PC or Lap top for 13 year old Student

[Skyedriver]

Son currently has an awful HP Stream and we were going to get him a new "computer" for Christmas.

Had just about started to look for a lap top (I have had Toshiba for years) but at his school assessment last night the "Computer Teacher" suggested a proper PC would be a better investment as it would have better graphics card etc

Now I thought most of his school work at home would consist of writing essays etc BUT apparently in Computers he is now into basic Vectors (thought they were Vauxhalls) and in Technology he has access to ACAD for Strudents ( I used BricsCad occasionally on the Tosh).

Lap top more portable but in the words of his teacher, "do you want a 13 year old with something portable".
He/I has a separate keyboard, mouse and a Dell monitor anyway

Any thoughts or comments or recommendations greatly appreciated.
(And worth waiting for Black Friday or is that a con now?)

[Penelope Stopit]

I would go for a desktop, you will be able to show him how to rip the thing apart and explain how it works

[randlemarcus]

Second hand off eBay, buy local. Be slightly wary of IT teachers advice, if they were any use, they wouldn't be an IT teacher. Laptop with separate GPU will move you up from cheap HP Stream type stuff, but you may be amazed at what you can buy.

As regards the 13 year old with a portable, teach the boy good practice, rather than trying to beat him at IT. No lappie or phones in the bedroom is a Good Start.

[Skyedriver]

randlemarcus said:

Second hand off eBay, buy local. Be slightly wary of IT teachers advice, if they were any use, they wouldn't be an IT teacher. Laptop with separate GPU will move you up from cheap HP Stream type stuff, but you may be amazed at what you can buy.

As regards the 13 year old with a portable, teach the boy good practice, rather than trying to beat him at IT. No lappie or phones in the bedroom is a Good Start.

Very interesting and astute comments

It was likely to be a Christmas present so would prefer new
IT teacher did seem a little hazy but it was late in the evening and everyone was tired
The HP Stream was a disaster in retrospect
Teach a 13 year old who knows "everything"???
His current lap top does sit in his bedroom but it's pretty much redundant, he can do basic homework on it but not the stuff he's moving into now. His desk for homework is there so the monitor etc is there too. That's where the new kit would go. Always think he should be doing homework in his room, not in the living/kitchen areas where there's too many other distractions.
We make him leave his phone and a FireHD8 tablet in the living room when he goes to bed to stop him using them late into the evening. He wouldn't use a new lap top or PC in the same way.

[sgrimshaw]

Budget would help.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

If you already have a spare monitor mouse and keyboard, it may be worth considering an Intel NUC such as this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N245UXY/ref=psdc_43...

[Skyedriver]

sgrimshaw said:

Budget would help.

Good question, not sure of the answer but if I said around £550, would I be laughed out of court? My last Toshiba (about 4 year ago) was a little over £500.
I don't think it need be of a spec for gaming if that makes a difference, as he's not into that as such but not sure what they teach him these days. When I was at school computers were only seen in movie films and Space Family Robinson..

[Haltamer]

PC is probably a sound choice if there's room for it in his room; As to the specifications, what will he really be using it for? They may have access to CAD software, but is he an aspiring architect / designer?

What sort of portability is required - PC Is null, but I know when in Year 10 / 11 I would take my laptop to school for design GCSE Work (Not that long ago!), and It'll certainly be desired if it's still workable come college.

The golden words for any laptop, performacnce wise will be:
i5
8GB RAM
SSD

If you can get all of those within budget, good job! - I managed to on a HP ~4 years ago, and I've still no performance troubles.

further considerations will be keyboard, touchpad and monitor - You will be using the laptop via the interfaces provided, so ensure they are at least acceptable - Many laptop keyboards are awful useless mush.

I'll do some googling for you...

[Haltamer]

Here we go:
https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/l...

This is a fairly sound bet for only £399 for general browsing / office work; Personally, I'd immediately open it up and add another 4GB RAM and switch to an SSD; all attainable for sub £550 total. Helps if you know what you're doing though!

[sgrimshaw]

Skyedriver said:

Good question, not sure of the answer but if I said around £550, would I be laughed out of court? My last Toshiba (about 4 year ago) was a little over £500.
I don't think it need be of a spec for gaming if that makes a difference, as he's not into that as such but not sure what they teach him these days. When I was at school computers were only seen in movie films and Space Family Robinson..

Not at all.

You can get a lot of Desktop for £550, more power, storage, ram ... well more everything really ... than a similarly priced laptop

Take a look at the specialist builders like:

https://www.palicomp.co.uk/

or

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

They both have "ready built" PC's or you can configure your own spec.

If you still want to look at laptops, then Lenovo seem to give you a "good bang for your buck" these days and there is a HP which falls right in your budget which is highly recommended by PC Pro labs:

Here's a link to the HP:

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-250-g6-i5-7200u...

I've used laptopsdirect many times and their service and prices have always been excellent.

Plenty of choice on their site too.

[Skyedriver]

sgrimshaw said:

Not at all.

You can get a lot of Desktop for £550, more power, storage, ram ... well more everything really ... than a similarly priced laptop

Take a look at the specialist builders like:

https://www.palicomp.co.uk/

or

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

They both have "ready built" PC's or you can configure your own spec.

If you still want to look at laptops, then Lenovo seem to give you a "good bang for your buck" these days and there is a HP which falls right in your budget which is highly recommended by PC Pro labs:

Here's a link to the HP:

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-250-g6-i5-7200u...

I've used laptopsdirect many times and their service and prices have always been excellent.

Plenty of choice on their site too.

Thanks, most helpful
Wouldn't buy another HP, ever after the current one. Won't even buytheir sauce anymore, :-)
The place I worked befor retiring used Laptops Direct I think, but will talk to the two specialists you mention and get their comments. There is a place here in Oban who "do" computers apparently, according to his teacher, both bought in and special builds but no experience of their skill or costings. Need to call in there too.
Thanks again

[sgrimshaw]

Skyedriver said:

Wouldn't buy another HP, ever after the current one. Won't even buytheir sauce anymore, :-)

I generally share your view on HP, I have an Envy and it's ste ... but .... the one I linked to is a business spec machine and well regarded - it's the only HP lappy I'd consider and nearly bought one a couple of months ago ... in the end I went for a Lenovo and been very pleased with it.

[Skyedriver]

Following advice I'd decided I'd look at a "proper" PC rather than a lap top as he (i've) got all the ancilliaries however this has popped up on the John Lewis Black Friday sale.

https://www.johnlewis.com/dell-inspiron-13-5000-se...


"only" 8GB RAM and 256 GB hard drive but it's an SSD drive whereas the towers for a similar price are not.

am I being unnecessarily distracted??

[captain_cynic]

Bit of an off the wall suggestion but if you're going to get a desktop, why not buy the components and build it with you son?

Its actually incredibly easy to do these days as components fit together like lego. Long gone are the days of having to manually set jumpers on the motherboard from poorly translated instructions. Just remember that CPU's are ZIF sockets (Zero Insertion Force) so if they don't slot in easily, you've got the chip around the wrong way. RAM on the other hand is definitely not ZIF sockets

If you want to go down this route, there are plenty of YouTube vids explaining it and I know I'm not the only PHer who builds their own gaming box.

[Mr Pointy]

Skyedriver said:

Following advice I'd decided I'd look at a "proper" PC rather than a lap top as he (i've) got all the ancilliaries however this has popped up on the John Lewis Black Friday sale.

https://www.johnlewis.com/dell-inspiron-13-5000-se...

"only" 8GB RAM and 256 GB hard drive but it's an SSD drive whereas the towers for a similar price are not.

am I being unnecessarily distracted??

That's not bad, although I'd add the extra warranty for £70. Would you use the flip over function though? At least with a laptop he can take it to school if necessary & 13" is very portable. An external monitor would be good, but you might already have that if not there are loads on Gumtree.

I know you want a new item but have a look on the Dell Outlet & filter out the Screatch & Dent ones. There is quite a lot on there at the moment (just be careful as the prices are ex-VAT).
https://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfh1/campaigns/...

[LuS1fer]

I ordered a refurbished Lenovo T440S with 12GB RAM, 240GbSSD and i7 processor for just under £400, for my girlfriend, who is a college lecturer.
I'm no expert but I use a T440S i5 for work and it's a solid and very reliable workhorse that seems to do most things well.
You can buy a Microsoft Office 2019 license for under £20.
No optical drive though but portable USB optical drives are cheap as chips.

[Skyedriver]

Can I please ask those in the know about this spec? It's a local computer shop build.
I've been using computers for CAD since 1989 but have little idea about the insides except what I've learned down the line. (Can rebuild engines but computers are a black art)

Remembering it's for a 13 year old to use, mostly (hopefully) for school work, where there are learning about computers and use a basic ACAD programme. He's not into gaming (war games etc) but I may put a driving game on it.

Tower PC
AMD A10-9700 quad Core CPU
8Gb DDR4 Memory
No removable drive
1 Tb Hard Disk Drive
DVD Re writer
Integrated Radeon R7 Graphics
Gigabit Network Adapter
High Definition Audio
Windows 10 Home 64 bit
MS Office 2016 Home and Student

Possible upgrades: GeForce GT730 2Gb Graphics Card or Radeon RX460 2Gb Graphics card
1Tb Hard drive replaced by 240Gb SSD (so better storage just not as much!)

thanks in advance for any help

[Jim the Sunderer]

He might be eligible for free Office 365 https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/students...

[Somebody]

Personally I would buy a refurbished ex-business laptop like a HP Elitebook/Dell Latitude/IBM Thinkpad. They may not have the best graphic cards etc but they are generally much better built than your consumer laptops from the likes of PCWorld etc. We have Elitebooks/Probooks/Vostros/Thinkpads in our house.

[Skyedriver]

Bump (sorry)

Skyedriver said:

Can I please ask those in the know about this spec? It's a local computer shop build.
I've been using computers for CAD since 1989 but have little idea about the insides except what I've learned down the line. (Can rebuild engines but computers are a black art)

Remembering it's for a 13 year old to use, mostly (hopefully) for school work, where there are learning about computers and use a basic ACAD programme. He's not into gaming (war games etc) but I may put a driving game on it.

Tower PC
AMD A10-9700 quad Core CPU
8Gb DDR4 Memory
No removable drive
1 Tb Hard Disk Drive
DVD Re writer
Integrated Radeon R7 Graphics
Gigabit Network Adapter
High Definition Audio
Windows 10 Home 64 bit
MS Office 2016 Home and Student

Possible upgrades: GeForce GT730 2Gb Graphics Card or Radeon RX460 2Gb Graphics card
1Tb Hard drive replaced by 240Gb SSD (so better storage just not as much!)

thanks in advance for any help