Upgrade Your Laptop: Tips for Buying the Perfect Model for Everyday Use

[kyphysics]

Mine is close to 5 years old and I want to buy a new one for:

--personal use only
--not needed for gaming, but want to do videoconferencing (Zoom) and possibly video editing (YouTube) at decent speed/quality
--otherwise, I'll just use it to browse the web, manage finances, e-commerce (Amazon, Ebay, etc.), occasional document preparation (spreadsheets and blank docs)

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-ssd-natural-silver/6479499.p?skuId=6479499
^^^Is this a good deal?

What specs should I be looking for and what is a good price for such specs? Thanks!

 

[jedishrfu]

I tecently went thru the process with similar requirements and decided upon an ASUS X515 sold at Bestbuy for $320.

It features an Intel i3 with 8gb mem and 256gb ssd with screen size 15.4” at 1366x800 ? Pixels.

Cons said it had a 6 hr battery life. For the price though it was good.

Youtube had some vids on addon mem upto 20gb ie 16gb added via single laptop slot with 4gb on system board. SSD could be upgraded too to 1TB. Both would be a bit over $160.

 

[kyphysics]

ASUS X515

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-15-6-laptop-intel-10th-gen-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-pcie-ssd-slate-grey/6469397.p?skuId=6469397
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-15-6-touchscreen-laptop-intel-11th-gen-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-pcie-ssd-slate-grey/6469402.p?skuId=6469402

Do either of these match your model? If not, are the specs close enough?

 

[berkeman]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-...gb-ssd-natural-silver/6479499.p?skuId=6479499

This HP model has a wired Ethernet port available as well as a number of USB ports. These are both important to me even in my home laptop. The wired Ethernet port is handy if there is an issue with WiFi with my modem -- the hard-wired cable is a useful backup in those situations.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-15-6-laptop-intel-10th-gen-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-pcie-ssd-slate-grey/6469397.p?skuId=6469397
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-vivobook-15-6-touchscreen-laptop-intel-11th-gen-i3-8gb-memory-256gb-pcie-ssd-slate-grey/6469402.p?skuId=6469402

The first of these only lists WiFi under "Connectivity", and the second only lists "Internal Carrier" for Connectivity, whatever that means...

 

[anorlunda]

A Chromebook may work for you. You can buy Chromebooks with hardware speed and capacity comparable to almost any PC. It is very hassle free compared to MS Windows.

But check the video editing software to verify that it runs on Chromebook. All the other uses you listed are well supported.

 

[StevieTNZ]

I personally would go for a Toshiba. I've had too much trouble with my HP laptops (including this current one).

 

[symbolipoint]

I personally would go for a Toshiba. I've had too much trouble with my HP laptops (including this current one).

HP computers may be fine, but life-time is short , in my own experience. Something to consider when comparing for price versus time-of-life.

Toshiba as a brand, my opinion only , very very good but Toshiba no longer makes low-priced computers. If you are less worried about price, go ahead and include Toshiba in your brands of choice.

 

[jedishrfu]

The first link ASUS Vivobook 15.4" for $319 is the one I got. I dumped the Windows OS and installed Ubuntu and then decided to dump Ubuntu as well because of its constant daily updates (basically everytime I signed on there was something that had to be updated).

After searching through lists of cool OS possibilities, I decided on Fedora Desktop. Its very minimalist and I had to search around for utilities to tweak the desktop a bit and to setup my favorites. The only thing I miss are placing icons on the desktop. Fedora has a clean desk policy :-)

I plan to use it for browsing, coding Julia or Go using VS Code.

I also added Obsidian an incredible notetaking app based on markdown syntax with ease-of-use to interconnect your documents features. It can handle mathjax math expressions and prism colorized program source code as well as images and crosslinks to other documents.

 

[jedishrfu]

@kyphysics the second link is good too. The only apparent difference is the 11th gen i3 cpu vs the 10th gen i3. 10 is a nice round number whereas 11 is rather odd so I went with the 80$ cheaper one as my old machine an ASUS X200M used a celeron? I think and so far the i3 + SSD screams on Fedora Desktop.

 

[sysprog]

After searching through lists of cool OS possibilities, I decided on Fedora Desktop. Its very minimalist and I had to search around for utilities to tweak the desktop a bit and to setup my favorites. The only thing I miss are placing icons on the desktop. Fedora has a clean desk policy :-)

There's at least a tweak for that:
https://frameboxxindore.com/linux/how-do-i-create-a-desktop-shortcut-in-fedora.html

 

[jedishrfu]

Thanks for the tweak suggestion. Fedora has the gnome tweak tool and an extensions tool and I couldn't find the trick of enabling the desktop icon feature.

The article video actually helped more with the key of logging in as root and selecting Gnome Classic. I think that's what was missing from my understanding.

 

[sysprog]

On Windows machines, I like Classic Shell: http://www.classicshell.net/

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements​

http://www.classicshell.net

It's now 'reborn' as 'Open Shell' $-$ an open source (MIT License) successor:
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu.git

 

[kyphysics]

@kyphysics the second link is good too. The only apparent difference is the 11th gen i3 cpu vs the 10th gen i3. 10 is a nice round number whereas 11 is rather odd so I went with the 80$ cheaper one as my old machine an ASUS X200M used a celeron? I think and so far the i3 + SSD screams on Fedora Desktop.

The other diff. I saw was the 2nd one had a touch screen too.

I like touch screens, but for $80 more? ...nah...Would anyone pay extra for that...$80?

 

[kyphysics]

I dumped the Windows OS and installed Ubuntu and then decided to dump Ubuntu as well because of its constant daily updates (basically everytime I signed on there was something that had to be updated).

After searching through lists of cool OS possibilities, I decided on Fedora Desktop. Its very minimalist and I had to search around for utilities to tweak the desktop a bit and to setup my favorites. The only thing I miss are placing icons on the desktop. Fedora has a clean desk policy :-)

I plan to use it for browsing, coding Julia or Go using VS Code.

I also added Obsidian an incredible notetaking app based on markdown syntax with ease-of-use to interconnect your documents features. It can handle mathjax math expressions and prism colorized program source code as well as images and crosslinks to other documents.

How long does it take for an average IQ person to learn an entirely different OS?

Windows is like ingrained in me since childhood.

 

[kyphysics]

HP computers may be fine, but life-time is short , in my own experience. Something to consider when comparing for price versus time-of-life.

Toshiba as a brand, my opinion only , very very good but Toshiba no longer makes low-priced computers. If you are less worried about price, go ahead and include Toshiba in your brands of choice.

Are these based on anecdote or rigorous scientific study?

My HP laptop (current) has lasted four years. That's pretty good, imho.

I expect them to die around year 4 or 5. Likely from overheating issues...maybe from getting malware, etc.

The oldest laptop I've ever had was maybe 5 years or so.

 

[kyphysics]

A Chromebook may work for you. You can buy Chromebooks with hardware speed and capacity comparable to almost any PC. It is very hassle free compared to MS Windows.

But check the video editing software to verify that it runs on Chromebook. All the other uses you listed are well supported.

I like being able to have removable storage. If I'm not mistaken, CB's only let you upload stuff in the cloud?

 

[symbolipoint]

Are these based on anecdote or rigorous scientific study?

My HP laptop (current) has lasted four years. That's pretty good, imho.

I expect them to die around year 4 or 5. Likely from overheating issues...maybe from getting malware, etc.

The oldest laptop I've ever had was maybe 5 years or so.

Both. A few published on-paper popular and online but not kept track of referencing, and definitely a few directly through personal experience.

Your standards are too low. I have seen three different laptop Toshiba "Satellite" computers, and two of them preinstalled with Windows Vista both being now 14 years old still work well. I often use a different brand laptop computer (Windows 10 preinstalled) now of about 6 years old which also works very very well. If a computer regardless of laptop or desktop, does not last much longer than 4 years, this is to me not good enough.

 

[symbolipoint]

Are these based on anecdote or rigorous scientific study?

My HP laptop (current) has lasted four years. That's pretty good, imho.

I expect them to die around year 4 or 5. Likely from overheating issues...maybe from getting malware, etc.

The oldest laptop I've ever had was maybe 5 years or so.

Further thought - I already commented of my dissatisfaction with HP products, but in relation to an actual computer/laptop, if a low low priced one could be found (which is very likely), I might buy one and put to use, JUST TO SEE HOW GOOD IT IS for at least 1 year; and to see how many years of life it runs.

 

[jedishrfu]

I got about 6 years on my ASUS x200ma until the battery finally gave out a few months ago. I ran Ubuntu exclusively on it.

My new laptop is an ASUS x515ja with 256GB SSD storage, 8GB memory, and an Intel i3 CPU. I installed Fedora on it having tired of Ubuntu's constant updates.

Both cost me $ 280 for x200ma and $320 for the x515. I couldn't bring myself to buy a more powerful laptop.

It seemed the pricing structure was roughly $100 for each level of CPU above the i3, and $100 to double the SSD capacity...

So far the i3 is so much better than the x200ma Intel Celeron CPU at the cost of giving up a 500GB HD for a 256 GB SSD. Speed won out.

 

[symbolipoint]

I am curious; any disadvantages or expected problems with a computer on a SSD (Solid State Device, intead of "Hard Drive")?

 

[jedishrfu]

The one issue I found was that its never a good idea to fill an SSD beyond 80% to 90% because then as you write new data to the SSD you are hammering the same cells over and over and could reach a failure point sooner than normal.

Here's an article about SSDs. In general they are way more reliable than HD devices with no moving parts, increased access speeds, and less battery drain.

https://www.salvagedata.com/ssd-fai...e top five,applications often freeze or crash

and another on SSDs vs HDDs:

https://www.n-able.com/blog/ssd-lifespan

and this article talks about "wear-leveling" where the OS tries to spread the writes to new areas never the same old areas.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-protect-ssd-extend-lifespan/

 

[vela]

How long does it take for an average IQ person to learn an entirely different OS?

Windows is like ingrained in me since childhood.

I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know what field you're going into, but it's probably worth learning a Unix-like OS.

Your standards are too low. I have seen three different laptop Toshiba "Satellite" computers, and two of them preinstalled with Windows Vista both being now 14 years old still work well. I often use a different brand laptop computer (Windows 10 preinstalled) now of about 6 years old which also works very very well. If a computer regardless of laptop or desktop, does not last much longer than 4 years, this is to me not good enough.

Four years is pretty short these days where performance will likely be good enough for much longer, and using a computer for longer is better for the environment.

I am curious; any disadvantages or expected problems with a computer on a SSD (Solid State Device, instead of "Hard Drive")?

The main disadvantage is SSDs eventually will wear out, but that's true of hard drives too. I came across an article recently where the authors tested SSDs to see how long it would take them to fail. They found that the engineers were very conservative in saying how many cycles an SSD is good for. Practically speaking, the SSD likely won't fail before you eventually replace your computer.

 

[kyphysics]

I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know what field you're going into, but it's probably worth learning a Unix-like OS.

I work at a college in my day job and have two side jobs. NONE require Unix, which I am not even familiar with. What is it and how does it differ from Windows?

 

[Klystron]

I work at a college in my day job and have two side jobs. NONE require Unix, which I am not even familiar with. What is it and how does it differ from Windows?

UNIX operating system and C programming language came out when I first started working as a software engineer. UNIX, written in C, replaced platform dependent proprietary OS's. C replaced or augmented or provided an alternative to limited dedicated languages such as COBOL.

Windows originally came as the user interface on top of Microsoft DOS on 'personal computers' PC's, eventually 'absorbing' DOS becoming Microsoft's proprietary OS. UNIX remains open source AFAIK.

Computation history is cluttered with variants, by-roads, successes and failures. I really like UNIX/C for engineering and science but mainly use Windows for home computing.

 

[sysprog]

I work at a college in my day job and have two side jobs. NONE require Unix, which I am not even familiar with. What is it and how does it differ from Windows?

If you're ok with Windows, maybe you don't need to learn about Unix, but if you want to consider working as a professional in configuration and adminstration of computational systems, especially in the client-server arena, you might want to not only become acquainted with Unix, but also dig into it enough to gain a sophisticated understanding of how it works.

I'm primarily a mainframe guy, but about half a decade before the turn of the 21st century, I had to learn more about Unix, because the predominant IBM mainframe OS at the time (MVS - OS/390) started running Unix as a subsystem (USS).

You might start looking at some similarities and differences between Windows and Unix here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_system_kernels

 

[Melbourne Guy]

I like touch screens, but for $80 more? ...nah...Would anyone pay extra for that...$80?

I have three touchscreen laptops...and barely use that feature on any of them (yes, you'd think I'd learn after the first one ) One is a Lenovo that folds around so you can use it like a tablet. Only...not really useful, I've done it once just to test I can.

As for the rest, buy the fastest CPU you can, biggest SSD you can afford, and most amount of RAM you can stuff into it. And if you can, check the keyboard, a bad keyboard is 100% guaranteed to trigger buyer's remorse. I'm typing this on a 7-year old Dell and I keep the old clunker around for the 14" screen and fantastic keyboard.

PS: @kyphysics, If you've only ever used Windows and are asking what Unix even is, don't bother with it unless you're a computer person and want to learn a ton of arcane commands and DIY methods to keep your laptop up to date.

 

[pbuk]

UNIX remains open source AFAIK.

UNIX is a trade mark owned by The Open Group (opengroup.org). There is no single OS that is called UNIX, and I don't think any of them are open source.

Because of the trade mark situation, the description 'Unix-like' is applied to some distributions including the open source FreeBSD.

However more significant than any UNIX or Unix-like OS are the various distributions of Linux, including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, Red Hat, SUSE, CentOS, and many other variants. Also significant for some is another Unix-like with a different history, Apple's macOS.

In summary: forget about UNIX. Learn about Linux if you want, or macOS if you are interested in Apples.

 

[sysprog]

UNIX is a trade mark owned by The Open Group (opengroup.org). There is no single OS that is called UNIX, and I don't think any of them are open source.

Because of the trade mark situation, the description 'Unix-like' is applied to some distributions including the open source FreeBSD.

However more significant than any UNIX or Unix-like OS are the various distributions of Linux, including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, Red Hat, SUSE, CentOS, and many other variants. Also significant for some is another Unix-like with a different history, Apple's macOS.

In summary: forget about UNIX. Learn about Linux if you want, or macOS if you are interested in Apples.

@pbuk, I don't especially like Unix, or "Unix-like" operating systems, but I think that the open-source Berkely Unix operating systems are worthy of study, and that "forget about Unix" is not good advice, and that "learn about Linux" in the same sentence is even somewhat contradictory of the prior dictum to "forget about Unix" $-$ I think that you know that Linux is very much derived from Unix $-$ maybe Mr.Torvalds should be viewed more as taking responsibility than as taking too much much credit, but in my opinion, Linus Torvalds over-credited himself in naming his versions of Unix "Linux" $-$ in my opinion, all of the Linux operating systems are legitimately viewable as Unix variants $\dots$

 

[vela]

I work at a college in my day job and have two side jobs. NONE require Unix, which I am not even familiar with.

I'm assuming you're going into a technical field, but you're not working in such a position now. If you expect that's the only kind of jobs you'll ever have, then you're right that it's probably a good bet you won't need to know how to get around a Unix-like OS.

 

[vela]

Because of the trade mark situation, the description 'Unix-like' is applied to some distributions including the open source FreeBSD.

To be able to call an OS UNIX, I believe it has to meet certain specifications, and I think you have to pay The Open Group to have your OS verified that it meets those specs.

However more significant than any UNIX or Unix-like OS are the various distributions of Linux, including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, Red Hat, SUSE, CentOS, and many other variants.

Linux is the archetypical example of a Unix-like OS. I'm not sure why you're putting it in a separate class.

Also significant for some is another Unix-like with a different history, Apple's macOS.

macOS started as Unix-like, but now it's a version of UNIX.

 

[pbuk]

Linux is the archetypical example of a Unix-like OS. I'm not sure why you're putting it in a separate class.

Yes of course - what I had in my head was "however, more significant than UNIX or any other Unix-like OS are the various distributions of Linux" but my keyboard had its own thoughts on the matter.