Lap top Computers

[flight1]

Hi don't know what your budget is but

here are some deals Asus tend to have the right quality zen book are professionals (metal cace etc) and vivobooks are still good

here zen

here cheaper vivo

[Peter Christy]

My current laptop came from PC Specialist  **LINK**

and I'm very happy with it. However, I hesitated to suggest them to Erf because, although they do off-the-shelf systems, their systems tend to be tailor made. Erf has made it clear that he's not up to speed on current terminology and buzzwords, and I thought PCS might be confusing for him.

I still think that one of the two options pointed to by Robin and myself earlier at Curry's would be the best option for him - both well specced and not outrageously priced - provided he can fight off the sales staff!

Cheaper options are available (as are MUCH more expensive ones!), but I'm not sure they would meet all of his requirements.

--

Pete

 

Edited By Peter Christy on 01/10/2020 09:23:48

[Erfolg]

Has anyone heard or experience of Honour Magicbook 15 or 14? If so, what is your experience.

Another apparently daft couple of questions

I am assuming I want to load Microsoft office onto whatever i do buy. How much does it cost for home, single user installation? I see some adverts at £30-40, is that a one off, or a rental cost, as I have also seen charges at approx. £100

If I purchase a device which has no disc drive, is there an issue if I load the disc i have onto a memory stick, then load it via a USB port?

If I find that I do not have enough storage capacity, can I practically increase it?

I do admit that I am finding the seemingly endless choice of processors, memory, and so on difficult to quantify particularly when cost is considered.

Edited By Erfolg on 01/10/2020 14:56:10

[fly boy3]

Erfolg, there are very many FREE alternatives to Microsoft Office. I have been using Libre for a few years now. Gives me all I want. Cheers. Also you can buy a stand alone dvd drive for around £20.  Just plug into laptop.

Edited By fly boy3 on 01/10/2020 16:46:34

[Erfolg]

I write minutes and accounts for the BMFA, which seems geared to Microsoft products. I will continue doing these on my PC probably.

[Peter Christy]

Libreoffice is free and can read and write micro$oft files. I use it exclusively!

If you must use Office, get it from these guys: **LINK**

Its a legal copy, and far cheaper than you'll find in most other places!

The Honour Magicbook is made by Huawei (?). Spec is considerably lower than the Dell or HP mentioned earlier, but so is the price!

You pays your money....

--

Pete

[Robin Colbourne]

Posted by Erfolg on 30/09/2020 22:42:33:

Robin, I cannot find the slightly more expensive laptop with the Solid State memory. Can you link me to it?

I do appreciate all of the help provided. I am slowly understanding, the terminology and perhaps more importantly, what it is and does and desirability etc. To many so much is obvious, unfortunately, not all, that is me.

Erfolg, click on down arrow at the right hand end of the middle option box (Hard Drive Storage), and the 480GB SSD is the bottom option.

[Martyn K]

Hi Erf

Look for a PC with a SSD (Solid State Disk) as the storage device. IMHO, one of the most visibly useful PC devices ever invented.

Regarding a large screen, most modern computers use HDMI as a video output (SVGA 15 pin din is now obsolete) which will plug into most modern Smart TV system . With a suitable lead then Voila! a 60" monitor at no extra cost except perhaps for an ear bashing from SWMBO who wants to watch Corrie..

Martyn

[Glenn Stevenson]

Hi Erf

Just my twopennorth but as an IT professional and having recommended HP laptops for all my customers I would have to say find a HP with an Intel I3 chip and a good sized SSD as many come with very small ones and you could run out of space quickly. If you have pictures and documents that are important then get an external hard drive and back up regularly as SSD drives whilst being very fast can fail without anyway of recovering data.

You can spend a bit more on a faster I5 chip but probably wouldnt notice the difference. If you buy from the famous pc shop do not let them sell you any of their extras ie, anti-virus software, setup fees, warranties, etc.

The built in windows security is much better than Norton or Mcaffee.

£500 will get a good laptop, spend the change on flying kit.

Regards

Glenn

[Erfolg]

I have come very close to buying a lap top, indecision has held me back.

At present the decision is between a HP ProBook 655 G1 AMD A10 Quad Core - Radeon HD 7420G Graphics 15.6" Gaming Laptop Windows 10 or HONOR MagicBook 15 - 15.6 Inch Laptop with FullView 1080P Screen.

I am not concerned with the Chinese spying on me, it will either bore them to death, or if i knew any secrets, put them back at least 5 or more years (more probably + 20).

I know I threw one of my laptops out as it was lacking in the then ports. The HP does not have a USB-c port.If it does something more than being smaller USB, is this something that makes the machine already really obsolete?

[Glasshopper]

Hi, born 1932, read your postings and bought Huawei d15.

[Shaun Walsh]

Posted by Erfolg on 03/10/2020 13:20:58:

I have come very close to buying a lap top, indecision has held me back.

At present the decision is between a HP ProBook 655 G1 AMD A10 Quad Core - Radeon HD 7420G Graphics 15.6" Gaming Laptop Windows 10 or HONOR MagicBook 15 - 15.6 Inch Laptop with FullView 1080P Screen.

I am not concerned with the Chinese spying on me, it will either bore them to death, or if i knew any secrets, put them back at least 5 or more years (more probably + 20).

I know I threw one of my laptops out as it was lacking in the then ports. The HP does not have a USB-c port.If it does something more than being smaller USB, is this something that makes the machine already really obsolete?

AMD's A series processors are getting a bit old now and, if I remember correctly, only support up to DDR3 memory, not the latest DDR4 memory. Personally I would go wiith something with an AMD Ryzen processor, preferably the Ryzen 5., for example HP255 the performance should be a lot better. I believe the Ryzen series use less power too so longer battery life.

Edited By Shaun Walsh on 04/10/2020 10:41:55

Edited By Shaun Walsh on 04/10/2020 10:44:07

Edited By Shaun Walsh on 04/10/2020 10:44:37

[Peter Christy]

Erf: None of my machines have USB-C, and from what I've read, its a mess of incompatibilities!

Normally, I would advise going for the HP, as they are generally well supported. However, all the places I've checked are showing that model "out of stock". This suggests its an obsolete machine to me.

My concern with Huawei (Honor) would not be so much spying (for the reasons you describe! ), but more worries about future support. With his Trumpness (and our own government) threatening all sorts of sanctions, they may decide to withdraw from western markets, leaving anyone owning their kit high and dry.

Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but if it were my money, I'd rather stick to a well known brand like HP or Dell - even if it is made in China! At least they would have to provide future support.

--

Pete

[Gary Murphy 1]

Posted by Martyn K on 03/10/2020 02:25:28:

Hi Erf

Look for a PC with a SSD (Solid State Disk) as the storage device. IMHO, one of the most visibly useful PC devices ever invented.

Regarding a large screen, most modern computers use HDMI as a video output (SVGA 15 pin din is now obsolete) which will plug into most modern Smart TV system . With a suitable lead then Voila! a 60" monitor at no extra cost except perhaps for an ear bashing from SWMBO who wants to watch Corrie..

Martyn

As mentioned prior I am limited in tech knowledge. So the above mention of having a smaller screen with the capability of plugging into a much bigger screen with a HDMI is a new one to me BUT I thought that the bigger the screen/monitor got the graphics card needs to get better or the definition suffers. Would a £500-600 laptop look ok with a low/mid end rc flight sim OR blur ray dvd etc?

[Erfolg]

I am still undecided, particularly in that I thought both would be OK.

Given that my wants are rather limited and that I am not working against the clock, as commercial users probably are, a few seconds more in a calc is not to much of an issue.

What I do find annoying is that my PC takes an age, to start functioning after I left it a few minutes and need to log in to continue.

My issues of obsolescence seem to arise in manners that i never envisaged. From software that no longer operates on the latest version of Windows etc. Te other thing that seems to have arisen, memory requirements increase, although the cost of memory reduce, the machine I have, cannot have it inserted. Then there is the interface issues, from connectors that are no longer defacto, from land lines to the Wifi.

It seems that change is so frequent, that getting 5 years out of a laptop before issues overtake it is possibly all i could expect.

On that basis the £400 HP does not seem a bad deal. On the other hand I have never had a laptop die on me, although the batteries seem to age quickly.

Still undecided. I will be looking again tomorrow after I finished a granddaughters practical project on her behalf.

Edited By Erfolg on 06/10/2020 19:55:05

Edited By Erfolg on 06/10/2020 19:55:40

[Frank Skilbeck]

A SSD will cure your slow start up problems, as I noted my 8 year old Sony Vaio has been transformed with a SSD drive, and that's without a clean install as all I did was clone the old drive.

[Andrew McKelvey 1]

I have two laptops both HP Pavillion one an i5 the other an i7 the i5 is 10 years old and the i7 about 8 years old, both top end in their day. The Blu-ray Disc on the i7 has failed twice now once under warranty, I don’t use that laptop with any dvd drive now as I rarely need one. The i5 laptop is my main one runs Windows 10 all my seasoned software runs under 10, I have three copies of Autocad 2010, 2012, and 2019 all of which run ok, I prefer 2010 and the reason I use the older laptop is because of AutoCads licensing arrangements now, I can’t get it to register even though I have all the correct keys on the newer one. Both have 8gb memory and neither have ssd. The i7 ran like a complete dog after a recent windows update, 5 minutes to boot up etc and it transpired windows had swapped the Radeon screen driver for an Intel one, which the hardware didn’t like. Both would be described as top end gaming laptops, the i7 came to me via a staff purchase scheme and cost circa £1500 drip fed over 36 months, the other cost £40 via an auction of office equipment in my local sale room.

 I also run a home use copy of Microsoft Office 2016 on the i5 and 2009 on the i7 just because that is what my employer used and it cost the price of the cd-rom and packaging, £15 both work under Windows 10 without fault and the office packages from the web also, so I have never found any software incompatibility with 10 I couldn’t fix, I have always thought 10 to be more backwardly compatible with software, however a bit more finicky with hardware due to driver issues, the hardware manufacturers don’t update drivers for old defunct hardware that the public hold onto.

What ever you buy is a lottery, so you need good support, you need to spec the thing to do what you want, I have a raspberry pi which will browse the internet and read my email and cost £25. Pick your spot in the market place and shop around, the latest gizmo isn’t always best, although we all like to boast about it. You would be hard pushed to find a laptop without camera usb and WiFi these days and if you do they’ll be dirt cheap because no one wants them.

Edited By Andrew McKelvey 1 on 07/10/2020 11:24:09

[Erfolg]

Thanks for your experiences Andrew, most appreciated.

The other day I had a chat with Martyn, that pretty much aline with your general comments. Again has been both useful and informative.

It is an area that continues to evolve at a head spinning rate. Everything that I was taught as a young man, is now totally irrelevant. From structured programming, Fortran. Pascal, Basic, a bit of VisBas. The direct use and capabilities of MS_DOS, file handling and relationships etc. All totally irrelevant.

The last thing i had any professional interest in was for infracture management and Data Mining. Then i retired.

For me most things are IT are now totally new, my total lack of interest in all things computer related, has left me at a total disadvantage, other than as a user.

[Stuart C]

My sentiments exactly Erfolg. Bring back the nomographs and slide rules, I say. (Reliability is paramount).

Joking apart, I have 3 pcs which all run different systems. The oldest has Windows XP which has never been on the internet since Mr. Gates decided not to support it any longer. This machine carries all my CAD and not much else. It always works - no updates - no antivirus. Like freezing a drawing in the old days. Good luck with your search; it's a veritable minefield out there.

[Erfolg]

Today I went out (with the better half) to purchase a laptop, having identified 4 that would meet my needs. There was a much preferred,, the second was low on memory.

Much to my initial surprise, my No.1 was not in stock, same with number 2.

Back at home, we undertook a search for the models. Neither was available locally although at stores some distance away, this was most frustrating. We decided on a click and collect from a local town who had one in stock, at one branch. The transaction went through to the payment stage, using two different methods, much to long to explain why we tried different methods, only to find that payment was declined.

Now that was bad enough, what was worse, is that security got onto us, to say unusual activity was occurring. Now we find that various things are locked and that new arrangements are being set up. During this process we extremely suspicious of being contacted and remain so. Declining and continuing to decline any questions that require us to reveal information.

It turned out that the local town did not have one either

In the mean time we have logged onto "Inform when back in stock".

It was suggested that the lock down has led to significant increased sales on IT products.

 

Edited By Erfolg on 09/10/2020 16:32:00

[Erfolg]

Being the sort of person I am, having scoured the entire planet for my No.1 preference I gave up.

My wife being less persistent than my self, found a good few sites selling the same device. All at a price, from +£50 to over +£100. I baulked at the thought, that if Currys are making a profit at £550, how much do others expect to make. I thought of the E Bay site and a thread on this forum, where it is often said "a fool and their money is soon parted".

Then my wife informed me that a relatively local town at just over 30 miles away (according to my SatNav) had one in stock. Very, very reluctantly, I decided to go there, Particularly as Goggle Earth seemed to indicate it was a retail park with parking. What put me of is that I have railed against (the thousands) people from this high level Covid area, travel to our area, wander about the bars and restaurants (good for the local trade). Where our area has seen an increase, from virtually non.

Having now gone there, I now know why so many visit us. How the area is blighted with one way, no entry streets that prevent you going where you want to get to. That the retail park was a nightmare getting into, just as bad getting out. Even the signs out of the town/city seemed to be arranged to prevent you leaving, complete with a route going down narrow streets.

So after a good old fashioned moan, I am home, vowing never to leave voluntarily again. How I managed living on the outskirts of South Manchester, and liked it, is now beyond my comprehension. Although the routes in and out are very good, plus the area has a lot going for it.

I spent approx, one hour just starting the thing up.

During the process I realise that in the distant past, some one else did everything for me, passed me the computer, nicely bagged, with some sort of security card system. All I had to do was. use it.

Now I realise that I have not got a clue what i want, or how to get it, so will start another thread, seeking help and guidance as to get where i want to, hopefully avoiding the elephant traps.

[Shaun Walsh]

Glad you got sorted in the end, don't forget to make a Rescue USB drive in case of failure.

[Erfolg]

I should have a external hard drive for the PC, this was permanantly attached, the PC set to down load a ceratin set of files, on a predetermined schedule. Since moving four years ago the drive has been missing, I only realised this a bout a week ago.

I have had a search in the area where the PC is kept, checking every nook and cranny I could think off. It has gone, it appears.

Now I am wondering is a external drive still the appropriate way to back up? If not what is? Then there is the issue of how much storage space do i need, as I have not got a clue, not even remembering the size of the now lost drive.

[Shaun Walsh]

Posted by Erfolg on 12/10/2020 14:14:15:

I should have a external hard drive for the PC, this was permanantly attached, the PC set to down load a ceratin set of files, on a predetermined schedule. Since moving four years ago the drive has been missing, I only realised this a bout a week ago.

I have had a search in the area where the PC is kept, checking every nook and cranny I could think off. It has gone, it appears.

Now I am wondering is a external drive still the appropriate way to back up? If not what is? Then there is the issue of how much storage space do i need, as I have not got a clue, not even remembering the size of the now lost drive.

The size of external hard drive really depends upon what you want to back up. Do you have lots of photo's, music, videos or other types of large file? As a minimum I would say 500GB, preferably 1TB.or even more if more if have a lot of things to back up.

I have a lot of photos, music and videos which, together with other documents, are backed up onto two separate 3.5 inch hard drives which are in caddies in my desktop and can be removed and stored elsewhere if I go on holiday. In addition I have a second backup on portable drives.

My laptop, which has far fewer files, is backed up onto a 32GB usb stick (low profile) which is permanently attached .and periodically backed up onto a portable drive as well.

The first thing I did with the new laptop was to create a Windows 10 Recovery drive in case the operating system is corrupted, this is stored in a safe place, let's just hope I can remember where it is if I need it.