Looking for a laptop

[AfterBurners]

I need to buy a personal laptop and the irony is I have 3 laptops from work, but per company policy no 3rd party software to be installed. I'm sure they would have a way of tracing it. I want to install RS so I can start working on some projects. I was thinking about going to Costco and seeing what they have. I'm kind of spoiled because the company laptops are really nice top of the line systems. HP's and Dell's all with 16-32GB of RAM, Core i7 ... it's too bad the company doesn't offer a buy back program.

 

[Funkworks]

I got lured by the world of MacBooks (Pros 13" and 15" since almost a decade now), and I can't complain (willing to drive a cheaper car to compensate for their higher cost).

 

[PayLoad]

Craigslist has 4,000,000 laptops under $200

 

[Tech 68]

Craigslist has 4,000,000 laptops under $200

EBay does also... lots of them are refurbished and you can buy a warranty to go with them.

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

Bought a nice reconditioned unit from a local shop for under $300. A solid state hard drive installed too.

 

[afadeev]

Since you don't specify a budget, Costco Lenovo Yoga or T4x0-sieries laptops are a decent option.

 

[profmason]

For field use, I have been using refurbished $250 8Gb Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 MK2 from ebay. I also run solidworks, openrocket, burnsim, my monte carlo for FAA approval plus data acquisition software etc. Between our team, we have purchased 3 of them, and they do great getting beaten up in the desert, high nice high visibility screens etc. Two of them have survived a half dozen static fire CAIs totaling over 170,000 Ns in the past two years. (One of them is the lucky no CATO laptop) I also like the hot swap battery feature for field use.

For purely home use I like the 8Gb ryzen 4000 and 5000 series laptops at around the $450 price point.

 

[Greg Furtman]

I like the Lenovo ThinkPad series. I was an IT guy for 20+ years. Very durable and long-lived. And since they are basically made to businesses the don't come with a lot of crapware on them. And since AMD came out with the Ryzen processors Lenovo tested them & started using them in their ThinkPads. And when I did need parts or tech support from Lenovo the number I called put me in touch with IBM in Atlanta.

 

[H_Rocket]

For field use, I have been using refurbished $250 8Gb Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 MK2 from ebay. I also run solidworks, openrocket, burnsim, my monte carlo for FAA approval plus data acquisition software etc. Between our team, we have purchased 3 of them, and they do great getting beaten up in the desert, high nice high visibility screens etc. Two of them have survived a half dozen static fire CAIs totaling over 170,000 Ns in the past two years. (One of them is the lucky no CATO laptop) I also like the hot swap battery feature for field use.

I use a Toughbook C25 that I got at an auction. It has a built in cellular radio and GPS - all for $650. You can't kill a Toughbook (well, you can, but you have to work at it). If you can find one on eBay or Craigslist, or whatever (I just saw several on FB Marketplace). You won't regret it.

 

[Bowman]

I need to buy a personal laptop and the irony is I have 3 laptops from work, but per company policy no 3rd party software to be installed. I'm sure they would have a way of tracing it. I want to install RS so I can start working on some projects. I was thinking about going to Costco and seeing what they have. I'm kind of spoiled because the company laptops are really nice top of the line systems. HP's and Dell's all with 16-32GB of RAM, Core i7 ... it's too bad the company doesn't offer a buy back program.

Where I worked we had HP and Dell.
Both offered an employee purchase program where employees could buy a new computer from either company at a great discount. Apple was added later too.
Not buying our old previously-issued laptop, but a new model.
Maybe your company has arranged a deal like that. Or if you know who the rep is from Dell or HP ask them if there are any deals.

 

[Sandy H.]

My company switched from generic/Gateway/Dell to HP maybe 15 years ago. I had generally good luck with all of the computers I used at work. They rarely/never broke and the only reason we would get a new one was due to updates requiring a new OS.

When I started my business, I needed to buy 4 laptops and I bought HP's. I did get the oldest model available that had the specs I wanted. For me B&H had the best pricing on what I wanted. The 4 laptops have been pretty much flawless. (16gb, i5, W7, all without internet access, so I don't care about the W7 concerns some might have).

Not necessarily cheap, but if you get the right thing and take care of it, it can last 5+ years easily. I would be hesitant about doing a user-upgrade of the OS when the next version of Windows comes out. Things always seem to decline after upgrading from my past experience. Trying to stretch old hardware with the newest bloat-ware is a painful process.

Hope you find what fits you perfectly and it lasts you a long time.

Sandy.