BelowAverage

My link is the newer Pavilion Power with the white backlight, not the green one. It was made of metal, what was the issue with it? Also, here's an Acer model I found: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834316369

No requirements other than the 6 listed in my OP, an average customer is looking for an average laptop to replace an incredibly slow one that supplements a nice Ryzen desktop I built them. Smaller is nicer, but once again, both sizes are acceptable.

amazon.com, walmart.com, bestbuy.com, staples.com and the manufacturer's US websites are all good places to look.

Just like many posts here, I'm hoping some intelligent forum browser can help me figure out the mess of the laptop market. I need to find a laptop with specific features for a customer: Number Pad Processor at least a 7200U, but prefer an 8th Gen Intel or 7th Gen HQ Series, or equivalent Ryzen. Durable Construction, e.g. Soft Touch or Metal, etc. (Not that 2012 era plastic-y crap) 8 GB RAM SSD, minimum 120 GB Sub $1000, Preferably below $800. Nice-to-haves, but not required: Some form of Windows Hello, e.g. Fingerprint or IR Camera Keyboard Light Nicer Full HD Screen Through horribly laid out and infinitely redirecting websites, I've found these exemplar systems: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-300-series/Ideapad-320-15-Intel/p/80XL03RKUS https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-700-series/Ideapad-720S-15/p/81AC0008US https://smile.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-Power-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B075VT9LFD/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=0ECHKGZEJKHZ74DMF64V&th=1

I'm looking for a cheap, 2-in-1 laptop that replaces a crappy netbook for my junior and senior year of (American) high school, and possibly use into my early years of college. I'll be working in electrical and electronic engineering, so I won't need a super powerful CPU. I have my main desktop rig, so it doesn't really need capacity for heavy graphics processing. Requirements: 2-in-1 form factor, portability in a messenger bag and average durability (not a crappy slab of plastic) The ability to use an ACTIVE PEN on the display for drawing, writing, palm rejection At least 8 GB of RAM SSD Storage for fast boot and wake-ups I'm currently looking at the Lenovo FLEX 5 14-Inch 2-in-1, which seems to match all of these requirements. It's on sale now at staples for $590, I think a great deal. Am I wrong in any of this? Any better options around the price?

I've had really bad experiences with this brand of RAM in DDR3 form. I don't know if they're better now, but the kits I've had from them fail almost instantly. I don't see a reason to switch to a 1050 for $20 with such a small gain of performance. I'll stick with the Fractal case, thank you I just had an idea. Because my sister's hardest GPU task is the Sims 3, I'll probably give her my current graphics card, an R7 260X, and take the 460 for myself... hehe...

Nah, she has a special program the college gave her. Sorry. Updated the HDD to 1TB from Toshiba. Also reduced Windows 10 budget to $20... wow Reddit is amazing

I'm not sure I understand what those acronyms mean, but I know she has to use Windows. I'll look into more storage.

Updated the parts list with suggestions. Total is now $654 with rebates and a $40 Windows budget. If this build can be that cheap, great!

Don't need any overclocking or fancy stuff, what can a B350 do that an A320 can't? I'd assume it'd just add cost.

So where can I find info on these cheaper Win10 codes? Something like that seems fishy.

This is my soon to be third build, and it's for my sister's college work. I'd like any thoughts and improvements you have. Budget: Absolutely less than $800 USD including Windows 10 (Reddit...?). Preferably around a $700 limit. The budget is just for the tower and Windows, we have spares of all needed peripherals. Requirements: The system's demand is going to be lots of data crunching and statistical analysis for her college courses, with the usual Google Chrome, and Microsoft Office. No real gaming. She needs the DVD drive and the WiFi card, I decided to futureproof the rig a bit by giving her AC wifi. PCPartPicker part list (Click here) CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: Stock Cooler (AMD Wraith Spire) Motherboard: ASRock - A320M-DGS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.98 @ Newegg) Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($54.88 @ Newegg) Storage: Kingston - A400 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.98 @ Newegg) Storage: Toshiba - 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon RX 460 2GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($89.99 @ Amazon) Case: Fractal Design - Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($36.98 @ Newegg) Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($23.90 @ Newegg) Optical Drive: LG - GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($19.45 @ Newegg) Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC55BT PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.99 @ Amazon) Total: $639.12 after rebates, including a $20 budget for Windows 10 Notes: This build should source parts from Newegg and Amazon only. Of course, the point of this build isn't to max out the budget, it's to keep the performance and drop the price. I may be able to get a used DVD drive for free from a friend, and I may end up trading the graphics card from this build and my current rig, at this link. Another option, if my current rig seems up to her needs, is to give her my rig and build this new one for myself, obviously swapping out the storage. Thoughts?

Thanks for the info. Which brand is known to be more reliable? If I'm not going to combine them, I might as well solve some BSOD issues.

Aren't both DDR3-1600? Or does the CAS latency affect that?

I currently have 8 GB of DDR3-1600 RAM from a less reliable brand on a Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H motherboard. I was planning to add another 8 GB of DDR3-1600 RAM from Micron that I saved from a previous computer. I just learned about CAS latency and the problems it can cause if they aren't the same. I'm confused about what the information on the Micron RAM means. Is it compatible? or would I need to edit settings in the BIOS? Or will it just not work the way I thought it would?