Buying Laptop for son doing B.Tech in CA (Programming)

rohitshakti

Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Hi friends
My son is doing B.Tech in Computer Application. Pls suggest me one new or old or open piece laptop which I can buy in California upto $400 max. I don't want SSD only HDD as it would be cheaper. But I do need good battery life and a 8th Generation processor.

What are refurnished laptops and are they reliable?

Does any co gives international warranty too on laptops?

No idea about rest of the configuration as I HV not purchased any laptop till now but it should be such that it should be sufficient for next 4-5 years during his study in programming.

1. What is your budget - Max $400

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering - 14 - 16 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want - Preferably Full HD

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop - Add on laptop

5. How much battery life do you need - It should be good to work on for 7-8 hours

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High) - Medium or low

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) - Programming, Algorithm Analysis & Design Lab, data structure, Computer Graphics, computer networking etc (Course curriculum of B.Tech Computer Science)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need - 1TB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links - NIL

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop - 5 yrs

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc - DVD RW

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons - Any brand with international warranty (India) else others companies without warranty will also work.

13. What country do you live in - India

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. - Prefer with M.2 port and RAM should be at least 8 GB DDR - IV.


Regards
 
Feb 25, 2011
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$400 and HDD equipped? Any netbook.

Your other requirements (8th gen CPU, 8 hr battery life, etc.) are well into Ultrabook™ territory, and would need you to at least double (probably triple) your budget.

But most of those don't come with optical drives. I'd suggest a cheap external.

Does his school have any recommendations? That's usually where I'd start.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Check out the HP EliteBook on ShellShocker at Newegg today for $320? 8GB / 256GB SSD, 4th-gen i5. (REFURB!)
 

rohitshakti

Member
Mar 31, 2009
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$400 and HDD equipped? Any netbook.

Your other requirements (8th gen CPU, 8 hr battery life, etc.) are well into Ultrabook™ territory, and would need you to at least double (probably triple) your budget.

But most of those don't come with optical drives. I'd suggest a cheap external.

Does his school have any recommendations? That's usually where I'd start.

How about this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=8YR3W5SFPGEW2RSTHJ36
 

rohitshakti

Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Only 6GB of RAM? You need 16.

It's more important if you cripple storage/paging performance by not getting an SSD.

Then what do you suggest as you are much more experienced than me as I won't be able to stretch my budget much.

And till now I hav'nt purchased any refurnished item. I have also heard of factory refurnished laptops.
How reliable are Refurnished laptops, is any type of warranty for 3-6 months available on them?

If available with decent configuration, I can buy factory refurnished or open box items.

Regards
 
Last edited:
Feb 25, 2011
16,777
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Maybe a used Dell E6440 - you should be able to get one and upgrade the ram/HDD so it's useful.

It won't have anywhere near the battery life you want, though.

You can get a barely good enough laptop that you'll need to upgrade/replace in a couple years, or you can stretch your budget now and get something that will last. But expecting a $400 laptop of any kind to last 5+ years while being used for fairly heavy-duty work is... it's a toughie.
 

rohitshakti

Member
Mar 31, 2009
44
0
61
Maybe a used Dell E6440 - you should be able to get one and upgrade the ram/HDD so it's useful.

It won't have anywhere near the battery life you want, though.

You can get a barely good enough laptop that you'll need to upgrade/replace in a couple years, or you can stretch your budget now and get something that will last. But expecting a $400 laptop of any kind to last 5+ years while being used for fairly heavy-duty work is... it's a toughie.

You mean something as this but adding ram and HDD will cost another$100 and it will be far above my budget.

Isn't it better to add SSD to Asus lappy above and use it else suggest with a link.

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/dell-latitude-e6440-138136.html

Else does any of these look good which you would recommend over the Asus one

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/search...eration Core i5&sp=-bestsellingsort skuidsaas
 
Last edited:

kritisharma

Junior Member
Aug 29, 2018
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There are many good laptops available in the market that suits your pocket and fulfill your requirements. For example,
  • Apple MacBook Pro 13.3″ Notebook
  • Lenovo 330- 15IkBR 81DE 15.6 Notebook