Laptop purchase?

The Howling Wolves · 08 Dec 2014

Would like to get a Laptop for Daughter in Law for and her daughter.
Mainly used for School work and Mom's craft work.
No gaming or high graphic card is needed.

Can be new or refurbished as I have had great luck with refurbished from Sam's Club.
Both my Laptop and Desktop are refurbished along with Sam's return policy have turned out flawless.
OS should be Win 7 Home Edition or Pro.
Lightweight with a 15 or 17" monitor are up for grabs.
Price range $250-$350

If you need anymore info just get back to me.
Any and all help is appreciated.
Dennis

Gator · 08 Dec 2014

B&H Photo Video is pretty good.

Laptops | B&H Photo Video

ThrashZone · 08 Dec 2014

What grade level ?

The Howling Wolves · 08 Dec 2014

Gator said:

B&H Photo Video is pretty good.

Laptops | B&H Photo Video

Thanks Gator but the HP one's listed were with 8.1 OS.
Their computer knowledge is 2 sandwiches short of a picnic.

How did your search go Khan Academy?

Berton · 08 Dec 2014

An issue now is finding a new computer with Windows 7, routine sales have been stopped and only what is already in the supply channels are available. I like refurbished and better if it carries the same warranty as when it was a new/unsold model.

Gator · 08 Dec 2014

The Howling Wolves said:

Gator said:

B&H Photo Video is pretty good.

Laptops | B&H Photo Video

Thanks Gator but the HP one's listed were with 8.1 OS.
Their computer knowledge is 2 sandwiches short of a picnic.

How did your search go Khan Academy?

Good, Im still watching this Information Theory lesson and its really good. Haven't really searched for anything else yet.

I'll look for some other places to try to find anything else. So you're only looking for HP's?

The Howling Wolves · 08 Dec 2014

Gator said:

The Howling Wolves said:

Gator said:

B&H Photo Video is pretty good.

Laptops | B&H Photo Video

Thanks Gator but the HP one's listed were with 8.1 OS.
Their computer knowledge is 2 sandwiches short of a picnic.

How did your search go Khan Academy?

Good, Im still watching this Information Theory lesson and its really good. Haven't really searched for anything else yet.

I'll look for some other places to try to find anything else. So you're only looking for HP's?

Both my systems are HP and haven't had a lick of trouble with either of them.
I would give them mine but would have to strip it down and do a factory reset.
That's not going to happen!

Being that it is not for me but for Daughter in Law and her daughter
anything would be better than what they have which will be going to the junkyard when a replacement shows up.

Glad you liked the Khan Academy site especially when you can pick your own level of knowledge.
DW

gregrocker · 08 Dec 2014

I like Best Buys' very consumer-friendly 15 day no-questions-asked return policy which gives you your money back to form of payment.

Using this I was able to test a bunch of laptops at my leisure over two years until I found the one which had no flaws that killed the deal.

I realize you have less time before Christmas, but since you'll likely have to install Win7 on it for her (we'll help), that gives you the chance to really give it a test drive to decide if its a keeper, or take it back to try another.

They also always have a few great deals if not the best deal going.

Here's a Dell - Inspiron 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i3 4th generation (Haswell) - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Black for $309 on sale. You'd probably want to up the RAM by 2gb or double. I'd test it with Windows 10 preview first to see how touch works on it because early next year we may see free upgrades for 7 and 8 to 10. Until then touch can be ignored or used minimally with 7 or you/she may want 10 on it now as it's remarkably stable and the coming thing.

If you like AMD then here's another HP - 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD A8-Series - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Black on clearance for $345. You'll spend that much extra to upgrade the other one's RAM anyway. I personally avoid AMD but think I'd try it just to see.

For the same price you can get Toshiba - Satellite 17.3" Laptop - AMD A6-Series - 4GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Jet Black.

There are lots of other choices when you search their site ticking the preference boxes to narrow it down, can ship it to you or pick up at store for same return deal.

What's interesting doing this quick search for you is how the best deals I see are on touch screens. Sorry if those are not of interest but I think I'd be trialing them just to see how they run on 10 since they are too good of deals to pass up if they work well, and 10's just down the road possibly by spring which makes touch screen worth a try at least.

Cheers, Santa!