Used Laptop advice

[dudeman05]

I'm looking at a laptop at a local used computer store. I believe it's the same as this laptop at this link. Atleast what I know for sure is that it's a Dell i7 - 4600u, there's 16 gb of ram, 2.1 ghz processor (not sure how many cores, and it has a NVIDIA GT 720M. Price is 650, i may be able to negotiate down. Is it a good deal? How's the GPU?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Latitude-E5540-Laptop-i7-4600U-2-1GHz-16GB-ram-128GB-SSD-Win-7-Fingerprint-/261711183882

 

[metalicgeek]

The GPU is mediocre, and most laptops at the price range have GeForce 920M or 840/940M graphics cards. The i7 CPU and 1080p screen are a nice touch, as is the 16GB of RAM (though most people will never actually need this) and the SSD. If you do not plan on gaming heavily and instead will use this for work or watching movies, it's a good choice.

 

[dudeman05]

The GPU is mediocre, and most laptops at the price range have GeForce 920M or 840/940M graphics cards. The i7 CPU and 1080p screen are a nice touch, as is the 16GB of RAM (though most people will never actually need this) and the SSD. If you do not plan on gaming heavily and instead will use this for work or watching movies, it's a good choice.

At $650, includes a 920M or 840/940? I've personally never seen that.. maybe I don't know the best places to get deals, but I seem to find that at sub-1000, you always get integrated graphics, 4 - 8 gb of ram, and an i3 or i5, or an AMD

 

[tropical8878]

The 820m is one of the lowest end mobile gpus around, but it will still perform somewhat decently in most games on low settings.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-820M.108477.0.html

 

[velo3100]

Apart from the gpu being poor, it is an ok deal. I would try to lower the price as the gpu is old.

 

[MasterHiFi]

Wow, maybe I'm out of the loop, but that looks like a pretty nice configuration to me. I'm not a big fan of Dell per se, reliability-wise, but I believe most people here would place greater weight on the CPU and RAM over the GPU.

It's unlikely you're ever going to upgrade the processor during the life of the computer, but upgrading the graphics card is pretty common, and given that you are comfortable in the used market (as am I) this can be done rather inexpensively. And as previous posts have noted, except for hard core gaming, that card will do everything else very nicely.

An i7 with 16GB of RAM on the other hand is nothing to sneeze at. And if it comes with an SSD like the example you gave, then I'd say it's a very strong machine.
Add to that the security of local professional service, and IMO it's a no brainer.

Others may disagree, but I'd love to hear why...

 

[naturesninja]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-15-6-Inch-Notebook-i5-5200U-Graphics/dp/B00YRY8KDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441921543&sr=8-1&keywords=940m <-New @ 568 quid. i5/940m/8GB RAM/1TB HDD/WINDOWS

 

[naturesninja]

Wow, maybe I'm out of the loop, but that looks like a pretty nice configuration to me. I'm not a big fan of Dell per se, reliability-wise, but I believe most people here would place greater weight on the CPU and RAM over the GPU.

It's unlikely you're ever going to upgrade the processor during the life of the computer, but upgrading the graphics card is pretty common, and given that you are comfortable in the used market (as am I) this can be done rather inexpensively. And as previous posts have noted, except for hard core gaming, that card will do everything else very nicely.

An i7 with 16GB of RAM on the other hand is nothing to sneeze at. And if it comes with an SSD like the example you gave, then I'd say it's a very strong machine.
Add to that the security of local professional service, and IMO it's a no brainer.

Others may disagree, but I'd love to hear why...

You can't upgrade the CPU or GPU on 95% of laptops. Second it's an i7 u series. Not much better than an i5.

 

[MasterHiFi]

naturesninja Said:


You can't upgrade the CPU or GPU on 95% of laptops. Second it's an i7 u series. Not much better than an i5.

That was exactly what I was saying about the importance of the CPU vs. the GPU, but you make a point about the "U" series processors. Still looks like a good machine, especially if he can negotiate the price. Check out the going prices for comparable setups, and that's buying blind. He can have the peace of mind with a reputable local dealer. Still think he's doing pretty well with this offer.

MHF

 

[MasterHiFi]

naturesninja Said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-15-6-Inch-Notebook-i5-5200... <-New @ 568 quid. i5/940m/8GB RAM/1TB HDD/WINDOWS

By the way, if you're already knocking the i7 "u" series, then why are you offering an i5 "U" for $875?

Just saying.. .

 

[naturesninja]

Well, I assumed he is in the UK due to the Link he posted being ebay UK and is meaning 650 GBP since he didn't say $. But I could be wrong, his name is dudeman. Edit: I don't recall knocking anything other than saying that i7 isn't much better than it's i5 counterpart, which it's not. So give him a superior GPU for less.

 

[naturesninja]

If he was saying 650 USD, I still wouldn't recommend that to him, He could still do better for less, and new.
This would kick that things butt all over the place at $650 right now:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152877
And so would this at $540: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315065 or + 8GB Ram=$580
+120GB SSD=$640 if he really wants those things.