Looking for a good laptop for 13 year old daughter

[Chiefthawk]

She will use for school (office suite), surfing and she would like it to be able to play minecraft. Don't want to pay much because she is not very responsible yet with her things. Maybe $250 to $300 max? Possible?
Thanks,
Chief

 

[Puffnstuff]

Minecraft is not a very demanding game and any run of the mill laptop can do it. I would suggest that you try your local walmart and see what they have on sale. My local store had several very inexpensive models on display yesterday that you might consider. You might also consider this one with a quad core pentium http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Flyer-...ory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/41122950.

 

[RossMAN]

I know it's $30 over your budget but this should last a while:

http://slickdeals.net/f/7843073-ins...-15-6-500gb-hdd-win-8-1-330-free-shipping?v=1

 

[Chiefthawk]

Found this last night too, how does it stack up against the Dell?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavi...lack/8827026.p?id=1219371333759&skuId=8827026

 

[Puffnstuff]

Stick an intel based system to get the best performance.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not those atom-derived pentium quads though. Ew.

Check wikipedia for haswell based ulv cpus to know which models to look for.

 

[Puffnstuff]

The little atom in my asus transformer turns a wei of 4.2 lol.

 

[Chiefthawk]

So I went with a Dell Inpirion (http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-1...0055-4485850-aa92bce6c7b34a25bc5d0af9f815201b) purchased through Dell. They first said it would ship in a few days. Then I got an email that it would not ship until the end of the month. Today I get a cancellation email. I call and get unbelievably bad customer service She was short, rude and didn't care one bit. This was for my daughters birthday and now we have nothing for her. I will never deal with Dell again.
Back to the drawing board.

 

[Chiefthawk]

Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232375

or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232278

 

[midwestfisherman]

The HP Stream 13 is not a bad budget laptop.

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...1788&007=Search&008=&025=c&026=#!&TabName=vao

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232375

or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232278

ASUS by a mile.

Swapping in an SSD would be money well spent, if you can afford it. But if you can't it's still a pretty solid machine.

 

[RossMAN]

Thoughts on this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232375

or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232278

Neither but if you really had to choose, I'd get the Asus.

Do you have any Fry's Electronics near you?

If you do, they have a few laptops on sale (after coupon code which is free and easy to obtain). The following prices are after coupon code.

$397 http://www.frys.com/product/8245246?

$348 http://www.frys.com/product/8425188?

Update: Microsoft Store has the Lenovo G50 for $359 with free shipping. If you have a Microsoft Store near you they might have it in stock.

• Intel Core i5 5200U 2.20 GHz
• 6GB DDR3
• 500GB HDD
• 15.6" 1366x768 LED Display
• Intel HD Graphics 5500
• HDMI
• 1 x USB 3.0
• 2 x USB 2.0
• Bluetooth + WiFi
• 4-Cell Battery
• Windows 8.1

Do not think/hesitate/research, buy this now.

 

[sm625]

I'm not sold on the atoms for minecraft. Minecraft players like to run various mods and once you have a few of them it can start to bog down. My kid has a 4.4GHz G3258 and it absolutely screams through minecraft, but I notice the cpu usage does tend to go well over 50%. So I'm thinking an atom core might choke. I think I'm going to set his cpu to 800 MHz when he's not looking, and see how it affects his gameplay. 800MHz haswell is pretty much equivalent to 2.4GHz atom so that might be a good proxy for performance. But I get the feeling he's going to be complaining.

 

[Puffnstuff]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...EM4552&cm_lm=6365ad9c2cb87df3aaf4052c0d4445e0 get in on the special before it expires.

 

[frozentundra123456]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...EM4552&cm_lm=6365ad9c2cb87df3aaf4052c0d4445e0 get in on the special before it expires.

Are you serious? If there is anything worse than atom it is that E1. Either of those from Fry's that Rossman suggerted would be far superior.

Edit: or that G50 looks nice.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...EM4552&cm_lm=6365ad9c2cb87df3aaf4052c0d4445e0 get in on the special before it expires.

The price is nice, but there's Slow, Damn Slow, and then there's AMD...

 

[Puffnstuff]

Come on we're talking about a machine who's worst task will be to play minecraft plus the price is super low. I'm fairly certain that my atom based asus transformer would outperform it across the board however, for the money it's hard to beat it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Come on we're talking about a machine who's worst task will be to play minecraft plus the price is super low. I'm fairly certain that my atom based asus transformer would outperform it across the board however, for the money it's hard to beat it.

But it *not* that cheap. I got a full power mobile ivy bridge (2.4 ghz, i3 something or other) at Best Buy for 360.00. That E1 is 1.3ghz with no turbo.

 

[RossMAN]

http://slickdeals.net/f/7866455-ace...it-keyboard-359-or-323-with-free-shipping?v=1

I would still buy previously mentioned Lenovo G50 instead.

 

[RossMAN]

Dell Inspiron 15 for $230 after rebate act fast before it sells out!

Intel Core i3-5005U
4GB DDR3
500GB HDD
15.6" 1366x768 Touchscreen Display
Intel HD Graphics 5500
Dell Wireless-N + Bluetooth 4.0
4-Cell 40WHr Battery
Windows 8.1

Edit: As predicted it's no longer available, great price assuming they don't cancel/backorder all the orders.

 

[RossMAN]

$257 http://www.frys.com/product/8135425? after e-mail promo code. Not the greatest specs in the world though.

Asus D550MAV-DB01 Notebook

Operating System: Windows® 8.1
Processor: Intel Dual Core N2830
Memory: 4GB
Display: 15.6” Screen
Storage Drive: 500GB Hard Drive
Optical Drive: DVDRW

 

[r0n]

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.316334000

 

[xgsound]

A month late but here is something to consider. A $229 ASUS at Walmart. http://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Blac...ory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/43280208

My neighbor recently got one when their 1 week old HP screen broke and I set it up. It works better than the HP did and is more than adequate for internet, YouTube, and actual schoolwork. The good is it has a DVD, 4GB mem, HDMI, 15.6 screen, and good battery life. The shakiest thing I see is that disassembly is required even for battery replacement.

For the price I was amazed. It sounds the same as the Rossman ASUS with a different #.

Jim

 

[dave_the_nerd]

A month late but here is something to consider. A $229 ASUS at Walmart. http://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-Blac...ory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/43280208

My neighbor recently got one when their 1 week old HP screen broke and I set it up. It works better than the HP did and is more than adequate for internet, YouTube, and actual schoolwork. The good is it has a DVD, 4GB mem, HDMI, 15.6 screen, and good battery life. The shakiest thing I see is that disassembly is required for battery replacement.

For the price I was amazed. It sounds the same as the Rossman ASUS with a different #.

Jim

CPU is crap.

100Mb Ethernet? That's crippled on purpose.

768p monitor @ 15.6"? Pixels the size of golf balls.