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Help! Need laptop for Mom!

post #1 of 23
7/8/12 at 5:01pm
Thread Starter 
Honestly, I don't know diddly about laptops!
Anyways, I'm looking for a laptop that I can add a SSD for a boot drive (I have a 256 M4 SSD) and keep the factory hard drive in the computer for more space.

Uses for laptop:
-General internet surfing
-Business Drawings/ layouts/spreadsheets (boring stuff)
-Windows is a must for drawing program


Price range under $1000 shipped to my door. (I have a 256 M4 SSD sitting on shelf)

Thank you!


EDIT: This will not be used for gaming. So I think battery life, performance, lighter weight would be better.

EDIT:EDIT: Dammit, why don't they say which computers have to 2 hard drive bays when shopping around?
Edited by Nick7269 - 7/8/12 at 6:14pm
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post #2 of 23
7/8/12 at 6:31pm
The requirement of two hard drive bays will severely limit your options in that price range. Are you sure your Mom needs more than 256 GB of total storage space? It doesn't sound like it based on the uses you listed.
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post #3 of 23
7/8/12 at 6:47pm
any laptop with a CD/DVD Drive can work biggrin.gif
but you will have to get rid of the CD/DVD Drive and convert it to a HDD bay

go to this site
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/
and search for the laptop one you want to buy and if there is a converter for it buy it biggrin.gif

and done now you will have a SSD as your boot drive and a Hard drive as your D drive or whatever letter you assign to it biggrin.gif

works perfect its what i'm doing i now have a ssd and hard drive in my laptop i never ever used the CD/DVD drive i always use a USB and i have a USB CD/DVD drive anyways just in case

since you want to use your own SSD don't buy a Ultrabook you cant swap the ssd on ultrabooks.

but really any laptop is a good laptop as long as it has
4GB ram or more
i3, i5, i7 CPU 3 being the worst 7 being the best
and any video card that comes with it will get the job done
and HDD storage how much ever you want

PS the laptop's on this site are sweet and custom made by you http://www.ibuypower.com/
i bought my computer from ibuypower in 2009 its still going strong biggrin.gif but i would like to build my own next time smile.gif

anyways for my mom i bought here the ASUS Transformer Prime with the keyboard it gets the job done for here she only uses
Polaris Office
Web surfing
Netflix
and gaming XD

but yea have fun searching and get here something GOOD or she will tell you its slow and lame XD
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post #4 of 23
7/8/12 at 8:45pm
Thread Starter 
I am amazed that I can't buy a laptop computer for under $1g that has room for 2 hard drives.
I guess I will buy an external dvd drive then,
thanks
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post #5 of 23
7/8/12 at 9:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick7269 View Post

I am amazed that I can't buy a laptop computer for under $1g that has room for 2 hard drives.
I guess I will buy an external dvd drive then,
thanks

There's no space in 15" and smaller laptops for 2 2.5" HDD's - only option would be a 17". Or..

You can buy 12.5-15" laptops under $1000 (some starting at $500) that can take an mSATA SSD and a standard 2.5" HDD. Ex: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211664
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226320

A lot of Lenovo's lineup has mSATA, but its becoming more common for other brands. Example: Ideapad U310, U410, Y480, Y580. Thinkpad Edge E430, E530. All the Thinkpad X/T/W laptops, excluding the X120e/X121e/X130e netbooks. Best place to start is at Lenovo direct, although *occasionally* Newegg, Best Buy, or Amazon will beat Lenovo on pricing. http://lenovo.com

Knowing roughly what screen size/resolution, weight, features etc. etc your mom would like can narrow the search down.
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post #6 of 23
7/8/12 at 10:08pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for the reply.

Let me explain. Her computer is dead and I thought I would just buy her a replacement and mail it to her. So I thought it would be cool if I could get her a laptop, add a 256 SSD as the boot drive, and have a larger drive with more space. I thought it would be easy. My bad, I don't know anything about laptops.


I guess I need to look at another plan.
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post #7 of 23
7/8/12 at 10:15pm
Sounds like she needs an ultrabook and why does she need extra HDD since from the information you are giving us she will barely use up a ~128gb SSD. Here are some examples of ultrabooks
http://www.newegg.com/ultrabooks/?Tpk=ultrabook
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post #8 of 23
7/8/12 at 10:18pm
I would suggest an AMD E450 or E350.
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post #9 of 23
7/8/12 at 10:51pm
Thread Starter 
LOL, sorry guys...I needed to educate myself a bit here. I found this very informative redface.gif
http://www.coolpctips.com/2012/03/laptops-vs-netbooks-vs-ultrabooks-whats-the-main-difference/
I guess I was expecting something something like a desktop replacement. After reading the short article a Ultrabook might be better for her needs with a external hard drive to save larger files to.
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post #10 of 23
7/8/12 at 10:53pm
Yeah that would be your best bet.
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