Laptop recommendations

[chrisd]

I'm soon to embark on a building project at work in a joint venture and am already getting loads of plans, drawings, contracts etc and am thinking of buying a budget laptop for the me, on behalf of my employer, to keep everything pertaining to the job in one place for the duration of the project. I'm not looking to spend a fortune and just wondered if anyone has suggestions for a reliable laptop or preferably a 2 in 1 that wont cost more than about £450 (inc vat) . It was suggested that a Windows 10 system might be preferable.

Thanks in advance.

 

[GreiginFife]

What would you actually be doing with the laptop? i.e. is it a workstation or just a storage device? This will factor a lot in the spec that you need.
I don't think you will find many 2 in 1 systems for that budget.

 

[chrisd]

What would you actually be doing with the laptop? i.e. is it a workstation or just a storage device? This will factor a lot in the spec that you need.
I don't think you will find many 2 in 1 systems for that budget.

Mainly just storage but would probably have the company Sage accounts and payroll on it too, having said that I believe they take up precious little space

 

[Fish]

I just bought a Lenovo Yoga S730 laptop from Costco, I was going to buy something a lot more expensive but this is excellent.

Windows SSD

 

[PhilTheFragger]

https://www.ebuyer.com/874549-hp-255-g7-ryzen-3-8gb-256gb-full-hd-15-6in-win10-laptop-8ab99es-abu

Hi Chris

Take a lookie here

 

[chrisd]

Cheers guys !

 

[Rooter]

recently bought my wife a lenovo ideapad c340. It doubles as a tablet, its been excellent so far!

 

[chrisd]

recently bought my wife a lenovo ideapad c340. It doubles as a tablet, its been excellent so far!

Did it come with the keyboard and pen at all or were they extra?

 

[GreiginFife]

https://www.ebuyer.com/874549-hp-255-g7-ryzen-3-8gb-256gb-full-hd-15-6in-win10-laptop-8ab99es-abu

Hi Chris

Take a lookie here

Ryzen 3 is not a very good mAPU sadly. suffers quite a lot from throttling and is 10-15% slower than even an entry level i3 8th gen. The Ryzen mAPUs don't get good until you hit the 3500u IMO.

if I were going to the upper ends of the budget, I'd personally bust it a little for this

https://www.ebuyer.com/947548-lenovo-v15-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-15-6-win10-home-laptop-82c50075uk

70% more effective speed for 6% increased cost.

But then, in both cases, IMO it's overkill for a simple storage and SAGE usecase. Rooter's Pentium Gold based machine at less than £400 is a better option for my money. Unless, and only unless longevity and lifespan is a key requirement, then I would look at maxing the budget.

 

[GreiginFife]

Did it come with the keyboard and pen at all or were they extra?

The c340 is just a fold-over style laptop IIRC. It has a permanent keyboard but no pen that I can think of.

 

[chrisd]

Ryzen 3 is not a very good mAPU sadly. suffers quite a lot from throttling and is 10-15% slower than even an entry level i3 8th gen. The Ryzen mAPUs don't get good until you hit the 3500u IMO.

if I were going to the upper ends of the budget, I'd personally bust it a little for this

https://www.ebuyer.com/947548-lenovo-v15-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-15-6-win10-home-laptop-82c50075uk

70% more effective speed for 6% increased cost.

But then, in both cases, IMO it's overkill for a simple storage and SAGE usecase. Rooter's Pentium Gold based machine at less than £400 is a better option for my money. Unless, and only unless longevity and lifespan is a key requirement, then I would look at maxing the budget.

 

[Rooter]

Did it come with the keyboard and pen at all or were they extra?

It is full on laptop, or you bend the screen right over ie 180 degrees and its touchscreen. no need for a pen, just use finger!

 

[Rooter]

The c340 is just a fold-over style laptop IIRC. It has a permanent keyboard but no pen that I can think of.

Correct! touchscreen when folded into tablet mode.

 

[chrisd]

Ryzen 3 is not a very good mAPU sadly. suffers quite a lot from throttling and is 10-15% slower than even an entry level i3 8th gen. The Ryzen mAPUs don't get good until you hit the 3500u IMO.

if I were going to the upper ends of the budget, I'd personally bust it a little for this

https://www.ebuyer.com/947548-lenovo-v15-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-15-6-win10-home-laptop-82c50075uk

70% more effective speed for 6% increased cost.

But then, in both cases, IMO it's overkill for a simple storage and SAGE usecase. Rooter's Pentium Gold based machine at less than £400 is a better option for my money. Unless, and only unless longevity and lifespan is a key requirement, then I would look at maxing the budget.

Thanks for posting. No, the use will be minimal for what they can actually store. I just currently use an old Toshiba laptop of my own for their accounts etc etc and figure that I want to have everything for this project safely stored away on a new more modern machine. In reality I'm sure a £300 laptop would be perfectly fine for the project and as money is hard to come by in the company I'm just trying to be prudent in my expenditure

 

[GreiginFife]

Thanks for posting. No, the use will be minimal for what they can actually store. I just currently use an old Toshiba laptop of my own for their accounts etc etc and figure that I want to have everything for this project safely stored away on a new more modern machine. In reality I'm sure a £300 laptop would be perfectly fine for the project and as money is hard to come by in the company I'm just trying to be prudent in my expenditure

Absolutely which is why I said the two machines Fragger and I posted would be overkill.

The only sage (geddit?) advice I can offer is avoid Celeron or AMD A series processors as they are terrible. Whilst the Pentium and Pentium Gold aren't world beaters, with a decent memory spec (min 4GB @ 2400MHz) and either a SSD or M.2 SSD then they would serve a purpose for a couple of years. If you want more lifespan from a laptop, then you need to start investing in better components with more speed.

 

[chrisd]

Absolutely which is why I said the two machines Fragger and I posted would be overkill.

The only sage (geddit?) advice I can offer is avoid Celeron or AMD A series processors as they are terrible. Whilst the Pentium and Pentium Gold aren't world beaters, with a decent memory spec (min 4GB @ 2400MHz) and either a SSD or M.2 SSD then they would serve a purpose for a couple of years. If you want more lifespan from a laptop, then you need to start investing in better components with more speed.

Thanks Greig I appreciate the sound advice

 

[GreiginFife]

Thanks Greig I appreciate the sound advice

No worries.

 

[chrisd]

It is full on laptop, or you bend the screen right over ie 180 degrees and its touchscreen. no need for a pen, just use finger!

Thanks Greig I appreciate the sound advice

lenovo ideapad c340 ordered this morning - thanks to all who replied and helped ??

 

[rulefan]

lenovo ideapad c340 ordered this morning - thanks to all who replied and helped ??

What size? 14" or 15.6"
Where from?

 

[chrisd]

What size? 14" or 15.6"
Where from?

I went for the 14" from Curry, £399 + £5 for next day delivery. It should be with me tomorrow so will try and post up my original view fairly quickly