need help choosing a notebook

[yKekSxo]

hOi folks, 

I need/want a laptop to do some light weight work on the go,

would use it mainly for some art stuff (mostly pixelart), game development (2D only on this device), some coding..

 

Basically im a hobbyist gameDev. i don't need anything really powerful,

what i do need is about 4gb ram, SSD storage, and long battery life.

usb at least 3.0 would be nice, not necessary thou.

 

I wouldn't mind buying used, getting a new battery, another ram module or throwing in an SSD if it comes with some HDD.

(i also don't need any pre installed os, but that's more my concern i think since I'm looking for help to find the right device, not so much a offer to buy one)

 

At the moment im thinking netbook, but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable about this can help me not to buy some useless thing, since my expertise is more on the desktop side^^

 

(would like to pay up to 500€ since this won't be my main system.. )

 

I'll try to answer questions as soon as possible, hope i wrote everything important <3

[m0k]

if DellRefurbished has a UK site i would ask to look into it

 

at least in north america you can get a solid Latitude laptop with a entry level quadro for like $400 USD with win7 pro

 

my dad uses one with a i5 3320m for autocad work

Edited January 23, 2017 by mok

[SuperShermanTanker]

Thank you for VPNs now I can pretend I'm shopping the UK when I'm really in the USA. Heres a good machine I found my friend got somthing similar with a i5 that was a Acer branded laptop but this is all I can find on Amazon UK. This one has a i3 in it and a GPU which is really handy for productivity stuff and really helps for gaming development.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01LG7N43K/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485199562&sr=8-2-fkmr0&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=acer+940m

 

I'll look up a few Baby Lake i5 machines too because the new Intel iGPUs are really good on the Kaby Lake chips too and you'll have the extra CPU power of the i5. Also if I can find the Acer laptop that my friend got that one would be perfect it has a i5 and a 940m GPU and you can get one with a SSD instesd of a generic hard drive.

[yKekSxo]

should have mentioned that earlier, I'm actually in Germany^^

 

looked into Dell Refurbished, sadly they don't appear to ship to Germany..

.. would've been awesome thou~

[SuperShermanTanker]

Here's another machine for cheaper that is well within your budget and it also has a SSD and a i5: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=intel+7000+series+laptop+with+SSD&biw=375&bih=559&noj=1&tbas=0&tbs=cat:328,vw:l,pdtr0:960913|960915,init_ar:SgVKAwjIAkoKUggIkdM6IJPTOg%3D%3D,price:1,ppr_max:500,mr:1&tbm=shop&srpd=514886818104805448&prds=epd:15978695401799252103,paur:ClkAsKraX8jhVcMvihjVganAgp3j0aY8qUTC8Ks9vyqLC1HjUKrS5RgLzPS10DrktZ9aGLKblvoA02v_Lh-g5dR8hRrPiNUGDDZHAnKh02aHWxn_Lwx2kkbMmRIZAFPVH7303P1IapJ43ILd2ooYB53IzZGe3w,cdl:1,cid:8487428481300125778&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUyc6hg9nRAhVpJsAKHUBxC8YQhTgIiQE

[yKekSxo]

(** also im looking for max. 15" )

thanks for your help so far <3

[SuperShermanTanker]

Not very good with german but I think I narrowed it down enough I suggest anything with a i5 for what you are going to use it for and a i5 will help the machine last a bit longer too for your price range they usually sell things with a 128gb SSD or a 256gb SSD and here's what I was able to narrow down to on amazon: https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=is_r_p_36_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A340843031%2Cn%3A427957031%2Ck%3Assd%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A8321930031%2Cp_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin%3A8321955031%2Cp_36%3A9708300031&keywords=ssd&ie=UTF8&qid=1485200854&rnid=9708297031

 

PS sorry for the really long links

[yKekSxo]

thanks so much^^

(long links are not an issue, I'll take those above shortened stuff every time^^)

 

[yKekSxo]

looking at a "Dell Latitude E6530"

right now~

2nd gen i5, 8gb ram, 256gb SSD, win 7

12.5" display..   .. doesn't mention the resolution thou~

( also the Dell PDF for this model doesn't mention a 12.5" version)

it's Refurbished, 316€

 

https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B01N4KKFBX/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1485202102&sr=1-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=ssd

[SuperShermanTanker]

CNET's review says it's got a 1366x768 resolution display https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-latitude-e6220/review/

[yKekSxo]

Oh, somehow overlooked that cnet article, ty again..

this one might be the winner^^

[yKekSxo]

generous 100 bucks over budget, but the "Lenovo E31-80 80MX0107GE"

is looking pretty nice too, don't think it would be worth it thou..

[SuperShermanTanker]

7 minutes ago, yKekSxo said:

generous 100 bucks over budget, but the "Lenovo E31-80 80MX0107GE"

is looking pretty nice too, don't think it would be worth it thou..

It looks like a nice laptop I found the laptop that my friend got: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Laptop-E5-573G-56RG-GeForce-Windows/dp/B014J7YEH4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1485206119&sr=8-3&keywords=Acer+i5+940m&refinements=p_89%3AAcer it only is sold on the US amazon and it has a 1tb hdd I also found the one they do sell with a SSD but I can't find it on amazon and the price is marked up on this one even though I think you were able to get it for $500 USD https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6R457U6817 I wish I was able to find this for you online on a more EU based site but I can't you might be able to find it on google but I don't think a place like Newegg or Amazon sells it in Europe. Anyway the 2 machines you found are good and should work fine the only downside I would say to the older refurbish machines are the battery life and screen resolution but they still are nice and will work for what you need.

[yKekSxo]

thanks again, and don't worry I'll be able to find one of these for sure, you've been a great help <3