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Thread: Geeks assemble! Decent budget Laptop required

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Geeks assemble! Decent budget Laptop required

    I'll keep it short and sweet. Need some advice from you geeky geeks that actually understand computer stuff.

    Laptop, not too big or heavy, with appropriate docking station available to link up to desktop screen and keyboard easy enough.

    No gaming, no heavy programme use, just general browsing and Microsoft Office work.

    Where to buy and what to spend? Don't mind spending more if its got something that is going to show its worth but otherwise something reliable and simple is all we need.

    Recommendations appreciated. Cheers 😊

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...80825-pdt.html

    Has an SSD = very important
    Has 8 Gb ram
    Has a reasonable screen (not great but decent enough)
    Has a quad core cpu

    Bad points, only 128Gb on the SSD but as you should be saving all your work to an off machine drive like the cloud ect then 128 is fine for windows and office.
    Other point is its chav gold.

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Ta. So one other question. What's an SSD?

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    I <3 BBS LM Actual_Ben_Taylor's Avatar
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    Solid State Drive (means it's fast)

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Ah! Unlike the person that's buying it

    Cheers

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    Guest R3K1355's Avatar
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    There's usually some decent Laptop deals come up for Black Friday, which ain't too far away.

    You can buy a new SSD drive pretty cheap, so if you find a cheap laptop with a normal drive it's a good cheap upgrade.
    Also if you get a laptop with a small SSD it's cheap to fit a much larger one.

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Upgrading doesn't sound like something I'm capable of...

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Physically upgrading the Hdd is one thing, reinstalling windows or imaging it is another and that not something for the regular Joe public to do.

    What ever you get make sure it has an SSD (as thats a major bottleneck in a computer), 8Gb of ram and a quad core cpu.

  10. #10
    Guest R3K1355's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arry View Post
    Upgrading doesn't sound like something I'm capable of...
    Any vaguely sweaty mate with a receding hairline should be able to do it for you.

  11. #11
    Guest R3K1355's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arry View Post
    Decent enough, this one is slightly betterer

    https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-2...es/version.asp

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    I (fairly) recently bought a Dell Inspiron and I've been quite chuffed with it.

    https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron.../dp/B0764N2QL4

    It has GE-Force graphics, its quick to boot and is happy to run Office and such.

    It also has enough disk space that I don't have to sell my soul to the devil and store all my personal stuff on the (evil) cloud

    Prior to the Dell, I had an HP dv6 which was ok but nothing like as nice to use as the Dell.

    Before you buy, you should go into PC World and have a go on the keyboards as it is surprising how underrated having a decent keyboard is

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Not been overly happy with Dells laptops, i recently bought in 2 of there higher end ones (still inspiron iirc) and they are awful. My gripe is mainly with there docking / port replicator setup and power... but this is the first time in a while i have been unhappy with dells laptop range.
    I also got in a macbook pro a couple of months back for a new member of staff that insisted they had one, it was more than twice the cost of a regular laptop+dock ect and i am afraid to say it is awfully poor VFM.
    In fact its just awful all over, the usb C ports are the only dam things on it to plug into while all the accessories as still usb type A ect.. It has a low clocked quad core cpu that likes to throttle and the whole thing screams design over practicality - suffice to say i wont be ordering in many more 2k+ apple bin lines.

    I would strongly recommend anyone running a laptop to use cloud or external data storage setups, it takes just one accident to loose the lot... .i have had quite a few people bring there shitbox laptop to me to fix and are in tears when there entire photo collection is gone after bouncing the dam thing off the floor or worse getting it stolen.

    Use cloud storage, its easy - or external drives ect. just do it because the first time you need data recovery services will be the last time you save your life's work to only one place. Folk usually learn there lesson pretty quickly after the first tearful event.

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    Completely agree about backing up your 'puter.

    Completely disagree with using cloud to back up.
    Last edited by Jonny Wilkinson; 07-12-2018 at 18:14.

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Well the reason i tell folk to use cloud services is simply because they can be integrated into the OS and appear just like another folder or drive - the user doesnt need to do any thinking.
    Contrast that with putting in a usb HDD or similar, its another taks.. cables... unit itself being carried.. ect.

    In my experience most not techies.. ie most folk... dont bother doing anything like this, they would rather just click the save button and thats it. They are.. in fact, lazy.
    Same with virus/malware checking. I tend to put on a copy of malwarebytes on home users kit that i get asked to look at, MB is great but the free version needs the user to click on it and run it manually.. it has no background scanning unless you pay for it (which everyone should by the way)
    99% of folk who i have put MB on there computers and told to run it .. never. yep its that simple and its the same with backing up data.. if it isnt being done automatically then the vast majority of plebs out there will not do it and thats pretty much that.

    Hence why i believe cloud storage to be great for laptop users, most will not back there data up to an external drive just like most will never open Malwarebytes.

    The average pleb, i mean non techy user has no care for these things, they just want to open there crap powerpoints and browse the web on edge or IE. They just dont care.. up until they have a big data loss ...then its a bit more important

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    Roughly translated...

    Most people get fcuked over because they can't be arsed not to be fcuked over so its alright that they get fcuked over by being given advice that allows them to be fcuked over.

    For something to be good for the common good, we have to make sure that the parasites and leeches are left to wither on the vine and that will only happen if the masses understand how they are being manipulated and controlled by big business and step one is "Your most valuable internet asset is PII" - Don't give it away.

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    I bought an Acer swift 3. I picked it because it did not feel like a toy compared to the others when I went to currys. Metal construction and 8gb i5 256 ssd. Think I paid 550 which you should be able to get around black Friday.
    https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...yABEgLpnvD_BwE.
    It also reviewed well at launch
    Think I got mine from argos
    Last edited by SXRORY; 31-10-2018 at 07:51.

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sideways14a View Post
    https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...80825-pdt.html

    Has an SSD = very important
    Has 8 Gb ram
    Has a reasonable screen (not great but decent enough)
    Has a quad core cpu

    Bad points, only 128Gb on the SSD but as you should be saving all your work to an off machine drive like the cloud ect then 128 is fine for windows and office.
    Other point is its chav gold.
    Finally got round to buying it thanks for the advice.

  19. #19
    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Haha scratch that. Got it home and it's ****ing broken

    One (at least one) of the keys on the keyboard doesn't work

  20. #20
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Ohh i forgot to mention, the base model you bought doesnt come with all the keys working, you need to upgrade to the more expensive one to get that.

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