Laptop help for a skint moron....

[anonymous-user]

Yes, I know how to really sell myself

Anyway, our current home laptop is now pretty much unusable. Its a Toshiba thats probably 5 or 6 years old, running windows 10. Intel Celeron N2830 2.16GHz and 4GB RAM.

I need to replace it, but thanks to Covid bullst I really don't have much money to spend. To be used for MS Office and the kids to do their homework on. I'm not an influencer (I can barely get my kids to get dressed in the morning) so no need for editing videos and I have a high end machine for work to do big excel sheets and the like.

I want to be around the £300 mark so am I better off with a chromebook and using openoffice or similar?

Looking at something like this the processor speed and RAM are fairly similar so will I see any advantage over my old clunker? Am I better off reinstalling windows on my old machine first?

Any advice/suggestions for specific machines gratefully received.

[AJB88]

ChromeOS will run better on that machine than Windows will. Thought about wiping the machine and installing Cloudready on it (ChromeOS for normal machines).

Add 8GB ram and Cloudready it would run a lot better.

[QuartzDad]

What's the exact model number of the Toshiba? 8GB RAM, a SSD and a reinstall could make a massive improvement for much less than £300.

[xyz123]

Does it have to be a laptop? If you can live with a desktop then there would be few choices even at that price point.

[Munter]

QuartzDad said:

What's the exact model number of the Toshiba? 8GB RAM, a SSD and a reinstall could make a massive improvement for much less than £300.

I'd say just a reinstall has to be step 1. Well step 2.

Step 1)Make sure you have backups of anything you want. You're about to thrash a harddisk, and...sometimes they hate you.
Step 2)Reinstall see if it's faster
Step 3)SSD

[David_M]

MrBig said:

Any advice/suggestions for specific machines gratefully received.

I always give the same advice - an ex-business Lenovo X-series from a reseller on eBay (or a T-series if a bigger laptop screen is your preference vs smaller size). You could get an X250 for less than your budget, with i5, 8Gb RAM and a SSD running Windows 10. It will be miles better than a new machine at the same price.

Yes, there is some risk, but I think it is worth the trade off. Buy from someone with good ratings that is selling lots of them (so that you can send it back and get another one if it is a dud).

I have been using an X220 that I bought like this about 4 years ago and for home use it does not need updating.

[anonymous-user]

QuartzDad said:

What's the exact model number of the Toshiba? 8GB RAM, a SSD and a reinstall could make a massive improvement for much less than £300.

It's a Satellite C50-B-14D

[bitchstewie]

My guess here is that if you can get a clean Windows install on that without whatever st Toshiba install out the box that if you add in an SSD and take it to 8GB you could make it pretty usable for £100 or so.

I think the problem (and I mean this kindly) is that it's really easy to say all of that but it's like if someone told me I could easily change my own brake pads

[anonymous-user]

bhstewie said:

My guess here is that if you can get a clean Windows install on that without whatever st Toshiba install out the box that if you add in an SSD and take it to 8GB you could make it pretty usable for £100 or so.

I think the problem (and I mean this kindly) is that it's really easy to say all of that but it's like if someone told me I could easily change my own brake pads

You do my laptop and I'll change your brake pads! What really annoys me is that years ago I used to build my own PC's, when a 486DX 33MHz was a good spec that is .

Nowadays I don't have the first clue even how to do a clean install on a windows PC. Last time I tried it it went very wrong!

[RizzoTheRat]

If you want to have a go at upgrading the memory and drive, Crucial's website has a really lookup to see what you need, and if you search youtube for the model number you'll find videos showing how to do it
https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dyna...

If you want to go new, refurbished machines save you a few quid. I'm a bit fan of the Dell outlet store (both mine and the wifes came from there), but bear in mind their prices are ex-vat, and as mentioned above there's a lot of companies that refurbish ex-business machines and sell them via e-bay and the like.

[QuartzDad]

MrBig said:

It's a Satellite C50-B-14D

Looks like ~£30 for 8GB RAM.
Amazon are doing a 240GB SSD for £24 currently.

Agree with Munter, if you have backup capability to wipe and reinstall try that first. Second, replacing with a SSD will make it much quicker. Third, replace the 4GB with 8GB.

[bitchstewie]

MrBig said:

You do my laptop and I'll change your brake pads! What really annoys me is that years ago I used to build my own PC's, when a 486DX 33MHz was a good spec that is .

Nowadays I don't have the first clue even how to do a clean install on a windows PC. Last time I tried it it went very wrong!

If you're from that era (started with a 386 SX!) you should be fine.

It's just sometimes you read posts and know the person will end up with no working computer and nowhere to take it because they're all closed for lockdown etc.

Windows 10 is probably going to pick up most of the stuff on that laptop main thing is the ethernet/wi-fi and as long as you can get on the Internet you should be golden.

You could try it regardless of the hardware or just do a recovery so you're starting from a clean build.

I always say this but if you think about it it's not got slower than it was when you had it new it's just that Windows is trying to do more as it's got cluttered up.

[anonymous-user]

RizzoTheRat said:

If you want to have a go at upgrading the memory and drive, Crucial's website has a really lookup to see what you need, and if you search youtube for the model number you'll find videos showing how to do it
https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dyna...

If you want to go new, refurbished machines save you a few quid. I'm a bit fan of the Dell outlet store (both mine and the wifes came from there), but bear in mind their prices are ex-vat, and as mentioned above there's a lot of companies that refurbish ex-business machines and sell them via e-bay and the like.

Very useful, thank you. For the sake of £50 I might well give that a go.

Clean install this evening then.... wish me luck. Should I reformat the drive or just reinstall windows? Never done it before without a DVD drive.

[dundarach]

This PC I'm typing on now is from 2008, HP 6930p.

4gb ram, slow HDD

Runs office 2019 fine. Currently has Windows 10 Pro 32bit and works fine.

Save your money, get yours rebuilt, chuck in an SSD and more ram if possible, budget £100 tops.

Most places decent deals are out of stock. Don't get stuck with Windows S.

Sat alongside it is a works HP probook jobby, i5, 8gb ram, SSD, doesn't feel noticably quicker for browsing and or office.

HOWEVER, you'll be knackered for video editing and or games.

Save cash, rebuild, small upgrades!

Ask for help \ advice if required

[RizzoTheRat]

You can download windows to a USB stick if you have one big enough, and then boot off that and it will do all the formatting itself. As others have said make sure you back everything up first!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/...

Worth having a read up on windows licenses though, I think older machines used to store it on the bios, and these days it's linked to a Microsoft account, so could be starting a Microsoft account and logging in to the laptop with it before doing anything else, but I'm sure someone a lot more knowledgeable than me should be able to advise on that one.

[AlexC1981]

Your CPU scores very low on benchmark tests. Even with RAM and SSD upgrades I don't think it will ever run well. You would get the most out of it by installing Linux.

For £300 or less, if you have the space I'd recommend getting a used a business desktop PC and monitor. Easier to repair if it goes wrong and tend to be in better condition than second hand laptops as they just sit under a desk all their lives.

If it has to be a laptop, this one looks decent. With that processor in it, it will keep your lap warm! Wouldn't count on the battery lasting long.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fast-Cheap-Toshiba-C50-...

[ZesPak]

AlexC1981 said:

Your CPU scores very low on benchmark tests. Even with RAM and SSD upgrades I don't think it will ever run well. You would get the most out of it by installing Linux.

Most half decent Linux distros I've seen have become heavier than windows. They crossed paths somewhere a couple of years ago IME.
Unless you get a really skinny distro like Mint or Lubuntu.

MrBig said:

Very useful, thank you. For the sake of £50 I might well give that a go.

Clean install this evening then.... wish me luck. Should I reformat the drive or just reinstall windows? Never done it before without a DVD drive.

1
Best way is to make it an bootable USB drive
I think this article explains it:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create...
2 reboot the machine, make sure it tries to boot from USB (bios setting).
3 From here it's the same as with a CD, you'll get the option to select your drive, delete/re-arrange partitions, format,...


PS: If you have USB 3 (blue) and a USB 3 stick, use those for installation speed.

Edited by ZesPak on Thursday 26th November 15:41

[AlexC1981]

dundarach said:

This PC I'm typing on now is from 2008, HP 6930p.

4gb ram, slow HDD

Runs office 2019 fine. Currently has Windows 10 Pro 32bit and works fine.

Save your money, get yours rebuilt, chuck in an SSD and more ram if possible, budget £100 tops.

Most places decent deals are out of stock. Don't get stuck with Windows S.

Sat alongside it is a works HP probook jobby, i5, 8gb ram, SSD, doesn't feel noticably quicker for browsing and or office.

HOWEVER, you'll be knackered for video editing and or games.

Save cash, rebuild, small upgrades!

Ask for help \ advice if required

Your one would have been an EliteBook though, so I would expect it would have had a decent processor in its day. The OP's laptop was low spec 6 years ago.

[ZesPak]

Oof.

I just checkt and it's an Intel Celeron.

OP, do yourself a favor and buy a Chromebook, they're great .

[dundarach]

AlexC1981 said:

dundarach said:

This PC I'm typing on now is from 2008, HP 6930p.

4gb ram, slow HDD

Runs office 2019 fine. Currently has Windows 10 Pro 32bit and works fine.

Save your money, get yours rebuilt, chuck in an SSD and more ram if possible, budget £100 tops.

Most places decent deals are out of stock. Don't get stuck with Windows S.

Sat alongside it is a works HP probook jobby, i5, 8gb ram, SSD, doesn't feel noticably quicker for browsing and or office.

HOWEVER, you'll be knackered for video editing and or games.

Save cash, rebuild, small upgrades!

Ask for help \ advice if required

Your one would have been an EliteBook though, so I would expect it would have had a decent processor in its day. The OP's laptop was low spec 6 years ago.

Yes to a point, however based on speed a celeron of half clock speed is benchmarked at 200% quicker than mine.

THe 6930p's are good machines, however I'd be mindful about buying something right now, the market is being hammered and at £300 there's not a massive amount around.