Question laptop for school

[tuvsh]

Hi all!

I am looking for a laptop for school. These are the requirements I need. Win 10, 8gb of ram, I7 processor, 500gb SSD, a webcam and microphone. I saw a bunch but I do not know which would be best bang for buck. I would prefer a laptop which has great battery life but it is not such a big need,( meaning if it would cost a lot less I can do without it). I would like it to be somewhere between $500 - $1000 if possible.



Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a wonderful day/night!



All the best!

 

[yqd321]

Dell XPS 13(great reviews)
Surface laptop 1 and 2 (great deals come and go in the microsoft store)
Acer Swift 3 (best cheap)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L1CN3NZ/ref=psdc_13896615011_t3_B07N7133F8
Asus Zenbook 13 (best I could find for $1000)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QWLXCC7/ref=psdc_13896615011_t2_B07KYHVR1Z
Buy any one of these through a great deal

 

[Seaweed Monster]

I'd recommend the Acer Spin 3 I've linked below. It has great hardware with an i7-8565U, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 500GB SSD storage and a 1080p display.

It is pretty portable, being a 14inch laptop and has some pretty neat features, like:

• Backlit keyboard
• Adaptable display for tablet-like usage, if you wish
• Rechargeable stylist
• Fingerprint reader
• Battery life is between a realistic average of 4-8 hours (depending on usage - according to reviews)

Price is $809.99 - so, saving a little bit of cash, but it comes with everything you have asked for.

Amazon link:https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Convert...mputers-intl-ship&sr=1-4&th=1#customerReviews

Note - I'd avoid some of the Asus Zenbooks, they're in theory good, but reviews show they seem to lack in build quality and reliablility.

 

[tuvsh]

Thank you for the reply's!
I found this Acer swift 5( I have no idea what the diff between Acer 3 and 5 is) but I do not think I will need 16 gb of Ram. I am not doing any major graphics or the like, I am going into cyber security. I will ask my professor if he thinks it is needed. Assuming not, is there difference in this one and Acer swift 3 that Seaweed Monster suggested, besides the price drop and the Ram?

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Spin-WL...id=2528832011&s=pc&sprefix=lap,aps,156&sr=1-1

Thank you and All the best!

 

[tuvsh]

Oh! Sry! 4.6 GHz core vs 1.8, is that a game changer?

 

[Seaweed Monster]

There are some key differences between the two that do make an impact:

• RAM configuration:
  • The Acer Spin 5 only has 8GB's of RAM in a single DIM slot. This essentially means the system is running in single-channel memory mode and does have an impact on performance, as the system is not performing efficiently as it could be or to its fastest speed. 8GB's of RAM is sufficient, but not ideal or recommended in a single-channel memory configuration.
    
    
  • The Acer Spin 3 has 16GB's of RAM, 8GB's soldered onto the motherboard and 8GB's taking up a memory one DIM slot, this will mean that the system is in a dual-channel memory configuration, essentially allowing for better all-round performance. Also, 16GB's of RAM gives you a much better outlook for the future, simply giving you better future-proofing benefits and you never know, your requirement now may change in a 12 months time. With computer hardware, you have to think about it in the sense of setting yourself up for the future and not reacting to your changing requirements when the time comes, as that can be expensive.
    
    You can look on YouTube the differences between single-channel memory and dual-channel memory, if you want to find out more. However, for the extra $40, the dual-channel memory and 16GB's of memory is worth it with the Acer Spin 3
    
• Processor/CPU:
  • The processor in the Acer Spin 3 is indeed faster and a newer generation of processor from Intel (Whiskey Lake)
    https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8565U-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8550U/m591977vsm320742
  • The processor in the Acer Spin 5 is still good, but it is an older and slower generation of chip and as I mentioned above, from a hardware perspective, you want the best hardware for the money and the Acer Spin 5 does not deliver that
    
    Your point about 4.6Ghz vs 1.8Ghz. It is not entirely correct. The base clock speed for the i7-8565U on all four cores is 1.8Ghz, but, the system can boost all four cores to 4.1 GHz if needed (depending on your usage and heat). The 4.6Ghz clock speed is based on a boost clock speed for only one core of the four cores.
    
    Like before, for an extra $40 a faster and newer processor is worth it.
    
• Storage:
  • The storage in the Acer Spin 3 uses an NVMe PCIe SSD. This superior to an SSD that uses the SATA interface. See below for Read and Write speed differences between SATA SSD storage and an NVMe SSD that uses a PCIe interface. In short, the NVMe PCIe SSD can offer Write speeds up to 4x faster and up to 6x faster Read speeds than a SATA SSD :
    https://www.atpinc.com/blog/nvme-vs-sata-ssd-pcie-interface
    
    
  • The Acer Spin 5 does not state what kind of SSD it is using, so I can only assume it is a SATA or M.2 SSD.

A bit long-winded, but I hope this helps!

 

[tuvsh]

Thank you very much for the info and for spending time to help me!

All the best!

 

[yqd321]

Oh! Sry! 4.6 GHz core vs 1.8, is that a game changer?

They all are 1.8 GHz with a max frequency of 4.6
So no difference

 

[Seaweed Monster]

They all are 1.8 GHz with a max frequency of 4.6
So no difference

Partly correct, the base clocks are the same, but the the i7-8565u has a higher boost clock speed compared to the i7-8550u

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-8565U-SoC.317500.0.html