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Please, when posting a link to a laptop listing, make sure to include the price at time of posting. It helps.
Requesting help with a purchase? Please post here: https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=135662.msg2794782#msg2794782

Dell:
Precision - Very powerful desktop replacements - great warranty, ridiculously expensive - Usually overpriced or overkill

Latitude - Good Laptops - Great warranty! Highly recommended for any Business environment - Sometimes expensive.

Vostro  - Lower end Business Machines - Better Priced - still durable - Usually 1 Year warranty.

XPS - The nicer looking dell machines, Some are better than others...

Inspiron - YMMV Every model is different

(Plain) Insprion Series - Dells lowest end laptop
(R) Insprion Series - Perfect Home use, dependable, decent build quality, recommended
(Z) Insprion Series - A little slimmer than the R series, Some are Ultrabooks (Very often don't include Optical Drives)

HP:

Spectre - Top of the line personal (dragonfly is the top of the line for business) - lightest laptops, and beautiful!

Pavilion - YMMV (Some better than others)

Probook - Stable durable business systems - Usually a little on the heavy side.

Elitebook - Business Higher end systems, usually pretty expensive

ENVY - Used to be the HP sleek and nicer systems, they pretty much replaced most of the standard pavilions now and call them either ENVY or sleekbooks

Sleekbook - like it sounds slimmer line of laptops

Lenovo:

Thinkpad Series - Very Dependable Business Machine, Expensive (Not Pretty but Durable)

IdeaPad Series -

S Series
U Series - Usually the slimmer line Ultrabooks, Doesn't always include DVD Drive
Y Series - Nice machines with good specs and features (Cool Backlit Keyboards)
Z Series - Step up from the G Series, all around decent build, priced nicely, great home use laptop
G Series - Lower end

Samsung:

Series 3
Series 5
Series 7
Series 9 - The nicest, sleekest looking laptops I've seen in a long time - Can pass for a Macbook!!


HT: Dh Data Recovery & Name Changed


A great post by caliheat:
I believe that there are many factors when deciding what laptop to purchase.
1) What is your intended use and necessary features. e.g. light use vs. heavy use & optical drive, computer speed etc.
2) As mentioned several times in this thread, RAM itself is very easy to upgrade after you purchase.
3) Brand - IMHO this is pretty important as well - which do your prefer vs. which brand do people recommend.
4) Price - you should decide a price range that best suits your needs.
5) Operating System - Many people like myself prefer Windows 7 vs. 8.1, so this would be another consideration.
6) Warranty - does it include 1 year or more, cost for extending warranty.
7) Detailed Specs:
  Processor  - model and speed i3, i5, & i7 2.0 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc.
  RAM - This IMHO should be minimum 8GB, especially if running 8.1, however can be added easily.
  Hard Drive - SATA vs. SSD, the latter being much faster. SATA itself offers 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM again, the latter being faster.
  Screen Size - this is a personal preference as you can always attach a larger screen in an office setting.
  Battery & Weight - overall laptop weight preference & battery life.
  Graphics - Integrated graphics vs. dedicated graphics, e.g. Intel 4400 vs. Nvidia GTX etc.

In summary, you have to decide what are you priorities, what can be upgraded and what you are flexible on.



Excellent article about the differences between the Intel processor suffixes.

Excellent "Laptop Buying Guide" by @dailykasha, written for Black Friday 2021, updated for holidays 2023

Author Topic: Laptop Deals Master Thread  (Read 3207551 times)

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10780 on: April 02, 2017, 09:25:59 PM »
Thanks again for your help and patience!

1 - What is the advantage of SSD - speed, multi-tasking, longevity, other?
2 - Do you know of something in this price range that is SSD?
3 - Don't computers with SSD have much smaller hard drives - less room for storage?
4 - If I pay more for additional 8 GB, in what way would the computer be improved?
1 - Speed and multitasking or co-related, but it's basically speed (you can get a restart in 15 sec.). As a side benefit, it may hold better through a drop or a good bang.
2 - No.
3 - Yes they do (except in the thousand range and up where you can have a combination of a small SSD and a 2nd big HDD) but is your old hard drive more than 256GB full? For most casual users it isn't.
4 - It would be able to handle more load. But - as said - it is almost impossible to say if this is what will make the difference for your specific situation with the specific software you are using.

Offline avromie7

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10781 on: April 02, 2017, 09:46:24 PM »


Thanks again for your help and patience!

1 - What is the advantage of SSD - speed, multi-tasking, longevity, other?
2 - Do you know of something in this price range that is SSD?
3 - Don't computers with SSD have much smaller hard drives - less room for storage?
4 - If I pay more for additional 8 GB, in what way would the computer be improved?

The same way a water can only flow as fast as the narrowest point of a pipe a computer can only work as fast as it's slowest part. The hard drive is by far the slowest part of a computer and therefore getting an ssd which is a few times as fast makes a hugh difference in performance the most obvious example is a reboot taking less than 30 seconds
I wonder what people who type "u" instead of "you" do with all their free time.

Offline Boruch999

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10782 on: April 03, 2017, 04:45:04 PM »

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10783 on: April 03, 2017, 05:00:54 PM »
Can someone please tell me the difference between these two?


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LD4MGY4

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-575G-53VG-15-6-Inch-Windows/dp/B01DT4A2R4/
Seems only to be a different generation i5. The 1st one is the newest 7th gen, and the 2nd one is last gen.

Offline Boruch999

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10784 on: April 03, 2017, 05:15:08 PM »
Seems only to be a different generation i5. The 1st one is the newest 7th gen, and the 2nd one is last gen.

I'm going to assume that the 7th gen is worth the extra $12?

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10785 on: April 03, 2017, 07:31:48 PM »
I'm going to assume that the 7th gen is worth the extra $12?
Yes

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10786 on: April 03, 2017, 10:47:20 PM »
How different is the i7-7500U from the i7 - 6500U?

Assuming there is a difference, is it worth adding around $100 to the price?

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10787 on: April 03, 2017, 11:15:39 PM »
How different is the i7-7500U from the i7 - 6500U?

Assuming there is a difference, is it worth adding around $100 to the price?
The newer is considerably better. It is very hard to say if something is "worth". If you want "better" then you will pay more even if it's not really "worth".

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10788 on: April 03, 2017, 11:34:43 PM »
The newer is considerably better.
Is that from experience? Because I read a few articles saying there isn't much noticeable difference.
I'm confused.... :)

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10789 on: April 03, 2017, 11:46:35 PM »
Is that from experience? Because I read a few articles saying there isn't much noticeable difference.
I'm confused.... :)
I said "considerably" and not "noticeable." All tests agree that it is better.

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10790 on: April 04, 2017, 10:02:14 AM »
What's your opinion of this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-15-6-FHD-Touch-i7-6500U-3-1GHz-16GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-DVDRW-Backlit-W10H-1Yr-/332069666063?hash=item4d50e4fd0f:g:CvkAAOSw0fhXiIZa
It's seems similar to the one you showed me on Amazon but it has 16 GB of RAM. It's about $100 more, though.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10791 on: April 04, 2017, 05:58:06 PM »
What's your opinion of this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-15-6-FHD-Touch-i7-6500U-3-1GHz-16GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-DVDRW-Backlit-W10H-1Yr-/332069666063?hash=item4d50e4fd0f:g:CvkAAOSw0fhXiIZa
It's seems similar to the one you showed me on Amazon but it has 16 GB of RAM. It's about $100 more, though.
You're right that it seems similar to that. I don't really have alot to say. But the SSD is probably more important (as avromie7 excellently described it, with the water flow example, above) than the additional RAM.

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10792 on: April 04, 2017, 11:12:22 PM »
You're right that it seems similar to that. I don't really have alot to say. But the SSD is probably more important (as avromie7 excellently described it, with the water flow example, above) than the additional RAM.
I do understand Avromie7's point, however I though more RAM makes more of a difference for multi-tasking (like running 30+ windows of Otzar Hachochmah, 30+ windows of Bar Ilan, and 10 or so windows of Davka Writer simultaneously) than hard drive speed.

Either way, based on your recommendation I would buy a laptop with an SSD but I can't seem to find a decently-priced one that is i7, 16 GB of RAM and has an SSD hard drive.  :(
Do you know of any?

Also, I'd prefer to get one with a DVD-RW drive and the higher-end laptops don't seem to have it.
Buying an external drive just adds to the price and is inconvenient.

:(

Offline avromie7

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10793 on: April 05, 2017, 12:12:40 AM »
I do understand Avromie7's point, however I though more RAM makes more of a difference for multi-tasking (like running 30+ windows of Otzar Hachochmah, 30+ windows of Bar Ilan, and 10 or so windows of Davka Writer simultaneously) than hard drive speed.

Either way, based on your recommendation I would buy a laptop with an SSD but I can't seem to find a decently-priced one that is i7, 16 GB of RAM and has an SSD hard drive.  :(
Do you know of any?

Also, I'd prefer to get one with a DVD-RW drive and the higher-end laptops don't seem to have it.
Buying an external drive just adds to the price and is inconvenient.

:(
I assume many windows of otzar hachochma and bar ilan need an ssd more than they need 16gb ram, there is no amount of ram that can match the increased performance of an ssd.
I wonder what people who type "u" instead of "you" do with all their free time.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10794 on: April 05, 2017, 12:52:12 AM »
I do understand Avromie7's point, however I though more RAM makes more of a difference for multi-tasking (like running 30+ windows of Otzar Hachochmah, 30+ windows of Bar Ilan, and 10 or so windows of Davka Writer simultaneously) than hard drive speed.

Either way, based on your recommendation I would buy a laptop with an SSD but I can't seem to find a decently-priced one that is i7, 16 GB of RAM and has an SSD hard drive.  :(
Do you know of any?

Also, I'd prefer to get one with a DVD-RW drive and the higher-end laptops don't seem to have it.
Buying an external drive just adds to the price and is inconvenient.

:(
The real question is 1) What is the utmost max you are willing to spend? 2) Is very big and heavy an option, or you need more portable'ish?

Offline ae123

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10795 on: April 05, 2017, 09:49:25 AM »
1 - I guess up to $900, but I'd obviously prefer to spend much less
2 - My old one is pretty heavy - about 7 lbs., so I'm ok with that. Again, I'd prefer lighter.

BTW, here are two reviews of my old one. You can see it was a very good system. That's what I'm comparing to.
http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-inspiron-e1505-review-pics-specs/
http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-inspiron-e1505

Thanks again, Yisroel and Avromie, for your help.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10796 on: April 05, 2017, 10:41:18 AM »
1 - I guess up to $900, but I'd obviously prefer to spend much less
2 - My old one is pretty heavy - about 7 lbs., so I'm ok with that. Again, I'd prefer lighter.
I'd consider one of these:
(Personally I'd go with this one https://www.amazon.com/i7-7700HQ-128GB-NVIDIA-Geforce-Windows/dp/B01MZ8IHYI, but it is at top of your budget, and I know that some people wouldn't look on something not from HP/Dell... This one is with a quad-core i7!)

Offline alex89

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10797 on: April 05, 2017, 11:31:04 AM »
https://www.costco.com/CompareProductsDisplay?partNumbers=100316044,100325952,100315475,100307829

I think I'm mainly between the Dell 13" and the Acer 14" on here.  Do any of these computers look like outright winners?  I'm attracted to costco for the 3 months return policy.  Sometimes takes a little bit to realize you don't like something.

Offline Yisroel Tech

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10798 on: April 05, 2017, 01:12:43 PM »
https://www.costco.com/CompareProductsDisplay?partNumbers=100316044,100325952,100315475,100307829

I think I'm mainly between the Dell 13" and the Acer 14" on here.  Do any of these computers look like outright winners?  I'm attracted to Costco for the 3 months return policy.  Sometimes takes a little bit to realize you don't like something.
I'd go for the Dell. Mainly because from what it seems to me (Costco doesn't have the exact specs) that the Acer has a low-powered i7 which is considerably less powerful than the one in the Dell. And also because Acer is Acer and Dell is Dell...

But the Acer is way thinner and lighter.

Offline stooges44

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #10799 on: April 05, 2017, 01:14:44 PM »
I'd go for the Dell. Mainly because from what it seems to me (Costco doesn't have the exact specs) that the Acer has a low-powered i7 which is considerably less powerful than the one in the Dell. And also because Acer is Acer and Dell is Dell...

But the Acer is way thinner and lighter.

That's putting it mildly  ;)
If it's not free shipping it's not worth it.