%2Byoga%2Bultrabook_generic||lenovo yoga||291341340|1268836491665704|kwd-79302306644742%3Aloc-190|text|brand&ef_id=%3AG%3As&s_kwcid=AL!4030!3!!e!!s!!lenovo yoga!291341340!1268836491665704&msclkid=065790d3e4df1f5c9a94cf2e18f17915&gclid=065790d3e4df1f5c9a94cf2e18f17915&gclsrc=3p.ds

Mik

https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-budget-laptops

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-budget-laptops/#no1

Doctor Phibes

I'm a firm believer in mid-range - I bought a cheap HP laptop for about $450 which initially worked fine, but the build quality was very so-so. I ended up giving it to my daughter as she needed one for school, and out of the blue it just stopped working - I was told it needed a new motherboard, which basically cost 3/4 of the price of the laptop to fix, so it was a write-off.

I'd spend $1000 if you can, or wait for a sale. I have since bought an HP Spectre x360 for about $1100, and the build quality is like night and day from the cheap one, and even though the specs weren't dramatically different, it runs way better/cooler, and has a much nicer display.

Horace

The only economy I ever think about when switching computers is the economy of my time and patience to understand this new thing. The money hasn't been an issue since long before I was rich.

xenon

Unfortunately you're buying at time when things are a bit pricier than normal. Things are better than they were a few months ago, but PC sales have been gangbusters during COVID.

LuFins Dad

Lenovo fan, here...

xenon

@lufins-dad said in The Cheap Challenge:

Lenovo fan, here...

Same. Others have been closing the gap in recent years... but as a "get things done" business PC, nothing beats a thinkpad.

Loki

I pretty sure given you uses a desktop in the $400 range will serve you well.

jon-nyc

@xenon said in The Cheap Challenge:

@lufins-dad said in The Cheap Challenge:

Lenovo fan, here...

Same. Others have been closing the gap in recent years... but as a "get things done" business PC, nothing beats a thinkpad.

Me too. I used the in the corporate world and thinkpads before that.

kluurs

Another vote for Lenovo. I bought a couple of cheaper units because I didn't want to bight the bullet - and after those failed, I bought a new Lenovo - no problems - smooth sailing.

Jolly

Dumb question...I'm seeing some units with slightly lower prices that have the AMD Ryzen chips.

Bad? Good? Stick with Intel?

Moonbat

@jolly said in The Cheap Challenge:

Dumb question...I'm seeing some units with slightly lower prices that have the AMD Ryzen chips.

Bad? Good? Stick with Intel?

Not a dumb question. The Ryzen 2000 series were a bit weaker than the equivalent Intel chips, the 3000 were about equal and the 4000 and beyond are stronger. I suspect for your use case a 2000 Ryzen will be fine and if there are savings to be had, go for it though if you tell us the specs you are comparing we can give you more accurate advice. I haven't checked the rest of the thread but getting a screen with 1080P resolution and possibly an SSD is likely to have greater impact that minor variations in CPU.

Klaus

Yep, if you want a Windows Laptop, then Lenovo is the way to go. But I'd go for the "Thinkpad" line and not their cheap crap.

I've had many Thinkpads from their "X" series. Reliable. Extensible. Serviceable. Not something one can say about many other laptops. If I could buy a Thinkpad with MacOS on it, I'd buy it instantly and throw away my overpriced Apple stuff.

Loki

I am really curious why there are so many impassioned opinions about laptop brands? I have had Compaq, toshiba, hp, dell, ibm (only ones I can think of at the moment) over the last few decades and they travelled far and wide and never had any trouble with any of them.

Doctor Phibes

@loki said in The Cheap Challenge:

I am really curious why there are so many impassioned opinions about laptop brands? I have had Compaq, toshiba, hp, dell, ibm (only ones I can think of at the moment) over the last few decades and they travelled far and wide and never had any trouble with any of them.

Tech seems to do that to people. I remember the video card wars of the 1990's. Ridiculously stupid.

I've been very happy with HP, Lenovo and Alienware (actually owned by Dell) for my own use, and Dell with work.

89th

@Jolly this is good timing as I’m going to get a laptop for my wife for her birthday next month. So I had the same questions you have, and my wife really only uses her laptop for paying bills, and miscellaneous Internet tasks, and maybe syncing her iTunes.

What’s interesting is her laptop eight years ago cost like 800 bucks, where as you would think today a laptop that’s even better would be maybe 200 bucks based on how much technology has improved, but the computer companies always seem to keep the price points the same, anywhere from 500 bucks to 2000 for most laptops.

LuFins Dad

I’m not too disappointed with a couple of HP laptops I bought for work 8 years ago... They’ve been fine.

I’m very impressed with the Alienware setup I got Lucas three years ago.

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