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Buffalo20

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Within the last 5 weeks, I lost the shop's Dell (2000) laptop and my personal MacBook (2004).

The Dell died a violent death, I swung a piece of angle iron into the saw, but apparently, I was a little closer to the Dell, than I thought, WHACK!!, it fell 4 feet and didn't bounce. I used it as a reader, the cd-rom was dead, almost all of the ports didn't work, the screen was bright and the keyboard was great used it to process pictures for work. Alas, the fall was fatal.

The MacBook was used constantly, but had been acting up, but the hard drive finally failed, at 13-14 years old, according to Apple, it not viable to fix. So that too is now gone.

So this weekend, it time to start looking for a new laptop. I have a Windows 7 based NetBook (junk) and a few iPads, but the iPads are great readers, but fall short in a lot of the areas, I need to work in.

I'm not sure which way to go, I'd like another MacBook, but Apple seems very proud of them. Most of the Windows based laptops, I've seen are either bargain basement units from unheard of manufacturers or quirky, bundle packages, that about 85% of the "features", I would never use or want.

I'd prefer to buy the laptop locally, but that may not be a viable option.
 
You might check the Apple site. Down at the bottom, in very small letters, is Refurbished.

About 15% off new price, the same warranty as new, and free shipping.
 
The back to school sales are on now. I avoid Winblows, I have moved over to Ubuntu years ago and only have a Windows Vista laptop for Astro photography..
 
Within the last 5 weeks, I lost the shop's Dell (2000) laptop and my personal MacBook (2004).

The Dell died a violent death, I swung a piece of angle iron into the saw, but apparently, I was a little closer to the Dell, than I thought, WHACK!!, it fell 4 feet and didn't bounce.


The MacBook was used constantly, but had been acting up, but the hard drive finally failed, at 13-14 years old, according to Apple, it not viable to fix.

A misfortune to lose both machines...

There's lots of pretty good Dell and HP hardware on the used market, won't cost much
to get a reasonably good replacement (Newegg offers refurbs in the $100 range). I've got good working
computers for $15 at thrift stores (but Microsoft is located 25 minutes drive from here).

Apple discards their repair stock and disclaims ability to repair as soon as legally possible,
but in any case NEVER get an Apple repair for a hard disk out of warranty! They might look in the
repair manual and find original-size-hard-drive part numbers, and then try to sell you the
13-year old refurbished 20GB drive for $203, instead of a new one, 1000 GB for $70.

Beware, too, Apple switched to Intel CPUs about the time your old machine was made; since then
they removed a lot of compatibility with older software (not all at once, but in two or three
cuts). So, it'll be a very different replacement. My brother-in-law switched from MacBook Pro
to MacBook Air... and seems happy. That's a bit of a wrench, because those lack some familiar
ports. Still, if you were happy with an old computer with its original disk, the new 'uns with
solid state disk drives are VERY friendly.

Me, I keep a few older Macs running, because I bought the software, learned it, and
don't want to change.
 
I have been buying off-lease Lenovo Thinkpad laptops for years. You can get nice, top of the line laptops a year or two old for a couple hundred dollars. The HP Elitebook's are also available off-lease and are in the same performance class. I do the same for desktop PC's and will never waste dollars on a new PC ever again. I personally have never had much luck with any Dell product.

Robert
 
Dell i3552-3240BLK 15.6" HD Laptop (Intel Pentium N3700 1.6GHz Processor, 4 GB DDR3L SDRAM, 500 GB HDD, Windows 10) Black

I can recommend as it is still working after 3 1/2 months. $250. I have been through several Chromebooks, Nextbooks and do not recommend at all. The Android based Fires are out of this world in reliability. The iPad is remarkable but very costly.

I recommend storing all files on a USB Stick, I use a 128GB. I back up the stick with a second one. I keep programs loaded to only the ones I have to use.
 
If you're used to and happy with the Apple OS then u have to get one from the fruitfarm. If u want windows, any other brand will work. I have had reliable Dell laptops running 15 years in the field in vehicles. Can't say if the newer ones are equal. I have stayed away from w7, w8, and w10 as I found the "improvements" to be user unfriendly, made only to satisfy someone at microsuck.....Wxp still does what I want. My comps work for me....I don't work for them... :>) Linux is very good also, but requires it's own apps, and there is a learning curve. Everything around here is dual boot .....If win has indigestion, u boot into linux and deal with it. If u r looking at used, like eBeast, look at newer ones with some kind of warranty as comp boards heat up and can dry out the older type of capacitors causing strange failures. Unfortunately the newest have another "improvement" called the uefi bios which will not play nice with anything but microsuck.
 
If you're used to and happy with the Apple OS then u have to get one from the fruitfarm. If u want windows, any other brand will work. I have had reliable Dell laptops running 15 years in the field in vehicles. Can't say if the newer ones are equal. I have stayed away from w7, w8, and w10 as I found the "improvements" to be user unfriendly, made only to satisfy someone at microsuck.....Wxp still does what I want. My comps work for me....I don't work for them... :>) Linux is very good also, but requires it's own apps, and there is a learning curve. Everything around here is dual boot .....If win has indigestion, u boot into linux and deal with it. If u r looking at used, like eBeast, look at newer ones with some kind of warranty as comp boards heat up and can dry out the older type of capacitors causing strange failures. Unfortunately the newest have another "improvement" called the uefi bios which will not play nice with anything but microsuck.


I surely feel the pain dealing with Windows, there should be laws against it and the company. I use W10 and have had no issues since the latest updates. I keep absolute minimum on the drive to make it easier to delete everything and reload. I wouldn't use the cloud either, will go back to paper and pencil first.
 
You'll get a million responses on that question, but generally the new stuff is pretty cheaply made. The older ThinkPads are rugged.
Mark
 
If interested, look for a used HP Z800 workstation. Loads of them around and for maybe $700 and less, you will get a top of the line $10k machine. Most come with Win7 Pro which is stable unlike the Win8/10s.
 
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