Laptop suggestions/advice, or connections for purchase in DFW
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Righto, A friend of mine in DFW is looking for a laptop.
Details, see below. (lifted from his FB reply to my questions)As close to $500 (USD) as poss. I'm using it to study, but also want to run Kerbal Space Program easily, plenty of processing power/RAM to run loads of tabs, deal with large amounts of data, video editing etc and provide longevity going forward a few years.
I'm pretty much looking at Dell mostly, as have been very pleased with my work's Dell machine. I like ASUS but I've not had them last as long as I'd like.
I'm really looking for an i7, 6th or 7th gen, preferably >8GB RAM, >=1TB HDD. At least 15in, don't care about weight, decent battery life. On board or dedicated graphics to run detail and physics heavy space sim. Most of what I've poked at have either the Radeon 5/7 with 4GB dedicated, or the on board Intel 5xx series, which are apparently about the same if you've enough RAM to support the onboard, when you take into account power consumption and cost. -
Asus RoG is my first choice. Or MSI. Frys has both locally.
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Those specs at $500?
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@Dashrender said in Laptop suggestions/advice, or connections for purchase in DFW:
Those specs at $500?
I picked up an HP EliteBook 8570w from MicroCenter for $399 recently.... My Lenovo is now resting in pieces, good riddance!
i7-3720QM, 8GB RAM (upgraded to 24GB thanks to pulling what I had in the Lenovo), 500GB 7,500rpm HDD (also changed out for the 480GB SSD in the old one), and Quadro K1000M graphics.
So totally possible, just not easy to find.
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This is a really unorthodox suggestion, but you could have your friend check some pawn shops if you think they're knowledgeable enough to not get burned. They'll have to wade through plenty of trash, but I know several people that have ended up with some great deals by going this route. Just make sure to thoroughly inspect, test, and ask about the return policy. I actually picked up an HP ProBook 4730s in like new condition a few years back for $150, and aside from recently having to replace the fan, it's still going strong. They actually had it on the shelf for $300, but shops know electronics lose value quickly, and cash is king. (refurbs of that model were going for about $900 at the time)
Good luck, and happy hunting!
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Thanks everyone.
I'll pass the info on
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If you go to Fry's, stay clear told the sales people. They know less than you do. Check out what they have, read the specs, and test it out. Whatever they do buy, I suggest just wiping out the Windows install with some form of Linux.
Stay away from Best buy, of course. Microcenter might be a good bet, but I've never been in there. Pawn shops and local eBay would be some of my last contenders to consider.
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@NerdyDad said in Laptop suggestions/advice, or connections for purchase in DFW:
If you go to Fry's, stay clear told the sales people. They know less than you do. Check out what they have, read the specs, and test it out. Whatever they do buy, I suggest just wiping out the Windows install with some form of Linux.
Stay away from Best buy, of course. Microcenter might be a good bet, but I've never been in there. Pawn shops and local eBay would be some of my last contenders to consider.
They bait and switch too. They also lie about used products and pretend that they are new.
