How good is a laptop for $440

[CrEaToR VR]

specs:

i5 8250U

nvidia geforce 940mx 

8 gb ddr4 memory

1 tb hdd 5400rpm 

[CrEaToR VR]

1 minute ago, BlueScope819 said:

No. Get a laptop with an SSD, period. Also the graphics card sucks, like really badly. The CPU is 2 generations old.

How was it 2 yrs ago 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, CrEaToR VR said:

How was it 2 yrs ago 

Out of date when you bought it?

[dizmo]

Depends what you use it for.

Want to play games? If you're playing indie titles/older games, you'll be fine.

Doing typing/browsing? It's excellent.

As has already been said, you'd probably want to upgrade to an SSD.

 

If you're thinking about buying it, I'd look into perhaps grabbing an older Lenovo. There's more upgrade options.

[CrEaToR VR]

25 minutes ago, NZgamer said:

what are you using the system for?

I use for Programming and 3d design, and some civ 6

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, CrEaToR VR said:

I use for Programming and 3d design, and some civ 6

Programming needs nothing.  Civ6 actually has obnoxiously high gpu requirements in spite of it not needing them so that only may matter, the 3d design thing might matter most.  The app you use for that will have gpu preferences most likely.  Looking up those might prove fruitful.

[Chris Pratt]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Programming needs nothing.  

That depends entirely on the programming you're doing. Cores/threads equal simultaneous builds, and clocks equal how fast each of those builds happens. I regularly work with solutions with 20+ projects in them (which is really not that many), so CPU matters quite a bit, for saving me build time. If you're just a python script kiddie, then yeah, maybe CPU doesn't matter.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

That depends entirely on the programming you're doing. Cores/threads equal simultaneous builds, and clocks equal how fast each of those builds happens. I regularly work with solutions with 20+ projects in them (which is really not that many), so CPU matters quite a bit, for saving me build time. If you're just a python script kiddie, then yeah, maybe CPU doesn't matter.

Compiling needs (or rather goes faster with) horsepower.  I was thinking of the typing.  Programming itself is just text editing. I was thinking specifically of the GPU.

[Chris Pratt]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Compiling needs (or rather goes faster with) horsepower.  I was thinking of the typing.  Programming itself is just text editing. I was thinking specifically of the GPU.

Fair. However, this is an all or nothing thing, and the rest of the components are going to hurt tasks like programming, most likely. The CPU is at least 4 core SMT, but the 3.6 boost clock could hurt. That's nearly 1Ghz more or less than you can get on current gen, and that's assuming it can reach it. Laptop thermals don't always allow the chip to hit the advertised boost clocks. The 5400 rpm HDD is going to hurt as well, especially since there's a ton of random 4K with programming. The GPU is admittedly the least of the issues.

[daveholland86]

Things I never take into account for a Laptop, HDD space and type and RAM amount.  Those two things I feel I can upgrade on my own cheaper than the company will charge me to come preinstalled, not to mention my upgrade parts will be high end versus their low end contract stuff.  

[SmithSophia84]

It can work fine with programming, but you can't expect doing 3D designing on this laptop. You need a solid build for that.

 

While looking at the price point, it's okay to buy it at this price. However, If you can spend a little more, I think Acer Aspire E 15 would fit in your needs better.

 

Here's the config and product link: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/

 

8th Generation Intel Core i5-8250U Processor (Up to 3.4GHz)
15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen LED-lit IPS Display
8GB Dual Channel Memory & 256GB SSD
Up to 15-hours of battery life.Adapter: 65 W
Windows 10 Home

 

It has got GeForce MX150 which performs quite better than the 940MX (of your laptop), here are the benchmark for reference: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-MX150-0-vs-Nvidia-940MX/m332822vsm88506

 

There are lot other laptops that you can buy from $400 to $600 price range, for instance I found this post: https://laptopdiscovery.com/best-laptops-under-600/

 

My final question to you - how much are you willing to spend?

 

Based upon that I would be able to suggest you more laptops

 

[5x5]

On 7/8/2020 at 7:37 AM, CrEaToR VR said:

specs:

i5 8250U

nvidia geforce 940mx 

8 gb ddr4 memory

1 tb hdd 5400rpm 

Basically, shit. Your best option would be a Renoir based Swift 3 or IdeaPad 5 with a Ryzen 7 4700U. Anything lower (such as that i5/i7 8th gen and MX GPUs) is going to be shit.