[NBLUG/talk] When to buy a laptop? Where's the "sweet spot" these days?

[Omar Eljumaily]

I don't have much experience with Dell hardware.  I do know they were 
caught up in that bad cap fiasco a few years back, so every Dell 
motherboard I've ever used is not working anymore.

I have a Toshiba version of the Dell I pointed to.  I got it for my 
family to use in our living room, in part to verify (or not) some of the 
absurd things that evening news anchors say.  It worked pretty well and 
one of my sons commandeered it, though, and it hasn't left his room 
since.  This is after I purchased some expensive parts to put together a 
gaming rig for his birthday.  I'm thinking of getting that Dell to 
replace the living room computer.

As far as I can tell processor speeds haven't changed much for years 
now.  The only thing that's increased power for processors is the number 
of cores.  Those cheap laptops have 2 cores, which is usually enough for 
most applications unless you run a processor intensive, intelligent 
multi-threaded app.

If I were going to make changes to a laptop like that, I'd swap out the 
5400 RPM drive with an SSD.  That would be the biggest speed enhancer if 
you ask me, but just MO.

Omar


On 11/15/2014 10:45 AM, Allan Cecil wrote:
> I go the other direction and buy laptops that are exactly 3 years old but are high-end, well built models.  This is because companies usually liquidate laptops as soon as they leave warranty causing a glut in the used market and substantially reduced prices for very good machines.  I can no longer recommend any one vendor - I used to prefer the Dell Latitude D series but those aren't all that new these days and the Latitude E series isn't built to the same quality in my opinion.  I've oddly found that MacBook Pro hardware is some of the best on the market, although the first thing I'm inclined to do is put Linux on it. :)
>
> Best of luck,
>
> A.C.
> ******
> President, NBLUG
>
> On 11/15/2014 10:10 AM, Omar Eljumaily wrote:
>> Entry level laptops are commodities these days.  The only consumer application that needs more than the entry level I think would be 3D gaming.  I doubt a college stats course would need much power by today's standards.  The main thing is to make sure it doesn't get gummed up with adware and malware.
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i3531-1200BK-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B00KMRGF28/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416074446&sr=1-1&keywords=laptop
>>
>>
>> On 11/15/2014 9:24 AM, Steve S. wrote:
>>> H'lo, folks...
>>>
>>> I haven't been following the world of Intel/Win much these days.  My
>>> daughter, away at college, needs a replacement laptop.  I'm hoping
>>> that folks here have the info off-the-tops-of-their-heads that I'd
>>> need hours of research to achieve...
>>>
>>> #1/marketing:  when is the "good time" to buy, before next semester
>>> starts in January?  Black Friday sales?  Pre-Xmas?  Post-Xmas
>>> clearance?  Or is this info just not really "knowable" because the
>>> marketers' strategies are so arcane?
>>>
>>> #2/tech(ish):  Where is the "sweet spot" of price/performance these
>>> days?  She's needing enough power for reasonably-heavy crunch (she's
>>> likely to need stats like SAS/R, and likely some GIS too)?
>>>
>>> Many thanks for any info/advice!
>>>
>>>
>>> - Steve S.
>>>
>>>
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