What's A Good Cheap Laptop

[pdogg]

Friend of mine who is a very light internet user wants to buy a laptop at Tukcom.

 

Any recommended brands?

 

Any brands to avoid?

 

What feature is most important, things like RAM, CPU, etc.

 

Any good shops in TukCom?

 

Which Operating System should they install?

 

What else should they install?

 

 

[JaiDee]

Just from my experience and from the last time this topic was brought up;

 

I like Dell.....you can get a good one for under 20K.

 

   For sure you want the most RAM you can get, 8GB minimum and the strongest CPU....the names for them have changed over the years, Dual-core, Quad-core, Celeron, etc..... I still like the Intel line but some people prefer AMD.  The more he pays, the better the processor.

 

  The hard drives these days are usually 500GB minimum, no need to get more unless he wants a ton of movies and TV shows and music on his hard drive.....methinks 1TB [1000 gigs] is overkill.  Externals are cheap and can always be bought later if his hard drive is filling up too quickly.  15.6 would be the screen size if it were me.

 

   I'd suggest Windows 7 for an OS....Windows 8 hasn't been too well-received although I have never tried it.....I remember looking at one at Staples and the kid selling them says "you know, we have classes available to learn how to use that."  Does anyone really want to take a class to learn how to work their PC?
 

    The good news is that the guys at TukCom will advise your friend properly, and will give him a PC with the specs he wants at the prices he wants, and will also load up the software he wants, gratis. IMO use the above as a guideline and see what happens, should be between 15K and 20K baht.

 

   IF your friend is on a severe budget he can go as low as 10K these days and get an Asus or an Acer, smaller screen size, less RAM, etc.....he may want to look at the Chromebook......as usual, you get what you pay for.

[soiboy]

A few days ago I bought a Toshiba Satellite B40-A at tukcom.  It’s for my current sweetie’s little sister.  (An item for educational purposes is NOT sponsorship, dammit!  lol)  The sales clerk spoke English, so I asked her what is a good basic laptop for a high school student.  The B40 is entry-level, and costs 9,900 baht.  It has everything that a first-time or casual user would need.  I had a copy of Windows 7 installed, as well as a copy of MS Office installed (for Word to do homework).  Very cheap compared to the cost of legitimate purchase of Windows and Office software, but of course no factory support!  Also an AIS thingy for internet when a hotspot is not available, and a screen protector film.  It comes with a carrying case, and basic mouse and headphones.  Keyboard with Thai and English characters.  It seems to work fine.  About 11,000 baht all told.

 

Really, today the more expensive features are mainly for media purposes, etc.  This ~$300 USD laptop has the same specs as my 7 year old Sony Vaio (that I still use at home) that cost $2000 at the time!

 

The name of the place is Wattana Systemation Co Ltd.  Go into tukcom and take the escalator up to the 3rd level, do a right-hand U-turn and walk about 50 feet; the store will be just off to your right in the center area.  It has a display of Toshiba laptops.  It seems like a good store that sells mostly Toshiba products.  They have a complete line of products if you want more RAM, disc space, and other features.  (The store was recommended to my sweetie by a guy’s store on the first floor that she bought a tablet from a few months ago.  Tukcom is quite a place!)

[Snick]

10,000 baht should get you a good laptop, especially is you get it without an Operating System and let the seller 'provide' one.

Only thing it might be missing is a DVD drive.

 

Toshiba and Acer are good brands.

Sony's are nice, but expensive to fix if anything goes wrong.

Don't know about Samsung.

Only one I would avoid is HP

[Guest JustSumGai]

I have 2 Acer netbooks, but they're basically phased out trying to push ppl into the new gimmick, touchscreen toys. BUT they can still be found and currently i'm salivating over one for $240 at a shop in USA loaded with Linux, 340 gig hd, 2 gig RAM which is not usual for this. It's a light duty lappie but I torrent, watch movies, skype, etc. 

[voidsama]

for simple computing look to chromebooks. if you want full windows but still cheap with great battery life look for the asus t100.  its a tablet and laptop in 1 that runs full windows.  you might need an external hard drive to go with that though if you need lots of storage.

[globetrotter]

The t100 also has a sd card slot depending how much extra storage space you might need

[rxpharm]

Depending on the budget your friend has, another option is to buy a reconditioned 2nd hand laptop. If the budget is tight - under 10k Baht, then looking at 1-3 year old laptops could save a lot of money. The key is specs. It should be at least a duo core processor, with a minimum of 4GB of RAM and hard drive around 250-350 GB. Since graphics won't be too heavy - light internet and probably word processing a separate graphics chip isn't necessary, having shared video memory with the main RAM is ok as long as it is at least 4 GB, and preferably 8 GB (RAM is pretty cheap so upgrading doesn't cost much).

 

WIndows 7 and MS Office, plus a few other programs would probably cost around 5-6 k Baht, with the above specs in the 2nd hand market. It would also be more likely to have an optical drive, which are beginning to disappear with new tablets and some laptops.

 

Also laptops with around 15.6" displays tend to be less expensive. Those with smaller displays 10-14.5" cost more as would bigger displays.