Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Need new Laptop help?

I'm currently using a HP2000, AMD6-500APU processor, 8mg of RAM, 679 gig hard drive. I dropped it last week and cracked the case near one of the hinges for the screen. I'm thinking of upgrading. I surf the internet, write some word documents, run VALERO Skeet management software. No gaming, etc.

What would be a reasonable upgrade? Should I go to an Intel processor? I have heard good things about Lenovo machines. Any thoughts and ideas?

Just my opinion, but Levono is Chinese and has been linked with preloaded spyware so they ruined themselves for me. I have an HP and I bought my son one too for college and haven't had any issues. Before these, I had Dells but they got too expensive so I went with HP. Office Depot had several HP's in the $500 range in the last ad I saw.

I have no experience with Chromebooks, but it might be an option if they will run your skeet software. Somebody else with experience with them will have to chime in.

My wife loves her MacBook but they ain't cheap! Plus I'm too old to learn a new OS!

If you don't store pictures or video, I would recommend a solid state hard drive over mechanical. They are faster and in the long run more reliable due to no moving parts.

Thanks. Not interested in Chromebook, my daughter as one, I find it an odd animal.

I've had a Dell Inspiron 17" for 3.5 years without a hiccup. It's lived a hard life. I travel weekly doing field work, so it gets turned on/off frequently, dirty conditions etc. I'm just now planning to buy a replacement (probably a 15"). My recommendation is to stick with an Intel processor. It's hard to beat a Dell, and at least it's an American based company.

Tag

Picked my wife up a 2019 Macbook air this weekend at Costco. $799 and it's bulletproof.

Likely all anyone would ever need and without virus risk.

Once you try Mac, you'll never come back.

Provided, of course, it runs your software.

Buy a new HP with an I-5 processor & as much ram as you can get or want to pay for.

I have a work HP with an I-5 that is 3-4 years or with not issues; bought an HP I-7 for myself a couple of months ago & so far it's very good.

Not a big Dell fan but they sell lot; Samsung isn't bad & neither is ASUS if you prefer one of those brands.

MM

got my daughter a dell inspiron 2n1 for $509 with an intel i-5 processor, 8gb and 250SSD. I took the 250ssd out and put in a 1tb for another $119. Unfortunately the memory is soldered onto the motherboard so I can't upgrade it.. Had my choice of screen size, got her a 13" screen for ease of carrying in a backpack
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touch screen - not sure of the value but its what the kids want nowadays. I also picked up a 23" monitor with HDMI input and a wireless keyboard/mouse. All told I'm in for $700

Laptop makers usually have at least 2 grades of laptops - the retail verson that is usually the cheapest components and least upgradeable and the busines models that are usually better quality, upgradeable and more durable.

So you have the Dell Inspiron and the Dell Latitude for example. I would assume HP, Asus , Toshiba and Lenovo are similar but I don't know.

I doubt any of that information helps, but based on what you said you use it for, if you are price concerned, an AMD processor is going to do everything you want, or an I3 or M series Intel. CPU difference may only be $50-$75. I have AMD for all my desktops, Intel for my laptops

If you are into using the cloud and apps, then a chromebook may be the way to go, but most people I think prefer the convenience of a Windows based (or Apple) machine.

I'm not an Apple person, nothing against them, I just don't want to learn something new, especially if it costs noticeably more.

I bought one of these 6 months ago from Laptop Experience on Amazon for $264 and it has been flawless. There are better models available now for better prices.

HP EliteBook Folio 9470M 14" Intel Core i5-3427U 1.8GHz 8GB 180GB SSD Windows 10 Pro (Certified Refurbished) [Personal Computers]

They have a 2.6 GHz available now for approx. the same money.

The chromebook was designed and manufactured to a price point that they could practically give it to elementary schools to indoctrinate the kiddies. And that's about it's performance level. It requires special printers, it does not support Google Earth Pro, something that probably campfire members would normally use. It's cloud storage (very little storage on the machine itself) is tricky and requires a hell of a breadcrumb trail to retrieve your stuff. Managing photos is very difficult for me, if I can find them at all. I'm sure there is a program for writing and storing documents, but I'll be damned if I can reliably access it. I suspect this thing is loaded with algorithms to provide the ''home office'' all your browsing information and also internal adaptive programs to "help" the individual customer, which changes the way you access your stuff. Worst purchase I have ever made.

If you don't need the latest and greatest, can live with a refurb or a discontinued model, don't forget to search places like Woot! and NewEgg websites.

I'm down to a W-10 PC for home and a student-level Chromebook for travel. In some ways, I like the Chromebook a bit better, limited as the student version is. But it won't run Quicken, which is a must for me. I bought it because of the throwaway price in case it got lost or stolen. If I lose it, I'll get another but better Chromebook.

I just bought a, yet to be fired up, MacBook. My wife suggested it. The five of us use iPhones and she an iPad and an Apple desktop. The large ASUS from which I type has been solid for a number of years with a lot travel. The mouse pad is getting problematic and it is too big/heavy these days. This week I will drop by a local shop and have the young lady move what I have on my current laptop onto the Apple.

I’ve bought older models of Lenovo thinkpads on eBay. Corporate models coming off lease.

T450s is a rock solid laptop. It has 4gb memory soldiered to the board. Only can max out at 20gb.

They’ll have a win10 , sometimes Pro. SSD. $250 range.

I have one. I’d buy another before buying a current model $250 laptop.

[quote]The chromebook was designed and manufactured to a price point that they could practically give it to elementary schools /quote]

Chromebooks are replacing textbooks in schools. Textbooks are now $150-$300 EACH. When you have to supply each kid in the school with 4-5 different books, 1 for each class, and replace them every 5-7 years it adds up. They can buy chrome books in bulk for well under $100 each and buy a license for online versions of textbooks and save a ton of money. It actually works pretty well. Kids can login and access websites and view any books needed as well as teacher prepared lessons. Instead of watching educational movies or videos they can access them online. They complete the lessons, answer the questions and submit them to the teachers all on the net. Kids who are out sick can keep up with their work at home if they have access to the internet, and most do. Teachers have a website they can access that shows which website each kid is on and of course there are firewalls to prevent them from accessing stuff they shouldn't.

Getting on the net is about all they are good for though. But they are working great in schools. At least until the server goes down, then it is time for plan B for a while.

Back on topic. I'm still using a 10 year old Toshiba with Windows 7. I had to replace the keypad a few years ago and I was able to do that myself at minimal cost. It's been great, but I really need to upgrade soon too. The repair shop I use recommends either Dell or HP. No real preference for them. For what I do any of them in the $300 range will do what I need and I'm sure an upgrade over what I have.

How much are you looking to spend?

For no harder than you would use a machine an Intel I5 or AMD Ryzen 5 quad core machine would do everything you need.

We've been a 'Mac' home for ten years now. Gone are all of the the headaches!

Wish we would have switched ten years sooner.

Not interested in MAC or Chromebook.

Just get a Macbook or HP, inferior product gives you all the issues you are in front of