laptops

[Stere]

Thought the asus was good value for a i7 core 15.6" and the rest of the  spec etc & its a  brand that has being around decades.

 

Also  its a tiawanese  brand rather than chinese one like lenovo.

 

 

 

[echoechoecho]

Thanks for the replies. I'm considering wiping my old laptop and installing Linux Ubuntu or Mint on it, so I will see about upgrading the ram and hard drive at the same time. The main problem with it is the battery life - even from new it only ran for a few hours on a full charge, but now I get maybe 45 minutes before it needs to be plugged in. 

 

The Makita USB adaptor can charge my phone about 4 times from a 5ah battery. The output is 2.1A / 5v, so if that's too low for a laptop then I will have to look into alternatives for keeping the laptop charged when away from the office - either an 12v-230v inverter in the van, or one of the cheaper Ecoflow power packs.

 

 

 

 

[GarethM]

eBay yourself a new battery for around £30.

But try also try the ram 1st, my experience of Linux for anything office and home base was a bit mixed. Usually it's the PC for 10% of my work or iPad for the remaining 90%

[Terrain Aeration]

I’m a MacBook man just lazy it linked to my phones. Actually not lazy I’m not computer literate 🤣🤣

[Retired Climber]

I'd go Lenovo too. I've been using Thinkpads for years, and never had a problem. 

[Dan Maynard]

Try Duracell direct for a new battery, I've had a couple as they seem to need changing about every 4 years. They still do one for my Lenovo long after Lenovo themselves stopped. I'm never quite sure what you get on eBay.

 

Also, SSD upgrade is worthwhile to improve battery life, no moving parts reduces the power consumption a lot.

[spudulike]

6 hours ago, echoechoecho said:

Thanks for the replies. I'm considering wiping my old laptop and installing Linux Ubuntu or Mint on it, so I will see about upgrading the ram and hard drive at the same time. The main problem with it is the battery life - even from new it only ran for a few hours on a full charge, but now I get maybe 45 minutes before it needs to be plugged in. 

 

The Makita USB adaptor can charge my phone about 4 times from a 5ah battery. The output is 2.1A / 5v, so if that's too low for a laptop then I will have to look into alternatives for keeping the laptop charged when away from the office - either an 12v-230v inverter in the van, or one of the cheaper Ecoflow power packs.

 

 

 

 

Get a new battery off eBay, fit the SSD dirve, that will really amaze you - mine took around 2 mins to boot and now it is under 15 secs plus general running is so much faster! The SSD drive will make the battery last longer and the software most major brands supply make the job easier - just move the data across, swap the drives and bingo (you may need a USB to hard disk cable...eBay again. The RAM is the last bit...relatively cheap, just find out what the max is that you can fit and then purchase it and load it up.

Doing this saves a LOT of £££ and more importantly, gives you what you are after. It helps if you have a decent CPU...quad core etc but it will definitely help.

 

[spudulike]

Didn't mention, I have been messing with computers since MS DOS and Dr DOS and learnt a lot configuring OS and machines for gaming etc

[coppice cutter]

8 hours ago, echoechoecho said:

 I'm considering wiping my old laptop and installing Linux Ubuntu or Mint on it,

Definately.

 

I got gifted a very old but hardly used laptop a couple of years ago which I eventually got going and then upgraded to Win 10, only to find out that the operating system itself placed such a demand on it that it was scarcely useable.

 

So with nothing to loose, and not really sure what I was doing anyway, I formatted the hard drive and replaced it with Linux Mint.

 

It has given the computer a whole new lease of life, and apart from that, despite having a newer laptop still running 10, and a Macbook, I much prefer using the Linux. I intend to change the newer laptop to Linux this winter during a quieter time as well and consider the Macbook was wasted money as I bought it to get me away from Windows but didn't realise there was a better and cheaper way to achieve that.