Laptop suggestions?

[doobin]

Libre Office all the way, especially if you are on Mac. Mac Office 365 is a substandard product that they won't bother to update.

[topchippyles]

2 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

Careful there Les, in the last 5 years Mac's have got a lot more mainstream. Of the things mentioned AutoCAD, SketchUp, gimp, Microsoft Office, Libre office all available for Mac now.

I still stand by the statement Mac are a premium product. They are good, but expensive so it's a bit like buying a Mercedes when a Ford is cheaper, more economical.

I buy Lenovo, I picture them somewhere around Volvo, my 9 year old one is solid and dependable. I've upgraded to SSD like Spud and had new batteries every few years. We bought a load of the £500 ones earlier in the year and they are cracking machines.

One other thought to chuck in is whether you have iPhone? If you do and so have all your photos, music, mail and so on with Apple then the MacBook becomes even more attractive because everything will share across nicely. If you are happy to pay for it then the user experience is great. I believe this is one of the main reasons Mac's are so much more popular now, they used to be really niche.

If you're on Android then I would do a £500 Lenovo i5 8GB and SSD. Dell always had the reputation of falling to pieces when I used to travel around commissioning machinery.

And don't ignore the refurbished either, these often come from large companies who upgrade in fleets every 2 or 3 years. It's a case of the right thing coming up at the right time though.

And like car brand it's a personal thing, you won't get Les off his HP.

What i was referring to Dan is the software on the windows will not run on an apple device ? Same direct software from one to another if you get my drift. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by topchippyles

[AngrySquirrel]

Crucial are pretty good SSD's it's neck and neck with Samsung bigger the drive faster it runs! so terrabyte is faster than 256gig due to chips that process data.

Many newer laptops run 16gig even but ideally want 8 as much is done now by ram as used as paging files which don't want going onto SSD if can help on old spinners is what slowed them down and made hot!

They run so much longer and cooler with an SSD installed(remember to trim it reg it's in settings but don't defrag it as that ruins them)

If you get a laptop and want to update crucial do a scanner that reads what you have and gives options if you are not sure as they do ram also Cooking and low latency ram.

If going with Windows 10! which have no other options for a new one as often can't go elsewhere as written into bios chip so can't go to W7!!! go with business or above as home one limits ram for one but also other software add ons!

Lenovo think pads are great but often smaller as designed for moving around.Toshiba have two standards! cheap is turkey/Asia higher one often Japan but better made and configged. Dell is made for them to there price so often noting else fits to repair them also esp with pc's but there are shed loads in market to get bits off but intrusive software also used!

HP is ok in the middle somewhere? you can haggle sometimes if buying new they often make offers also.

Sign up to them before start looking then they will send offers.

Compaq is another Chinese brand like Lenovo.

You can also get laptops made to your spec quite easily company i looked at makes PC's and laptops.

My one was a Sony sllloooooow wasnt the word turn it on then forget you had or why had.

Now just use PC and note4. I build my own PC's as game modd the cases installed water cooling system.

 

there is one kit that is good if size/space etc limited!

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you can take inside house when finished there are also all in one monitors the pc is in rear of screen.

 

you can get ex NHS etc dell units like you see in hospitals small box external power unit you can even get rubber keyboards that roll up! it's a cheaper option.

 

One thing with Chrome and android op systems is they want Net net net or they soon throw a tantrum! they are set up that way they also read anything that is close to them like phones!

If you disable camera/mic/audio you will find runs faster as there streaming it behind your back also many have bluetooth that and wifi is always searching for things to hack into(go check background on your phones for one)

 

Also with laptops if using on mails charge battery up if new a few times then remove it so just plugged into mains runs cooler and lasts longer as not cooking battery cells or frying charging IC which flips back n forth between mains/battery which is one of the main failures on laptops that and screen light which often stems for placement next to charging IC

[daltontrees]

Here's my assorted comments.

 

I have or have had Sony Vaio, Acer and HP laptops. The Acer is the best by far. The HP is the newest and works fine except the mousepad and driver combination is a pain in the arse, so much so that I will never buy a HP laptop again. That said, apparently Microsoft is going to force manufacturers to adopt its mouse drivers in future, bringing HP's legendarily bad mouse performance blinking into the light of the 21st century.

Solid state drives are the bizz, but always back them up regularly. I found out the hard way that data on failed hard drives can be partly salvaged but when a SSD goes, it goes, and there's nothing left.

I run Libre's free Excel and Word equivalents on the HP,  wouldn't pay Microsoft the annual fee again. On the older Acer I still have a perpetual license Office suite, it's not updated any more but that makes no odds to me. It might even be worth buying an old laptop and taking the Office off it onto a newer machine. Another good thing about Libre is, it isn't constantly checking with Microsoft for non-existent updates and licenses.

What always slowed down my laptops was the anti virus. I tried McAfee and Norton and they were hopeless, felt like the latop was their slave. Bitdefender was really quick and didn't slow up the boot. But for the last 2 years I have done without any AV, just using Windows Defender which seems to do the job for free and minimal interference. Now and again it does a full scan without warning but it can be scheduled to do this during the night. 

My conclusion is that no matter what hardware you have the gains in speed will be negated by software, it's always the slowest factor unless you're gaming or streaming. And no matter how lazy I am about deleting old photos, CAD drawings, pdfs etc. I never come close to worrying about memory capacity. Software is the killer, some programmes you never use can be massive and can be scanning your files regularly in the background. You just need to have a clear-out now and again, switch off all the unnecessary checks for updates etc. And go with the lightest AV, if at all. And always do back-ups.

I have learnt over the years to shun Chrome and Internet Explorer and all their successors.  Firefox is without doubt the best option, it's privacy settings are simple and mean that Google and MS are not farming you for data and slowing things up. I have used Firefox without a single hitch for 5 years now and although I have Chrome on my phone and on one laptop for emergencies it is the font of evil unless you have an IT degree to allow you to tame it.

Conclusion of the conclusion, for simple set-ups any laptop will do (except for the HP mousepad issue). It's all about the software.

[Mark J]

3 hours ago, daltontrees said:

 Firefox is without doubt the best option, it's privacy settings are simple and mean that Google and MS are not farming you for data and slowing things up.

uBlock origin works well with Firefox.

[AngrySquirrel]

only use firefox myself on pc on phone got samsung and privacy badger

Use privacy badger and Ad block plus on PC to control outside interests delving!

Great thing with firefox is it fooks up Arsebook breaks there link so cant follow you.

i never have bumbook on my mobiles