PC purchase advice, help!

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John Jones Jr

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Hello one & all.

I need to gain some wisdom on purchasing a PC. I'm far from up to speed on these things, there seems to be something new every other day on offer. I never buy my own as the business replaces it every few years, thus I far from a fountain of knowledge on the subject.

This is is for my Godson, he's just turned twelve. I've been warned by his parents not buy anything too expensive as they imagine he'll only get a year or two out of it and want something more sophisticated by then.

So any assistance, help or advice would be greatly received.

Cheers.
 
It might be helpful to find out what his friends have got ...
Solid advice. What you might carefully research as having the right set of characteristics he might find slightly embarrassing in front of his mates. If price is a factor then quite a few companies offer refurbished high end laptops for reasonable money. That and a couple of games of choice titles might be just the ticket .:dk:
 
You could do worse than buy one of the refurbed units that Whizzkid is advertising on here. Much higher spec machines than going low-end laptop from new.

I realise that this isn't for everyone though.
 
Cheers Grober & Spin. I'd only consider buying new. Partly ignorance on my behalf and I want a manufacturer's warranty/guarantee.
 
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MacBook Pro , from Apple refurb store - full as new warranty .

He will immediately be the envy of all his peers and max street cred . Like having a Merc when your mates have Corsas .
 
Cheers Grober & Spin. I'd only consider buying new. Partly ignorance on my behalf and I want a manufacturer's warranty/guarantee.

I wouldn't buy refurb as a present unless the warranty was rock solid.

When you buy for yourself then if there's any hassle it's yours to deal with. If you buy for somebody else then it's theirs and possibly also yours - but you don't want it to be their hassle.

You need to find out what it is used for. I know a few older teenagers who use iPads or convertible PCs - where the focus is on a portable tool for school/college/uni and using it for media/content rather than gaming.

If it's this sort of territory would be looking at something like an Asus Transformer at the low end for £200 - low computing power but lightweight portable and cheap - only 2GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB so slow flash memory. Or moving up to a Lenovo Yoga for a convertible. As these things go up market they use faster (and upgradable) SSD devices and have 4GB RAM or more.

If looking at something faster then start looking at the slicker Asus, HP, and Lenovo units - and even the bottom of the Macbook range.

If the target household has aleady bought into the Apple ecosystem then the relative value of a Macbook or iPad is higher. If they are already mainly PCs then the relative value is lower IMO.
 
Cheers Grober & Spin. I'd only consider buying new. Partly ignorance on my behalf and I want a manufacturer's warranty/guarantee.


One of Whizzkid's laptops, the HP ZBook 15 G3, is advertised as new with 3 years' onsite warranty.
 
I have run a network of over 500 computers for a school and bought hundreds of quality brand (HP) refurbished PC's but never laptops. Laptops are much more expensive to repair and generally more fragile/less reliable. If the motherboard fails then it's scrap as even if you can find one to buy it will cost more than the machine is worth.

Most kids will want a laptop but the full sized 15.4" screen laptops tend to be too big and heavy to lug around. I find 14" hits the right compromise, being big enough to have a decent screen but much lighter and with double the battery life when compared to a full sized model.
 
MacBook Pro , from Apple refurb store - full as new warranty .

He will immediately be the envy of all his peers and max street cred . Like having a Merc when your mates have Corsas .

Brilliant! :thumb: :D
 
I wouldn't buy refurb as a present unless the warranty was rock solid.

When you buy for yourself then if there's any hassle it's yours to deal with. If you buy for somebody else then it's theirs and possibly also yours - but you don't want it to be their hassle.

Nail on head. For myself I possibly wouldn't care.
 
I use a cheap tablet with a clip-on keyboard running Windows 10.

Works great for surfing and also OK for work.

I have found that a lot of websites work faster with the tablet than my full sized laptop, start-up is a LOT faster.

It seems that a lot of sites are configured better for tablet/touch screen use than the conventional.

There is also the potential to unclip the keyboard which makes it more portable.
 
Dryce said:
If it's this sort of territory would be looking at something like an Asus Transformer at the low end for £200 - low computing power but lightweight portable and cheap - only 2GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB so slow flash memory. Or moving up to a Lenovo Yoga for a convertible. As these things go up market they use faster (and upgradable) SSD devices and have 4GB RAM or more.
Last year I've bought for my girls Lenovo Yoga 300 with 2GB RAM and 32GB flash and after a couple of months it became so slow and out of memory that it's unusable now. I've tried to open it and upgrade it but without success.
For a bit more I would go for some with proper HDD or SSD and at least 4GB RAM
 
Solid advice can really only be given with a full description of how you intend to use it. For general day to day stuff, office, browsing light video work etc then an i5 will suffice. Heavy duty video, photoshop etc will need an i7.
 
Chromebook. When he loses it none of his files will be on it. Just replace it and he can log back in and continue from where he was

No need to worry about OS updates, viruses, security, backup, etc. Just make sure he sets a secure password

Nick Froome
 
Another thumbs up for the chromebook.

Cheap, good battery life, simple to use ;)
 

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