Perhaps one of y’all might have some insight. My laptop has always kinda sucked. The Ryzen 5 was supposed to be fast, but, it’s never performed that well. Even playing old Duke Nukem 3D was a chore, worse than my older Samsung with a slower processor and just 4GB ram (HD died on it). Now, my HP might have a serious software issue, wouldn’t load, and the repair mode just keeps spinning. There are 4 laptops I’m interested in
I’m probably leaning towards the top two. The Lenovo is nice that it has 12GB ram (cannot add more, soldered on), supposedly a 2.3GHZ base clock speed, and 512SSD. Good user reviews, only 3.5 expert. Would have to order, would take around 9 days.
The Dell has 16GB ram, but, I’ve seen some things that say the actual base clock is 1.0GHZ. Also, slower ram. $629.99, might be able to get one in person.
Now, the HP has a very fast Ryzen 5, supposedly base clock of 3.0ghz. 8gb ram (fast ram, can add up to 32), just 256GB SSD. But, a slot for more. Might be able to take the HD from my old laptop and use it for just storage. The keyboard backlight is green. I think I can deal with it. $699, would have to order, would take about 9 days.
The ASUS has a Ryzen 7, though, clock speed is around 2.5GHZ. 8gb ram, can’t figure out how fast, nor whether it is expandable, which is a concern. Fingerprint reader. 512GB SSD. $648 on sale, can have it in a few days, and Amazon offers pretty good 4 year protect for just $127.
All have backlit keyboards. Not a big deal for a desktop keyboard, I really like for laptop, with those lower keys. I really need to pull the trigger sometime tomorrow. Any thoughts? While I’m good with computers, there is just so much darned info. When I was helping a coworker 2 months ago, I showed him that the Intel I5 has 22 different configurations, and you really need to watch that base speed. But, haven’t bought one for me in almost 5 years, and I cannot actually touch any of these first.
wally world has an asus with an nvidia 2070 and intel i7 in it…for $1400 or so…not really that bad of price for whats in it…8 gigs of ram i think
I’m an ASUS fan… can’t go wrong with an ASUS.
i have a vivobook with the ryzen 5. it’s SOOOO much faster than anything i have had before.
running Brave gets pages loaded in the blink of an eye. love it.
the ryzen 7 should be even better. geek son says you should be able to run most mid level games on it, even the on line ones.
You may want to buy from a retailer that you can return or repair the PC if anything goes wrong. I bought a Dell and after 7 days of operation the motherboard failed. I had to make several calls to get it working and when it finally stopped completely it took a month just to get it repaired.
I got an IBM Thinkpad 600e not long after they came out in 1998, and have been a Thinkpad user ever since. I think the original Thinkpad keyboard is the very best you can get on a laptop. I stopped buying new Thinkpads when Lenovo changed the keyboard.
My last two gaming laptops have been Ideapads, and they run anything I throw at them. Still use them both, because some things run better on 8.1 than they do on 10.
It really depends on what you intend to do with it. Game computers need high end graphics cards. Most of the CPUs and RAM configurations will do fine on all modern tasks like web use and MS office.
If you just need something for email and blogging, anything will work so go cheap and light weight.
Hey, Joe, thanks for the info. Trying to keep it to $699. I don’t game or anything.
HMCS, found out I can upgrade to 12 ram, so, still a good option
Dennis, that’s some good info, thanks, keeps it on the list
Beaner, you’re right, would prefer Best Buy, rather than Amazon. Using this old HP at the moment, Windows Vista, want something soon.
Might take a look at that, samore.
Hale, yeah, trying to keep it below $699, figure can get what I want at that.
Well, I doubt if the widow of Steve Jobs will allow Macbook Pros to drop below a grand, but I’ve been using one for years. The same one. No “we’re going to stop supporting the operating system next year, so you have to buy a new PC and new printer, scanner, etc. because we won’t support our outdated and easily hacked operating system” announcements. I bought mine in 2006. Any time I had a question or problem with it (which was a total of three times) I took it to the Apple store and 20 minutes or less I was back out the door with the problem (or my stupidity) fixed.
And I haven’t had a virus attack on it yet. Not a bad record. Over five years and still going strong. Runs MS Word, MS Excel, and Powerpoint. I use them frequently on this old machine.
And nope, I don’t work for Apple nor any other computer company.
My bad. I bought it in 2016.
Bought two higher end gaming laptops from Lenovo 6 years ago, they both still run great and are only barely starting to be outclassed by game requirements.
We just did a search for a friend who wanted something similar to what you are looking for.
We recommended the HP 17z and they love it.
HP 17z Home and Entertainment Laptop (AMD Ryzen 5 3500U 4-Core, 12GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 17.3″ Touch HD+ (1600×900), AMD Vega 8, Wifi, Bluetooth, Webcam, 2xUSB 3.1, 1xHDMI, Win 10 Home
Price is $669.
There are differences between the HP Pavilion you are looking at.
The 17z has a 17″ TOUCH screen.
The CPU is a little less speedy but same class.
The 17z comes with a SSD and a 1 TB HDD. Keep the OS on the SSD and everything else on the HDD.
It also comes with an optical drive for those DVD’s and programs you may want to load.
It comes with 12 gigs of memory standard.
It runs AMD Vega8 graphics as opposed to the NVidia 1650 card, but if you aren’t gaming, that may not be an issue.
Also comes with an SD card reader built in.
At WallyWorld you can get an extended warranty for 2 years at $59 or 3 years at $79. It is front to back, and unconditional. The other thing is that if you get it, play with it and don’t like it, you can take it back.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-17z-Home-Entertainment-Laptop-AMD-Ryzen-5-3500U-4-Core-12GB-RAM-128GB-SSD-1TB-HDD-17-3-Touch-HD-1600×900-AMD-Vega-8-Wifi-Bluetooth-Webcam-2xUSB-3-/702238481
I vote w/Git
Price is in line with the market today and I have purchased more than a half-dozen HPs the last 6 or 8 years for myself and others (which by default I end up supporting – if they need something) – mostly refurbs tho I think the one I’m using at the moment might have just been ‘on sale’… All under $600 and the 17″ has the separate keypad/full size keyboard – white back-light – I really like that more than I thought I would…
I never get an extended warranty – I usually install Linux on arrival but this last one needed Windows 10 and touch screens get nasty….never use them…and I actually wear out the rest of the hardware…last one was the left-click button – went clear thru to the bottom of the case one day when it gave out
I would only buy an Origin laptop if you intend to use it for gaming.
I would go with the ASUS. I have used them exclusively for 10 years or more. If you check, you might find that ASUS made the motherboards for the other makers. You’ll also figure out that lenovo is a chinese company and there have been some sketchy things found in some lenovo computers