Budget Laptop advice sought (replacing Acer Aspire V112P)

[DickP]

Hi,

I used to be quite into computing back in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, but these days I am not into playing games and prefer my electronic devices to just work as opposed to over clocking them or assembling computer towers. I am looking for some guidance on replacing my existing small lightweight laptop. Below are my summarised circumstances.

I have had my Acer Aspire V3-112P-C26A (to give it's full name) since roughly 2014. For the most part it has performed very satisfactorily, although I have done a couple of fresh OS installations in that time rather than trying to recover a bloated OS.

Some months ago the hard drive began to make erratic noises, which I attributed to imminent failure going from past experiences. I priced up the replacement cost and found it not being far off a replacement budget laptop, so opted to make the move to the cloud for data storage and take my chances with the current hard drive. My documents and photographs are now stored on Google Drive (for now), and I intend to continue using cloud storage for the immediate foreseeable.

Much to my surprise, the hard drive has now stopped making those noises and the laptop continues to work, albeit now starting to really struggle with some web pages and laggy behaviour with applications like Spotify.

Given that I believe it is on both borrowed time and starting to really show it's age, I am looking for replacement options if / when it expires in the coming months.

My requirements are:

• Low Cost (comparable to this Laptop's purchase price);
• Small and portable;
• Long battery life;
• Sufficient processing power for the web, documents and supplementary applications like Spotify, Photo Editing etc
• Product lifespan of a similar period (say 5 years);
• HDMI output and sufficient USB ports to connect peripherals (i.e. mouse, keyboard and printer) so can be configured for desktop use when portability isn't necessary;

Thanks!

[SeanyD]

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/la...

Superb mid level workhorse for everyday use, off the shelf so no faff. I'm sure there'll be haters who can get better spec, better price, etc, fair play, but for zero hassle.

I have one with a couple of external ultrawide monitors for home office use, and it's never missed a beat.

[DickP]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I paid about a third of that for my existing laptop though?

Thanks,

[AJB88]

When you say photo editing what do you mean? cutting, resizing etc or more powerful?

I reckon most of your requirements could be done on ChromeOS, I do "photo editing" on ChromeOS using Pixlr.com. Documents you've got a choice between Google Docs or Microsoft 365 as well.

ChromeOS devices would also tick the boxes with price, battery and portability, your using Google Cloud already so its designed for that as well.

Edited by AJB88 on Friday 29th May 13:04

[bloomen]

I had one of them. Very good it was too and I can't really think of anything comparable in terms of size, battery life or cost now.

Have you considered a SSD? Mine took to it well and it was the computer most transformed by it. It came with a 500gb HDD which was a clicking slug. I don't recall it having any struggles after that and I used lightroom on it which it coped with.

Edited by bloomen on Friday 29th May 13:21

[DickP]

Hi,

Yes the photo editing would be limited to resizing, altering colour levels and the likes. Tweaking I think is the best description.

In terms of moving to another OS like that of the Chromebook, I feel averse to doing that because it would reduce the flexibility of the computer when compared to one running a Microsoft OS. For example, I have a purchased copy of Office 2010 which I use and prefer over the web Google Docs. Similarly I would rather avoid paying a subscription to something like Office 365 when 2010 will already do what I use it for.

Am I being realistic about the limitations of an alternative OS?

Thanks,

[AJB88]

Really depends what you do with it, I mean my LG Chromebase is used for day to day stuff as 99% of my usage these days is online. I have a Ubuntu laptop for a few other things.

[QuartzDad]

I bought one of these for my Dad nine months ago, use is occasional browsing, genealogy program etc. He's happy with it, took it travelling before lockdown.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08745F4DM/ref=dp_cerb...

[xeny]

as said upthread, buy an SSD for the existing laptop.

[DickP]

xeny said:

as said upthread, buy an SSD for the existing laptop.

Hi,

Sorry I had missed that reply.

Would I still be faced with the same problem on performance for some web pages and laggy behaviour with some applications like Spotify?

Also, is there not a finite lifespan with equipment like budget laptops akin to how a mobile phone appears to last up to 4 years and then can have spontaneous sudden hardware failure rendering it scrap?

Thanks,

[DickP]

QuartzDad said:

I bought one of these for my Dad nine months ago, use is occasional browsing, genealogy program etc. He's happy with it, took it travelling before lockdown.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08745F4DM/ref=dp_cerb...

Hi,

I have never heard of these, will take a look at them.

Thanks,

[AJB88]

DickP said:

Hi,

Sorry I had missed that reply.

Would I still be faced with the same problem on performance for some web pages and laggy behaviour with some applications like Spotify?

Also, is there not a finite lifespan with equipment like budget laptops akin to how a mobile phone appears to last up to 4 years and then can have spontaneous sudden hardware failure rendering it scrap?

Thanks,

It's probably the HDD slowing the whole thing down!

New SSD and a clean install will speed it up a lot.

[bloomen]

DickP said:

Would I still be faced with the same problem on performance for some web pages and laggy behaviour with some applications like Spotify?

Also, is there not a finite lifespan with equipment like budget laptops akin to how a mobile phone appears to last up to 4 years and then can have spontaneous sudden hardware failure rendering it scrap?

The HDD I had in my Acer, which was a 111p I think, was dire. It really hammered the whole machine. I've never experienced a worse one and it was vastly better when junked for a SSD.

I never had webpage trouble myself and only sold it a few months ago. Never used Spotify but I can't imagine they'd develop something that people on modest hardware couldn't use.

[kcrimson]

I had an old Packard Bell laptop which had slowed right down. I replaced the HDD with a 120GB SDD (cost under £20) and put Linux on it. Works like a dream now. Does everything I need for day to day stuff.

[p1stonhead]

AJB88 said:

DickP said:

Hi,

Sorry I had missed that reply.

Would I still be faced with the same problem on performance for some web pages and laggy behaviour with some applications like Spotify?

Also, is there not a finite lifespan with equipment like budget laptops akin to how a mobile phone appears to last up to 4 years and then can have spontaneous sudden hardware failure rendering it scrap?

Thanks,

It's probably the HDD slowing the whole thing down!

New SSD and a clean install will speed it up a lot.

Indeed. The new Samsung 970 evo can write at something like 3.5gb a second!

A 1TB can be had for about a hundred quid.

Edited by p1stonhead on Friday 29th May 15:10

[DickP]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments.

Please help me understand how spending say £100 on a SSD will be a cost saving against a new budget small laptop which will have a new battery and the likes. I appreciate I may be completely missing this, but has laptop technology not really moved on significantly since 2014 in both performance and battery longevity?

How would I go about transferring the OS installation partition from the existing hard drive to the new one too?

Thanks,

[bloomen]

If it turns out to be crap return the disk to Amazon or sell it to cex.

I have a 2010 laptop I still use for non demanding stuff. It's fine.

My main one is 2015 and still has enough firepower.

Like I said there isn't much with that battery life and form factor for that little these days. I'd have another.

[p1stonhead]

DickP said:

Hi,

Thanks for the comments.

Please help me understand how spending say £100 on a SSD will be a cost saving against a new budget small laptop which will have a new battery and the likes. I appreciate I may be completely missing this, but has laptop technology not really moved on significantly since 2014 in both performance and battery longevity?

How would I go about transferring the OS installation partition from the existing hard drive to the new one too?

Thanks,

Potentially you may be throttled by your processor yes but in terms of speed you should still see a huge increase.

Cloning a drive is easy. There are a few free versions of software that does it.

Step by step here.

https://www.techlicious.com/how-to/upgrade-hdd-wit...

It’s really not even a contest in terms of speed. Depending on the specs of your 2014 laptop you could be up to 20 times faster on the SSD

Edited by p1stonhead on Friday 29th May 15:59

[QuartzDad]

You don't have to spend £100 on a SSD. Obviously depends on how much of your current 500GB you are using but a 240GB SSD can be bought for £27.50.

You then have options on how you want to install it; start from square one and reinstall windows or buy an 8 quid cable to help you clone the current disk to the new disk.

This will give you a noticeable performance boost without having to fork out for a new laptop. I have a spare 2012 Dell that now has a 250GB SSD in it, night and day compared to what it used to be like, obviously not as nippy as something brand new but it works.

The middle of a pandemic is not a good time to be buying a new laptop if you want to maximise the price/performance ratio. Everyone has been buying them so supply is limited and prices have risen. Budget named laptops have also been around £350, the specs get a little better as time goes by. Now you get a SSD vs your old HDD, usually 8GB vs your 4GB, full HD screen vs your HD ready. Plus a newer more efficient CPU etc. etc.

[DickP]

Hi,

That's really useful information, thanks.

Would it be worth upgrading from 4GB ram to 8GB at the same time?

Although the cost appears to be minimum £40 for the ram...

Thanks,