Neil, how about getting a older Ausus with 4 gig and 2,7 processor. Saw them on LBC for just as 200. Kick that poor windows out and run it on elementary. I know you do photos, I know you have all this giddy giddy things in your head a laptop should do, but a Asus is running on elementary Freya here with me would normally run out of power after 4 hours working on videos or photos, yes and now I managed to let it run for 6 hours. Your need to add a bit when it comes to text and spreadsheet, its fast for powerpoint and pdf, Text, I use Scribus and convert and I simply give a dam if a client likes it or not. Said simply: you have a machine working on the last scripts and its fast. No fuss, no hassle. If you need a real hard drive cleaner I can upload to Hubic. Eh' & today Micheysoft 10 has officially lunched ROFL ;-)
Slightly à côté de la plaque, but there's also a thing called a Chromebox. It's the same idea as a Chromebook, but it just has connectors rather than screen, keyboard etc.
So, what you do is you get one of these and sit it behind your huge telly, and connect a wireless keyboard and mouse, and hey presto you have a huge screen web browser. :-) A friend has one, he loves it.
One thing I forgot to mention about the Chromebook, the one I bought has Bluetooth so I bought a Bluetooth mouse to use with it. That way, no annoying cables.
I bought one for my son as an alternative to a laptop that he would take off to university. The big advantage is it more or less manages itself.
I got him an Asus for about €200, probably pretty similar to this. The lack of hard drive and fan mean it's very light weight, and it doesn't hoover up dust and eventually die of overheating like my laptops tend to do. Also, it's silent in operation, and I must say I was impressed with the screen and the sound.
When I got it, a few weeks before his departure, he wasn't too hot on the idea, so I used it for about a month - which is why I got to know what I liked about it. I remember one annoyance, which was that my VPN (ProXPN) wasn't supported on ChromeOS. However that may have changed.
I'm almost certain to buy another Chromebook though, I really liked it.
Hadn't thought of that, it' will be mainly used on the web with some document writing requirements. Any particular make/model?
Have to agree with you - my last G4 was 12 years old and Sandy's iMac was of similar age but she wanted a laptop and as the budget was very tight, opted for a Windows machine which was a bad move. I only bought a new Mac, a Mini, so that I could access new programmes as they have the Intel chip.
If you simply accept a 2nd hand PC without it being reset to factory condition (or a new OS installed), then it is moderately likely it has some adware/malware, etc. and potentially, back-doors/trojans.
That's a strange comment to make about viruses. Provided you have robust protection there should be no difference between a cheaper and a more expensive computer. AVG works perfectly well for me, I have never had a virus problem.
Why would a cheap pc give you constant battles against viruses compared to a more expensive PC?
Anyway. There is no point talking about Macs on this thread as €400 is not going to get you anything but a VERY used one.
Every time I look at the lower end used Mac laptops I see the same cracked plastics and damage on all of them. No better than most lappies but certainly not very tough.
Try Morgan Computer in UK- new but end of range and some reconditioned units
http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/
They do all sorts of stuff at very good prices
You do rather get what you pay for. In my experience, getting a cheap PC is like buying a cheap car. The experience is poor, with constant battles against viruses, and a second-rate interface. If you have a problem, you will be passed from piller to post between the retailer, the hardware vendor and Microsoft.
So get a Mac: same company makes hardware and software, so it all works that much more smoothly. And much like buying a Volvo, it will run for years.
Worth having a look at the refurbished area of the Apple Store: http://www.apple.com/fr/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac - not huge savings, but sometimes a good deal
Finally, I can vouch for the support offer by Apple, either through a retail Apple Store or by phone. Just had a problem with my wife's Mac, vintage 2010, needed a new mother board, and as we bought it through Apple, they will do it FOC
I've got a Compaq CQ58 which has a QWERTY keyboard and i3 core. Had it about 18 months and it's still working brilliantly. The only downside is it doesn't have a numeric keyboard just the numbers across the top. Can't remember how much it cost but would have been less than 400 euros otherwise I wouldn't have bought it.
Also still using an old Compaq laptop from 2007 which is going strong although a bit noisy now.
Personally I'm seriously considering a Chromebook for my next laptop. Light, no HDD, no cooling fan, boots up very quickly and there's no Windows, only ChromeOS.
Downside is it's pretty much web only, you can't easily put "normal" applications on it, and no MicroSoft. However, depending on what you actually want to use the machine for, it could be a very good solution.
Sorry Carl but mine is 10 years old and still going strong. It took a bit of a hammering when we took it off roading in the Bardenas desert a few years back but after a bit of TLC, was right as rain.
I may well stick it on le bon coin at some point in the near future just to see what I could get for it!
Cx
ps - agree with you re 5 year old apples btw as I think the build quality has declined!
Yes, good point Carl. One can get new AND more powerful.
It is almost impossible to find an unbroken 5 year old apple laptop on ebay. they are all dead
And no. I don't mean the ones that have spent their whole life in an office. I mean the ones that have clearly been used.
That was my point though. I found a few brand new core i3 laptops on amazon WITHIN budget.
If you'd said 'best 2nd hand Mac', that would have been helpful...
Sandy's existing laptop is a Compaq and it is appalling! It broke within two days and she had a hell of a battle in getting it replaced. Coming from Mac's and going to Windows was like stepping back twenty years - a really bad user experience. Unfortunately we can't afford a Mac at the moment but our experience really shows you get what you pay for. We're looking at a secondhand Mac.