Laptop woes

[KageRyu]

Now that Windows 7 support has ended I am in need of a new laptop. Sadly there do not seem to be any good online computer stores anymore. I had too many problems with Newegg on my last dozen orders, Tiger Direct was bought out by a company that does not run a computer user friendly sales site, trying to look up anything on Amazon is painful because of the keyword spamming of sellers and broken search system, Lenova and HP direct both have horrible navigation and bombard visitors with a sales pitch for each laptop but no real specs...

After 4 hours of looking for a remotely decent and affordable laptop I am instead frustrated and depressed. I realize I do not have a lot to spend, but with this machine I am typing on being 10 years old I should at least be able to find something comparable for half what I paid for this one - but no. I paid $550 for this one and it's a dual core Pentium with 4gb of Ram and a 500gb HD... Now a days 8gb of ram is a must, at least 1tb HD is a must, and Win 10 Pro is a must, but finding a machine that has those three without being outrageously priced seems absurdly difficult. I don't care about webcams, or skype certified microphones, or built in av software, or bundled Macafee lifelock garbage... I don't need a special Facebook keyboard with an emoticon row, or a hot button to send selfies direct to snapchat, or any of the nonsense that manufacturers seem to be pushing to justify these ridiculous prices. I would rather not even have a web cam to be honest - but that seems impossible (as impossible as getting a non-smart TV with no internet capabilities these days).

Can anyone recommend a decent shopping site for computers?

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I have no suggestions for an online computer store, other than Dell and Amazon. But since you didn't include Dell, I suspect you don't want a Dell computer. While I often use a search word to find something on Amazon, it is more efficient to use the category menu and then filter those results. As you said, the search results sometimes tend to be all over the place. Generally, I use a search word when I am unsure of the category.

For Laptops through Amazon, I started with the Electronics, Computers & Office category, then selected Computers, Tablets, & PC Products. That gave me a list of "stores," from which I selected Laptops.

From the Refine by choices, I selected Windows as the OS (followed by Windows 10 Professional), 8 GB RAM Size, and 1 TB Hard Drive Size. You can further filter the results by entering a Max price of $500. With a Max price of $500, the laptops listed seemed mostly to be Renewed (preowned and refurbished). Without limited by price, the laptops under $500 were new rather than preowned.

If you are able to spend $500, a Lenova IdeaPad was in the first page of results.

Lenovo IdeaPad S145 Notebook, 15.6" HD Display, Intel Dual-Core Pentium 5405U Gold 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB SSD, HDMI, Card Reader, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Pro ($448.99).

Or you can select one of the other Lenova IdeaPad options on the product page for a configuration that is comparable to your existing laptop for under $500. The 4GB DDR4 | 512 GB SSD | Windows 10 Pro Lenova S145 is $349.22.


Another option is to use Google search for Windows 10 Professional Laptops. You can switch to the Shopping tab, which will then allow you to filter the results by memory, hard drive size, price, etc.

 

[3WC]

For the time being, can't you just upgrade to Win 10 and see how it runs on your current laptop?

 

[Miss B]

I also noticed you hadn't mentioned Dell, which is what I went with a couple of months ago, but that was the store I was interested in from the start. As far as pricing though, they're not cheap, so may be out of your range.

As far as updating your current laptop, I seem to remember seeing a note in one of my tech eNewsletters there are ways to still get Win10 as a free upgrade, but as Satira suggested, be sure to get Win10 Pro, NOT Win10 Home.

 

[KageRyu]

I had to repair too many Dell's when I worked at a repair shop, so it left me somewhat leery of them. Especially that 2 systems with the same model numbers used differing parts (defeats the point of a model number). Granted it was mostly Desktops (I didn't work on Laptops, my hands are too large).

This laptop is about 10 years old, and already has a few issues (dead optical drive, dead battery) - I am doubtful it could handle Win 10 and really do not want to risk the time and trouble to find out.

My issue with Amazon is even trying to filter results it shows me too many things I tried to filter out and I get sick of weeding through them. Too many refurbished machines show as new, too many AMDs showing up in the Intel section, etc... That's what I mean by broken search. I couldn't find a way to specify Windows Pro at all on Amazon when I was looking.

 

[Miss B]

This laptop is about 10 years old, and already has a few issues (dead optical drive, dead battery) - I am doubtful it could handle Win 10 and really do not want to risk the time and trouble to find out.

Yes, a dead battery was one of the issues with my 8 year old HP, not that I had ever used it with a battery the past several years, so was surprised when I noticed that in the systray.

My first 3 desktops were DOS, Win95 and Win98SE. The DOS desktop was put together by a friend's husband, and the first two Windows desktops were Gateways. My first laptop was a Dell, which, unfortunately, I dropped (or rather my backpack strap broke and it fell), once too often. Luckily my local Staples was able to save everything on the hard drive, and transfer it to my external hard drive.

 

[KageRyu]

I found the "free upgrade" but if I were to attempt it first I need to figure out how to back this system up without a dvd drive in case I need to roll back. Even if I do, I am stuck with Windoze 10 home since this thing is Home Premium From all of the enhanced limits I have heard about on the home edition this does not encourage me.

 

[RedPhantom]

Don't know if you'll find anything but Cheap Laptops | Computers | Woot has a few laptops you can check out at least.

 

[DanaTA]

I would look into ASUS. They make a really good product, and not as expensive as some of those big name brands like hp or Dell. When going new, I think they'll all have Windows 10, but you may have to look at the specs to see if it's Home or Pro, and if there's an option to upgrade the machine to Pro for a small extra fee.

Dana

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Windows Pro will probably add at least $90 to $120 to a Windows Home laptop. With taxes, it cost me $129 to license Windows Pro on my new hard drive.

 

[KageRyu]

I still have not solved the laptop issue. Nothing I have found in the price range I can afford do I feel is worth the price being asked for them. I need at least a dual core with 8 gb ram (like this 12 year old one), but everyone is asking 600+ for those (this one cost just over 5 with a nice carry case... the case was $75). I am annoyed that 12 years of advancement has not led to better, more affordable laptops.

 

[Dream9Studios]

I still have not solved the laptop issue. Nothing I have found in the price range I can afford do I feel is worth the price being asked for them. I need at least a dual core with 8 gb ram (like this 12 year old one), but everyone is asking 600+ for those (this one cost just over 5 with a nice carry case... the case was $75). I am annoyed that 12 years of advancement has not led to better, more affordable laptops.

Have you got the new laptop yet? I bought mine at Sam's Club for under $500 and it has 8Gb of RAM plus a good dual core AMD processor and a pretty good GPU. I'm able to play the Sims 4 on it. LOL It's a HP-15 and I love it. It's probably the best laptop I've ever had.

A tip about browsing for computers on Amazon is to look up what you need on NewEgg then search for that exact model on Amazon. That's how I bought my mom's new Lenovo.

 

[KageRyu]

No, it is just not in the cards right now. With current financial difficulties it is impossible to find one that both meets my needs and that I could afford.

 

[KageRyu]

I have managed to gather a reasonable budget, but, now I need to make critical decisions such as whether to get an updated Laptop to stay connected, or to get an updated workstation to run P11. In theory I could go online with a workstation - but couldn't do so when traveling as I do now...and I could put P11 on a laptop - but rendering and storage for my files on a laptop is problematic.
The other issue is - do I go with a refurbed workstation to get more bang for my buck now but potentially find myself back here in a couple years...or settle for reduced capability to get something shinier and new?
No matter what I can't afford state of the art or top of the line (unless I could talk Boxx into one heck of a discount for a disabled artist). So I am looking at something in the $500 range (this may improve if I sell some more art or collectibles in the next month).
I know that still sounds smalll...maybe it is, but in the past I was able to do wonders with that budget...but I also had greater selection of sources for parts than today.

 

[Aylaaenas_Evenwing]

I feel you. 500 dollars is not much. I gave a Lenovo now but before this one I had an Asus which I really liked with a 940m 2 gb gpu card. It was a little over 500 I think 700 euros. Maybe find something like that? It was an i7 quad core, 15 inch

 

[Aylaaenas_Evenwing]

I found a similar one, though not in the US but it's 54 euros. It has home edition but yiu can change that

 

[Aylaaenas_Evenwing]

This one is roughly the same.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-i7-5500U-Processor-GeForce-Windows/dp/B01ESJ48UG?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1

Although it's 700 dollars hopefully you can find another 200 dollars

 

[Aylaaenas_Evenwing]

Maybe this website has some interesting stuff for you

Best Gaming Laptop Under 500 USD - GamingBeasts

 

[KageRyu]

The snag I hit now is more about problems with bank/online pay and the fact everything is closed to the public because of the Covid-19 scare. What's happening is really like a comedy of errors and unbelievable. I recently was working on moving from Ohio to Massachusetts, and am in the final stages, but the bank that is linked to all of my online payments and Paypal and my direct deposit was just bought by another bank and is closing my account on the 13th... this bank is in Ohio and so I can not go in to the office and do anything (I can transfer my money out via Paypal... but there is a new problem). Right now in Massachusetts Banks are not open to the public, and so setting up a new account with direct deposit and online banking is a pain...and then because the office of social security is also closed to the public I have to request the change for that by mail... it's just one long string of bad events.

I had been hoping to just leave my bank and payments alone until my house in Ohio sold then move everything, but they have insured that is not possible. I just seem to have the worst luck.

 

[Aylaaenas_Evenwing]

The snag I hit now is more about problems with bank/online pay and the fact everything is closed to the public because of the Covid-19 scare. What's happening is really like a comedy of errors and unbelievable. I recently was working on moving from Ohio to Massachusetts, and am in the final stages, but the bank that is linked to all of my online payments and Paypal and my direct deposit was just bought by another bank and is closing my account on the 13th... this bank is in Ohio and so I can not go in to the office and do anything (I can transfer my money out via Paypal... but there is a new problem). Right now in Massachusetts Banks are not open to the public, and so setting up a new account with direct deposit and online banking is a pain...and then because the office of social security is also closed to the public I have to request the change for that by mail... it's just one long string of bad events.

I had been hoping to just leave my bank and payments alone until my house in Ohio sold then move everything, but they have insured that is not possible. I just seem to have the worst luck.

Oh wow, that are a lot of terrible things. It'll take a while before it all settles I think. I saw you wanted to try texturing. Maybe I can tutor you a bit to help your sales?