Second hand laptop around 150 pounds?

I previously had a Samsung NP300E5E laptop from 2013 until now. It sadly broke and I want a windows laptop which is decent for gaming (doesn't have to be great though!), has a pretty good battery life and would be able to be bought new, refurbished or second hand for under 150 pounds. Could somebody please help me?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

spotify95

Original post by dakofsta

Unless you want to look on places such as eBay, you won't get anything at all for £150 or under. In fact, you won't even get a decent tablet (10 inch) nowadays for under £15.

If you look in the computer shops, such as Currys/PC World, you'll require at least £250, and even then, you'll get a very basic laptop. I can vouch for this. My parents needed a cheap laptop for basic things such as email, internet, documents etc. Got an ex-display HP laptop for £250. It had 6GB RAM and a 750GB hard drive (which is the minimum you'd expect nowadays, even 4GB RAM is on the low side. You really want at least 8GB), but the processor was an AMD-E2 at 1.7GHZ. Really struggles with anything intensive and won't do HD Youtube very well at all, even 720p, you have to use standard definition. I'd have personally increased my budget by £100 and got an intel i3, which would be more powerful and do most things OK, but you still won't be able to do much gaming (certainly today's powerful games) very well on an i3.

Most laptops nowadays have either a 4 cell or 6 cell battery, which will do 4 hours or more (especially on the lower power laptops, like my modern HP).

On eBay you can get laptops for less than £150, but they will be pre-owned, and certainly won't be fit for gaming (we're talking 2GB RAM, old 1.6GHz processors, 60GB hard drive etc - probably used to run better on XP but had Windows 7 slapped on to them due to XP's EOL, but they won't run that smoothly). You're best off looking for what specs you will need, to meet your demand, then saving up the money for said laptop that meets that specification.

For example, you said about a laptop that is decent for gaming. You'll need at least an intel i3 or better, preferably an intel i5 or better. You'll need 8GB RAM and at least 500GB hard drive space (preferably 1TB or more). You'll need decent graphics - most modern i3's/i5's etc have decent integrated graphics. Obviously, a dedicated graphics card will be much better, but will cost at least another £150. And you'll need a decent quality screen and decent quality speakers (though these are more minor aspects). A good laptop for most things, including a few games, will be about £300-£400. If you want something that is more powerful, that will do more intensive things (including the more modern games), or want a dedicated graphics card, be prepared to spend £500+.

Hope that helps.

Reply 2

Siberiaan

450-500 quid is how much you need.

Reply 3

y-hus

If I was you I'd get this (or similar):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-i5-Windows-7-Professional-Lenovo-T410-Thinkpad-Laptop-8Gb-128Gb-SSD-/311394539852?hash=item48808f994c:g:q64AAOSwHnFVlTuU

Slightly over £150 though

Reply 4

genrose

u can try here? https://uk.carousell.com/search/products/?query=laptop&collection_id=7

Reply 5

999tigger

ebay and you are no going to get anything very portable.

Reply 6

Tootles

About four years ago, I bought a Samsung X11 for £75 from a computer fair - complete with an added Geforce gpu. Wasn't the best box but it did everything I ever wanted it to (including gaming, virtualization, and software dev).

Reply 7

y-hus

This looks promising: http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Latitude-e5440-i5-4310U-2-0Ghz-4Gb-RAM-128Gb-SSD-/162141347431?hash=item25c0609e67%3Ag%3AyGMAAOSwRgJXjV-D&_trkparms=pageci%253Ae0c807ad-54b8-11e6-8d99-74dbd180365b%257Cparentrq%253A31537d0d1560a605b62993d1fffc0952%257Ciid%253A3

Reply 8

Tootles

I can't remember the spec, but it was standard for an X11 when I got it. I think I put a new hard drive and more RAM in it, and that brought it up enough to play UT3 and Minecraft pretty nicely on.

Reply 9

the bear

i bought a second hand laptop for £35 at a car boot sale recently:

Reply 10

Tootles

That machine ran Windows 8.1 quite nicely at one point actually, you wouldn't believe it. That said, if I was to set it up now, I'd probably stick with XP just for the same of compatibility. Not like the stuff I play would even need an Internet connection.

Current gaming machine is another old laptop, one I'd got from new, which I've put in a bureau and connected a monitor and external HDD to (for films) and bluetooth keyboard/mouse and a USB SNES controller.

Yep, you guessed it - "gaming" in this instance means I've got a pile of emulators on a computer that would otherwise end up in the bin.

The ambiguity with the term "gaming" gets on my tits as well. I mean some emulation, maybe UT, maybe Minecraft, possibly even AoE. My brother would mean FPS on his PS3 (if he's still got it), and my father would mean a deck of cards.

Reply 11

spotify95

Original post by y-hus

Not bad, but slightly dated.

Things that the seller forgot to mention:

1) The i5 processor is an i5-520M. So a 1st generation i5. Reasonably powerful but nowhere near the performance of a 4th gen, 5th gen or 6th gen i5.

2) 128GB SSD may be ok for performance, but certainly not for capacity/storage capabilities. I'd want to get that taken out, and replaced with a 1TB HDD.

3) What sort of RAM? DDR3? Or the older DDR2?

4) Battery tested to hold a charge - how much though? I assume that it may not last that long, and in a few months time, you'll need to buy a new battery anyway.

5) You do NOT need Office 65 and OpenOffice on the same machine. One office package will be fine.

Also, that machine doesn't look to be that portable, and the older i5's have worse integrated graphics (though should still be fine for most things!).

Not too bad for £189.99, though I feel as though I wouldn't want to pay more than £175 for it, based on the above.

Just looked online and it's a 1st gen, an i5-520M. Not the greatest when compared to the 4th, 5th, 6th gens, but at least it's an i5! It will no doubt be dual core, I know my old i5-480M was a dual core.

It's listed as "battery tested to hold a charge". Scrolling down a bit it says the battery will hold at least 30 minutes of charge. Being pre owned you never know what sort of battery life you'll get. Odds are the battery life will not be good here.

You could end up with a notification saying that Windows thinks your battery needs to be replaced! I know that the original battery for my Acer 5742 lasts about 30 minutes (possibly more, possibly less) and Windows sys that it should be replaced, due to holding less than 40% capacity. The seller should specify how much charge the battery can hold (this is easy in Windows 7, using the Battery Meter gadget). Less than 50% Retain Capacity (ratio of maximum charge held today vs designed capacity charge) and the battery will need to be replaced not far down the line.

128GB SSD. Great. Except that's the only storage listed. Windows and the pre installed software will take up a good chunk of that, leaving little space for storing games, documents and so on. You may be able to expand it with an additional drive as some older laptops have more than 1 drive space. However it's not ideal.

A 128GB SSD is not good for just as a primary drive. If you're going to use a 128GB SSD, you need a dual HDD system, whereby the OS and important programs are installed on the SSD (for high performance where required), and a secondary HDD (preferably 1TB+) is used for everything else. 128GB will fill up very quickly, especially if you have a lot of photos, music and videos.

Bulkiness and weight on these old machines are often terrible. This one is thick enough to have 2 layers of USB ports and a rather thick looking screen. I don't know the dimensions or weight off hand but coupled with poor battery life (and not helped if you attempt to game) it really isn't going to be a portable device.

You're right, that laptop (looks like a business laptop) doesn't seem to be very light at all. More modern laptops than this are much lighter and more portable. Yes, it's probably a bit lighter than my Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook E8020 from 2006, but it won't be that much lighter!

Condition. You really don't know what sort of condition it'll arrive in. Might be pretty good, might be really scratched up. These sorts of users shift tons of these laptops and I'm sure quality varies.There's loads of these types of devices around but they often omit important information in the listing. There's also a reason they end up being so cheap, especially when you consider that a modern, high end desktop grade i5 (e.g. 6600K) will set you back around £220 by itself.

Most sellers specify a condition rating, from A to D/E. Grade A laptops are usually what you want to get, Grade B means it'll have a few scratches, Grade C means it'll have a lot of scratches/dents (some major), Grade D means it'll be pretty beat up (if it works) and Grade E will be for parts only.

This seller has been a bit naughty as they haven't specified what condition it will be in, however they have said "Seller refurbished" as the condition, which means (in ebay's eyes) that it will be in excellent condition. Whether it will be in excellent condition or not, is another matter.

Original post by y-hus

Good spot there - seems to be a reasonably good laptop. It's got a more modern i5 processor (4th gen, 4310U), it's got 4GB RAM (though I assume this can be easily upgraded to 8GB). Again as I said above, a 128GB SSD is not ideal unless you want a dual drive system - so you'll want to get that switched out and replaced with a 1TB mechanical hard drive.
Windows 10 - could be a positive or a negative, depending if the user likes Windows 10 or if they would prefer Windows 7.

Quite a few important details, such as battery life, sound quality, LCD screen etc are omitted.... and do expect scratches on it, as it has stated in the description. Not a bad laptop though, particularly if you upgrade the RAM and SSD (to a 1TB HDD).

Reply 12

y-hus

Hmm 128 GB is plenty for me but of course would be too small for others. Depends on OPs usage. Either way if I was OP I'd buy that laptop because doubt he's going to get anything better than an i5 4th gen laptop in good condition on his budget.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

spotify95

Original post by y-hus

I agree with that bit, but to be honest with you I'd want to upgrade the 4GB RAM to 8GB, since 8GB is a given these days. I mean, I've got about 15-20 tabs open on Chromium, and I'm using about 2GB RAM just on Chromium. So having less than 8GB RAM may well hinder performance. And I'd get the 128GB replaced with a 1TB HDD. Alright, it depends on usage, but I've got quite a bit of music on my laptop and even my documents, pictures, music and videos take up more than the entire 128GB of storage on the SSD.

Reply 14

spotify95

Just found the Intel page of that i5:
http://ark.intel.com/products/47341/Intel-Core-i5-520M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_40-GHz
It is indeed a processor from 2010. To be honest, most modern (i.e. 4th gen or newer) intel i3's would probably outperform that i5, especially if coupled with more modern, faster RAM. And that link confirms that it is a dual core processor (though with 4 threads, using hyperthreading, though that won't be as good as an actual quad core processor).

My newest computer (a HP from late last year) ha an Intel i7-4510U (4th gen). It feels much faster than my previous Acer, with an i5-480M (1st gen).

Chances are, this Dell mentioned earlier: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162141347431 would be a better shot, as it has a 4th gen intel i5 (4310U). It's 4 years newer, so would likely perform better, despite it being dual core:
http://ark.intel.com/products/80343/Intel-Core-i5-4310U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz

Oh, and the 4th gen is more power efficient too - 15W instead of the 35W of the 1st gen i5.

Reply 15

y-hus

Yeah defo upgrade the RAM. If OP doesn't need a lot of storage space then I'd stick to the SSD if I was him, although small you get nice boot up time and generally more sappiness. Depends on OPs personal use tho.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 16

spotify95

Original post by y-hus

In an ideal situation, you'd go for a dual drive scenario - the 128GB SSD for Windows and a 1TB HDD for everything else, so you get a good responsive speed, whilst maintaining storage capabilities. Though having said that, all of my computers have been reasonably fast and they are mechanical HDDs.

Reply 17

spotify95

If you run a laptop off a desktop, then that is absolutely fine. However, I don't have any desktops, and certainly wouldn't run a laptop off a desktop - hence the requirement for large storage on a standalone machine (which is why I suggested the 128GB/1TB).

How much do SSD's cost nowadays? (Particularly large storage ones, such as 1TB?) If 1TB SSD's are still very expensive, and my laptop only had 1 hard drive slot, I'd more than likely ditch the SSD altogether and get a 2TB conventional hard drive. I haven't noticed HDD's to run that slowly!

Reply 18

Subspace

In what way has your Samsung NP300E5E broke? The Series 3 laptops are really good and, since yours was made in 2013, it is too early to replace (laptops should last a good 5-8 years assuming they weren't thrown out the window).

At £150, or even up to £300, you are looking at a laptop that will have lower build quality and performance than your current one.

I suggest looking into what broke and see if you can get it repaired.

Posted from TSR Mobile