Laptop recommendation?

Jeffkeryk recommends the Chromebook and he seems to be a tech savvy guy with lots of computer choices. It might not be what the OP needs but I would look closely and think carefully about that decision.
Avoiding Chromebook. Good for some things. Not sure about this. Problem is, *I* don't know anything about them, and part of my plan is to help her learn some Arduino programming (C++). I know how to root around in folders on C drive, but Mac and Chromebook, not so much--and I have no incentive to learn them.

Made the mistake of downloading Arduino 2.0 IDE onto the wife's PC, and quickly ran into the problem of, it doesn't match the tutorial that came with the Elegoo starter kit. And I'm not used to 2.0 either. Got the 1.8 that the tutorial uses, and that I'm used to, and suddenly I'm useful again. [Plus 2.0 does the classic problem of, fix one thing by breaking another. So she's already learning the ropes: only upgrade your tools when you have to!]
 
I'd put a cheap SSD in it and a fresh copy of Windows on it and run it for a little while longer.
 
Avoiding Chromebook. Good for some things. Not sure about this. Problem is, *I* don't know anything about them, and part of my plan is to help her learn some Arduino programming (C++). I know how to root around in folders on C drive, but Mac and Chromebook, not so much--and I have no incentive to learn them.

Made the mistake of downloading Arduino 2.0 IDE onto the wife's PC, and quickly ran into the problem of, it doesn't match the tutorial that came with the Elegoo starter kit. And I'm not used to 2.0 either. Got the 1.8 that the tutorial uses, and that I'm used to, and suddenly I'm useful again. [Plus 2.0 does the classic problem of, fix one thing by breaking another. So she's already learning the ropes: only upgrade your tools when you have to!]

They're good for certain things, and at an extremely low cost. I think I got mine for $100. It only has a 32 GB SSD, but it's certainly decent for web browsing and whatever apps that Google Play supports on it.

I won a used Chromebook in a drawing once, but after a while I was getting messages that Chrome OS support was going to end. Then it failed. But I got it for free so no complaints really.
 
Granted, I have champagne taste, but your $300 budget is the achilles’ heel. Perhaps you can find a $600 unit that was returned as a ‘buyer’s remorse’ type of deal. 🤷‍♂️
 
I need to use Microsoft Teams for a meeting and found out that it doesn't work on my old Mac. I can download the application but when I start it I get a message that it's only going to work with organizational or educational accounts, and the web version says it's not compatible. But I've got an old Mac.

So I'm whipping out the Chromebook for this, since it actually works with the latest version of the Microsoft Teams web version. And there's no way my Chromebook is more powerful. I think it's probably about security.
 
Granted, I have champagne taste, but your $300 budget is the achilles’ heel. Perhaps you can find a $600 unit that was returned as a ‘buyer’s remorse’ type of deal. 🤷‍♂️
Yes, I know it's a hindrance. My concern is, if she heads off to college and wants to get something better (or needs to), then I'm stuck with an anchor. To me, electronic gizmos for home use are worth ~$100 per year of ownership, but a the same time, while electronics can be really long lived--they often aren't worth repairing, so I can't buy something and automatically expect it to last 10+ years. Great when it happens, but I "need to" get my monies worth out in 3 or so years. After 3 or so years, if it dies and it's not cost effective to repair, I can toss and have no hard feelings.

If I could score yesteryears kilobuck laptop for $300... I'd be content.

Maybe tonight I'll look again at how to upgrade her laptop. If I could do that for less than $100... worst case is I brick it in the process, I guess.
 
I'm a sucker for used business-oriented computers like Latitudes, ThinkPads, EliteBooks. But more the former two, especially ThinkPads for their (relative) durability and ease-of-repair. Spilled water on mine back a few years ago and it killed the keyboard (I believe older models have a tray that drains fluids a certain way) but ordered a replacement and did it myself. (not saying your daughter will have to learn PC repair but it'll be easier for anyone who does it) It kept on trucking until the hinge got quirky so I'm now not a fan of 2-in-1 hybrids that fold into a tablet.

Minecraft, TF2, older games will run fine on anything modern, you'll want 8 GB RAM minimum and an SSD rather than a spinning hard drive and I wouldn't sweat Windows 11 too much with the budget since it'll technically run on older machines - just with an asterisk and 10 is still around until 2025.

I made a 2008 ThinkPad T400 carry me through my last semester (2019) - it didn't game or play 720p video perfectly but it did all my schoolwork and then some, it even ran two virtual machines (poorly but it did it) for a cybersecurity test.

Heck, if there's a Micro Center near you I'd check out their refurb laptops.
 
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