I am on the verge of buying a used laptop. I have zeroed in on the make & model I want, and I have 2 ebay dealers -- both of whom have 100% positive feedback -- & they have the exact laptop I want. Both are selling the same model with fresh installs of Win7 64 bit, but withTWO differences: =>Dealer A's laptop has 8gb ram & 250gb HD. It costs $165 =>Dealer B's laptop has 4gb ram & 160gb HD & costs $130 I now use a laptop with 4gb ram & 250gb HD. I have never come anywhere close to using the full capacity of ram or HD. I mainly just surf the net & answer email. The extra stuff for $35 is tempting BUT I *might* be spending money on excess capacity that I will never come close to using. Plus I won't sell it so resale value is not a factor. In your opinion, are there some other factors that I am overlooking as to why Dealer A's laptop is the wiser purchase? Bottom Line: WHICH one should I buy?
Ah, the view from Mt. Olympus must be splendid this time of year. I have a laptop running W10. I use it fairly often as a learning process, or when I need to punish myself to atone for my sins. However, when I have actual work to get done, & deadlines to meet, I prefer an OS that I am more at home with. Win7 helps me to be more productive whereas Win10 actually seems to be fighting me. With time this may change, as I become more familiar with Win10 & no longer have to deal with its rather-too-frequent malfunctions. It's regretful that you did not see fit to answer my questions. I would value your relevant opinion
Zeus whispered in my ear to "use Win 10 on its arrival "or my PC would go malware blind." Being the God of Gods, I have to say he was right.
FUD! Zeus must be working for a MS ad agency. My Win7 laptop has never lost even 1 second due to infection or any other reason. My Win10 has never been infected but it has been down for hours at a time due to 1803 & other MS tinkering. Come on, IT person, please give me a relevant opinion in response to my initial post.
I'd say go for more RAM. But much better would be SSD. You can get Chinese SSDs for ~$20 or less.[0] Maybe someone can vouch for one of those brands? 0) https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...5874&bbn=1292116011&sort=price-asc-rank&ajr=3
I'd buy the cheaper one and put the $35 towards a 120 GB SSD. You will then have a faster computer than the $165 one.
I have *heard* that even Acronis can sometimes mess up when imaging a SSD. Isn't it a bit dicey when you image a SSD versus imaging a regular HD? (I use AOMEI for imaging.) Reason I ask: Ebay lists several of the laptop model I am going for, in the same price range as the ones in my initial post, but with 128gb SSD vice a HD. I avoided them because I do not want imaging problems. Should I give those another look?
Quick answer. Incorrect. With our "old" laptops we've replaced the HD with a SSD. Then installed the HD in the optical bay. So we lose the DVD drive (never used anyway) and gain plenty of storage space.
Better to have excess capacity and not ever need it. Than to someday in the future however distant want it and not have it. Prudent move would be to spend the extra $.
Thanks Brian. V. helpful info. I found some good SSDs on ebay but it turned out that the sellers were all too far below the feedback levels I accept. So I shall buy 1 of the 2 HDs & later get it upgraded as you did.
To upgrade is easy. Create an Entire Disk image. Depending on your imaging software check here if there is likely to be larger to smaller disk issues. I can't recall if AOMEI has issues. But if it does we can do some partition resizing prior to the backup image. Swap disks. Leave the SSD blank. Restore the Entire Disk image.
IF.... you have your own copy of W7 & are comfortable installing on a empty SSD. THEN I'd contact the 8GB dealer first (then the 4GB) & ask if he'd sell it to you without the HDD for $30 or so less. Then I'd I'd buy a SSD. Echoing mirimir MAYBE a NEW Chinese SSD. Don't know if Amazon Prime is needed but this gets AA at Fakespot. 120GB SSD $24.99 https://www.amazon.com/Inland-Professional-120GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B076XMH2JT/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1530063714&sr=1-2&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:14027457011,p_n_condition-type:2224371011
I would stay well away from Chinese SSDs. If you take a look at reviews on Amazon, you will see that they have a much higher failure rate than well known brands. I used a Kingfast SSD heavily for three years, with no problems at all, but I just replaced it with a larger drive. So, you may not have problems, but for example, I just purchased three used brand name SSDs cheaply, from eBay. They all work fine and according to their SMART data, two of them have had very little use. I think buying a used SSD would be a better option for a cheap drive, if the seller can provide a screenshot from CrystalDiskInfo, Hard Disk Sentinel, or something similar which will show the condition of the drive and how long its been used for.
You never mention who is the manufacture of the laptops. That one would be at the top of my factor list. Also, how old are the devices? Notebooks as a rule don't last as long as desktops. In my local newspaper ad section this week, Best Buy was selling a new Dell laptop w/4 GB memory and 500 GB HDD for $229 $219. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-i...00gb-hard-drive-black/6190769.p?skuId=6190769 Plus, you get a full manufacture's warranty and tech support. On the other hand, refurbs. at Newegg get 30 day warranty only. You should be able to find a Win 7 license somewhere cheap. Set up a dual boot Win 7/10. That is how I am currently running. Alternatively, just load Win 7 on your existing Win 10 notebook in dual boot configuration.
If the Motherboard and CPU are identical, AND if the storage method is the same (SSD or Traditional), "A" is a no-brainer (unless someone forgot and left in in a Wash). No offense meant, but you really have to give ALL the info before posing a question and expecting an informed answer...
One other consideration in regards to used device CPU. AMD for example is only going back to Bulldozer series for BIOS update for Spectre mitigations. Intel likewise goes back a bit further in time on their BIOS updates but they also have a cutoff point.
They are. It is. Bought it. More info...hmm well let's see... The I laptop I just bought is a Dell e6420, identical to a laptop I gave away a while back to a church's Garage Sale. It sold for half-again what it cost me. After I set up the one I just bought, I will donate it to a Garage Sale by a small theater group that is presenting the play "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" in September. They are raising money for material to make the sets. So that's why I didn't go into detail... it's boring.
