My Old Laptop Is Dying and I Need to Replace It - Budget $2,000

johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 12:37
Last edited 20/01/2025 - 15:19 by 1 other user

Sorry, I know this topic gets posted day after day, but I need the help of the hive mind.

Currently have a 7 year old HP Spectre 360 which I bought in 2017 as reconditioned. It has served me well over those years with no problems. But is now getting blue screen of death occasionally, only has 8gb memory, and HDD is down to 80% performance according to Hard Disk Sentinel, though 100% healthy. It is not upgradable to Win 11, and in any case, I suspect its life expectancy is reaching its end.

My computing needs are reasonably simple, I do a lot of genealogy research, so constantly online, running databases, excel spreadsheets, etc, plus I watch youtube videos, read the news, etc, etc. Do not play games. I have lots of zoom meetings and constantly get low resources warnings if I try to use the second screen, or open other pages to get information while on the zoom call. I have some huge excel sheets of births, deaths and marriages, and have had to split those into small files to be able to access them. Also enough power to run the second screen, and even a third if I get lucky with the finances one day.

Ideally, I want something similar but with at least 16gb - preferably 32gb - to stay ahead of increasing demands, ideally a 1tb hdd, at least I7 processor which I currently have, decent screen as my eyesight is not so good these days. It does not need to leave the house, as I have a small reconditioned Lenovo laptop I bought off ebay which I use for travelling. Only cost $160 bucks so if it gets lost or stolen, I have no problems. It only has a copy of my genealogy database on it. I have considered investigating repairing the HP Spectre to use as a basic travel computer, given it is lightweight.

Friend of mine has recently bought an Asus Vivabook 14 and she is quite happy with that. I think they only have 16gb memory. Need to check it out.

TIA for any assistance you may be able to offer. Sorry it is too long a post for a few people here, but I don't do brief when asking for help as people need information to comment effectively :-)

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • klaw81 on 20/01/2025 - 12:45
    +5

    I don't have a specific suggestion for you, but I would strongly suggest you update your question with the following extra information:

    1. Maximum spend you're willing to contemplate;
    2. Minimum and maximum screen size you'd prefer?
    3. Are you willing to consider used or refurbished devices?
    4. And perhaps most important of all - are you willing to consider switching to a Mac?
    • johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 13:44

      Sorry, I did mean to put a budget in - ideally under $2000. The refurbished HP cost me $1700 and was the most expensive computer I had ever bought, and I have had a lot since the first IBM PC clone came out.

      As the laptop won't be leaving the house, screen size is not an issue and given my eyesight, probably anything up to around 17" would work.

      As my current HP was refurbished, I would probably consider again, if I could find a reliable supplier.

      I am definitely not and never will be an Apple person. In any case my family history software will not run on a Mac, other than with a windows emulator. Whilst I am no dummy, I am not tech savvy enough to negotiate problems like that. I have been a Microsoft person almost since the first IBM PC came out in 1981. I had one foray into using a Mac when I worked for an Orthopedic Specialst as his practice manager back in the 1990s. His wife installed two Macs in the office, so I had no choice. I only used it for word processing, and managed, but was so glad to walk away from that.

      • bargaino on 20/01/2025 - 14:19
        +1

        cost me $1700 and was the most expensive computer I had ever bought, and I have had a lot since the first IBM PC clone came out.

        I find that hard to believe, certainly if you correct for inflation. A cheap PC clone cost thousands of dollars back in the 90s, which would be double that in today's money.
        Like $500 for a cheap motherboard & cpu, $500 for RAM, $500 for monitor, … And anything much more than a couple of years old was obsolete.

        Now you are looking at $500 total for used PC plus new monitor. Bargain!

        Something along this line: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/196837719929

        • johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 16:12
          +1

          Yes, you are right, adjusting for inflation, I probably did pay a lot more for my first IBM PC clone some time in the early 80's. I don't remember what I paid, but it would not have been thousands, as I did not have a job that paid well back then, along with the fact that I had just built a house and had a crippling mortgage.

          I do remember paying $599 around 1988 for one of the early hard disk drives and if my memory serves me correctly, it was only 20 mb!! But it sure beat shuffling floppy disks.

          Prior to the IBM clone, I had a Commodore 64 as my first computer.

  • bargaino on 20/01/2025 - 12:56
    +3

    Nice to see someone giving detail when asking advice!! :)

    Ideally, I want … preferably 32gb - to stay ahead of increasing demands, ideally a 1tb hdd, at least I7 processor

    No you don't. Forget i5/i7 branding, your newer model will be much faster regsardless. You will not notice 16 vs 32GB either. 1TB may be nice, but they are easily upgradable, and an external backup drive may be better than an upgrade anyway.

    decent screen as my eyesight is not so good these days.
    It does not need to leave the house,

    So why a laptop? I recommend one of the micro form factor (aka USFF) ex-office PCs that are here often, plus a nice big external monitor.

    • CrispyChrispy on 20/01/2025 - 13:00
      +3

      Yeah OP would get much better bang for buck and save their eyes if they go with a desktop + monitor setup

      Those ex-corp refurb PCs should be more than adequate, pair that with a nice 1440p 27" or 4K 32" and OP will be flying

    • Public21 on 20/01/2025 - 14:58
      +1

      So why a laptop?

      Agree with this. I have family members who insist they need a laptop and it never leaves the desk.

      For less than $300 you can get an i5 9-series USFF that is three years old , with 16gb memory, 1TB SSD and WIN11-Pro. (just bought one similar for home automation). Spend 5 or 6-hundred on a reasonable quality monitor (or two) that will last you for the next few PCs… a good mechanical keyboard and a Logitech MX Master mouse - and you will still be way under $2k, but with a lot more grunt.

      • klaw81 on 20/01/2025 - 15:13

        And when you next need an upgrade, you only need to replace the PC box, not the display and peripherals as well.

        OP needs to seriously consider how much a laptop is needed. Working with a proper mouse, keyboard and screen is a huge upgrade in comfort and ergonomics, you're almost certain to get an improvement in workflow efficiency through sheer screen real estate, and the box is so small it can be tucked away behind the screen for a very clean install.

        I'd suggest the following loadout:

        $900 Refurb USFF PC for 10th gen i7 with 16GB RAM and SSD.
        $425 27" 1440p business-class monitor (Dell Factory Outlet is my preferred supplier for great prices)
        $200 good quality wireless mechanical keyboard
        $125 good quality wireless mouse (Logitech MX Master is king)
        $50 webcam

        $1700 gets you a really good setup with a clear upgrade path for any component.

        If you must have a laptop, this is a decent deal: https://www.dell.com/en-au/outlet/refurbished-latitude-16-76…

      • johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 15:59

        It does not have to be a laptop. I have been thinking about going back to a desktop again. After my last desktop power supply blew up way back in 2011, I went to a laptop as it did not take up so much space. I am still using that old laptop as a backup but is mainly used for my scanning station with an overhead scanner. I recently had a new ssd and memory installed along with upgrading to Win10. It is also useful as it has a built in CD drive, though I have almost no use for CD/DVD's now. But I do have a lot of old data CD's and backups on CD that I am slowly sorting through and copying stuff I want to keep to a SSD drive.

        Where did you buy your USFF? The idea of getting one of those and a bigger screen does appeal. My current second screen is only 24 inch which I have had for a few years now.

        • klaw81 on 20/01/2025 - 16:55

          Where did you buy your USFF?

          There are heaps of companies selling refurbished ex-government or ex-lease USFF units. They usually come with a money-back guarantee and a short warranty.

          Here's a couple examples of units that might be suitable:
          https://reboot-it.com.au/collections/desktop-pcs/products/le…
          https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/dell-optiplex-7…

          And while we're at it, here's an example of the kind of nice monitor (with integrated webcam, microphone and speakers) that would complement that desktop beautifully: https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/dell-c3422we-34…

        • Public21 on 20/01/2025 - 18:33

          As well as the outlets listed by @klaw81, there is UNTech and Metrocom. They also list on eBay and some of their promotional discounts are attractive.

          I recently bought this one through Metrocom ($239 on special):
          https://metrocom.com.au/shop/computers-tablets-networking/de…

          Looking at what tasks you are doing, a more modern i5 & SSD would be far superior to your old i7, especially with additional memory. An i5 10, 11,or 12 series with 32gb of RAM is going to be able to handle your spreadsheets much better than your existing laptop.

          Within your $2k budget you could get a series 13 i5 and a couple of nice 28" monitors and have spare change. I've had Lenovo and Dell micros and they are both good, but I just lean towards the Lenovo - can't really say why!

  • Transient on 20/01/2025 - 12:59
    +3

    You should ensure it has a SSD to allow faster loading of operating system and any programs you use often. This can be added later provided it has the correct port eg, M.2 and you are happy to DIY. Plenty of videos on Youtube to show you how. So you can buy a laptop with a HDD then add a SSD or buy one with a large enough SSD.
    M.2 NVME SSDs are probably the way to go.

    • CrispyChrispy on 20/01/2025 - 13:01
      +4

      You won't find any modern laptop shipping with HDDs nowadays, letalone 2.5" SSDs/bays unless you're looking at the beefy gaming laptops.

  • jv on 20/01/2025 - 13:11

    But is now getting blue screen of death occasionally

    reinstall windows

    • MS Paint on 20/01/2025 - 13:23

      The HDD is probably near capacity as well resulting in BSOD.

      • jv on 20/01/2025 - 13:24
        +1

        Oh No !!!!!!!!!!!

      • johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 13:55

        58.3 GB free of 464 GB

        If you think that might be causing the problem, I can fix that easily. Just been awhile since I transferred a lot of stuff off the laptop to portable SSD storage.

        Fault is something to do with fault in nonpaged area and rtsper.sys or something like that. Cannot find the bit of paper I wrote it down on. I have checked memory etc, and other things suggested on google search of error.

        Thank you. I will get that sorted and see if it makes a difference.

  • johninmelb on 20/01/2025 - 14:01

    JV, yes, but I am not sure how to go about that at the moment.

    I have no disks, and guess that Win10 installation is on the recovery partition of the hard drive. I need to clean a lot of stuff off the laptop and make sure everything is backed up, etc, etc. Maybe too much potential for something to go horribly wrong, and leave me unable to recover from it.

    But not saying no, just need to proceed with caution and work out how to do it safely.

    • MS Paint on 20/01/2025 - 14:37

      Just use this link to create a W10 media installation USB. Follow the instructions. Too easy. It will also auto activate if your current version is activated.

  • altomic on 20/01/2025 - 14:43

    why not upgrade the RAM and a new m2 SSD ?

    some HP Spectre 360 have a RAM slot/ some are soldered.

    Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD $189 + Delivery from scroptec
    Crucial 16GB (1x16GB) $42 + delivery from Umart

    and then reinstall windows

  • JimB on 20/01/2025 - 17:13

    If it never leaves the house, I suggest getting an ex-corporate machine and a 27inch QHD monitor, much better than using a laptop.

    I've purchased a MacBook Air M3 for my kid's school device, unless I really need a windows laptop for whatever reason, I'd get a MacBook Air over Windows laptop in future. So well built, silent and great battery life. The price was much lower than I expected too ($1,400 with 16GB ram)

    • eccaz on 20/01/2025 - 17:17

      Must be nice.

      • JimB on 20/01/2025 - 17:20

        Super nice, beautiful screen too.

        I always thought the price of Macs were excessive but $1,400 is decent. Everyone who have had Macbooks for school says it lasts them many years.

  • shaybisc on 20/01/2025 - 17:41

    https://www.humancentric.com/products/thin-mount-bracket-for…

    I would go for a setup like this with a mini pc.

  • eccaz on 20/01/2025 - 18:06

    If you like the freedom to move around and would prefer a laptop to a desktop, I’d recommend a 15+” screen, here are some examples of machines that would satisfy your needs:

    New Lenovo - https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpade/le…

    2nd hand HP Spectre - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/276646355835

    2nd hand Dell XPS - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/186479256846

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