Recommend a laptop please ....

[poormansporsche]

For Daughter Number 1 (Age 12) for School Work. Doesn't play games bar Minecraft and Sims so don't need anything Gaming but is into her Music and wants to get into music creation and editing. Should be starting a Music GCSE when School goes back. She wants to be the next Superstar DJ !

Would prefer SSD and a in built standard hard drive as cant really see her being bothered to back stuff up.

Budget around 500 quid ?

Thoughts as all the "deals" seem to have disappeared.

Cheers

PMP

 

[Deleted member 113659]

I’m certainly no tech person but how about a refurbished MacBook or MacBook Pro from a trusted seller?

Apple MacBook Pro Core i7 2.3 15 (Mid 2012) 8GB 500GB Good - musicMagpie Store

or 16GB for extra £20

Apple MacBook Pro Core i7 2.7 15 (Mid 2012) 8GB 512GB - musicMagpie Store

 

[MercedesDriver]

Last year I got for my older daughter (11) used Lenovo ThinkPad X230 with Intel i5 pro 2.5 processor with touch screen for £100 and have upgraded it with new SSD256 and 16GB RAM (2x8GB). She is playing Planet Zoo which according to recommended config runs on Gaming PC’s only, Sims4 and Minecraft.
Battery needs to be changed but otherwise very nice laptop.
I have my work X220 for last 8 years and can’t fault it (also have upgraded SSD and RAM). DIY upgradeable laptops.
Edit: it runs on Windows10 with no problems.

 

[moonloops]

There are very few laptops available under £1k at the moment as UK homeworkers bought them all + chinesey diseasy factories are closed.

If you have a costco membership (or know someone with one) they have a i5 HP 8Gb ram and 256Gb SSD for £455.98 inc vat ?

 

[Lennox]

Dell outlet is great. Some awesome deals can be had.

Refurbished Laptops and 2-in-1 Computers


Plus Lenovo make solid laptops..
Lenovo ThinkPad T440 Laptop PC - 14.1in i5-4300U 8GB 240GB SSD WiFi WebCam USB 3.0 Windows 10 Professional 64-bit (Renewed) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CSXS8BB/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Does she really need a laptop? How often will she have to be carrying it around? All-in-1 desktop computers give you far more for your money without taking up much room and without all the cables of standard desktops.

 

[Lennox]

Does she really need a laptop? How often will she have to be carrying it around? All-in-1 desktop computers give you far more for your money without taking up much room and without all the cables of standard desktops.

Desk tops??? Old skool

 

[flowrider]

For Daughter Number 1 (Age 12) for School Work. Doesn't play games bar Minecraft and Sims so don't need anything Gaming but is into her Music and wants to get into music creation and editing. Should be starting a Music GCSE when School goes back. She wants to be the next Superstar DJ !

Would prefer SSD and a in built standard hard drive as cant really see her being bothered to back stuff up.

Budget around 500 quid ?

Thoughts as all the "deals" seem to have disappeared.

Cheers

PMP

Any of these any good.......

Core I5 Ssd Laptop Deals | Laptops Direct

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Desk tops??? Old skool

Sorry, all-in-one PCs or whatever you want to call them that all the major manufacturers from Acer to Apple are producing now. Definitely not old school.

 

[Lennox]

Sorry, all-in-one PCs or whatever you want to call them that all the major manufacturers from Acer to Apple are producing now. Definitely not old school.

Ah yeah I have a Microsoft Surface book 2 (1tb 16gb) awesome piece of kit. But they are all relatively expensive.

I did have a Lenovo X1 Yoga. That was very good, but make sure you get the brighter screen.

 

[poormansporsche]

Cheers for the replies. MacBook would be the long term solution if she keeps up with the music as I'm pretty sure that's what they use in "The biz" I believe. The Costco one is the same as what I saw on pc world a month or 2 ago for a similar price (now 600 quid !!!). So will see if I can get one to tide her over.

All in one / desktop is a no no as she likes to hide in her room at the best of times and I've put my foot down !

 

[190]

Ask the school IT people what they recommend as they will have considerable experience of using laptops in a school environment and they will know which music software is used in the curriculum. The music software used by schools can very expensive, as much as several hundred pounds so you might want to factor that in. Even if the school is closed the IT people may be contactable and working from home. Ours are.

Schools are unlikely to be using Mac books. Some do but they are generally too expensive and won't run all the software that the schools needs.

 

[John]

MacBooks tend to be the choice of DJs from what I've seen (Fatboy Slim used Apple for example).

MacBooks from around 2008 contain the same hardware as Windows-based laptops so there is no advantage from one to the other - just which software is available on which platform and which operating system you prefer really.

The problem you have is MacBooks are "trendy" and you are spending a lot on the "badge".

For your budget, you are going to be getting really quite an old specification MacBook or a much newer Windows-based one.

Music needs a reasonable processor but not crazy spec.

I would defo not consider a laptop without SSD at least for the system drive.

Most laptops with a (physically) small M.2 SSD do not have space for a regular HDD from what I've seen but they may well exist.

I buy HP these days and would also buy ASUS if there were more choice and easier availability.

I've never rated Lenovo as they always seem a bit crap to me and I'm not much of a Dell fan either.

 

[Lennox]

I've never rated Lenovo as they always seem a bit crap to me and I'm not much of a Dell fan either.

The big 4 pretty much only buy Lenovo due to the build quality and they are often the same if not more expensive than Apple laptops.

Den make some really good work horses, my current work laptop is a thin Dell touch screen, beautifully made.

 

[markjay]

I would suggest to opt for Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution as minimum, and avoid the lower HD (1280x720).

I doubt that anyone still makes laptops with HDD - but in the event that they do, it is best avoided. SSD is a must-have on laptops.

4GB RAM is too little, 8GB will be OK.

Don't worry about the processor - it won't be too slow. Obviously it will be better if i5 fits in the budget, but i3 or Ryzen will do.

Warranty is a tricky one. Low-cost laptops will come with one year return-to-base or collect-and-return warranty, so check the cost of a warranty upgrade to 3 years onsite, though it might be too expensive.

Windows 10 (aka Windows 10 Home) will be fine, no need for Windows 10 Professional, though in the under-£500 bracket it will probably be Windows 10 anyway.

As for brands.... Lenovo, Hp, Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Acer, all make decent laptops. As do Microsoft. But I would be wary about buying a Chromebook, this is better-suited for people who know what to expect from a Windowless PC, and not so much for a novice.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I have a pretty high spec Asus and, while, it works well enough it feels a bit low spec in terms of build and keyboard action.

 

[markjay]

This selector might be helpful:

Laptops, Notebooks & Ultrabooks for Business | Insight UK

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I would suggest to opt for Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution as minimum, and avoid the lower HD (1280x720).

I doubt that anyone still makes laptops with HDD - but in the event that they do, it is best avoided. SSD is a must-have on laptops.

4GB RAM is too little, 8GB will be OK.

Don't worry about the processor - it won't be too slow. Obviously it will be better if i5 fits in the budget, but i3 or Ryzen will do.

Warranty is a tricky one. Low-cost laptops will come with one year return-to-base or collect-and-return warranty, so check the cost of a warranty upgrade to 3 years onsite, though it might be too expensive.

Windows 10 (aka Windows 10 Home) will be fine, no need for Windows 10 Professional, though in the under-£500 bracket it will probably be Windows 10 anyway.

As for brands.... Lenovo, Hp, Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Acer, all make decent laptops. As do Microsoft. But I would be wary about buying a Chromebook, this is better-suited for people who know what to expect from a Windowless PC, and not so much for a novice.

^^ I agree entirely. Second time I have typed that in a few minutes!

Chromebooks are useless for anyone who needs to properly install software, but they’re perfect for anyone else.

The best laptop I’ve ever had is Chromebook (Pixel). I still have two and they’re blooming brilliant. Useless if you need to install stuff though.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Schools are unlikely to be using Mac books. Some do but they are generally too expensive and won't run all the software that the schools needs.

My children’s school use iMacs in their music and art lessons.

 

[190]

My children’s school use iMacs in their music and art lessons.

Your children's' school must be well funded.

Besides cost another reason why some schools shy away from apple machines is security and control. If they run a Windows Server network a mac can be connected to the domain but it's not possible to use Group Policy to fully administer and tie an apple machine down in the same way as you can with a Windows machine.