Need a laptop recommendation under $400

[Illusio]

My father-in-law is needing to get a new laptop (his is going on 6 years old and slow as hell). He tends to just buy whatever is cheapest at the store, but I told him I'd find something in his budget.

Mostly just needs it to run MS Office, Email, Web Surfing, doing real estate stuff and other day-to-day activities.

Probably at least 15" screen.

Any recommendations?

 

[ninaholic37]

What does he have now? A reformat / clean install might be enough to make it quick again, as his needs don't sound too demanding.

 

[Illusio]

Trying to remember, but I think it's a old Celeron toshiba he got on a black friday deal many years ago. Has about 2GB of ram.

 

[ahenkel]

You might try an SSD. I have a similar celeron toshiba that was useless till I dropped an SSD in it. I just put a cheap 64gb one in mine I think I spent $45.00 on it.

 

[RossMAN]

I have a few recommendations but I'm about to leave for work, will update later.

 

[Illusio]

You might try an SSD. I have a similar celeron toshiba that was useless till I dropped an SSD in it. I just put a cheap 64gb one in mine I think I spent $45.00 on it.

I definitely don't want to tinker with his laptop. It would quickly turn into one of those where every future problem with the computer would be my fault. I'd rather just shoot him a recommendation and call it a day.

 

[xgsound]

I definitely don't want to tinker with his laptop. It would quickly turn into one of those where every future problem with the computer would be my fault. I'd rather just shoot him a recommendation and call it a day.

You have a valid point there! That (tinkerer) is my position in the family, but I have the time for it.
Here is a 15.6" Dell I3 at Costco currently for $349. http://www.costco.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-3000-Series-Laptop-|-Intel-Core-i3.product.100151551.html It should be available elsewhere also at a similar price.

Jim

 

[gmaster456]

I second the Inspiron 15.

Even something like this Quad Core Pentium would suffice although if you have a costco I would go with the i3 machine.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.309175200

I tend to gravitate towards buying things from the microsoft store as machines come completely free of bloatware improving out of the box performance. Free shipping and returns is also nice.

If you can splurge an extra $50 this Haswell i5 acer would be a good machine for quite a few years.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.308795800

 

[Illusio]

Thanks, I'll check those out. Is the touch screen on the Acer worth the extra money? Not sure how much people actually use a touch screen on a lappy.