# Looking to Buy a laptop



## jimn (Nov 13, 2010)

The throttle on Internet speed won't be your laptop. The wired Ethernet on any but the cheapest laptops is likely to be 1 gigabit /second . Your wired connection should support at least 811g/n. All of that is considerable faster than most internet connections


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## carmusic (Oct 11, 2011)

What do you want to do with laptop will tell you what to buy, if it is only for internet surfing any basic laptop is fast enough, some screens are better quality, get one with windows 10, not win8


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

I always get the sub $400 Toshibas from Best Buy. Go on Best Buy's website, look at the computers they have on sale. The best deals are generally not advertised in the store. Go to the store, talk to one of the Geeks, and tell them what you want to do with the laptop and they will guide you.
I am no computer guru, but internet speed is related to your provide. The RAM on the computer corresponds with how fast docs etc get down loaded.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

First off I would never go to Best Buy and get a laptop, let alone talk to the ex fry cook who does not have a clue about computers, other then what corporate wants them to upsell you into.

A Sub $400 laptop can get you a Toshiba with at least a AMD E1 series CPU or even a Intel i5 these days.

RAM has nothing to do with how fast downloads are on the computer. That is up to the Internet Speed, Network adapter chipset and the CPU.

Here you go for $400 with a free 8 GB & 1 TB upgrade, AMD A4. http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/L50/L50D-CBT2N22

Blows anything out of the water that Best Buy would ever have. They hardly carry any store stock anymore on the majority of their stuff. You have to have it shipped.

Even if you found the same Toshiba unit in their store. They will never be able to match the deals that Toshiba and Lenovo are having on computers.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

If you're looking to get a Panasonic Toughbook, phone your local police department and ask what they do with the laptop computers they have in their squad cars. All the police cars have laptop computers in them so that the cops can check out your license plate number when they stop you to find out who they're about to deal with based on your criminal record. Police (and the military) use Panasonic Toughbook laptop computers because of the constant shaking they have to endure in the cars (or the personnel carriers in the military).

Here in Winnipeg, the Police give all their old squad car computers to a company called Syrotech, and Syrotech resells them to the public. I bought an older Panasonic CF-28 model Toughbook for $100 that was used at the Canadian Forces base in Shilo, Manitoba. It doesn't have an internal Wi-Fi card, so I have to plug one in at the side of the machine, and the PS-2 port on it doesn't work so I have to use a serial mouse, and there's only one USB port, but I find it great for downloading larger files. I'm on dial-up at home, so if I wanted to download a 70 or 80 Megabyte program or file, it would literally take hours. So, I take my Toughbook to a McDonald's (which all have free Wi-Fi now) and download that file in a minute or two. I download it onto a USB drive in the one USB port, and then just load that file from the USB drive to my home computer when I get home.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

Jimn01:

What does 811 g/n mean?

If the g stands for Gigabytes, shouldn't it be "G/n"?


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Jimn01:
> 
> What does 811 g/n mean?
> 
> If the g stands for Gigabytes, shouldn't it be "G/n"?



Wifi radio types. B is 10 mb/s, G is 54 mb/s, N can be 150/300/600/900, depending on the number of antennas, AC is up to 2.4 Gb/s burst speed.

As for the tough books in my area. They are sent back for off lease or destroyed if damaged. All Hard drives are removed from them.

Every now and then you can find them on Newegg. Problem is that they are still not that fast compared to the model I posted.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

gregzoll said:


> Problem is that they are still not that fast compared to the model I posted.


It occurs to me that about the only applications I know of that benefit from faster processors is gaming. Most people use their computer as a glorified typewriter and to do some basic spread sheets. Why do I need a faster computer if I'm what's holding things up! It's the human at the keyboard that's the slowest to process information, and every computer spends most of it's time waiting for the human to do something, like type each keystroke. A faster computer would only spend more time waiting on the slowpoke at the keyboard.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Nestor_Kelebay not everyone uses a computer as a typewriter. There are a lot of people that use them for more then gaming. The gaming market is only 1% of the market share. The rest is Business, students, churches, photography.

The computer I posted is more then fast enough for anyone. The deal cannot be beat.

I use Linux Mint and my wife uses Windows 10 because she has to use Office for work stuff. I deal with word processing, databases and spreadsheets for the majority of the stuff that I do.

I do not need Windows, because of the stuff I do, I can do it with the software that I have on my laptop.

Even the Toshiba Satellite C850D-st3nx1's that we both have and the Intel Core 2 Duo that I have as a desktop, still out runs a lot of units out there for i3's and Celeron's that a lot of people buy.

A faster CPU makes no difference on the Keyboard. Take the time and do some research. The majority of home users can get away with just using a Intel Core 2 Duo for 99% of the stuff that they do all of the time. Windows 10 works just fine on that CPU and a lot of people would never be the wiser as to what is behind the cover on the computer.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

gregzoll said:


> RAM has nothing to do with how fast downloads are on the computer. That is up to the Internet Speed, Network adapter chipset and the CPU.


RAM *does *have an effect, especially with dual or quad core systems. Each task being performed needs memory. With the bare minimum of RAM, say 2GB, the whole system can get clogged up and bogged down easily, each task waiting its turn to be processed. That includes internet browsing, and especially gaming. 

And the page file is much slower than RAM.



gregzoll said:


> Even if you found the same Toshiba unit in their store. They will never be able to match the deals that Toshiba and Lenovo are having on computers.


I like Toshiba laptops too, but do you work for them or something? Just about every laptop maker offers at least some great deals this time of year.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Jimn01:
> 
> What does 811 g/n mean?
> 
> If the g stands for Gigabytes, shouldn't it be "G/n"?


The "g" is not gigabyte. In this case it is just represents the version of the wifi network protocols being used, ie 802.11 version (g) or version  or version (a) or whatever it may be. Technical stuff waaaay over my head.


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## ktkelly (Apr 7, 2007)

I'll make ONE recommendation.


No matter the brand, get a SSD (Solid State Drive) and you'll be very happy.



For my most recent purchase I bought a 2 year old, off lease, Dell, that had a new 256GB SSD with Win 8.1 installed, and recently did the free upgrade to Win 10.

It's really nice to have the laptop power on/off in mere seconds instead of many minutes.

Also have my own modem (Motorola SB6183) and router (Buffalo AC1750).


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

ZZZZZ said:


> RAM *does *have an effect, especially with dual or quad core systems. Each task being performed needs memory. With the bare minimum of RAM, say 2GB, the whole system can get clogged up and bogged down easily, each task waiting its turn to be processed. That includes internet browsing, and especially gaming.
> 
> And the page file is much slower than RAM.
> 
> I like Toshiba laptops too, but do you work for them or something? Just about every laptop maker offers at least some great deals this time of year.


Again RAM is not the problem with how fast information is uploaded or downloaded across a LAN or off of the Internet. The only place that RAM comes into play, is on the Gateway that you are connecting to the Internet with.

Majority of the units manufacturers are selling, come with 4 to 6 GB of RAM. Both of our units run with 12 GB RAM for the laptops. The max that even gets touched on either one, is no more then 2.5 GB. Even when doing any type of photo editing on mine, or working on a SQL database.

I do enjoy how people like you assume that someone works for a company, just because they have posted a link for a deal and the fact that they use that model.

All of the deals are not just this time of year. They are all year long. The unit I linked is the best deal out there for the horse power that is under the hood.

I have been doing this stuff for over 35 years and telling someone who is very well versed in how computers and networking work. Is like telling a auto mechanic how to work on your vehicle.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

ktkelly said:


> I'll make ONE recommendation. No matter the brand, get a SSD (Solid State Drive) and you'll be very happy. For my most recent purchase I bought a 2 year old, off lease, Dell, that had a new 256GB SSD with Win 8.1 installed, and recently did the free upgrade to Win 10.
> 
> It's really nice to have the laptop power on/off in mere seconds instead of many minutes. Also have my own modem (Motorola SB6183) and router (Buffalo AC1750).


An SSD is nice, and is great for people that tend to throw their laptop on a bed or desk, not caring. But for the mass majority, they could really care less.

Windows 10 handles memory management a lot better then anything else.

Windows 10 is free to anyone that has Windows 7, 8.1 on their computer. So in reality, you got it the same way that everyone else has gotten it.

As for powering off. It will still shut down as quick as a computer with a SSD. It just depends on what background processes have to be stopped, before the system shuts down.

As for your own modem and router. Pretty much everyone has their own equipment if they plan on staying with a provider for a very long time. But it is coming down to where you are going to have to use the provider's equipment to connect, just like those who have services that use IPTV, like Century Link, ATT, Rogers. In that case, you have to set up what is called a "Edge Router" in DMZ Plus mode behind the provider's equipment.

Unless you have Google Fiber or a provider that is allowing you to get 1 gb/s service. Wireless AC is over kill for the average user. All of my streaming devices & NAS are wired devices. Everything else uses wireless and there really is no need for anything faster then 300 mb/s in my house, because I am not using it to transfer large file payloads. I do that through a wired desktop.

Now if you want to play better network & equipment. I use the Cisco RV320 for my router, a Engenius ECB350 with a POE adapter as my main Access Point. The switch for any equipment that does not need to be up when we lose power, goes through a Netgear GS108 switch.

You can look my equipment up under the Networking Sub-Forum. When I set it up. I did it in a actual business environment, because of the clients I deal with that come to me for building out networks, with multiple VLAN's. There is no consumer grade networking equipment on my network. Every bit of it is made for handling heavy loads within the network.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

gregzoll said:


> Again RAM is not the problem with how fast information is uploaded or downloaded across a LAN or off of the Internet. The only place that RAM comes into play, is on the Gateway that you are connecting to the Internet with.


Again, a "fast" PC requires adequate RAM for the CPU(s) to have a fast place from which to read and then to write the data it is processing. That applies to all tasks, including internet activities. 



gregzoll said:


> I do enjoy how people like you assume that someone works for a company, just because they have posted a link for a deal and the fact that they use that model.


I didn't assume anything. I merely asked a question. Can you not distinguish between a statement and a question?



gregzoll said:


> All of the deals are not just this time of year. They are all year long. The unit I linked is the best deal out there for the horse power that is under the hood.


In your opinion, that is the best deal. I am certain there are other "best deals" out there if a person looked for them.



gregzoll said:


> I have been doing this stuff for over 35 years and telling someone who is very well versed in how computers and networking work. Is like telling a auto mechanic how to work on your vehicle.


I have been doing this stuff since 1982. My first PC was a VIC-20 with a cassette tape record. For 6 years I owned my own business refurbishing PCs and building custom PCs. I do know what I am talking about.


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## craig11152 (Jun 20, 2015)

ZZZZZ said:


> For 6 years I owned my own business refurbishing PCs and building custom PCs.


every once in awhile I think about building my own. Peeking in the computer I have it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to put together. What I think would be hard for me would be compiling (the) components that are compatible with one another. Am I fooling myself?


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

craig11152 said:


> every once in awhile I think about building my own. Peeking in the computer I have it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to put together. What I think would be hard for me would be compiling (the) components that are compatible with one another. Am I fooling myself?


It will cost more to build than to buy.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

craig11152 said:


> every once in awhile I think about building my own. Peeking in the computer I have it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to put together. What I think would be hard for me would be compiling (the) components that are compatible with one another. Am I fooling myself?


IMHO nowadays the economics don't work out nearly as well as they used to, to build your own. Virtually all PC components are now made in Asia, mostly China. The quality and standards have come a long way. 

Some geek in China or Hong Kong can put together a state of the art system cheaper than I ever could.

If you _*want *_to tinker under the hood, IMHO the way to go is to buy a bare-bones machine from a vendor and then soup it up to a high-end machine. Adding RAM, an SSD, a powerful video card etc, are pretty easy to do. Mostly just plug and play.


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## craig11152 (Jun 20, 2015)

My situation is that I currently run 2 monitors and if I built one it would to be able to run 3 or 4 monitors if I wanted to. The prices I have seen to have a 4 monitor capable computer are a bit pricey for me. 
The current computer I have was just under $800. The last time I peaked around to get a 4 monitor machine built it was going to be close to $1400 and that was a couple years ago. I know thats not a lot for some people but it is for me.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

I would suggest finding the 4-monitor video card you want to run, and then buy or build a system that can host it, obviously making sure everything is compatible and has enough horsepower to fire it all up.

Are the 4 monitors for gaming purposes?


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## craig11152 (Jun 20, 2015)

ZZZZZ said:


> Are the 4 monitors for gaming purposes?


No, I day trade the stock market from home. Both monitors have streaming stock charts and one monitor also has my trading account. So that monitor does double duty. I can live with the setup OK, just sometimes I think with more monitors I wouldn't have to have things hidden behind an open window. 
Some day I will probably just pay an expert.


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## ZZZZZ (Oct 1, 2014)

I've done some day trading myself. I know what you mean. Trading and charting platforms can take up as much screen real estate as you can give them.

You might look at some professional trading websites and forums, and look for specific components and system recommendations.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

ZZZZZ said:


> Again, a "fast" PC requires adequate RAM for the CPU(s) to have a fast place from which to read and then to write the data it is processing. That applies to all tasks, including internet activities.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No it does not. That is a myth that was busted a long time ago.

The hard drive is what needs a fast enough buffer to be able to process the information going in and out.

Also you did not assume, implied. The later is very dangerous in some arguments. Because I posted the Toshiba system, you automatically thought that I worked for them.

I was always a HP/Compaq guy for a long time, because the names used to be looked at as quality. I switched to Toshiba when my son was looking for a laptop for school and the units we have, were the best deal.

My mother in law has a Lenovo desktop that replaced the Inspiron that I have, which ai got in trade for setting the new system up.

Her Lenovo was the best deal that we could find this past July. I look at costs, then Hardware when shopping for myself and others that ask for me to find them a new system.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

craig11152 said:


> every once in awhile I think about building my own. Peeking in the computer I have it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to put together. What I think would be hard for me would be compiling (the) components that are compatible with one another. Am I fooling myself?


It is not that hard to do, until you have to get the paste on the CPU right for the heatsink.

It is easier to just go into a local place and put together a list of parts and let them put the system together. If they screw something up, they have to pay for the replacement.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

rjniles said:


> It will cost more to build than to buy.


Not always. This year there have been some really grat deals. Now the CPU's are what is staying high and not coming down in price.


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## carmusic (Oct 11, 2011)

I always build my computers and it cost a lot less than buying one already mounted if you buy barebones deals of end of line items (yes maybe one year old tech, but often for half the price)
when im tired of it, most of the time my casing is still ok and i just swap new mainboard, cpu, ram,...


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## JustOneCube (Dec 8, 2015)

Hey Lemley98 - what is it that you want to do with the laptop with fast internet speed? That's going to make a difference in getting the 'right' answer.


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## WRXTerror (Nov 30, 2015)

Simple answer from IT guy:

If your internet is running slow there are 4 things that could be going on:
1. The PC is really old and the wifi is a or b standard (not likely and even a or b is decent speed for surfing)
2. Your internet speed needs to be increased. If you are trying to stream and have less that 5 Mbps plan you will have issue, web surfing should be ok.
3. You have viruses, malware, or trojans that are using your bandwidth to do their dirty work. (press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and look at the task manager. Click on the network tab while you are not doing anything on the web. If it is using the network heavily and for long spans of time I'd download Malwarebytes and Avira or other free antivirus and run both full scans.)
4. Your router has gone bad. I usually have to replace my router for this same reason every few years. They get hot and they wear out. Many times the speed decrease will also have disconnects too.

As far as buying a new laptop my general rule today is determine the max you want to spend and then go buy one for that price. Nowadays most machines in the same price range will be nearly identical machines regardless of manufacturer.

Hope this helps


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## WRXTerror (Nov 30, 2015)

rjniles said:


> It will cost more to build than to buy.


*It is not more expensive to build than buy!* It is also easy, plug and play. Many good instructions if you google it that will walk you through what to do and what is compatible. Once you build you'll never buy again, I find it fun.


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

The poster wants a laptop. Building a desktop is one thing, a laptop is a different animal.


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## craig11152 (Jun 20, 2015)

rjniles said:


> The poster wants a laptop. Building a desktop is one thing, a laptop is a different animal.


True but in the world of Internet Forums threads often take a turn or otherwise get hijacked. I may be guilty of that here in post #17.


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## dalepres (Mar 20, 2011)

Get any of the 400 dollar class laptops. I generally recommend people buy directly from the manufacturer such as Dell or HP so you can buy their support package with the laptop. Get a minimum of 8GB RAM and an i3 or i5 and you'll likely be good for a few years.

Though gregzoll is right that RAM doesn't directly affect download speeds, RAM does affect how well your browser works. Get a couple dozen tabs open like I do and it's not unheard of for total browser memory to approach a gig - especially if you use the memory-leak-prone Firefox. 8gb is the minimum but I wouldn't buy/build a new PC with less than 16 and I generally run on 32gb but I run several VMs regularly.

As for building your own PC, for most folks, as ZZZZZ and gregzoll previously stated, it just isn't worth it. I always built my own, from my very first PC clone (not my first computer) in 1988. Actually, I just bought my first 2 pre-built PCs in the last month. I looked at how I actually use my PC versus how I thought I might use it and found that, for the most part, I really didn't need the custom features I was building in. I just bought two mini-PCs, one from Asus and one from Zotac. Both mount with VESA mounts on the back of a monitor, are dead silent, and use practically no power. The Zotac is an i7 quad core and the Asus is an i5 dual core. Both perform their expected duties very well.

I have a Newegg wish list with all the parts to build a new dual-socket, 14-cores per socket, 256GB RAM, 10GB ethernet, home server, but I just can't convince myself to push submit on a 5000 dollar PC order. It would be nice, though.


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## dalepres (Mar 20, 2011)

WRXTerror said:


> *It is not more expensive to build than buy!* It is also easy, plug and play. Many good instructions if you google it that will walk you through what to do and what is compatible. Once you build you'll never buy again, I find it fun.


It's more expensive to build than to buy - if only because we tend to build more powerful, higher-end, PCs than we need or would buy if we just bought one off the shelf at any local big-box electronics store. 

Even if you can assemble the parts for less, think about things like:

If the computer won't start after you build it, is it the CPU? Is it the motherboard? Is it the RAM? The power supply? If you built your own, you'll have to buy one or more of those as a guess. Perhaps you'll have to buy them all.

Maybe, if you don't know what you're doing, you do what I have seen more than one first-time builder do: screw the motherboard directly to the chassis rather than using standoffs. Or another I've seen: use brass standoffs where plastic standoffs were needed. Both have the same problem. You just shorted out your motherboard to the chassis and destroyed it.

But, like you said, it's enjoyable to us here. This is a DIY forum and most of us share a common genetic defect in that we have to have it our way even if it takes more time and money for us do DIY than to pay someone. We tend to overbuild. We do things like put 12ga wiring in 15-amp lighting circuits. We use 2x12 joists when a 2x10 would do. We build dual-quad-core xeon home servers to do little more than surf the Internet when an off-the-shelf 400 dollar PC would have served 95% of what we do just fine.


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