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-   -   The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/67390-laptop-thread-configs-deals-questions-378.html)

I am planning to donate a laptop to a student. He is doing his B.S.C computer science. Can someone tell what spec should I consider for 1)CPU 2) Memory 3) Storage 4) Display?
Also, any recommendation?
(I dont want to spend a lot. And I dont want to give a very cheap laptop)

Hi all, I recently bought a Mi Notebook 14'' Laptop

Looks wise its almost like a Macbook Pro. Cost around 44K for 512 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM. Quite fast and comes preinstalled with Windows 10, however office 365 has to be bought separately. Graphics are quite nice, display is also excellent - 14 inch Full HD display. I have made a small video on the same. You may like to go through it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSWStrX2Kxo&t=267s

I was looking for a budget laptop for my wife. After comparing multiple options, narrowed down to Mi Notebook 14 with Intel Core i5 10th generation chip set, 512 GB SSD, 8GB RAM configuration. Delivered today, within two days of ordering.

I liked the build quality, design and the screen resolution. I use Lenovo Thinkpad T480s, weight, performance and configuration-wise, Mi Notebook 14 nothing less. However, price-wise 1/3rd of T480s.

The power button is next to the delete and as a T480s user many times almost pressed power button while deleting something..... user need to be very careful here.

The laptop looks like real value for money however, the time will tell.

ThinkPads have become a joke in terms of pricing these days, the days of authentic ThinkPads have long gone, maybe at best the value remained till T450, nowadays the T Series costs 1.3+ lacs, with the L series (aptly named) going till 1 lac, don't know what the guys at Lenovo are smoking these days. Intel's processors are such a joke that one can't differentiate between an i3 or an i7 in terms of speed, what am I paying for?

Speaking as a user of only ThinkPad since the first laptop. Managed to score a T430 for about 70k (lesser with exchange) and an X series for about 90k, that is real value. SSD is selling for the price of plutonium, for just regular mail work, Microsoft Office and browsing, a HDD is more than enough.

In general prices of electronics must fall, specially those of laptops and smartphones. A flagship smartphone (branded ones like Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony etc, not the assorted Chinese) shouldn't cost more than 50/60k, and a top of the line branded laptop (not the assorted Chinese brands) shouldn't be more than 1 lac. I'm going to flog these electronic items till they are unusable, the days of changing for boredom are long gone.

Is portability/thin & lightness important? Cheap need not be bad necessarily. How much do you plan on spending?

Have a similar requirement for my 17 year old for online classes (now), and then to ease him into college first couple of years. Budget is a max of 50K.

Any ideas please?

Guys, got a laptop from abroad without much research since it was on Flash sale @ very attractive price.

My requirements: Primarily to back up my mobile phone (via Itunes), Occasional video streaming, Data transfer from/to pendrive.

Specifications of the laptop :

Make : HP
Processor : AMD E2-9000e Radeon R2, 4 COMPUTE CORES 2C+2G 1.50 GHz
Installed RAM :4.00 GB (3.88 GB usable)
system type : 64-bit Operating System, x-64 based processor
Total memory : 500 GB (NOT SSD)
OS: Windows 10 Home (pre-installed)

On day-1, I noticed that the laptop is extremely slow. I initially thought it is because of the windows needing updates or something. Nope. Nothing worked.

What I've tried so far :
1. Removed all unnecessary software's from the laptop
2. Bifurcated the Hard drive into 4 portions
3. Tried Windows 7 - Resulting in blue screen error
4. Tried almost every trick/tips in Microsoft blog to beat the slow system. Nothing is working till now. Even booting up takes 15-20 seconds.


Main problem : System is too slow. Even a simple right click on the desktop takes a couple of seconds.

I'm looking for suggestions here :
1. Would adding 2 GB RAM help to meet my requirements without frustrating me? I was told that there is an extra slot available by a laptop technician.
2. If yes, would any 2 GB RAM fit ? Because I see a big difference in online and offline price.
3. Is this process too bad ? that I should get this product sold/exchanged ?

Could be because of low Ram, see if you can upgrade to Max ram possible. Else try installing Neverware, it will satisfy most of your usage needs.

You guys don't need to spend anywhere close to that for your requirements (student usage). Here is an ultrabook class laptop with an nvme SSD for 30k:- https://amzn.to/2ZRROYO You're welcome :D

Disclosure: I deal with hardware professionally; full-time systems admin., part-time systems integrator (I build workstations, servers etc).

The processor in this laptop is a netbook APU. Netbooks are extremely low-powered machines built mostly for educational use. Think of something like a Chromebook that runs a lightweight browser-based OS. Moreover, this is one built on an old Excavator Micro-architecture, part of the bulldozer family of CPUs. These were famous for not being very good (as you've no doubt found out). In fact they cost AMD the lead over Intel for 10 straight years. Only recently have they been able to take back the performance crown from Intel with the new Ryzen processors.

Sorry for the bad news/CPU history lesson. Here's what we can do to improve things:-

*RAM upgrade
If there's a free RAM slot, adding more RAM will not only increase memory capacity, but might also provide you with a small performance boost thanks to the enabling of dual-channel memory.
If the price difference isn't big, try to add 4GB RAM (for a total of 6). As we've established, the CPU isn't very good, which is why you'll notice the biggest performance hit when something is being loaded/unloaded from memory. Having more RAM will reduce how often this happens.

You'll need to know what kind of RAM your laptop uses, the best way to check this without opening it is via a free tool called CPU-Z. Based on its age, it either uses DDR3(my guess) or DDR3L. Try to get something similar to the spec of the RAM already installed (it needs to be laptop memory).

*SSD upgrade
Replacing your hard disk with a 2.5 inch SSD will net you the greatest improvement in performance. As a bonus, you can carry this drive forward to a new/different computer if you wish to do so.

*OS upgrade
Contrary to what it may seem, Windows 10 runs better on weaker hardware than 7, even more so when coupled with RAM/SSD upgrades.

All of this should cost you 5-6k depending on choices. I can make a few recommendations if you need help. The fact is that if you try to sell this laptop, you're unlikely to get much in return for it. If you have a good option to exchange it, might be worth considering. If stuck with it however, you might be surprised with how much better it runs with these upgrades.

Hope this helps! :thumbs up

Guys. Any pointers on where I can source a Core 2 duo laptop processor in India? My 13 yr old laptop currently uses a core 2 duo t5250 with 1.5ghz. I am looking for a T7500 or a T7300 (socket p) for a slight performance boost as these are direct fit as per cpu-upgrade.

I can see these available in alibaba, ebay US etc. But am looking at local sellers so the shipping time can be cut.

Am also planning to double my DDR2 RAM to 4GB(max supported) so as to give that extra edge. Any recommendations on which ones are good?

Lenovo Ideapad S145 AMD Ryzen 3 laptop at around 26k and under is good deal. It was at 22k before but it sometimes is inflated to 31k. So it's a good deal at 22k to 26k (Don't know why laptop prices fluctuate so much)

Now son admits that he wants to do 'some gaming' too. Would you like to revise your guidance now? :uncontrol

Thanks for the recommendation.
Btw, this was available a month ago but not anymore. Would like to get your opinion on how this compares with the one you mentioned - both are from the Vivobook line from Asus but have different processors.
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07YYM7G7T/..._zAf0EbFGMFFXH

Thanks guys. Really appreciate your inputs. I downloaded the CPU-Z tool and got to know the RAM type - I believe it is DDR4.

I've also got a snapshot of the task manager when I had two tabs open in chrome with no other software running. As I could see, the memory utilization is momentarily 75% (usually it is around 55%) whereas the CPU utilization is ALWAYS around 85%. I'm just worried that the CPU could be the bottleneck here and not the RAM/Hard drive. I may be totally wrong. Please guide me here. With this, would you still recommend adding RAM & swapping to SSD?

Also, I've added the entire report from CPU-Z in .txt format. Just so that if there is anything else you could get out of the report.

If you guys still recommend adding RAM and SSD, could you give me some links (preferably Amazon/Flipkart) as to which product will suit this laptop?

Thanks again guys.

Find out what the cpu is working on. You can open process monitor or task manager to check what is running in the background. Could be anti-virus scan or something like that.