New $500 laptop for mother

[Geoff]

My mother is looking to upgrade her ancient Gateway laptop which was low-spec when she bought it at least 6-7 years ago (2GB RAM, 250GB HD, Pentium CPU, 1360x768 resolution). She wants a new laptop for basic tasks like email and web browsing, and wants it to be under $500. Her only other requirement is that it's 15.6".

I found this on Amazon that looks pretty good for $499 (at least it was yesterday): http://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-573G-15-6-Inch-GeForce-Windows/dp/B012IBOCRU/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1454618584&sr=1-4&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin:2423841011,p_n_feature_eighteen_browse-bin:6819965011,p_n_feature_four_browse-bin:2289792011|2289793011|2289794011,p_n_operating_system_browse-bin:12035945011|7529233011,p_n_feature_five_browse-bin:7817224011|13580791011|13580790011,p_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin:9521925011|9521924011,p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:9647486011

CPU: i5 5200U 2.2GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3
HD: 1TB 5400RPM
Display: 15.6" 1920x1080
GPU: nVidia 940M 2GB
OS: Windows 10

Any thoughts on this, or any alternatives?

 

[johnb35]

I don't think she needs a dedicated video card, does she?

 

[beers]

I don't think she needs a dedicated video card, does she?

That's what I was thinking, you could probably save a small chunk of change by just using the iGPU (or reinvest the difference into other areas), which is pretty capable of handling everything multimedia and even light gaming.

I'd try to spring for a DDR4 system if it's not too cost-prohibitive as you'll have that higher RAM ceiling that might expand the usable life of the system down the road.

 

[Geoff]

I don't think she needs a dedicated video card, does she?

That's what I was thinking, you could probably save a small chunk of change by just using the iGPU (or reinvest the difference into other areas), which is pretty capable of handling everything multimedia and even light gaming.

I'd try to spring for a DDR4 system if it's not too cost-prohibitive as you'll have that higher RAM ceiling that might expand the usable life of the system down the road.

No she doesn't, but the rest of the specs to me looked good for $500, and the 940 is just a little something extra. I wasn't able to find anything else comparable for less money.

 

[johnb35]

Newegg has it for $499. Probably where you saw it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315131

But yeah its probably the best thing for the buck I guess. Newegg doesn't have anything better cheaper.

 

[Quinn O'Brien]

Definitely not a bad buy but I think, especially for your mother, a $250 laptop with a 500 gb SSD upgrade would be the same price and much much faster.

 

[Grantapus]

Definitely not a bad buy but I think, especially for your mother, a $250 laptop with a 500 gb SSD upgrade would be the same price and much much faster.

Your right, just what i was thinking.

she might not need a 1 TB HDD, maybe a computer with a 350-500 GB SSD would be better.

just sayin', i dont really know what she needs.

 

[DMGrier]

she might not need a 1 TB HDD, maybe a computer with a 350-500 GB SSD would be better.

SSD's are awesome, however still very pricey. A 1TB HDD spinner is still far cheaper then a 250 GB SSD. I am a big believer in SSD's which is what I run in all of my computers (still HDD in my servers) but when dealing with a somewhat tight budget I always opt for the tried and true spinner.

 

[Grantapus]

SSD's are awesome, however still very pricey. A 1TB HDD spinner is still far cheaper then a 250 GB SSD. I am a big believer in SSD's which is what I run in all of my computers (still HDD in my servers) but when dealing with a somewhat tight budget I always opt for the tried and true spinner.

Yeah.

 

[Geoff]

I ended up formatting the drive and installing Windows 10. The specs she has now aren't that bad by today's standards, it's a Pentium Dual Core, 4GB RAM, and 320GB HD. A lot of the $300-$400 laptops I've found aren't much of an upgrade anyways. So far it's working much better for her.