Laptop recommendation?

[supton]

Daughter really needs a new laptop, to say it's laggy is an understatement. Some very low cost machine that we bought 5 years ago? says 4GB of RAM and 500GB drive, I'm sure it's not SSD. 100GB is in use, so, while I think a 256GB SSD would work, maybe the extra coin for a 512 is worthwhile. ?

I found this Dell Latitude E5470 on Tigerdirect, with 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, seems ok to me for $309? but I don't know if it'll play video games? Minecraft, Team Fortress, and Crossout (I guess the latter two are not what she plays much of, but she mentioned them). 14" screen seems about the right size. But is it a good computer for her? Says integrated graphics, so, I'm thinking it might not have the firepower to play video games: but TBH, while I'd spend $20 for a better video card, she does indeed have better things to do than playing games...

I just want something she can use for school work, that might last 3 or more years, and maybe get her towards college. If she needs a better laptop for college, so be it, we'll buy another one (but I don't think she is planning on graphic arts nor engineering, nor is she much of a gamer). She has some interest in learning some basic programming, but her current computer is such a turd that it can barely run the Arduino tool (and I can't give her my worn out laptop).

As to budget, free is always the preferred number... but I'm willing to spend $300 or so, since, nothing's ever free.

 

[CarLuver]

i would get a ssd and put it in there. i was amazed at the difference it made in my old laptop. they are cheap enough these days

 

[mattwithcats]

Upgrade, if possible, would be $100…

A Samsung 870 EVO SSD 500 gig is $50 at NewEgg…

Look memory up at https://www.datamemorysystems.com/
They will tell you current and max amount…

Samsung Magician can copy the hard drive…

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[supton]

i would get a ssd and put it in there. i was amazed at the difference it made in my old laptop. they are cheap enough these days

I did that in my old computer, along with more RAM, and it definitely breathed life back into it. I'm just not sure on this computer, it was low cost and feels it. I should get its specs, I never looked at it closely, pretty much just assumed replacement was bestest option.

Edit: ASUS X540YA. Says AMD Quad Core E2 - 6110. 1.5GHz.

Would throwing memory and SSD at this make it better?

 

[Hyundai Respecter]

I bought a refurbished Dell Latitude E5470 just like that a few years ago (it was manufactured in late 2016) and it’s been an excellent laptop. I don’t play video games though so I don’t know how it will work with that.

One thing you might want to know, that CPU is not officially supported by Windows 11…but during the Win 11 beta I was able to install the insider preview on it and it runs just fine, so I’m sure there must be a way to un-officially install it.

 

[jeepman3071]

Macbook Air. I have one from 2013 that still works perfectly as a garage computer. Sometimes the University bookstores even have student discounts on new devices, I know the one I work at has a bookstore that offers laptops at the same price as the Apple store, but with a year longer warranty and a student discount.

I bought an expensive Windows laptop for college, it died after 2 years and needed a power supply. I ended up just buying the cheapest Walmart laptop, which lasted 5 years. Macbook Air M1 base model starts at $900, and would be plenty for a college student and probably last her beyond college.

If she isn't a Mac user, and the one she has now is not worth upgrading, I really just recommend the laptop with the best warranty for a good price that has an i-5 or i-7 processor, 16GB of memory, and a decent-sized SSD (256GB+).

 

[JeffKeryk]

I like Chromebooks, but it depends on her needs. Sounds like she needs a Windows O/S.
For 3 bills, I would look at this Lenovo. You get a year of MS Office to boot.
Costco offers the best warranty.

I hate cheap computers. While I am not an Apple guy, they are solid machines but pricey. If you stick with Dell, Lenovo or Asus you will get a quality Windows computer.
With a chromie (best power for the $$ by far) you can run Office 365.
By the way, we might have maybe 30 laptops in our homes, not to mention a server that could run a small company.
My personal programming laptop is a monster Dell that runs full SQL Server and .NET programming tools.

My everyday laptop is a Google Pixelbook Go. Faster than anything out there. Great speakers for a laptop. Love it.

 

[supton]

Look memory up at https://www.datamemorysystems.com/
They will tell you current and max amount…

I'm doing something wrong, it doesn't come up with ASUS X540YA.

 

[Owen Lucas]

If you end up going with a new laptop, definitely stay away from MacBooks. I mean they are great computers performance wise and last long on a charge but the deal breaker is the SSD is not removable and mounted to the board. You cannot upgrade ram either. Some of them have also issues where the power supply / circuits next to the SSD will fail and send power into the SSD completely frying it. It's basically a throw away computer.

 

[supton]

Not doing Macbook. While the family *loves* their iDevices, friends have macbooks and it seems like endless frustration to my somewhat tech-savy wife. I keep pointing out that it's likely due to settings with the trackpad, but I could see the wife shooting this suggestion down, fast.

Digging out whatever bits I bought for when I did an SSD swap. I have a cable, but zero memory of how I did this last time. I did find an 8GB RAM stick on Amazon for $20something bucks.

 

[JMJNet]

Latitude 5470 is NOT eligible for Win 11 upgrade.
With Win10 support ended in a couple of years, you may want to get at least an 8th gen Intel I5 or even I3.
In Dell nomenclature, you need Latitude 5490, not sure why it is a 9 on 3rd digit instead of 8.

Here in DFW, there are some seller on CL that sells even newer Dell 8th or later gen intel (off lease) for around the same price as 5470 at TigerDirect.

 

[supton]

Latitude 5470 is NOT eligible for Win 11 upgrade.

I'm not sure why this would be an issue? Didn't Win10 just come out? Seems like it should have support for a while to come.

*oh* Win10 came out in 2015? I guess it has been a while... so there might be value in going Win11 I guess. Or upgrading this old machine on the cheap, until used Win11 machines become cheap.

 

[blufeb95]

If you get something with an Intel processor, you'll want an 8th gen or newer CPU so that you can upgrade to WIndows 11 and get support beyond 2025.

 

[supton]

Heh... SSD swap, not too bad. Memory swap? not impossible, but "fun".

 

[supton]

Latitude 5470 is NOT eligible for Win 11 upgrade.
With Win10 support ended in a couple of years, you may want to get at least an 8th gen Intel I5 or even I3.
In Dell nomenclature, you need Latitude 5490, not sure why it is a 9 on 3rd digit instead of 8.

Ah thanks, I do some 5490's (sorta) in price range.

 

[Rand]

@supton
that tiger laptop is old and slow.

i5-6200U 3000 cpumark.. my desktop I just built is around 50000. my 10 year old laptop is over 3000.​

This direct from Acer ebay refurb is 322$ (shows in cart addl 8% off) It also has decent level of integrated graphics.

Acer Aspire 5 - 15.6" Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD W11H | eBay

Acer Aspire 5 - 15.6" Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD W11H.

www.ebay.com

cpumark is 13000 or 4x faster.

256GB ssd, comes with 8GB ram (expandable.)
1080p screen
backlit keyboard
modern ports. (usb C etc)

If you have microcenter they have this 11gen intel for 199$ its over 6000 cpumark for speed.

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[blufeb95]

that tiger laptop is old and slow.

i5-6200U 3000 cpumark.. my desktop I just built is around 50000. my 10 year old laptop is over 3000.​

This direct from Acer ebay refurb is 322$ (shows in cart addl 8% off)

Acer Aspire 5 - 15.6" Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD W11H | eBay

Acer Aspire 5 - 15.6" Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz 8GB RAM 256GB SSD W11H.

www.ebay.com

cpumark is 13000 or 4x faster.

I wouldn't recommend Acer, their build quality is abysmal, the hinges love to break and all the standoffs love to pull out of the plastic in the display housing, I'll never buy another acer product again, they were always cheap but the cheapy my brother bought 15 years ago and got banged around is still in one piece and the one I bought in the summer of 2016 lasted about 18 months before the hinge cracked and the displaying housing fell apart after I replaced the hinge.

 

[Rand]

I wouldn't recommend Acer, their build quality is abysmal, the hinges love to break and all the standoffs love to pull out of the plastic in the display housing, I'll never buy another acer product again, they were always cheap but the cheapy my brother bought 15 years ago and got banged around is still in one piece and the one I bought in the summer of 2016 lasted about 18 months before the hinge cracked and the displaying housing fell apart after I replaced the hinge.

I've had a few.. at this price level they are all commodity grade IMO.
but feel free to post anything at this price point that is comparable.

I mean you got commodity grade.. then something thats more mainstream such as a thinkbook... (not ideapad)
then premium you have thinkpads.. but wait they are from China now..
Always something wrong with anything. I review specific models for issues didnt see anything jump out from that acer.

 

[dishdude]

That Dell is ancient, my company issued me that model in 2010.

 

[blufeb95]

That Dell is ancient, my company issued me that model in 2010.

This would've been the current model around 2016, they probably just recently came off lease or were discarded by an IT department that purchased them after being used for 5 years.