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Need an inexpensive laptop


JohnnyDD

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I believe my old laptop will soon breathe it's last. Is there anything decent out there for $300-ish? Its gotta run stuff like audacity, rocksmith etc. usual business stuff like Ms office.
I got a Hp mini netbook for work and it is a piece of slow crap.
Is the used market viable?
advice please.

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Quote Originally Posted by Hand Amputation

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I dunno if it has enough power for you, but these are new and very tempting for the price...

 

I just bought one of the $200 Acer C7 Chromebooks as a Christmas gift for my daughter and found references online that 1) it can handle up to 16Gb of RAM and 2) you can set it to dual boot into Chrome or Ubuntu (& possibly Windows as well). I fired it up last night and that little thing is pretty smokin', especially with the Chrome OS.


Hell, if I like how Ubuntu runs on it (or, better yet, can get Windows on it), I might have to buy another one of these for myself.


That being said, JohnnyDD is going to need a Windows machine if he wants to run Rocksmith on it.

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Quote Originally Posted by Reality Check

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If you are lucky enough to live near a Fry's Electronics, you can get one of these babies for peanuts. I played around with one of these Lenovos last week and it is indeed a very decent computer for little money.


P1_FRI_120712_02.jpg


http://www.frys.com/ads/computer-tab...ks-accessories

 

Single core processor... I wouldn't go near one of those, especially with Windows 8. If ALL you are doing is word processing and surfing the web, it might be okay. However, try to do anything that requires some memory, or processor speed (videos, streaming music, downloading video, recording, etc.), and you'll have all kinds of issues. I've had two different new PCs with Windows 8 in the last month. While I LOVE Win. 8, I would not buy a computer with less than 8 GB of RAM to run it all smoothly. Plus, do some research on Lenovo product support. My i5 model pooped out within two weeks. Took it back and bought an HP Envy...no issues at all. They lure you in with the cheap pricetag, but those $278 models are nothing more than a big netbook.
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If you are going to run higher power programs such as on-line gaming (Halo, Call of Duty-those that require a lot of quick actions ) or some of the music software such as Fender's computer-based amp models you won't want a processor lower than an Intel I5 processor or its AMD equivalent. Unfortunately you are going to have to pay more than 300-400 bucks for that.


some of the things you want to look at in a computer:


processor speed and power. Speed is in gHz such as 1.7 of 2.2. The faster the processor the more power. One can get a computer with an Intel I3 processor that is only clocked at 1.7 gHz yet buy a computer with a dual-core Pentium clocked at 2.3 gHz. You pay less for the older model of processor but get a faster one.


Video gfx if you run programs that require high video gfx processing. The power of the GFX processors is expressed in mb. 256 is the low end now but you would need 1G or more to efficiently run some programs.


sound processor. Unfortunately most laptops don't have good sound cards unless you pay for it. If you are using one of the virtual amp programs with a low-end sound card you may experience lag between the input and the output.


RAM. A lot of people become enamored with a computer that has gobs of RAM but don't pay attention to the processor speed. If you have a processor clocked at 1.7 gHz and have 8GB of RAM you, most likely, are not using all your RAM which is a waste of money. Don't over pay for RAM.


Hard disc performance. measured in RPM's. Standard HD's run 5k+ RPM. This is important for the "search speed" of the HD when you are running programs. The faster HD's run 7k+ speed and are able to keep up with faster programs requirements. But you pay more for more RPM.


You may be able to find a good, cheap laptop that can do the jobs you need done but make sure you do your research before you buy. I get by on my 300$ compaq laptop and I play Call Of Duty on-line fairly well, but I will not even try to use one of the virtual amp programs due to the great potential for lag.


Good luck. If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I will try to answer them the best I can.

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Quote Originally Posted by steve_man

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Single core processor... I wouldn't go near one of those, especially with Windows 8. If ALL you are doing is word processing and surfing the web, it might be okay. However, try to do anything that requires some memory, or processor speed (videos, streaming music, downloading video, recording, etc.), and you'll have all kinds of issues. I've had two different new PCs with Windows 8 in the last month. While I LOVE Win. 8, I would not buy a computer with less than 8 GB of RAM to run it all smoothly. Plus, do some research on Lenovo product support. My i5 model pooped out within two weeks. Took it back and bought an HP Envy...no issues at all. They lure you in with the cheap pricetag, but those $278 models are nothing more than a big netbook.

 

The B980 is a sandy bridge dual core. Seems like a killer price.
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"processor speed and power. Speed is in gHz such as 1.7 of 2.2. The faster the processor the more power. One can get a computer with an Intel I3 processor that is only clocked at 1.7 gHz yet buy a computer with a dual-core Pentium clocked at 2.3 gHz. You pay less for the older model of processor but get a faster one."


This is incorrect. Unfortunately, since it is a partial view of an holistic truth, it is often repeated as accepted wisdom.


Processing speed in a Lindows system is going to be a function of the efficiency of the interactivity between the RAM, core processor, and other parts of the system. The northbridge and southbridge chipsets used on the motherboard can, and often do, have as much of an impact on end-user experience.


If you are a Maximum PC subscriber (me, for a while ... :: blush :smile.gif and do higher-end systems where benchmarking is mostly a matter of abstract scores, it doesn't really matter much.


At the lower end of the price spectrum, it is far more important to understand that a processor with a higher clock speed will not equate to improved performance. Why would this be so important at the lower price range for PCs? Because less expensive PCs are exactly where manufacturers look to use up surplus components, and most manufacturers (I specifically would single out HP as a glaring example) mismatch the components, market them via their BigBoxStore spec sheet, and they are crappy systems compared to the more modest system sitting right beside them, and perhaps costing less.


This is not to say that an i7 family proc won't blow away an Athlon 3200 (hyperbole for you modders out there - like comparing an Agile 2000 to a '59 Les Paul), but over and over again I see folks spend on proc speed and physical quantities of RAM, not realizing that beneath the hood, the chipsets aren't going to be able to handle the 'extra' capacity.


I wish the OP luck with the laptop; please let us know how it works out.


For anyone not bored to tears by this already, if you want to do some decent audio processing on a Windows system, you should look at slightly older quadcore systems.

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I am in the same boat as the OP, and was wondering if something like the linked laptop is a good deal?

 

Ebay Link

 

In general I don't mind refurbs as I know you can save quite a bit of money that way. My old home-use laptop finally died, and looking for something for web browsing and some apps. No serious gaming or anything like that.

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