Computer experts...help

I'm not a tech guy...at all.  My wife has gone back to school to get her leadership certificate in her field.  Her current laptop is old and not working well.  I'd like to buy her another one, but am 100% clueless on what to buy.  Her primary needs are really basic functions...e-mail, MS Office, GoToMeeting/WebEx stuff. 

I'd like to keep it as GRM budget friendly as possible.  Are the $250 laptops from BestBuy any good, such as this one?  HP laptop  or do I need to spend a bit more?  Do we need a hard drive, or just a flash drive?

Any help would be awesome, as I don't even know where to start and don't have hours upon hours to research.  I want to pick something today, hit "Buy" and have it delivered by the weekend.  And please don't make the answers too computer high tech, you'll lose me.  K.I.S.S. explanation is best here.  Thanks!

Any laptop you buy today will handle the basic functions you listed. 

If you're buying a windows computer, its going to be a hard drive. Stick with that. Chromebooks are nice, but she might need specific programs for her school that aren't going to work with a chromebook. If you can find a laptop with an SSD, it's a game changer. The computer will be MUCH faster with it.

If you're not in a huge hurry to purchase, wait for a deal. I use slickdeals, and you can look at the comments to see how good of a deal it really is.

https://slickdeals.net/laptop-deals/

Wait till Gameboy chimes in. 

In reply to lnlogauge :

What's an SSD?  Unfortunately, I sort of am in a hurry.  Her current computer is really causing issues for her in trying to get her work done.  She can survive with what she has, but I want to make her life easier...and by extension, mine...

Edit:  OK, I looked up SSD.  Sounds good, but appears to be a lot more than what I want to spend.

hold on a minuet My grand son is in the House, go over to Wal-mart look at the 300ish price range he say's yes to the ssd that price at wally world is better than best buy

Klayfish said:

In reply to lnlogauge :

What's an SSD?  Unfortunately, I sort of am in a hurry.  Her current computer is really causing issues for her in trying to get her work done.  She can survive with what she has, but I want to make her life easier...and by extension, mine...

SSD = Solid-state drive.  They are nice performance boost, but you get more drive space per dollar with a traditional hard drive.  SSD isn't going to be a necessity given the use you describe.  As others have said, any new Windows laptop should work.  Just stay away from tiny "netbooks" or anything not running the Windows OS, the brand doesn't matter so much these days.  HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo... any of the entry level laptops will work.

As much as I HATE PCs, I would recommend the cheapest MS Surface you can find, I think they get to $350 - $399.  If you go any cheaper, you are going to be stuck in a few years when her needs expand.  The Surface is great for students because it is so mobile and works well in a lot of situations.  It's also a full PC, not a tablet. 

As someone who generally assembles systems from components, my knowledge of laptops is sketchy.  In searching for one for my high school student, I found that a decent laptop with Win10 sells around $600.  My go-to for something like this is Costco, since they will help you out with warranty issues far more so than any other retailer.  I've also poked around Newegg some. 

I know I will get the usual fanatical, screamed reactions, but laptops under $600 are usually compromised, and you really don't want a chromebook or a tablet if a computer is what you need.

Edit:  I checked out the HP referenced by the OP.  That looks at a glance to be a fair deal, although the hardware is definitely on the verge of obsolescence, and I am being very kind here.  Anyone have any experience running Win10 on an A6 with 4GB RAM?  I bet it's not pretty.

I avoid HP anything today.  Except HP Vertica, but that's software.  Anyway, look for Lenovo or Dell.  My wife bought a Lenovo laptop at Best Buy a few months ago and it's really nice.  I think it was like three bills.  Windoze 10, 8GB, quad core and I think a TB drive.

Good advice so far. If you go with an SSD, don't skimp on backups, their most common failure mode is to fail unrecoverably and without warning, unlike hard drives.

Not only could any basic new laptop do what you want, but a used one could too. You could get something used with at least 4GB of RAM and install Linux on it to get the price even lower. This could also help you get cheaper access to higher-end hardware like something from Lenovo. Just do a search for any problems running Linux on the used model before you buy.

I'll give you the advice I gave myself when getting a notebook for my daughter for college. She needed the basics pretty much like your wife. Do an ebay search for windows notebooks in ebay. You can search by price, screen size etc.. keywords to remember Intel i3(or i5 or i7) for processor, anything slower won't be good enough these days. Look for scratch and dent specials to save money. You can buy covers for pretty much any laptop these days

I have found Toshiba laptops to be reliable and long lasting.

My girlfriend just spent $559 on an HP from Office Depot that is powerful enough to comfortably listen to Spotify, run a meeting, with Photoshop and Illustrator open in the background. 

She works for an online medical marketing company. 

As OS's update, new programs needed, etc, buying a bargain PC never really ends up being a bargain.

In my experience, HP is so bloated with viruses pre-installed by HP that they bog down after about 2 weeks. No thanks. 

My usual advice when it comes to questions like this is to got for a higher-end 3-4 year old Lenovo business laptop. The main differences between those and the cheapy laptops tends to be that a) you can actually find parts for them if you need to, plus the big quality differences are usually the chassis, screen and keyboard.

I bought thousands of Dell systems when I was the IT guy for our school district.  Bought a new Dell laptop for my bride and, a couple of months later, for me.  Didn't buy junk - one gen down I-5 with 8GB RAM. 

Within 5 months, bride's system took a dump and had to be returned for 'service'.  They replaced the INTERNAL CABLES to fix it.  In more than 20 years, I never saw an internal cable spontaneously fail... they didn't fail this time either.  The system faulted again as soon as I booted it after the 'repair'.  Returned it again and they replaced the cables AGAIN.  Bride didn't have a system for six weeks though all of this happy horse E36 M3.  Finally got the system replaced with a refurbished one and it worked until about a month after the warranty expired and then died.  My Dell system followed suit shortly thereafter. 

I.will.not.buy.Dell.again.ever

Bought HP laptops from Costco for both of us.  Latest gen I-5, 12GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, 2GB AMD graphics, 17" touch screen.  About $700.  Was suprised at how little cr*p the systems had installed.  Costco doubles the system warranty when you buy from them and, if you purchase with the Costco credit card, they add two years coverage onto that.  Ended up with four years warranty.  The systems have been flawless after six months.  Of course, YMMV.

Thanks gang.  To help clarify, she won't be in school for years, it's only about 6 months.  This is just for her to be able to qualify for leadership.  She is also taking her classes online, at home, so portability isn't as big of an issue.  But I'm lost in the world of technical stuff.  Processors (what's good, bad, ugly), hard drive, memory, etc...  I don't want to buy some piece of E36 M3, but if it can quickly and reliably allow her to write papers, do research, attend webinars, etc...then that's what I want.  Hoping to keep it to $300 or under.

My advice is along the lines of what BoxHeadTim said.  By an off lease laptop from the business line of whatever brand you like.  They cost more when new but are better put together and or have stronger exterior parts because they are designed for " people on the move".

Anything will do what you want it to. 

There is no "bad processor" or "bad HD". Intel's "i" series, i3/i5/i7 etc is fine. Nothing else will really be branded so there is nothing to worry about there. 

Usually when I point family towards given computers it's because they have a really good deal going, like an $800 machine for $350 or something.

This should do what needs to be done.  $344 w/ free shipping

HP Elite Book on Amazon

I would suggest going to your local Costco and take a look. Costco tends to have a pretty accommodating return policy, which can be necessary if you don't like the laptop.

Just go online and see what they have, however the stores sometimes have items not listed online. Plus the in-store prices can be less.

What has been mentioned previously is good advice- go for the previous generation i3-i5 processors. Make the display is acceptable- both size, brightness,viewing angle.

Other than that, it going to be what software needs to be bought.

Spam deleted on this thread from 2018

LOL.  Since this thread was written, I have gotten divorced and remarried.  How time flies....