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Windows laptop needed

tiggers

pfm Member
I'm an Apple man myself, but my partner wants a cheapish Windows laptop as her old one is dying so I was wondering if the PFM IT Massive could help me out.

She uses it for surfing, Word, Excel and emails. It's an Office 365 subscription so doesn't need Office installed. Excel is her primary usage, but nothing major processor/memory requirements wise.

It could do to be relatively lightweight, decent sized screen and crucially to support the ability to plug a second screen in and use a multi screen desktop with it.

Any recommendations?
 
Lenovo Thinkpad. The older models, T430 etc, are i5 equipped and frequently sell in the 200-300 USD range with short warranties from refurb houses. I'd look for one with the 1600 screen.
 
I would say if you want cheap go second hand thinkpad or something like that, fer sher you can pick up a cheap laptop in currys for like 300 and I can tell you they are s h i t
 
The word 'cheapish' eliminates a s/h Mac but bear in mind that if you did find one you can run Windows on it. You can even transfer the existing Windows installation (complete with applications) from the PC to the Mac if you have a valid Windows license. I have done that just that for kicks. Just be careful with the age of the Windows o/s and software as if its old it may not run properly on newer hardware due to lack of drivers.

Alternatively buy a s/h Lenovo something with an i5 CPU as suggested above. These T.4xx models are serviceable with little more than a screw driver and a doddle to upgrade disk and RAM. The service manuals are available online. Spare parts are still available at low cost direct from China - yes I have bought lots over the years including strange things like the combined CPU/GPU heatsink with integrated fan somewhere around £15 including delivery. I am still using a T.60 as a test bed for Windows 10 and Linux - why chuck it when it still works? Oh and it also has wireless WAN but thats only supported by XP as the manufacturers didn't upgrade the driver to newer o/s so that a new o/s meant buying another WWAN module from them.

Cheers,

DV
 
Thanks for the replies, budget is around £500 and it must be able to run multi device desktop and Windows 10. Appreciate new machines at this price aren't great, but I do want to make sure it's going to be OK for a few years. Will look at secondhand, but in my experience secondhand Windows laptops always seem to be a bit beaten up or very close to the price of anew one... mind you that was some years ago now before I saw the light from the fruit company ;-)
 
For 500 I would be looking at the likes of Dell or HP who always seem to have some sort of offer on. I think you could squeeze something new. Just make sure the trackpad has precision drivers.

Bit off bat, but I have a surface go. Though to be fair a bit crap on the lap.
 
For 500 I would be looking at the likes of Dell or HP who always seem to have some sort of offer on. I think you could squeeze something new. Just make sure the trackpad has precision drivers.

Bit off bat, but I have a surface go. Though to be fair a bit crap on the lap.
I like the surface pro but never use the touchscreen. Nice & light & look good in a meeting
 
I have a Thinkpad T60p here which is really antique but still works and is my Windows 10 test machine It is quite happy running Windows 10. Its pre the i5 models Intel CPU's Core 2 duo I think but Windows 10 had no trouble finding drivers for its wifi. Thinking about it I think I did swap out the Intel wifi card for a Broadcom as this same T60p with a different hard drive is a Hackintosh running Snow Leopard with fully functioning wifi for those times when one needs to access legacy files. Even does System 7 stuff under Classic on Intel It's quite amazing to see old Mac desktop

In Windoes 10 mode it is a little sluggish so I would not want it as my daily laptop

eddie
 
Yeah to be fair when the op said cheapish I was thinking 200 quid, I dont think anyone wants to be messing around tring to get wireless working on ancient laptops etc. 500 will get you something new. Dell seems to have 14% off most everything at the moment as well.
 
You’ll get a new Dell 15 inch, i5, 8GB, 250GB SSD with 1 - 4 year warranty from the Dell Outlet for around the £500

Probably an Inspiron

https://m.dell.com/h5/m/uk/r/outlet...dfh1&l=en&s=dfh&dgc=IR&cid=296386&lid=5667687

If you’re handy a lot less, add Crucial RAM and an SSD disk yourself to a £300 one.

Gus

Agree with this. Got the kids two Dell 5378s with i3 CPUs (widely available for about £300) and upgraded RAM and disk as above, nice machine with backlit keboard, touch, full HD, decent enough battery life.

Other option is to hold off until Black Friday when there'll be a ton of offers on clearance items (you could get Surface Laptops last year for £549 for instance)
 
There’s a Microsoft event October 2nd. Rumour is new Surface models so there may well be bargains next month on the old ones.
 


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