Thetownend.com

Hi

Trying to help find a laptop for a friend that’s able to play minecraft and is under £350 with the highest spec possible.

Any ideas please?

Thanks

This is top of your price list but it can play Sims 4 so will cope with Minecraft easily mate.

https://www.ebuyer.com/797140-acer-aspire-e-14-e5-475-laptop-grey-nx-gcuek-003

Without meaning to hijack your thread Barry...
I'm after something literally just to download the old Champ Manager 01/02 on to. Something cheap and cheerful if anyone has any ideas.

Excellent, thanks JJ.


No worries, I think my end is solved!

Bump :

For £500 or under can anyone find me anything they consider better than this ??

https://ao.com/product/4aq91eaabu-hp-laptop-silver-59775-251.aspx

We used to be a massive advocate for HP kit. The build quality is absolutely shocking now.

That HP has a ‘normal’ hard drive. You want one with an SSD.

https://www.ebuyer.com/818880-lenovo-v330-15ikb-laptop-81ax00dguk

Someone might be able to find a better one with a better processor, but this will suffice.

Thanks - but only 4gb RAM, i3 and 7th Gen.

The HP is 8gb, i5, 8th Gen

The HP is a far better spec on paper but i3 will be faster in day to day tasks due to its SSD, to upgrade to 8gb memory will cost about £30, the difference between 7th and 8th gen processors is pretty small but you will lose some cache memory and a couple of extra cores with the i3 vs i5.

For all round use I would probably recommend the Lenovo, a core i5-7200U with 8gb memory and a 256gb SSD @ £439.

https://www.ebuyer.com/835633-lenovo-v130-laptop-81hn00fauk

Or a similar spec HP @ £469.

https://www.ebuyer.com/805720-hp-250-g6-i5-laptop-2sy46es-2sy46es-abu

Thanks JJ

I'd like more space than 256gb if poss

Thats a shame mate, you won't get more with the budget if you are after an SSD but you could without one, I personally would never buy a laptop or PC without an SSD as the gains far far outweight the negatives.

Would an external drive not work for you?

I promise you that the difference in speed between SSD and HDD will be absolutely noticable, when you go SSD you never go back, the response of Windows to and SSD is excellent and very noticable, every loads faster and pages of web sites open quicker etc etc and boot times got from about 1 minute to around 10 seconds.

But if you have set your heart on big storage at the expense of useablility then I can look for different solutions mate.

Think you can have both in that Lenovo

Just got a new HP laptop, had nowt to do with specification as we how have IT support (hence why I am rarely moaning on here now :hmmm:) and no idea what model it is, but its boots like shit off a shovel so I assume it has one of these new fangled SSD things you speak of!  :D

Yep thats the reason :) the SSD is an amazing peice of kit.

Yes an external drive would work, as would holding stuff in the cloud if it makes that much difference.  

The benefits of SSD will be noticeable straight away mate, well worth it if you can cloud or external drive stuff. But it is your call, only you can say.

I have checked online and can see no space for a standard 2.5" in the spec as it uses an M2 internally, so not 100% sure.

Storage devices   
HDD: 2.5-inch, 7 mm, SATA 3 (SATA 2 compatible), 500 GB / 1 TB / 2 TB
SSD: M.2/SATA 2.5-inch, 128 GB / 256 GB / 512 GB

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/lenovo-v-series-laptops/v130-15ikb/solutions/PD500165

If indeed this is the case then the choice is easy, buy a cheap 1tb (£38ish) for storage and the laptop with the SSD negating the need for cloud or external strorage.

Yeah best ask Lenovo and/or the seller if it's possible before buying! Otherwise an external hard drive is a good option.

Absolutely as the Ebuyer site doesn't mention the exact model number just that its a V130 and there are apparently 6 variation of that model.

Surely it's a choice of one of those options?

Out of the factory but the ssd isn't a 2.5" drive so unless they build several chassis for the same model it would indicate there is also a free 2.5" bay.

I imagine it goes in the same slot with some sort of adaptor. But these are all guesses tbf.

Never seen a laptop with multiple drive bays (not saying they don't exist).

I have worked on many laptops with 2 drive bays but they are usually only high end £1,000+ laptops, the M2 in that laptop does not occupy a drive bay as it sits in the NVMe slot on the motherboard.

I stand corrected

I'll split this topic tomorrow when I'm not on my mobile but the service manual states it has both options.

The reason I had a hunch is that I have read about Lenovo dual SSD and HDD. You can also get adapters to convert the optical drive to a 2.5" drive.

So this is where I start to show my ignorance but for the sake of argument, assume 3 laptops are equal spec (same 8 GB, RAM, Same 256gb SSD) apart from the processors :

one has : Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7GHz

one has : Intel Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz

and the other has  : Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz

and they are all within £30 of each other, what would be the best buy ??

In my opinion it depends on the manufacturer. Like I have said previously, HP build quality has dropped considerably.

The i5-8250u is miles better than the others.

The 8250u is 20% faster than the 7500U which is 10% faster thats the 7200U in pretty much everything.

Thanks Si/JJ

Morning. I'm looking to replace our current Lenovo laptop which is so slow now to the point of almost being unusable.

Looking at something along the lines of:
https://www.ebuyer.com/799645-acer-travelmate-p259-g2-m-50yf-laptop-nx-vepek-008

What do you techies think?
Don't want to spend any more than £500.
Ideally with a DVD/CD drive so wiffy can play her old games and I can rip DVDs for my hard drive.

Ta muchly.

All under £500.

Same rules still apply as before, get the most memory (8gb is a must) get the biggest SSD (240gb+) preferably an m2 ssd rather than sata and get any dual core processor that is 2 ghz+ preferably with a turbo boost to 3ghz (although not that reliant).

All of these fit the bill better than your suggestion, if you need bigger HDD space then get an external to store films/music on but using HDD as a boot drive is so archaic now and don't bother at all with an ssd less than 240gb either. All are 1080p screen, and pretty sure they all have DVD too.

Makes are all a much of a muchness really with laptops but IMO Asus are the best build quality, HP and Lenovo both pretty decent too.

i5 system by Lenovo for £499
https://www.ebuyer.com/874325-lenovo-v130-laptop-81hn00nguk

Ryzen system by HP for £299
https://www.ebuyer.com/874549-hp-255-g7-ryzen-3-8gb-256gb-full-hd-15-6in-win10-laptop-6bn96ea-abu

i3 system by HP for £429
https://www.ebuyer.com/881017-hp-250-g7-i3-laptop-6mq84es-abu

i5 system by HP for £449
https://www.ebuyer.com/879510-hp-250-g7-laptop-i5-8gb-256gb-full-hd-15-6in-win10-home-6mp21es-abu

Ryzen system by Asus for £489
https://www.ebuyer.com/873529-asus-vivobook-15-k505za-laptop-k505za-bq676t

Wether you will ever notice the difference between and i3 and i5 in day to day jobs is highly doubtful unless you do a lot of photo editing/video editing.

Hope this helps.

Top man, will take a look later

No worries at all mate.

Any other worries gimme a poke on FB.

Another one for JJ and Si....

Mother-in-law wants a laptop to do:
- Emails
- Internet banking
- General browsing
- Social media

My kids have ASUS laptops, which have been good. Wife has had Acer, which have been inconsistent.

So, looking at the above recommendation of ASUS 2GHz+ processor, 8GB RAM & 256 SSD would this be the one to go for?

https://www.ebuyer.com/947187-asus-m509da-full-hd-ips-ryzen-3-8gb-256gb-ssd-15-6-win10-m509da-bq349t

Or would I be better spending a bit more on this (Ryzen 5 rather than 3):

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asus-ryzen-5-3500u-8gb-256gb-ssd-15.6-inch-windows-10-laptop-m509da-ej034t/version.asp

Or even more on this Ryzen 7:
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asus-ryzen-7-3700u-8gb-512gb-ssd-15.6-inch-windows-10-laptop-m509da-bq321t/version.asp

The difference in price doesnt matter so much. I just want her to be able to use the laptop and not have it hanging because of being underpowered.

Get a chrome book. Super fast, and cheap.

Agree, especially if it's just for your mum and she just needs it for generic internet stuffs. A chromebook will be fine. Ideal for that kind of thing.

I would agree, if its just for surfing etc then look no further than a chromebook or a cheap netbook.

Anything more owuld be overkill.

If its for the screen size then literally go for the cheapest option, they are a much of a muchness now with very similar internals.

If its for a small amount of gaming or editing then thats a different matter altogether.

On that note, seeing as you're the man PV  ;)

I'm wanting another laptop for purely my photography, videography and other media. I'm not anti Mac but I don't want to pay £2k plus for an MB Pro or similar. Would the Ryzen 5 or 7 be better suited or can you suggest something else where the performance wouldn't be affected. I know there's stuff out there but I'm being lazy and you may know of something of the top of your very beautiful head  :)

Budget c£1k

Thanks.

The i7 8750H is a better CPU than the current top Ryzen 7 in that price range, the i9 is way out of your bracket as is the new Ryzen 4700u and 4800u....currently.

The 4700u and 4800u are due for a huge launch accross many laptops very soon and they are amazing chips but the price has not been fully announced yet.

If its for photo editing and video processing then currently IMO the 8750H is a bloody good CPU, you can pick them up with a GTX1050 card for as little as £1050 currently and they will outperform a Macbook air in every area for that price. Obviously not matching the i9 version Mac.

https://www.ebuyer.com/834720-msi-pe62-8rc-i7-1050-laptop-laptops-at-ebuyer-9s7-16jf31-021

or

https://www.ebuyer.com/911582-hp-pavilion-gaming-core-i7-8gb-512gb-ssd-gtx-1660ti-15-6-win10-7jz86ea-abu

That said if you budget doesn't allow that much then the Ryzen 7 is a decent low power alternative as long as you get one with a 500gb SSD and 16gb memory.

Both these are a bit cheaper but have the Ryzen 7 3700U CPU.

https://www.ebuyer.com/914243-lenovo-thinkpad-e495-ryzen-7-16gb-512gb-ssd-14-win10-pro-laptop-20ne000buk

https://www.ebuyer.com/899326-lenovo-thinkpad-e595-20nf-15-ryzen-7-16gb-512gb-ssd-win10-pro-20nf0000uk

Thanks very much for that. How much to build me one with 8750H and GTX1050?  ;)

I don't build laptops as the components are not of good enough quality, cheap enough or feely available to the home builder, I only build desktop PC's.

Buggar! Understandable, yet cheers for the info PV it is appreciated :thumb:

Hey PV. 

Whats the latest?  Missus is working from home.  On my old Sony Vaio.  Which I stopped using in 2014.  It's a bit trying.

She needs something for work via vpn with the office, surfing, zoom meetings etc etc.  Decent sound would be good for the meeting and her workout videos. 

Im out of the scene as Ive been on a mac since ditching the Sony.  Up to about £500.  Im sure anything will be quick in comparison to the museum piece she's using.  Any deals you know of?

Laptop stocks are very low and will dwindle to nothing in the coming months, unless things change. Particularly with the DFE wanting half a million. I wouldn't be looking for deals. I'd just be going for whatever I could find.

Suppliers of the tier 1 kit (Dell,HP, Samsung, Lenovo, are furloughing. Dell I've heard have no kit left bar servers. Lenovo seem to still have kit but other middle men BT, Computacentre are ring fencing stock.

I'd be picking and clicking If i was after one and not worrying what it was.

And even the DFE are struggling. You may seem them online but the lead time could be ridiculous.

it's crazy. same thing happening with  games hardware too.

just wanted a particular boom mic to clip into my headphones and the lead time pushed delivery into June

All made in Asia. They haven't been manufacturing for 3 months. Now they've started going to be tricky to export large quantities of stuff, as there is little to no shipping, and cargo planes will not hold the amount that "normal" requires.  There were big backlogs when swine/avian flu concerns occurred and nothing really happened, but that affected the supply chain for months.  If you have a shitty broken mobile and have a free upgrade in line. I'd take that now also.

DFE were always going to struggle. They announced with no to little market research.

As others have pointed out, stock are very low and you won't find many deals.

This one is in stock and looks ok https://www.ebuyer.com/947548-lenovo-v15-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-15-6-win10-home-laptop-82c50075uk

As others have said since lockdown supplies of everything PC related have become a nightmare, even 2nd hand prices are vastly over inflated, places like CEX putting up prices of everything as supplies run out.

There are still a few good deals out there if you hunt but they are rare, even graphics cards which normally sell for £200 or £100 at CEX are now nearer £500 and £350 at CEX as people are desperate to update their stuff.

If your wife can wait I would suggest waiting or spending way more than you should do.

If you do still require one then PM me on FB and I will find you something mate.

That's been the way the whole thing has been handled across govt, whether it's laptops for schoolkids, free school meals vouchers or PPE for health staff. They just announce stuff and move on without bothering to think how or even if they might actually be able to do whatever it is

I would ask her to ask her company if she has access to Office365 and will her VPN work on a chromebook. You will get far more performance for your money.

I am still having issues purchases iPads. Especially in any number of 10. It is crazy.

Thanks All.

Might go for this which appears to be in stock unless Im missing something obvious.

DELL Inspiron 15 5593 15.6" Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, 512 GB SSD, Silver for £549

Her IT support at work is not good.  Frankly one of the reasons I want to get her something better than the museum piece she has at the moment is that Im fed up of being her IT support as I hear her screaming at the screen all day.

https://www.ebuyer.com/947552-lenovo-v15-core-i5-8gb-512gb-ssd-15-6-win10-home-laptop-82c500g4uk

Same spec but cheaper at £479 mate, and in stock.

Not sure why I didn't see that, but an extra £10 over the one I shared is well worth it for double the size SSD storage.

Also Lenovo is a better brand than Dell too IMO.

Lovely.  But the one problem, which shows the luddite nature of the wife and the IT department, she really wants it to have an ethernet port so the internet can be hardwired.  Despite our wifi being good she  and the IT seem to think her being kicked off the VPN is to do with glitching on the wifi.

Yeah be careful. Most manufacturers have ditched those for usb c connections. Not many even have HDMI any more. Lunacy. I agree with PV I was always a dell man, but Lenovo very rarely fail

You can get one of these which solves the problem.

https://www.ebuyer.com/870789-lenovo-thinkpad-usb-3-0-ethernet-adapter-4x90s91830?mkwid=s_dc&pcrid=51508046099&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhuel1rCQ6QIVhcx3Ch0cvwepEAYYBSABEgJnrPD_BwE

Thankyou.

Get 2 though.

Hi folks, I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Chromebook, all I'm wanting it for is to reliably run iFollow, Sky Go and BT Sports to connect via HDMI to my TV.  

I dropped my laptop a while ago so replaced the physical side of things with a refurbed hp machine which works perfectly but has no hdmi port, this wasn't a problem as I also have a shitty linx windows tablet which has a mini hdmi port which was sufficient for what I needed it for but it's so unreliable insofar as the mini hdmi goes, I've had to buy so many cables and it's so temperamental projecting to the TV now.  It'll still do what I might need it to do as a tablet for travelling etc so I don't need anything else from a Chromebook other than stated above.

I don't care if and refurbed machine has no battery life as I'll only ever use it domestically so can be plugged in.  I've found a couple, namely the Dell 11 and the Acer C720 available for £109.99.  I've never had any experience with a Chromebook and I see a few saying that for basic needs they're fine.  

Anyone with any experience able to offer thoughts on how well they scale up to large TVs and if they tend to lag live streaming?  Also, is it worth waiting for Prime Day 2020 to buy a new one?  I've never checked in for Prime Day so have no idea how good the deals tend to be.

Sorry to go over old ground and thanks.

Not much help with Chromebooks as they are not my speciality, sorry, but what I have is an old core i5 4490k with 32gb memory running off an old 250gb ssd and a R7 250 GPU, I built it onto a wooden opencase that I put together from old bits of wood, thats plugged via HDMI cable into the 60 inch TV for when I need to watch films from HDD and streaming from iFollow/Netflix etc.

Basically what I am saying is that do you not have an old PC sat around even with shit hardware that has a HDMI output from GPU that you can use rather than buying a CHromebook/laptop etc? as you do not need the use of it being portable.

I built mine so it can easily slide into an empty under TV cabinet as its about 15w by 10l by 6 inches high all inclusive with power supply etc too.

Just a thought, if you were closer to me I have loads of old PC internals like that you could have had for bugger all that would do the job.

Anyway in answer to your initial query....I have found that Black Friday/Prime Day deals are decent if you are in the right place at the right time but they also go very quickly and you tend to save no more than 5 to 10% at most.

Or look around and pick up an old laptop with a broken screen for peanuts and run it on HDMI to TV?

Just a few options mate, sorry to not be of much help.

Stupid question, what's the difference between a Chromebook and a 'lap top', is it just a size thing i.e. used to be the whole lap top/note book thingy?

Mostly just operating system, one uses Chrome OS or Android and the other Windows 10 basic.

Thanks PV, some good ideas, my dad was a self employed computer consultant for many years and built countless PCs but I think any left over parts from his time are redundant now.  I don't think I have anything kicking around I could re-purpose myself.

Only other thing I should have mentioned is that sometimes if I'm working while we're playing I plug into on of the TVs at the bar if it's not too busy so it would be best if it were portable for at least that reason.

Thanks for the thoughts though, I'll see if there are any laptops that are still running but with broken screens like you say, good shout.

Ta, learnt something today!

A lot of people don’t realise you can install chrome os on any old kit. I have used 5 year old hardware and chrome just flies. Don’t throw old kit out, reuse it.

Absolutely, old tech is fine, even a 15 year old Pentium 4 with 4gb ram can act great as a Chrome machine or even Windows 7.

I am given probably 20+ old PC systems every year ranging from 20 years old to under 3 years old and I refurbish them, clean them out and instal either a free OS or Chrome/Android/Lunix OS and donate them to the local charity store to either sell on or give away, at most these systems would reach no more than £150 and often about £50 to £100 and they hardly worth selling for that price and they are donated to me so I pass them on to those who need them.

I have also given several away to the local "special needs" schools so they can give them to parents for their children knowing that if they break them it has cost them nothing.

Basically unless you have parts older than about 2001 you can still reuse them as servers/homework machines/internet browsers for zero cost.

The HP laptop I kept when I left my job has a display port output. I got a display port to hdmi cable and it works fine. Does yours have anything similar?

Cheers Si, I do have a vga port so could get an adaptor but then that presents the problem of audio.  Having had more of a look around I've ordered a refurbed CB for £90, it just ended up seeming the least bother.  Thanks for the help though.