Laptop - Student

I think we have a winner.

Search results for: 'hp pavilion aero 13 ryzen 5 5600u 8gb ram 512gb ssd laptop' - Incredible Connection

Incredible Connection is a brand of Pepkor Lifestyle. We have the widest range of leading national and international brands and work hard at supplying products that, while pushing the technology boundaries, make a practical difference in any home or business environment.
www.incredible.co.za www.incredible.co.za

Reviews feature slightly different specs (eg ram/SSD size) but for same model of laptop.


HP Pavilion Aero 13 review - an excellent budget ultrabook (AMD Ryzen)

www.ultrabookreview.com

Other mentions:

Search results for: 'hp 15s ryzen 7 5700u 8gb ram 512gb ssd storage laptop 1' - Incredible

Incredible is a brand of Pepkor Lifestyle. We have the widest range of leading national and international brands and work hard at supplying products that, while pushing the technology boundaries, make a practical difference in any home or business environment.
www.incredible.co.za www.incredible.co.za

www.computermania.co.za

ASUS Vivobook 15 OLED M513UA-78512B1T AMD Ryzen 7 512GB SSD - Slate Grey

With standout colors and a color-blocking Enter key, ASUS VivoBook 15 adds flair and dynamism to daily computing. With the latest AMD Ryzen™ 7 Mobile Processor, VivoBook 15 provides the power you need to get things done. It also features a dual-storage design that combines the fast data speeds...
www.computermania.co.za www.computermania.co.za

www.computermania.co.za

Acer Swift 3 SF314-43-R3X7 14

Perform at your very best with the lightweight Swift 3, the absolute device for accomplishing all you need on the move. With its slim, all-metal chassis, AMD Ryzen™ 7 Processor, 512GB SSD for faster load times and saving of files and enduring battery life, the Swift 3 supports you, empowers you...
www.computermania.co.za www.computermania.co.za
 
WAslayer said:
Which model do you have exactly and year..?

Rough guestimate for RAM and SSD plus costs for PC shop might 2.5k though likely to be less than that..
Click to expand...
Dell Inspiron 3581. 4,00 GB RAM, Intel Core i3-7020U CPU @ 2.30GHz . Bought in 2020.

Is R2.5K what I should budget ?

I’m in the process of uninstalling Dell “bloatware” and it’s taken more than 2 hours.
 
6spdmanual said:
Dell Inspiron 3581. 4,00 GB RAM, Intel Core i3-7020U CPU @ 2.30GHz . Bought in 2020.

Is R2.5K what I should budget ?

I’m in the process of uninstalling Dell “bloatware” and it’s taken more than 2 hours.
Click to expand...
Yes, pretty much..
 
Dan C said:
The hardware is the same in most laptops. Intel does not specifically make slow CPU's for Dell laptops.
Click to expand...
I have seen this myself. I had 2 Dell laptops and both had performance issues. I ran multiple processes and I watched the cpu, the Dell`s were slow and only used 30% CPU. All my other non-Dell machines had a 100% CPU when running the same processes and was much faster. This includes an Asus, Lenonvo laptops and an Intel desktop.

My Asus i7 laptop is for sale @R4000 :)
 
Benedict A55h0le said:
I have seen this myself. I had 2 Dell laptops and both had performance issues. I ran multiple processes and I watched the cpu, the Dell`s were slow and only used 30% CPU. All my other non-Dell machines had a 100% CPU when running the same processes and was much faster. This includes an Asus, Lenonvo laptops and an Intel desktop.

My Asus i7 laptop is for sale @R4000 :)
Click to expand...
There is more to performance than just CPU usage.. the other two major bottlenecks are RAM and disk performance..
 
WAslayer said:
There is more to performance than just CPU usage.. the other two major bottlenecks are RAM and disk performance..
Click to expand...
Yes, but these were cpu intensive tasks, with all devices having SSD drives and minimal disk IO. Memory and IO were not the bottlenecks. The 1 Dell`s memory was always very high though. I steer clear of Dell, to me Lenovo is much better. There is a reason Dell has on site support, they know you will likely need it.
 
I think most laptops with a fair bit of RAM (min 8GB) and SSD should be good for most things you'll be doing at Uni.
Don't spend extra RRR on a laptop with bigger HDD, you have cloud storage and external HDD to keep to data intensive stuff.
If you'll be taking your laptop along when running classes, you'll probably want to prioritise battery life.

I know OP specifically said not Apple, but back in 2014 in my 2nd year at Uni I bought a 13" Macbook Pro for R16k (with student discount).
It still works well to this day (battery has deteriorated to about 2.5 hours, 7 years later, where it was close to 9 hours brand new).
I gave it to my mom when I upgraded to a new Macbook Pro about 2 months ago and she's using it as her main computer now.

Just something to keep in mind.
 
6spdmanual said:
Hi there. So I reached out to a computer shop and here are the options? Which would be best here ?


View attachment 1253814
Click to expand...
This depends on your budget and space requirements..

If budget is tight, 12GB RAM and 500GB SSD (assuming you have not yet exceeded this much on the existing hard drive)..

Budget no limit, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD..

Personally, you can forego NVMe.. yes, it's faster but, realistically for most real world usage, you are not going to notice the difference when compared to SSD..
 
WAslayer said:
This depends on your budget and space requirements..

If budget is tight, 12GB RAM and 500GB SSD (assuming you have not yet exceeded this much on the existing hard drive)..

Budget no limit, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD..

Personally, you can forego NVMe.. yes, it's faster but, realistically for most real world usage, you are not going to notice the difference when compared to SSD..
Click to expand...
Do you think the 8GB would be too little. My immediate reaction was 8GB and 500GB. Would it still be a bit slow?

On my current hard drive I have used 198GB.

Thanks for the feedback by the way.
 
6spdmanual said:
Do you think the 8GB would be too little. My immediate reaction was 8GB and 500GB. Would it still be a bit slow?

On my current hard drive I have used 198GB.

Thanks for the feedback by the way.
Click to expand...
I don't know your usage habits.. browsers, excel etc like RAM.. if you have lotsa tabs open at once, big excel sheets/lotsa excel sheets at once, 8GB may be too little.. 8GB should be fine for most people anyway.. since you would have a SSD, and if you do use all 8GB of RAM, it will start using the page file which is in SSD and should be faster than if it were on the hard disk drive.. you would notice a slow down when this happens but, it should not be as drastic as with a hard drive..
 
WAslayer said:
I don't know your usage habits.. browsers, excel etc like RAM.. if you have lotsa tabs open at once, big excel sheets/lotsa excel sheets at once, 8GB may be too little.. 8GB should be fine for most people anyway.. since you would have a SSD, and if you do use all 8GB of RAM, it will start using the page file which is in SSD and should be faster than if it were on the hard disk drive.. you would notice a slow down when this happens but, it should not be as drastic as with a hard drive..
Click to expand...
I do see myself having a few tabs open, but that's just about it. This laptop will be used mostly to do just school assignments (no Excel stuff) and browse the web. So far from heavy usage. But I am tempted at going the 12 GB route now.
 
6spdmanual said:
Do you think the 8GB would be too little. My immediate reaction was 8GB and 500GB. Would it still be a bit slow?

On my current hard drive I have used 198GB.

Thanks for the feedback by the way.
Click to expand...

With an SSD, 8GB won't be the end of the world. I still like 16GB though.

I think 500gb is enough for most people. As I've said before, my wife's 256GB SSD is about 50% full after 2 years of usage, and it includes the full Office 365 suite and Photoshop, as well as some chonky PSDs.
No movies or music though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X