Looking for a laptop $500 or less

[Fbird]

thank you folks for the guidance as it has been a minute since i have looked into these things. Current model is a Dell insperion XXXx...vintage 2006! Has worked 100% flawless till...the other day it would NOT boot up...drive sounded like a struggling 4 banger trying to go up a hill.....it had to "repair" itself and restart 2 times before OS was operable. (hasent been shut down since....is in hibernation mood till i get a back-up) about to just that.

I do need to run excell, word, and probably do some autocad as well.

 

[CorkyE]

I'd say you got your money's worth out of it.

 

[budro6968]

thank you folks for the guidance as it has been a minute since i have looked into these things. Current model is a Dell insperion XXXx...vintage 2006! Has worked 100% flawless till...the other day it would NOT boot up...drive sounded like a struggling 4 banger trying to go up a hill.....it had to "repair" itself and restart 2 times before OS was operable. (hasent been shut down since....is in hibernation mood till i get a back-up) about to just that.

I do need to run excell, word, and probably do some autocad as well.

Get that back up drive hooked up and Cross your fingers. It was cool that I got the warning of Hard drive failure. I did not waste any time. Went to Best Buy and picked up a Sea gate 2TB B/U Drive. The process was simple. The only thing I didn't like was when I went to reload my Stuff on the new hard drive it was arranged differently. It all went back in. I just had to adjust to my liking. Or at least adjust to it. When I 1st got my Lap top it prompted me to create a back up. I did but the way it did was on several CD's. What a pain. Plus I couldn't find them at that time. I found them after as usual. Anyway, the B/U Drive was so much easier.

 

[Fbird]

current specs:
i# core @2.4 ghz, 6.0 g RAM, 500 gb hard drive (212 gb open)

 

[budro6968]

current specs:
i# core @2.4 ghz, 6.0 g RAM, 500 gb hard drive (212 gb open)

Go to your Windows system open and click on settings then click properties. Depending on what Windows you have. It should show your specs and what core type.

 

[Fbird]

i3 core...
half way thru file transfers to 3T external drive.

 

[Gary S]

With Intel i3, there is a lot more to know. Some I3 processors are 2 core that run 2 threads. Some are 2 core but capable of running 4 threads simultaneously. The better ones are 4 core processors. And processor speed is all over the place. And, there is a wide variation in cache size that will affect performance.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i3-processors.html

 

[78TypeLTCamaro]

I bought the following (16 gigs of RAM, SSD drive) for around $300. It is a business type of laptop and perfect for Internet browsing. This link below is only an example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteBo...543612&hash=item3fde6233be:g:zZkAAOSwtkheckwM

I got Windows 10 Pro so I am able to encrypt my drive with BitLocker and shut off Cortina, and all that big brother crap.