Hard Core Shopping: Best Laptop Buy For The Buck SSD ?

Six of one, half dozen of the other IMO...on major brands. Chips...performance...again IMO aren’t the issue but WiFi speed is and that’s not a computer issue.

Late last year I replaced by older laptop/notebook with a Lenovo Ideapad 330S and I'm super happy with it. The SSD boots SO much faster than my old PC or my wife's newer laptop with an standard hard drive.

Rob

No less than 8GB RAM, no need for more than 16GB
SSD for storage is a definite
Resurrected an old Intel Core2 Duo machine with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD when my 9 year old MacBook died. Was slow but got me through until new MacBook arrived. I would look for an I5 processor. I7 would be overkill if you do mostly internet browsing and email. Can find refurbs out there on Newegg and TigerDirect for just a few hundred. Some will even give you a 1 year warranty.

Just an example. Don't know your budget.
https://www.newegg.com/aluminum-hp-probook-640-g2/p/N82E16834272236?Description=refurbished%20laptops&cm_re=refurbished_laptops-_-34-272-236-_-Product

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=619674&sku=42126685

Check your PMs

Sadly, like most big companies, all of the major laptop vendors are cutting corners to keep prices low and make a buck.

When it comes to SSDs, there is good, not so good and bad. We are all used to rotating disks lasting years, but the cheapest SSDs might not even last 2 years. Of course it is very difficult to know what you are going to get before you lay your money down.

If you are a little bit adventuresome, I recommend the Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit. Under $150. Add a Digital TV and you are in business. Pre-loaded with Chromium browser and common office tools.

There Raspberry Pi community is very helpful. There was a minor hardware "bug" but it has been fixed. Also the latest version of the software allows you to boot from a USB stick or SSD connected via USB (adapter - $15 ;
Samsung 970 Pro M.2 SSD - $150 .

If you don't need windows for a specific application, you might like a Chromebook. Their really nice for web surfing. Googles Pixelbook Go is a top choice, and list for $649. How much do you want to spend?

Your given requirements are pretty skimpy.
A Chromebook would satisfy them.
But do you use any mapping software, drawing or Cadd programs or other utility software?

Here is what I would look for.

i7 processor with SSD 1 terabyte
16 gigs of ram
external usb drive for back up

new computers often do not come with a cd slot.

Check with CNET.

Best bang for the buck.
Here

Mex,

Do yourself a HUGE favor..

Stay clear of all of those "discounters", AMAZON, WALMART, used, refurbs, CHROMEBOOKS.

Everyone gravitates towards the cheapest price, in laptops especially this is a very bad thing to do..

You asked for 14" that is small considering it will be a widescreen 16-9 or 16-10 format so be aware of that.

Walmart HP PCs are specially built for Walmart, HP will not recognize them for direct warranty and third party Techs have difficult time getting parts from HP for Walmart HPs..

Most manufacturers will shy away from warranty work when not sold through a legit reseller like Amazon so keep that in mind.

Had to buy a laptop for DD a couple of years ago when she started College.

I ended up buying a Dell Laptop DIRECTLY FROM DELL, main reason was my company offers a discount program to employees since the company buys a lot of laptops from Dell..

I also discovered that buying directly from Dell allowed me to CHOOSE Win10 PRO rather than the HOME version you get stuck with when buying ready built laptops from other retailers.

Win10 Pro includes one special program which was removed from the HOME version called Regedit.. That is the registry editor which allows one to disable a lot of the MS spyware junk which will use a lot of your Internet connection.

Win10 Pro also allowed me to install a third party program called O&O Shutup that allowed me to stomp on more spyware, customize the Windows updates (IE TURN OFF).

I NEEDED a stable PC platform that didn't randomly turn into a doorstop due to no quality control of Windows updates for my DD to do schoolwork.

My suggestion while not as cheap as others, is a Inspiron 14 5000 model laptop, 14" monitor, i7 multicore (4 cores) Processor at 3.9Ghz, 8 GB Ram, 512 GB NVMe SSD drive.

For $799, add in the Win10 PRO for $60 more.

That will be a laptop that can handle pretty much anything you can throw at it and will be much faster than your Internet..

You can find that PC HERE

You could go with a i5 to lower the cost but you will sacrifice a lot of speed in doing so.. That i7 really flies, so far no complaints from DD and she is working a lot with Adobe Illustrator..

One other thing, what ever laptop you buy, the processor setting NEEDS changed from "managed" to MAX, often the managed power setting will be defaulted to 5% of the processor speed which makes it a slug to say the least.. They do that to increase your battery life but at the cost of the speed..