Need something to use Excel and internet, and occasionally Netflix. Don't want to spend too much.
Whats the current recommendations for this? Cheapest thing I see at Costco?
Need something to use Excel and internet, and occasionally Netflix. Don't want to spend too much.
Whats the current recommendations for this? Cheapest thing I see at Costco?
I bought my Thinkpad off of Woot. They often have some good deals. Inventory changes all the time. Currently, here is what I think is the best deal from them.
https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-13-latitude3350-i3-5005u-4gb-128gb?ref=cp_cnt_wp_6_2
I3 processor is good. Better would be i5, best would be i7 but the i7 is very expensive. I like the Intel i3 over most ADM offerings. Ram is an adequate 4gb but that could cheaply be upgraded to 8gb. Hard drive is small at 128gb but it is a Solid State hard drive so it will help the computer be quick and conserve battery. Win10 Pro is the latest. Add to this that it has a 1yr warranty from Dell as a Dell Factory Recondition and this seems good at $330. The screen is 13". I like small. I have an 11" so to me, 13" is not too small while not being too big like a 15".
This unit wont come pre-loaded with Excel so you'll either have to load your own that you pay for or go with one of the free, similar products like I do.
^Looks like a good deal. You can use LibreOffice Calc instead of Excel, that's what I do.
We have two of the HP Stream 11 machines at home. I got them from Woot for $99 each and for what you want they are not bad. I originally got them so my kids could watch movies in the car on a trip from Ohio to Sebring and they worked great for that. They are light and the batteries last a long time. One caveat though, get a 32GB Sd card for them, the windows OS takes up alot of the built in memory.
Here's another one on Woot.
https://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-latitude-3340-13-3-intel-i5-laptop?ref=w_cnt_lnd_cat_pc_2_3
Price: $299.99 or $30 less than the one above.
If you have a Micro Center near you, check them out. I picked this up earlier this year:
It's a HP Pavilion x360 Convertible m3-u103dx. This one is a refurb, but for the money, it kicks butt. This one has a 7th gen i5 that is more powerful than some recent i7 processors. The screen is amazing, and it runs a Solid State Drive so everything is instant. Only gripe is the size of the SSD; it's only 128GB. I have a bunch of portable HDD's and memory cards so it's not a big deal, and you can upgrade it later on.
A couple things to keep in mind:
-Solid State Drives are FAST. But, they are more expensive. Also, when they fail, they are doneski. No warnings.
-I feel that you need at least 8GB RAM and a current, 7th gen i3 at the minimum for something you plan on using regularly for any sort of multitasking.
-The Intel i3, i5, and i7 processors can be confusing. There are now 7 different generations, but most of what you would find out there are 6th and 7th in newer machines. Also, there are different ones within the i3, i5, and i7 types. Anything with the suffix HQ after it is going to be on the higher end, but more expensive. Like I said, the i5 in my machine (i5-7200U) outpowers some i7 processors of earlier generations. I usually use CPUBenchmark.net to see what's good and what's crap.
-If you are doing heavy Excel calc work, I'd be looking strictly at i7 machines, and the high end ones only. If it's light spreadsheet stuff, i3 or i5 machines can handle that.
-Just about every machine is going to ship with bloatware, some more than others. Ditch it and you'll be fine.
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