Beating Linus' 200, 400 dollar laptops

[Okjoek]

I wanted to beat Linus'  "Why not to get a 400 dollar laptop" challenge.

 

I think if you got this laptop which appears to have some pretty good reviews from the sources I've read:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315815&cm_re=E5-575-33BM-_-34-315-815-_-Product

 

And just got an 8gb stick of RAM (2133 to keep it consistent) to go from 4gb to 12gb you could be set for under 400 dollars. You could add an SSD too, but you'd go over 400 USD most likely. Luckily for me I have an SSD already I could put in it. Unlike the one Linus reviewed this one is somewhat upgrade-able and isn't soldered together.

 

I might actually buy this laptop. The value appears very good. What do you think?

 

[Dackzy]

Acer laptops suck, they are build badly and their temps are high, in this budget it is basically only worth buying a used business laptop.

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, Dackzy said:

Acer laptops suck, they are build badly and their temps are high, in this budget it is basically only worth buying a used business laptop.

You think so? It's been a while since I've used a laptop and I've never tried an Acer one. If so that really sucks. It would have been nice to get a modern CPU for such an affordable price.

 

Shame if it's bad because I'll be honest from the pictures it actually has a pretty stylish design that I'd take over many modern laptops, especially gaming laptops.

 

Also how does one have "high temps" with a 15W i3?

[LienusLateTips]

Spoiler

Acer sucks

[Okjoek]

2 minutes ago, JDE said:

  Hide contents

Acer sucks

I wasn't aware that they had such a bad rep. Thanks for the heads up. That's why I post places like this to save myself embarrassing mistakes. Only laptops I've ever used have been HP and Dell. I think we also had a Toshiba one a while back, but I don't remember much about it.

[vanished]

8 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Also how does one have "high temps" with a 15W i3?

with a very incompetent thermal design  

[genexis_x]

18 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Acer laptops suck, they are build badly and their temps are high, in this budget it is basically only worth buying a used business laptop.

Not all Acer laptops are suck (I hate judging laptops by brand), however their Aspire E series laptops are very low end so avoid it, even the specs looks good, unknown longevity still an issue

 

Yeah you're right, OP should consider used business laptops.

[Okjoek]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

with a very incompetent thermal design  

Numerous 35W GT 1030 are passively cooled. A laptop cooler always has a blower fan. it boggles my mind to think you could fail to develop a decent cooling for that heat load in a 15" Laptop.

 

Honestly this was one of my last hopes for finding a modern CPU laptop for cheap. Might as well just say screw it at this point and wait for Ryzen mobile and end up spending atleast 700 dollars for anything that's not crap because apparently shoping for laptops is a lot more expensive than I remember. Or maybe my expectations have grown more in those years.

 

[vanished]

1 minute ago, Okjoek said:

Numerous 35W GT 1030 are passively cooled. A laptop cooler always has a blower fan. it boggles my mind to think you could fail to develop a decent cooling for that heat load in a 15" Laptop.

 

Honestly this was one of my last hopes for finding a modern CPU laptop for cheap. Might as well just say screw it at this point and wait for Ryzen mobile and end up spending atleast 700 dollars for anything that's not crap because apparently shoping for laptops is a lot more expensive than I remember. Or maybe my expectations have grown more in those years.

 

Well, I agree, it should work, but it is also at least possible they could have messed it up so badly that it throttles

[Okjoek]

4 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

OP should consider used business laptops.

That wasn't the goal though. I wanted to have a modern CPU platform for that price target that Linus made the video set with the cheap Dell laptops.

 

I agree at this point that it is indeed exceedingly difficult.

[Dackzy]

8 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

Not all Acer laptops are suck (I hate judging laptops by brand), however their Aspire E series laptops are very low end so avoid it, even the specs looks good, unknown longevity still an issue

 

Yeah you're right, OP should consider used business laptops.

Sure not all of them, but a pretty big portion of them do and yeah this is a really low series from them that everyone should avoid. 

 

7 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

That wasn't the goal though. I wanted to have a modern CPU platform for that price target that Linus made the video set with the cheap Dell laptops.

 

I agree at this point that it is indeed exceedingly difficult.

Well those laptops are simply not worth it, the user experience is bad, both when it comes to how the laptops feel and how they perform and it is very likely that something will break. I have always looked upon these laptops as being a scam,  because that is basically what they are. 

 

It is not like the performance between the gens is insanely big and the fact that they won't throttle probably makes up for the performance difference in the end, so a 3rd gen business laptop can probably keep up with today's ULVs without any problem

[Okjoek]

15 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Sure not all of them, but a pretty big portion of them do and yeah this is a really low series from them that everyone should avoid. 

 

Well those laptops are simply not worth it, the user experience is bad, both when it comes to how the laptops feel and how they perform and it is very likely that something will break. I have always looked upon these laptops as being a scam,  because that is basically what they are. 

 

It is not like the performance between the gens is insanely big and the fact that they won't throttle probably makes up for the performance difference in the end, so a 3rd gen business laptop can probably keep up with today's ULVs without any problem

Idk if I would be able to enjoy even light gaming on such old iGPU. Typically easy to run stuff like Minecraft, World of Tanks, Rocket League, Runescape.

[themctipers]

1 hour ago, Okjoek said:

You think so? It's been a while since I've used a laptop and I've never tried an Acer one. If so that really sucks. It would have been nice to get a modern CPU for such an affordable price.

 

Shame if it's bad because I'll be honest from the pictures it actually has a pretty stylish design that I'd take over many modern laptops, especially gaming laptops.

 

Also how does one have "high temps" with a 15W i3?

i used a $900 cheapo asus laptop thing (CAD, so like $600 US)

85c under load with the fan going VRRRRRRRRRR with i5 7200u.