Resolved Recommendations for a lap-top

My old clunker e-Machines box is long past due for retirement. It's marginally capable of an update to Win 7, and I think it should retire. I'll be keeping it for photo processing, Quicken and a few other off-line tasks, staying with XP as the OS.

I'm looking at middle-of-the-road, Win 8.1 lap-tops, around $450 - 500, including the current MS Office. I'm not interested in touch-screens or tablets.

I'm not looking for specific recommendations, but if anyone has a "stay away from this POS at all costs" warnings, please send me a PM, if you don't want to go public.

I expect to be shopping at Costco, Best Buy or Office Max - maybe Amazon.

 

Just watch out for the geek squad crapware that's preinstalled.

 

I was hoping that I could do the whole thing for the $500 budget, Evan, including our 8.3% sales tax in WA. Even the lower priced lap-tops have much more capacity than my elderly box. I'm looking at the Home & Student version of Office, since I only really need Word and maybe Excel, not most of the other clever stuff.

I've reached a point where almost all the communications we get are ".docx" and it's a pain having to run them through a translator.

 

I have bought a couple of things from Best Buy. The laptops and the desktops were in sealed boxes. They didn't put anything on them. It comes from the PC manufacture with all of it on there.

 

A little reading. Don't know if they got it taken care of now or not.
http://arstechnica.com/security/201...-middle-adware-that-breaks-https-connections/

 

MrBill I purchased a Sony Vaio from Best Buy. Had trouble with it. I called Sony Support gave them the serial number. Sony support's response You bought this at Best Buy correct. I replied yes. I asked how did you know? Sony's answer by the serial number. When asked about the geek squad software The Sony support tech said he/she couldn't elaborate. Also boxes can be resealed using Adhesive Technologies 0189 Pro 200 Glue Gun

 

The ad specifies that is "open box ", which I assume means it's either been a floor demonstrator or it been returned by an earlier buyer. In the ad, MS Office is another $140.

I'm also looking at Fry's. Their nearest store is some distance away (about 80 miles each way), but they offered the Intel version of this computer for $199 last weekend and had Office 2013 for $109.

Still looking - Costco and Office Max/Depot are also in the game, all three of which are 20 miles away, in the same town as Bet Buy. Amazon don't seem to have much to offer at the moment, but you can get a surprise sometimes! Lenovo wasn't on my radar, Bill, but thanks for that warning.

Everything computer/electronic is going to be a 40-mile round trip as our in-town Radio Shack shut down.

 

And Wally World got fined big time a few years back for doing this. They also got caught putting returned stuff in NEW boxes and selling it again as NEW.

 

Our Radio Shack shut down last week. Don't know how they stay open as long as they did. Never anybody there. Have you looked on line at Dell and the rest of them in their Refurb outlets? I have got good deals there with the same warranty as the others.

 

Wally World? I thought that was only in Chevy Chase movies. Is Radio Shack going out of business. No one is ever in any of Radio Shack Stores in my area either.

 

Same effect here in NZ. Specialized Electronics shops don't stay very long as buyers are getting what they want on line with free delivery thrown in.
Sign of the times.
This week I purchased a 64GB MicroSDHC Class 10 card for my Samsung Galaxy S4 from an online electronics store for $44.00 with Courier delivery free included.
It's delivered door to door - way to go. Neil.

 

Radio Shack's parent company filed for bankruptcy a couple of months ago. I went into Anacortes yesterday and was surprised to see their store still open. I asked the clerk "when does everything come to a grinding halt ". His response was "There's supposed to be some bidding this week ".

Not sure if he meant RS was on offer in a bankruptcy auction. We'll see, I guess. I've used our local store for smaller things like cables, switches, sockets, etc., but never any big-ticket stuff. If they shut up shop, I'll have a 40-mile round trip for anything electronic.

 

In fact, our local RS is staying open. It was a franchise store, locally owned. The owner's daughter was on the desk when I went in a couple of days ago. She said they were planning to continue, but would probably have the change the store name (Anacortes Electronics, I think) and she didn't think any of their stock would have the old Radio Shack product name.

I'm sure glad that any electronics purchase won't need a 40-mile round trip to Burlington (Best Buy and Costco).

Still considering what my new computer will be. I've had good luck with Dell's on-line auction site in the past, so I might go look there. I had 10 years faultless service with a box I bought from them. One of the grandkids still uses it!

 

Well, it looks like I'll be getting a Dell. Fry's has a good deal on one this week. What I'm finding is that most of the lower-priced units don't have an optical drive.

Since I'll be shutting down my old eMachines box completely, rather than retiring it to an off-line role, I'd like to investigate the possibility of converting one of its disk drives to a stand-alone. It has both a CD-only and a CD/DVD drive.

Any comments on the feasibility of doing this? Connection to the lap-top would probably be USB 3.0.

 

I ordered the Dell yesterday and got word that it was shipped this morning. I should get it Tuesday or Wednesday. It was on sale at $248. Details to follow.

I'll be changing my "System Details" soon. With the help of my son-in-law, we'll be dismantling the old desk-top and selling off as many of the bits as possible.

 

Yes, Evan. I'll mark it resolved now.