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OT: Best Budget Laptops

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CEO2044

Senior
May 11, 2009
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Friend got broken into this past weekend- had his guns with him, but they stole his TV's and laptop.

Since he plans on living there for a while longer, he wants to find a good, but kinda cheap laptop. I told him an Acer is a brand I've heard of that's fairly cheap and reliable, but I'm not really good at all of the tech talk.

He's an accountant, so he uses Excel for some of his programs, but other than that I really don't think he uses it for much more than Fantasy Football and junk. Doesn't watch movies or play games or anything on it.

Any good sites other than newegg? Could a tablet be used and have Excel on it (never had one, don't know)? Anyone have any cheaper brands they recommend?
 
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deanbar

Redshirt
Sep 20, 2007
350
0
0
CEO2044 said:
Friend got broken into this past weekend- had his guns with him, but they stole his TV's and laptop.

Since he plans on living there for a while longer, he wants to find a good, but kinda cheap laptop. I told him an Acer is a brand I've heard of that's fairly cheap and reliable, but I'm not really good at all of the tech talk.

He's an accountant, so he uses Excel for some of his programs, but other than that I really don't think he uses it for much more than Fantasy Football and junk. Doesn't watch movies or play games or anything on it.

Any good sites other than newegg? Could a tablet be used and have Excel on it (never had one, don't know)? Anyone have any cheaper brands they recommend?
Click to expand...


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371334,00.asp

has some good info... not sure about running excel on a tablet... would think it would be cumbersome to do very much with it.
but he can get open office for free... so the price is right and its compatible with excel.

https://www.decide.com/search/laptops also has good info... can get a samsung series 3 chromebook for about $250 or asus
running win8 for about $450.. personally i like win8... havent tried a chromebook yet but they get good reviews.
 
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WayboDawg

Redshirt
Jun 7, 2013
1,219
1
38
Walmart has an Asus ultrabook on sale for $550 right now with Windows 8 on it. 500 GB Harddrive, 8GB of RAM, Intel i5 processor, and Touchscreen as well. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Should be able to run all Microsoft Office products on it.
 
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irondawg007

Redshirt
Jan 23, 2007
477
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Problem with cheap is he will have to replace sooner than later. Any PC/laptop will eventually slow down, get a virus or die. He would be smarter to get the most basic Mac laptop and keep it for years to come. You can even get refurbished (basically new) Apple ones at Best Buy for around 800-1,100. Its like buying a cheaper home on yazoo clay or buying a pair of jeans at Old Navy ... Before you know it, the walls will crack and after three washes the legs will shorten up. Yes...experience.
 
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bullymcbullerson

Redshirt
Jul 5, 2013
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If you're ordering one online, woot.com (or tech.woot.com) is a deal-a-day site that has some good deals on various brands. Cowboom.com is best buys deal-a-day site and you can catch a good deal on there every now and then.
 
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icecreamdawg

Redshirt
Aug 22, 2012
76
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I bought a Sony Vaio three and a half years ago

Looking back, I could saved a couple of Benjamins by going with one from Wal-mart. The key IMO is to have good virus protection. I use Kaspersky Internet Security. I can't say enough about it. I frequently visit um... let's say NSFW sites and to my knowledge, I've never had a virus.
 
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MedDawg

Senior
May 29, 2001
5,227
855
113
Refurbished Acer from TigerDirect is what I did and recommend. Walmart is also good because you can often return things later if you keep the receipt. If the laptop just stops working well for whatever reason, get a refund.

The refurbished Acer I bought from tigerdirect.com and am still using only cost $300-350.
 
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esplanade91

Redshirt
Dec 9, 2010
5,656
0
0
If he can make the transition to Google Spreadsheets, maybe the Samsung Chromebook would be a viable option. It's $250. It's what I use.

Incredibly fast. 2 lbs. HDMI high-def output. Comes with 2 years 100 gigs of Google Drive for free. I love it. Just keep in mind it's almost entirely made to surf the internet, but Google's Docs (their version of Word), Spreadsheets (Excel), and Slides (Power Point) are awesome. I've actually moved over to Slides for all of my presentations just because I like it better.
 
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WayboDawg

Redshirt
Jun 7, 2013
1,219
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irondawg007 said:
Problem with cheap is he will have to replace sooner than later. Any PC/laptop will eventually slow down, get a virus or die. He would be smarter to get the most basic Mac laptop and keep it for years to come. You can even get refurbished (basically new) Apple ones at Best Buy for around 800-1,100. Its like buying a cheaper home on yazoo clay or buying a pair of jeans at Old Navy ... Before you know it, the walls will crack and after three washes the legs will shorten up. Yes...experience.
Click to expand...

That's what I have. Macbook Pro 13" running OSX Lion. 500 GB HD, 4 GB RAM, Intel i5 processor. Bought it about a year ago at Best Buy for $1200. Sure I could have bought a PC with similar specs for around $500, but what I was really paying for was the great features of the Operating System.
  • I didn't have to pay for and install an antivirus cause Mac's 99% of the time don't get viruses. (Yeah I used to have the same mentality about not paying for an AV, until I got a virus on my Windows 7 laptop I needed for school use one day, and finally had to break down and pay for an AV to get the virus off.) Haven't had any virus issues with my Mac.
  • Don't have to defrag my hard drive constantly. OSX does this automatically
  • OSX comes preinstalled with great software like: Garageband, iTunes, iCal, iPhoto, iMovie, and... this might sound silly.... a better calculator and TextEdit which I use to calculate my bills each month
  • Didn't have to uninstall any bloatware or unnecessary software Best Buy usually installs on its laptops they sell
  • The laptop works just as great as it did on day one a year ago. No system crashes, no blue screens, no system errors, no reinstalling my OS to fix random errors. It just works great with little to no maintenance
  • Macs hold their value. One that sold for 3 years ago at $2000, is still worth about 3/4 its value today. Try to find a Windows machine that can claim that. Not even Alienware can
  • I love using gestures to scroll through web pages. (Youtube it if you have never seen it) I find it hard to go back to the old style mousepad on Windows laptops.
  • On a side note, if you are a gamer, then a Mac is definitely not for you because all the latest games are written for Windows. Other than that, I highly recommend them if you can afford the upfront cost to buy one. You will save money in the long run with Antivirus subscriptions, depreciation of value, and cost of maintenance in the long run. Plus, they are a pleasure to use if you come from a Windows world.
 
Chesusdog

Chesusdog

All-Conference
May 2, 2006
4,780
4,737
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Mostly because you can't afford to

Even the basic models are way overpriced.
 
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johnson86-1

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2012
14,280
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Chesusdog said:
Even the basic models are way overpriced.
Click to expand...

Not really. I have done both and while the Mac love is overblown by some people, they have a lot of benefits. If you are not a techie, Macs are just easier, and they are going to last longer. We have a three year old Mac and it runs as well as the day we bought it. I don't think I'd like trying to use it for work related stuff, but for home use, it's definitely better. Maybe its our IT department's fault, but my work computers usually are driving me crazy by the time they are three years old and I'm ready been ready to throw them out the 17n window by year four.
 
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