New computer advice

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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
Sorry but this is probably just another computer recommendation thread among many, but with your indulgence I will continue with my query.

Looking for a new laptop, under £300 but still able to handle large spreadsheets with graphics/photographs in them. Used mostly for office programs, internet and skype. My works E450 8GB laptop gets tied up with the spreadsheets at times so need the best I can get for such a limited budget.

Other than that I am not fussed. Prefer normal colours like black silver but blue and red is just about acceptable. No Pink or purple!!! I'm fussy that way.

I may be getting some bluetooth, smart devices that would use bluetooth to connect to my phone apps but I may want to connect these devices via bluetooth direct to the laptop so would prefer it as an option.

Can not think of anything else except it must be new (do not trust buying secondhand) and I would prefer buying from somewhere with a physical store presence that I could go back to if there is a problem. Would consider buying from their online presence but there must be a store.

All this kind of limits what I can get but I seriously have no budget for this. It would come out of my budget for more important things so cheap is necessary. Basically I need to use a proper computer at home instead of phones and tablet since I intend to do more office based work on it. I can no longer take my work computer home (well I could but it is weight and I don't always have the car but use bikes or walk/public transport). Plus the work network backs up everything connected even my own personal files saved on an external hard drive if it is connected during back up. I need privacy for my own files now.

Any suggestions? I can only see cheap celeron or E series (very old chipset I think). Or occasionally an i3 or AMD with only 32GB memory (need at least 500GB drive).

Used to be easy last time I bought a computer for myself it was the highest number you could afford (P120, P133, P166, etc.). All that in desktop format since laptops were too expensive and not very good. Now it is very confusing since Intel have rivals and different processor series to look at.

I know there are plenty of computer literate people on here which is why I thought I would ask for suggestions. Sorry if post is too long or it is "just another laptop thread".
 

cranmere

Settler
Mar 7, 2014
992
2
Somerset, England
I would seriously look for a reconditioned machine. My laptop came that way, partly because I would not use Windows 8 and buy buying reconditioned I could get W7. I use a company called Morgan Computers who were fine to deal with and sorted a minor problem very quickly and efficiently. I got a Toshiba laptop that was 'way beyond the specs I could have afforded new and 2 years on it's running absolutely fine.
 

nunzionuk

Full Member
Check out places like mcs (referbed dell stuff, but well trusted and great support), and ebuyer. Avoid PC world!!

A cheap laptop isnt hard to get, if you are working with large sheets, then aim for an i3/i5 cpu, make sure you can upgrade the ram after purchase, as its normally cheaper than buying with extra ram. Same goes with a HDD.

I personally like Dell laptops, and Lenovo Thinkpads. £300 is going to be a tight budget, but if you shop around you will find a deal.

AMD vs Intel CPUs is a hard thing to explain. core iX cpu's have better memory addressing than the AMDs but they are also twice the price. Dont get confused about number of CPU cores either. As with most applications, a single core is used most of the time anyways, so I would always go with the higher ram vs more cores (min of 2), and with Intel over AMD for the better memory addressing.

Bluetooth/Wifi is pretty much a standard nowa days on laptops.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
MCS tEchnology only sell them without the OS. Then you can buy the discs for W8.1 32 bit OS for £65 ex VAT I think I saw. Still I have never installed any OS and would not know what to do, unless it was all wizard style hand holding. The only OS upgrade I know is android and the OS/firmware on my smart TV. All those are simple select OK and let it do its business.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
Just seen a laptop on ebuyer with ubuntu on it. I know it is Linux but what is it like to run linux? Always been a Windows user so just curious. I'm guessing it could be replaced with windows later on if not suitable but any views for non-IT type to just get on and use. I'm assuming that it is easy enough for a windows user to get on with straight out of the box??

With this the thing that interested me was it was cheaper with an AMD A10 8GB RAM HP laptop. Seemed to me to be cheap for the hardware specs. I'm guessing that'll be the £65 cost of the Windows OS to the OEM.

Do you think that Linux is at all suitable for someone who just wants to get on with using the laptop.
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
"...Do you think that Linux is at all suitable for someone who just wants to get on with using the laptop..."

If its Ubuntu then yes.

However, most flavours of Ubuntu are easier for the PC to run, you cannot presume that an older machine will work so well if you instal windows 7 or 8 on it instead.

Spreadsheets, even quite complex ones won't be a problem.
That holds for Word documents and Skype.
Surfing the internet, again no problems.

However its worth bearing in mind that Skype will be become a browser only service soon, that and the browser based office services from Microsoft or Google mean that your laptop and its OS will become less relevant. You will be able to do all you need via a decent Internet Browser (Chrome, Firefox etc.).
 
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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
I must admit I am getting a bit behind the times on this. I understand the cloud and cloud services. Indeed i trialed a few cloud based business apps on android and iOS tablets once. What I am curious about is the likes of MS office now being the 365 and on the cloud. Does this mean the docs are in anyway different to the ones using the old office docs? For example .xlsx, .docx, etc. files are the same as those produced on 265? Dumbass question I think as I reckon it must be and the output (.docx file) would be saved on your computer, external drive, USB drive or on the cloud as per your own choice.

Also if the 365 is a cloud service that means internet connection is needed or am I being ignorant on this?

One more question, if I get a W7, W8.1 laptop what is the cheapest way to get a licensed copy of Office actually on the computer (i.e. the old school version not the 365)?
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
"...Does this mean the docs are in anyway different to the ones using the old office docs?...Dumbass question I think as I reckon it must be and the output (.docx file) would be saved on your computer, external drive, USB drive or on the cloud as per your own choice....Also if the 365 is a cloud service that means internet connection is needed or am I being ignorant on this?

I have only 'played' with Microsofts offering, I have more experience with Google'e version.

Your document, be it a spreadsheet, image file, pdf or word document is uploaded to Google or Microsoft's servers, it is stored there for as long as you wish and can be edited as needed. You can subdivide your online storage into folders and sub folders as needed.

While online the documents are no longer .docx files or whatever, what they are while they are stored up there doesn't matter. At the point when you want to email it to someone or download it to your PC or wherever you can choose the appropriate format, .docx, pdf, txt or whatever.

No, you do not need to be attached to the internet to work with, edit or save these files to your hard drive.
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
Linux can be a real PITA at times, I'd say stick with Windows if thats what your used to.

Yes it can.

However Ubuntu is the exception to that rule, for me it has worked flawlessly on several machines, even managing to work with my parents in laws bluetooth devices which Windows 7 and 8 have struggled with.

In the end, all those companies are making a push for cloud computing, your Chrome browser looks much the same whatever platform you are running, so in the long run just get a machine that isn't going to fall apart and has lots of RAM and you should be fine.

:)
 

XRV John

Nomad
Jan 23, 2015
256
26
Scunthorpe
I run Linux Mint on a 2007 HP 2Gb laptop. Very fast in fact so much so than Windows when it was installed. This why I chose Linux. If I got a more modern laptop I'd run Linux Mint as it just worked out of the box (well off the DVD to be accurate).

Hate Windows and the rapacious business model it's based on.

Bet a modern laptop with Mint on would be ace. Mmmm you've got me thinking ......
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
Linux is a pita to run.. when you have issues.

I run Ubuntu full time on my work laptop.

Office, best way to get a real copy is the 365 service.. it does install on your pc for offline use. Or at least the one I got does.


When I was nursing MS sold full copies of Office to Staff for £12 and my son is a paralegal and MS sold Office 2013 to staff for £15 (this year); its worth asking friends to have a snoop around for you. My wife teaches at a local uni from time to time and got W7 Pro for £25.

I've got Mint on a laptop but getting drivers et al was a nightmare. I might play with it on a spare PC and see if things have improved.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
I was thinking of someone who was a student and getting them to sort out a student edition for me which IIRC is cheaper than the full one.

Sometimes I wonder if you got money back for every problem with windows or Office that needs to be reported whether you would end up with enough in refunds to buy a full Office product next time you replace your computer? MS products are kind of the default for so long that I'll admit anything else just feels wrong. I used to use a Lotus product (Lotus 123 with wordperfect and all the other Office equivalents). It was good but never worked as well as the office, even back then when W95 was new too. It is that habituated to Windows/Office that needs to be overcome to get another OS. I am happy with Android on my phone but possibly only because I still see it as a different kind of product.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
I went over to Ubuntu just after it first became available and have never regretted it in the slightest, I got the hang of it straight off as it's really not that different from Microsoft os's for the end user, everything works the same except for having to get used to small details as with anything new. I've never had a single problem with it, there are huge resources readily available online anyway, and I've never had to install a driver - everything has always worked straight out of the box. I get constant trouble-free updates, there's a huge range of software available and all this is free!!!

The latest incarnations of Ubuntu are super smooth, not at all resource hungry and totally free of any bloatware; I regularly send all sorts of documents to others using Microsoft and have never once had a compatibility
issue. And if you really feel the need, you can pay a reasonable fee to Canonical for technical support as a belt and braces thing for a business.
 
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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
1,546
Cumbria
No doubt it is good. Did read that they have 5 years update only. Not sure what happens after that but it is not unlike MS support for their OS too. Remember when vista or XP got dropped from their support? Wasn't there a backlash??
 

XRV John

Nomad
Jan 23, 2015
256
26
Scunthorpe
They release different versions

Some are long term support (LTS) which are the 5 year ones for business critical users. These aim for stability and longevity.

More frequent updates have the latest software versions and drivers and come with a small degree of risk it may mess up your working system. If you're not a competent user just stick to the LTS a d you'll be fine
 

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