Help decide on a laptop

[phly]

Veterans and gurus alike. With a budget of say 6k - 6.5k ZAR, what decent laptop can I manage to wrangle up in these touch times?
The use case is just standard use, surfing the net, light document work. Nothing too hectic. Not even gaming. Focus is bang for the buck or value for the budget. Speed of the laptop and battery life are perhaps the only major tick boxes.

I've only managed to spot the following two that fit within the budget:

An Asus AMD laptop: https://www.takealot.com/asus-laptop-15-m509-amd-a9-8gb-512gb-15-6-notebook-slate-grey/PLID69240238 (Price seems to have gone up overnite)

And an Intel Asus: https://www.incredible.co.za/asus-x543-core-i3-notebook-1 - which coincidentally also went up with 500 bucks since the weekend.

Any others I should consider? Or which of the above should I opt for over the other?

 

[sand_man]

Would you consider used? Might be worthwhile to check out what's available over at Carbs?

 

[phly]

Would you consider used? Might be worthwhile to check out what's available over at Carbs?

It's for a family member and they would prefer a new one. I'm trying though to steer them away from anything Celeron. I reckon even a core i3 would suffice

 

[Rickster]

Those Asus laptops are notorious for using Seagates "Rosewood" hard drives, they are utter kuk.

 

[phly]

Those Asus laptops are notorious for using Seagates "Rosewood" hard drives, they are utter kuk.

Eish, that sucks. Didn't know that. Will keep looking. The above just seemed the best value for money at that budget for a brand new device that is not celeron

 

[Sumen]

Those Asus laptops are notorious for using Seagates "Rosewood" hard drives, they are utter kuk.

The SSD one, Notebook check says it has an Intel SSD https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-M509DA-Review-Slow-Speed-WiFi-in-Ryzen-3-Notebook.451183.0.html

 

[Rickster]

The SSD one, Notebook check says it has an Intel SSD https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-M509DA-Review-Slow-Speed-WiFi-in-Ryzen-3-Notebook.451183.0.html

Oh ok, as long as OP confirms it has a SSD then all good.

 

[Dankmeme]

Horrible reviews on one of those you linked, overheating, battery life, low ram Mhz etc.

Have you had a look at
www.evetech.co.za
Saw an HP with 16Gb ram, 1Tb HDD for R7500
Granted it's not got an SSD but size of the above 2 more than makes up for it i think plus it's an HP

 

[phly]

Horrible reviews on one of those you linked, overheating, battery life, low ram Mhz etc.

Have you had a look at
www.evetech.co.za
Saw an HP with 16Gb ram, 1Tb HDD for R7500
Granted it's not got an SSD but size of the above 2 more than makes up for it i think plus it's an HP

So I saw this on there, HP as well, AMD and with 4GB Ram + 128gb SSD which will suffice for now. Mulling over it.

 

[LizEng]

It's for a family member and they would prefer a new one. I'm trying though to steer them away from anything Celeron. I reckon even a core i3 would suffice

Coincidentally, I bought the i3 for my son about a year ago - also because I thought a new one would be better - but it is shockingly slow. I don't know much about Windows PCs, but I didn't realise that an i3 with 4gb ram was that bad. I'm almost sure that I have used an i3 in the past, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. I'm busy restoring it now to see if it can be saved, after which I will decide whether to keep it or bin/burn it.

My question is (to the 'veterans and gurus' as you call them), will it help at all to triple the ram and replace the HDD with an SSD, or will that just be chucking more money down the drain? The aim is for my younger son to use it for varsity as a backup - he has a high spec gaming pc for everyday use.

 

[Faux_Grey]

I've been in the same boat as you last week, anything new under 7 is not worth looking at.
Do not take laptops that are:
Dual core
4GB Ram
HDD

Minimum usable spec is 4 thread, 8GB ram and an SSD drive at least 256G in size for windows.
You ever tried to run windows 10, and a web browser on a dual core 4GB ram machine? It's a painful experience.

Also, avoid those cheap HP laptops, they're made of cheap flimsy plastic and break if you look at them wrong.

Celerons are DOA, along with the cheap 2 core AMDs.
Any modern i3 or AMD quad core is perfect, just make sure there's 8GB of ram and an SSD to go with it.

I ended up buying second hand, I'd definitely go look at carbonite forums.

 

[phly]

Yea i'm using an old macbook but with an SSD and ample ram and so I know very well how frustrating a slow pc with even normal HDD and low ram can be. I've been looking on carb and may end up scooping something there because this price range seems dominated by celerons and slow "fast looking" laptops.

 

[ponder]

My question is (to the 'veterans and gurus' as you call them), will it help at all to triple the ram and replace the HDD with an SSD, or will that just be chucking more money down the drain? The aim is for my younger son to use it for varsity as a backup - he has a high spec gaming pc for everyday use.

SSD will make a huge difference, another 4GB won't hurt either.

 

[Barbarian Conan]

Veterans and gurus alike. With a budget of say 6k - 6.5k ZAR, what decent laptop can I manage to wrangle up in these touch times?
The use case is just standard use, surfing the net, light document work. Nothing too hectic. Not even gaming. Focus is bang for the buck or value for the budget. Speed of the laptop and battery life are perhaps the only major tick boxes.

I've only managed to spot the following two that fit within the budget:

An Asus AMD laptop: https://www.takealot.com/asus-laptop-15-m509-amd-a9-8gb-512gb-15-6-notebook-slate-grey/PLID69240238 (Price seems to have gone up overnite)

And an Intel Asus: https://www.incredible.co.za/asus-x543-core-i3-notebook-1 - which coincidentally also went up with 500 bucks since the weekend.

Any others I should consider? Or which of the above should I opt for over the other?

That i3 has a 1366x768 display, which is TERRIBLE. Many websites won't even render correctly in desktop mode at that resolution.
I would rather just use my phone than buy that pos.

 

[Benedict A55h0le]

Coincidentally, I bought the i3 for my son about a year ago - also because I thought a new one would be better - but it is shockingly slow. I don't know much about Windows PCs, but I didn't realise that an i3 with 4gb ram was that bad. I'm almost sure that I have used an i3 in the past, but I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. I'm busy restoring it now to see if it can be saved, after which I will decide whether to keep it or bin/burn it.

My question is (to the 'veterans and gurus' as you call them), will it help at all to triple the ram and replace the HDD with an SSD, or will that just be chucking more money down the drain? The aim is for my younger son to use it for varsity as a backup - he has a high spec gaming pc for everyday use.

Times have changed and i3, i5, i7 does not mean anything really. And also Ryzen is killing it with CPUs. I always look for a good cpu 1st. Copy and paste the cpu model (like "Ryzen 7 4800H") and paste it into the comparison here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10700KF-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800H/3757vs3676
Look at the cpu mark, higher is better, use the compare tool. This will give you a proper indication of the cpu performance. CPU is important because it is now more complicated to know which cpu is better, they can now mark up a laptop with good "other features", and then dumb down on cpu hoping the consumer will not check the cpu performance, and then the consumer gets a slow laptop for the price. CPU is important, and it is not easily upgradable like memory or ssd. The cpu is the thing that will make you need to upgrade in the future.

 

[phly]

That i3 has a 1366x768 display, which is TERRIBLE. Many websites won't even render correctly in desktop mode at that resolution.
I would rather just use my phone than buy that pos.

Pulled the trigger on the Asus AMD one today as price came down. I'm hoping the 8gb ram and 512gb SSD makes some kind of difference. Can always return it if not happy with it.

 

[Benedict A55h0le]

Pulled the trigger on the Asus AMD one today as price came down. I'm hoping the 8gb ram and 512gb SSD makes some kind of difference. Can always return it if not happy with it.

Nice1! If I had to buy a laptop today it will also be an Asus AMD, these seem to have the best performance for the price.

 

[Hamster]

The use case is just standard use, surfing the net, light document work.

iPad

Not even joking

 

[phly]

iPad

Not even joking

I actually provided this as an option. But they were not for it. And with the whole world going the ecommerce route, a laptop feels more full fledged than an iPad. We did consider it however a laptop is what we ended up settling on.

 

[Rickster]

Horrible reviews on one of those you linked, overheating, battery life, low ram Mhz etc.

Have you had a look at
www.evetech.co.za
Saw an HP with 16Gb ram, 1Tb HDD for R7500
Granted it's not got an SSD but size of the above 2 more than makes up for it i think plus it's an HP

Recommending evetech on myBB is a bannable offence by the way, luckily the mods didnt see.

Also HP are gaining ranks on my shitlist, their laptops and printers are getting kukker by the month.