Laptop Under £200

bsod

Give them cash, so they can make their own choice, a battered old laptop with a useless battery and out of date spec might not be appreciated.

motorguy

Terry98 wrote: »

I need to source a laptop for a student going to Uni next year.

Ideally it will need Win7 or higher, SSD, 4GB RAM and a 14" screen. The laptop is required for text and Internet so the best processor for the money will suffice.

It would be good if it was new but I know £200 for the above spec might be asking a lot so a grade 1 or 2 used with some sort of warranty would be a good alternative. I could source and install the SSD myself if needed.

As others have said, wait until you need it next year, then organise it then.


I'd be aiming for a good, used ex business laptop by Dell or HP. There are loads on ebay and i'd have thought (without checking) and i7 is within scope.


SSDs are a doddle to fit, so maybe budget £50 for a 256GB one.


For info, my "most used" laptop is a 10 year old Dell D620 Core2Duo that I've installed Windows 10 on, upgraded the memory to 4GB (cost me just a few £ on ebay second hand) and stuck in a 128GB SSD for £25 off of Amazon. The little thing flies along for everyday tasks and I use it to run Office365, Onedrive, etc and its used daily for surfing, updating my expenses and accounts spreadsheets, watching the odd movie and playing the odd game on (nothing too challenging for me on the laptop!). I'll be honest - the !!!!!!! thing wont die, and i'd feel a bit bad scrapping it as its running so well, so we're stuck with each other!


A more modern variant with an i5 or i7 for around £150 and £50 for your SSD and you're away.

motorguy

DavidP24 wrote: »

Forget the requirement for an SSD, stick with 320gb or 500gb HD.

I can get that spec on 2nd hand market for £50 for a Dell 15 inch inspiron, I usually swap out CPU for a 9800 which is about £25. Plenty of bigger hard disks but keep it under 500gb and go external if need more.

Has a lot of Grunt with that cpu change, problem you have is RAM, make sure it has 4gb min to start as memory for old kit is expensive now. Win7 used to need 2gb but now 4gb is minimum. 8gb is great!

Cant agree with that - an SSD makes a huge difference, particularly to an older machine.

motorguy

bsod wrote: »

Give them cash, so they can make their own choice, a battered old laptop with a useless battery and out of date spec might not be appreciated.

£150-£200 will buy you a very well presented recent business spec laptop, not some new poverty spec shiny plastic thing on offer at Tescos.


IF you go ex business, parts are replaceable and cheap. My Dell D620 got an upgrade to 4GB of RAM for £9, a new PSU for £14 and a new battery for £12.


They keyboard is a little worn so I might treat it to a genuine Dell new one for a heady £9 and five mins effort.


A lot of new kit has non replaceable components, so you're stuck.

bsod

motorguy wrote: »

£150-£200 will buy you a

second hand laptop which will most likely be deposited in a dustbin in a very short space of time, either out of failure or embarrassment.

I've yet to see a laptop free of plastic

DavidP24

bsod with respect that is rubbish, many older laptops were well made and I myself am using a Laptop that is over 9 years old and still works well.

OP wanted Win7 which means it may not have drivers for new kit.

I have dual boot with Win10 which I hate so I perfectly understand requirement for Win7.

I have a second identical laptop I use for spares if any component goes wrong, it cost me £40, I upgraded wireless to AC from eBay, have 8gb ram, 500gb internal and 4tb external.

New kit can be purchased for around £300, £250 when offers on. Only advantage of new kit is lower power consumption from CPU, but you have to check CPU's at CPUBOSS to see how they compare.

For desktop I got a quad core low power box for £130 that was a recon new PC.

I got LED monitor for free, but use laptop most of the time.

Considering the budget I think a 2nd hand will give the best bang for buck, at OP's budget the CPU likely to be sluggish with bloatware and AV using all power it has.

Heliflyguy

Recently got DD for 6th form a Lenovo 100s with an 11 inch screen ebay argos outlet refurbished and good as new (£109.00), there is also a 14 inch version.

I doubt anyone would want to lug around some old heavy laptop with crummy battery life, so probably the charger too, at Uni.

Will be bad enough seeing other students with doting parents smirking over the top of their Apple macs.

DavidP24

Weight is a factor, but it also shows they can take the rough and tumble.

I got £13 9 cell battery off eBay for mine, lasts 5 to 6 hours.

Fact is that there are as many opinions as there are laptops and 10 fold in reasons to buy.

I just look at price and bank per buck, which means CPU, Memory, OS and maybe disk.

I find newer laptops have tacky tile keyboards, very flimsy, they fail the screen bend test but worst of all they do not have any grunt.

Fact is OP said requirement was "text and internet" so almost anything will do albeit with compromise.

Strider590

bsod wrote: »

second hand laptop which will most likely be deposited in a dustbin in a very short space of time, either out of failure or embarrassment.

I've yet to see a laptop free of plastic

Would you like to see my 1998 IBM Thinkpad 770X? Perfect working order, 18 years old. I'm still using a Thinkpad T41 (2005), again perfect working order.

bsod

DavidP24 wrote: »

with respect that is rubbish,

I have
I have


For desktop I got
I got LED monitor for free

OP wanted Win7 which means it may not have drivers for new kit.

That's a lot of I got's, this is not about you, or what you have, the comment you rubbished was about what your average teenager/student would like, £200 cash, £200 new laptop, £200 towards a new laptop, or some second hand stuff at least 5 years old

Terry98 wrote: »

Ideally it will need Win7 or higher
It would be good if it was new

Strider590 wrote: »

Would you like to see my 1998 IBM Thinkpad 770X? Perfect working order, 18 years old. I'm still using a Thinkpad T41 (2005), again perfect working order.

an old thinkpad isn't impressive, thanks for the offer to 'see it', I've 'seen' thousands, and can easily outbrag your statement when it comes to ownership of old working equipment.



Student life has changed since the 1970's, ipad's, slimline laptops, smartphones and £150-£200 trainers are the norm, scrimping on a laptop in that environment would be a little strange - few put up with tiny disks, poor battery life, missing keys, and broken hinges when new machines are so cheap