A Computer that has a good chance of lasting 4 or 5 years?

Spirogyra

A Dell Lap-top is dying at less than a year, due to insufficient internal memory largely. What should I look for in terms of memory? I'm not a professional, not even a student, but I want 'enough', I don't want it to be a problem next year or the year after. Are Desktops generally a better bet in terms of 'longevity'?. I sort of have a budget, E500 but could pay a bit more if I felt it would 'last longer'.

Can anyone offer suggestions?

Thanks
S

DopeTech

Spirogyra wrote: »

A Dell Lap-top is dying at less than a year, due to insufficient internal memory largely. What should I look for in terms of memory? I'm not a professional, not even a student, but I want 'enough', I don't want it to be a problem next year or the year after. Are Desktops generally a better bet in terms of 'longevity'?. I sort of have a budget, E500 but could pay a bit more if I felt it would 'last longer'.

Can anyone offer suggestions?

Thanks
S

What is the exact error? Are you sure it is not just the harddrive is full? What laptop is it as you can probably expand the ram if that is what is the issue?

A new harddrive or a stick of ram will be a little t cheaper than replacing the whole thing.

StevenE

I will get blasted for this no doubt, but just 5 short years ago I gave up on Windows and bought an Apple MacBook.

It's still going and hasn't ever let me down. I have no intentions of replacing it yet.

Ebay have offerings at about what you want to pay, something like this: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MacBook-Pro-13-2-4ghz-core-i5-8gb-RAM-500GB-HDD-Clean-installed-OSX-warranty-/112489309852?hash=item1a30e2a69c:g:urkAAOSwqeZZc3cO

Atoms for Peace

A year old laptop shouldn't really be short on ram for every day usage. I've a 2011 Dell running win7 with 8gb ram and it's got plenty to spare.

ressem

A one year old Dell laptop which is suffering due to storage issues?
If you provide the model and specifications there might be something that can be done about it.
If your original budget was €500, I'd guess that the existing laptop has 4GB ram and a low spec 500 GB hard drive. i3 processor or better I hope?

Is the hard drive full, or is the PC running at a crawl, extremely slow to start up and always pausing in the middle of light work, using MS Office or internet?

Desktops are better in terms of longevity, provided that you buy a business type model; as opposed to something that's targeted at gamers looking for top speeds using just-released processors and chipsets, which can be flaky.

If you're looking at tasks that are storage demanding, music and video editing, gaming, then specifying those would assist.

Imallrightjack

i have a dell latitude laptop still going strong.granted it needs power.in other words it wont work on battery alone its over 12 years old..
a year old laptop shouldnt be a probelm for you at all.

have you tried factory resetting it?(saving any important stuff to an external hard drive).then maybe you could put some more memory into it?

really and truly a year old laptop should not be giving you to much trouble.you must not be looking after it OR what your doing on it must need lots of space and power.that is a different kettle of fish.

Spirogyra

Just a 32gb Hard Drive and the 'software updates' have taken up most of it, not doing much on it at all....

theteal

Spirogyra wrote: »

Just a 32gb Hard Drive and the 'software updates' have taken up most of it, not doing much on it at all....

32gb HDD? sounds like a net/chromebook. I'd need to look up if that's even replaceable. What's the model?

scamalert

Spirogyra wrote: »

Just a 32gb Hard Drive and the 'software updates' have taken up most of it, not doing much on it at all....

spend 100e stick extra ram most laptops support up to 16gb,read up on your specific model and spend 50e to get at least 250gb ssd, and it will be flying for your needs.

Spirogyra

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-inspiron-11-3000 thanks

Phonicks

Sounds like a netbook, get rid and fallow my advice
People worry about ram and hard drive far to much, they can nearly always be replaced

Always buy a laptop with a good cpu/ processor


When buying a computer....
1 set a budget,
2 pick a few computers in your budget write the spec somewhere
3Now google each laptops processor and the word benchmark

First result will give you a number in red, under the number in red is a smaller number in black (single core something) write this result next to each laptop

4 Buy the laptop with the fastest Single core benchmark number


What you will find is the better cpus will come with other better parts too

theteal

Spirogyra wrote: »

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-inspiron-11-3000 thanks

Do you want the bad news or . . . . well, the bad news.

The 32GB eMMC hard drive in the Inspiron 11 needed 1 minute to duplicate 4.97GB of multimedia files, for a speed of 84.82 MBps. That's slightly faster than the 73.75 MBps eMMC drive in the Ideapad 110S.

This is built in storage and can't be upgraded.


I'm sorry but that is a terrible laptop. How much was it? Who is that aimed at? Windows 10 and a 32gig drive! Not a hope in hell that was ever future proof. I suppose you could wipe it and stick Ubuntu on it or something.

I'd need to have a look at what's available before offering any advice on a new purchase.

theteal

Phonicks wrote: »

People worry about ram and hard drive far to much, they can nearly always be replaced

Always buy a laptop with a good cpu/ processor

I wholeheartedly agree but when looking previously I vaguely remember seeing more and more devices where these weren't upgradeable - :mad: . I tend to stick to older machines myself (typing this on an 8 year old Toshiba R630!) but wouldn't expect everyone to be confident with upgrading parts.

ED E

Spends €600 on phone, €150 on laptop, is annoyed when laptop is sh

daenne

I have 2011 Macbook Pro, still working like new

tedpan

daenne wrote:

I have 2011 Macbook Pro, still working like new

You paid 10 times what the OP paid. What a surprise...

They don't have a laptop, its an extremely low budget netbook.

Also, they're low on storage, not memory. Companies really shouldn't be selling machines with 32GB of primary storage when the OS takes up so much space.

OP. If you want something that will last. Look for a laptop with at least an i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD drive. You should be able to find these specs for around 600e. Everything else is a 'nice to have'

Just keep those 3 specs in mind and you'll have a very quick machine.

Phonicks

here is another tip op

goto ebay

search for lenovo t420 14 inch
or t520 15inch
or t220 12inch

buy one for around €200 (note the epic benchmark results from my previous tip)

goto amazon and order a 120gb ssd about €70

make a run the windows 10 media creation tool on a computer with some space, plug in an 8gb usb

swap the hard drive in the laptop and boot it from the USB

enter the windows 7 product key from under the laptop

enjoy, faster the any mac and much more fun to use

Irish_rat

You get what you pay for, have an Asus ux501. Benchmark was up there with the Xps and still fast enough a year later, keep to the normal trusted websites and have downloaded loads of heavy software for college.

Wildcard7

Whatever you do, make sure you have an SSD (at least 128gb). I have a few 128s lying around from the office, and recently used one to replace the hdd in a roughly 8 year old laptop (core2duo, 4gb ram, win 10). It now feels quicker than brand new budget laptops that only have an hdd. For everyday office use (no gaming, photoshop, video editing), an ssd over an hdd is the single most important thing to look out for

ressem

There's not many new i5s with SSDs on internet stores unless tedpan has some suggestions...

HP Pavillion?
https://www.eurieka.ie/hp-pavilion-x360-13-u163sa.html

Buying for a friend / family I'd suggest
https://www.aspensolutions.co.uk/online-shop/product/dell-latitude-e5270/


€570 after vat & sterling conversion for a refurbished (bought and returned) device.
Portable business laptop with 3 year dell guarantee.
Only a 12" screen (but full HD resolution)

i5 6300U (DC 3Mb) 3.0Ghz With Integrated Graphics Windows 10 Pro (64Bit)
8GB (1x8GB) DDR4
256GB M.2 SSD storage
12″ Full HD (1080p) Non-Touch


Upgrading from a second hand machine would likely be a decent option as Phonicks suggested. An older laptop with an SSD, 4GB of ram and preferably windows 10 is decent.

Buying a desktop probably will cost more unless you can source a free screen / plug into a TV with a HDMI connector.

Johnboy1951

I would put a version of Linux on that and use an external storage drive for my data (that could be a small SSD). 32GB is more than sufficient for such an OS and all the applications.

Provided there was no problem with hardware support the result should be a much faster and usable 'laptop'.

tedpan

ressem wrote: »

There's not many new i5s with SSDs on internet stores unless tedpan has some suggestions...

HP Pavillion?
https://www.eurieka.ie/hp-pavilion-x360-13-u163sa.html

Buying for a friend / family I'd suggest
https://www.aspensolutions.co.uk/online-shop/product/dell-latitude-e5270/


€570 after vat & sterling conversion for a refurbished (bought and returned) device.
Portable business laptop with 3 year dell guarantee.
Only a 12" screen (but full HD resolution)

i5 6300U (DC 3Mb) 3.0Ghz With Integrated Graphics Windows 10 Pro (64Bit)
8GB (1x8GB) DDR4
256GB M.2 SSD storage
12″ Full HD (1080p) Non-Touch


Upgrading from a second hand machine would likely be a decent option as Phonicks suggested. An older laptop with an SSD, 4GB of ram and preferably windows 10 is decent.

Buying a desktop probably will cost more unless you can source a free screen / plug into a TV with a HDMI connector.

All good suggestions.

I've used the laptop direct outlet many times on eBay. It's actually cheaper shipping to Ireland than the UK.. it does take a week for delivery though
Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182510474855

Select i5, 8gb ram, 128gb SSD

Preferably there'd be an option for 256GB, although still a good deal for 440gbp Inc delivery.

My mate has this laptop, it's slim and light, nothing special to look at, bit is quick and should last several years. If you're going to store lots of movies and music, maybe invest in an external drive.

Previous comments regarding the T series ThinkPads is good too. They're a workhorse.

Cheers

Moonbeam

Depending on what Apps you need on it ,it would work fine as a Linux machine.
My current machine was £269
Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Laptop, Intel Core i5 2.50GHz, 8GB Memory, 128GB SSD, 14.1" Screen, DVD/RW with Windows 7 Professional (Certified Refurbished)
It is an excellent machine but I don't use Windows so I might have a different opinion with Windows 10 on it.

Have a look at Amazons refurbished machines,there is some good value to be had.

TerrorFirmer

I think that model will also take a 2.5" HDD or SSD so yes, it is upgradable, though it is still quite a slow machine for anything other than single/dual tab browsing, watching a video, etc. It's a very simple machine designed for simple tasks with a €200 price tag, so all that considered it's a nice little machine.

However if you're willing to spend the €500, that would buy you a new i5 laptop with 128GB SSD that would be infinitely faster. No need to go 2nd hand.

Example here - http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/lenovo-v110-15isk-80tl-core-i5-6200u-2.3ghz-4gb-128gb-ssd-dvd-rw-15.6-inch-80tl0010uk/version.asp

Spirogyra

Thanks all, I would be willing to pay E500 if thee was a good chance of it lasting like I said 4 or 5 years... Also is it worth paying for Security such as McAfee?. Thanks S

StevenE

No security needed with a Mac. Or at the very most BitDefender free off the AppStore.
Also, Mac OS updates and new releases are free, as is their office suite which is MS compatible.

Unlike PCs, Macs are generally a one-time purchase, you don't pay for it time and time again with upgrades to AV and OS etc.

beauf

daenne wrote: »

I have 2011 Macbook Pro, still working like new

2006 Insprion
2007 XPS

Both still in daily use.

StevenE wrote: »

No security needed with a Mac. Or at the very most BitDefender free off the AppStore.
Also, Mac OS updates and new releases are free, as is their office suite which is MS compatible.

Unlike PCs, Macs are generally a one-time purchase, you don't pay for it time and time again with upgrades to AV and OS etc.

I've not paid of AV. I did pay €20 to update one of the dells OS. Other than all updates have been free.

Macs's are great no doubt. I think he'll struggle to buy one for 500 though.

beauf

Spirogyra wrote: »

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-inspiron-11-3000 thanks

There are different models of that netbook some are upgradable.

But its a netbook not a laptop. What are you doing on it. It should be perfectly find for email and light browsing.

I have a Lenovo Netbook, I find it great.

StevenE

beauf wrote: »

2006 Insprion
2007 XPS

Both still in daily use.



I've not paid of AV. I did pay €20 to update one of the dells OS. Other than all updates have been free.

Macs's are great no doubt. I think he'll struggle to buy one for 500 though.

Don't get me wrong, PCs are good, and sometimes they offer free updates to Windows, like the limited offer to update to Windows 10, but that was largely due to the rubbish that most will acknowledge was Windows 8.
What I was trying to say was that since I paid for my MacBook in 2009, I've not spent an additional cent on it, yet it still performs as well as it did when it was brand new, with no intentions of replacing it for another fair few years.
The brand is genuinely acknowledged as lasting longer than average, linking that with the zero upkeep, many people are upgrading to Macs.
Additionally, if you need Windows, Macs can run it, but to be honest, I wouldn't let Windows anywhere near my Mac, it would ruin it!
MacOS is simple, easy to use, has no issues with hard drive fragmentation, doesn't begin to run slow if its been on or just put to sleep rather than being shut down regularly, doesn't get hot, doesn't need wiping and reinstalling every other year like some Windows machines do......I could go on, but it would get boring.
My Mac is as it was out of the factory, except for the free OS upgrades, its really hard to fault it and I'm so happy I've stopped throwing money away on placcy boxes of chips that are out of date in two years.

But that's just my opinion.

Panrich

That Dell should have an SD slot. You could buy a 128GB SD card and that will increase your storage

beauf

Panrich wrote: »

That Dell should have an SD slot. You could buy a 128GB SD card and that will increase your storage

My netbook has 32Gb drive and its only half full.

Its really what you are doing with it thats the issue.

All sort of storage options, usb sticks, SD cards, Network Hard drives etc. Cloud.