New Laptop Options

[Viekn]

I need a new laptop.

What I want:
8 gb ram
14" display
Prefer SSD around 256 gb, I mostly use cloud storage for files.
Intel/AMD 3 is fine, 5 would be nice but not necessary
I'm not playing any games other than Gemstone on it. I will mostly use it for web surfing, emails, and Microsoft Office, but quite often I've got like 15-20 Chrome tabs open, plus multiple MS Word and Excel files, not to mention PDF files open.
I don't want to pay more than $375

Where I've looked: Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Tiger Direct, Office Depot. There are a few possibilities, but nothing concrete yet. Anyone know of any other place or site I haven't looked at yet? One thing I noticed on Amazon is a new laptop that has been opened and customized to fit the specs you want. I am a bit wary of this. Does anyone have any experience with ordering something like that from Amazon?

Thanks for your help.

Edit to add: There are a TON of laptops in my price range with 4 gb ram, but in this day and age, I'm thinking that's just not quite enough. If you feel differently though, please say so.

[Taernath]

Newegg?

This is what I got plugging in your requirements:
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100006...04%20601296066

I would recommend 8gb of RAM if you're a heavy Chrome user.

[nocturnix]

I got one of these for work. It has been pretty good. And I setup lich on it. I mostly play on my desktop. One thing about this laptop is it can take awhile to get used to the kickstand thing. Moving it around its not as simple as a standard clam-shell laptop. But it means you have more flexibility in how you use it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/su...vetab=overview

Ah I just saw your budget is 375.

Hmm might be tough then, you are better off looking at a used laptop with that budget. As laptops go macbook pros are some of the best all-around laptops. However running lich on it is an issue, and i never got it working on mine. Which is why i sold it and switched to the surface pro 7. However, you can in theory get it working maybe with help from someone on discord. The macbook pros tend to hold their value pretty well so it still might be tough to find a good one within your budget. Maybe if you dont mind scratches? Of course you have to be careful buying on ebay.

I think perusing newegg is your best bet as stated above. Good luck.

[barbarous]

This is the site I use for pc parts. It automatically checks compatibility for you. I don't know how good a selector for a laptop is, but you can try it. I preselected the options you put in there for screen size, RAM requirements, and cost.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/la...0&F=8589934592

You may want to look for open box specials or buy used with a warranty from Amazon, just avoid scenarios like this if you can (nsfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfE8l5Ok6Jg )

[Viekn]

Thanks for the help so far. The following are what I've narrowed it down to. If anyone knows of any glaring differences that I'm not seeing, let me know. Upon further reading, it looks like dual channel memory is preferred, but I don't see where any of these really specify that they're dual channel or not. Sorry for not being able to narrow it down further than 7 before asking. Having touchscreen seems to also be a difference and while it's nice, it's not make or break considering other better performance indicators.

1. https://www.walmart.com/ip/14-dq1040...knTWsUJQQpVUw0

2. https://www.newegg.com/silver-hp-14/p/1TS-000D-077T0

3. https://www.amazon.com/HP-Touchscree...=1&s=pc&sr=1-5

4. https://www.amazon.com/HP-Touchscree...=1&s=pc&sr=1-5

5. https://www.amazon.com/HP-Touchscree...=1&s=pc&sr=1-9

6. https://www.amazon.com/HP-Business-i...1&s=pc&sr=1-10

7. https://www.amazon.com/2019-HP-Touch...1&s=pc&sr=1-19

Edit to add: Upon reading, #1 from Walmart seems to have a 1.0 ghz base processor speed while everything else seems to have at least 2.1-2.6 base ghz processor speed, meaning I should eliminate that one compared to relatively same price on the other ones, yes?

[Taernath]

Dual channel refers to the physical configuration of the RAM in the slots on the motherboard - 1x8gb is single channel while 2x4gb is dual channel. Both have the same capacity but the 2x4 configuration has higher bandwidth (apologies if you already knew this). #1 from Walmart is single channel, the rest don't explicitly say but if I had to guess they're likely also single channel. Ultimately it *probably* isn't a big deal for what you're looking to do.

If you don't really care about touchscreens, the i5 (from Walmart) seems to beat the i3 and Ryzen processors in benchmarks. If you decide you want a touchscreen, get one of the i3-8145u's.

Edit to add: Upon reading, #1 from Walmart seems to have a 1.0 ghz base processor speed while everything else seems to have at least 2.1-2.6 base ghz processor speed, meaning I should eliminate that one compared to relatively same price on the other ones, yes?

Clock speeds are generally not directly comparable, especially nowdays with turboboost and other things going on under the hood. The tl;dr version is that the i5 doesn't max out at 1ghz, it gets boosted to 3.6ghz and is also quad core. The i3s max at 3.9ghz but are only dual core.

[Sile]

Since your budget is around 400, have you considered a used machine or refurb?

You can probably get something that currently sells for the 7-800 range at 400 2nd hand.

Not sure how robust the market is where you are, but usually in bigger areas there are great deals to be had 2nd hand.

[Viekn]

I guess I'm just leary of what you might end up getting 2nd hand. I already did check with a local shop I trust and they didn't have anything currently.

[Sile]

Yeah its a roll of the dice really.

I'm comfortable doing it because I can usually find any issues quick before I buy. But I understand how that is not easy for everyone, and for every good deal there are 2 or more people trying to pull a fast one.

[Viekn]

Ok, final update, narrowed it down to 3. Want to get final thoughts before I decide. I did open it up a bit to include one refurbished item because it's a 2 in 1. Let me know what you think.

1. https://www.walmart.com/ip/14-dq1040...knTj7xBQQpVUw0
- This one is hard for me to pass up because not only does it have 8 Ram and 256 SSD, but it's got the additional 16gb Optane plus it's a Core I5. My only hesitation is that I really wanted something touchscreen. But with those specs, do I just forget about that it's not touchscreen?

2. https://www.amazon.com/HP-Touchscree...11&s=pc&sr=1-9

3. https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SP314-51...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
- this is the refurbished laptop/tablet 2 in 1, whereas the first 2 are new computers, not refurbished