My laptop is giving up...

D.E.Velopment

Hey all. My laptop seems to be on it's last legs which is quite a shame, so I'm just wondering if anyone here knows anything about tech and is willing to help me out? Much appreciated!

So I'm currently using an 11" HP-Stream 11-r050sa, which I've had since 2016 from Curry's for £150. I've had to reset it many times to maintain memory but it still works perfectly, only problem is battery. I can hold almost all my files on this and it's not slow or anything but I recently found out I need to bring a laptop into college (Y13) because I can no longer use the computers there (Covid-19). Well the battery is pretty much on a "keep me plugged in at all times" level now, plus I'm starting university next year, so I think I'm due a new one.

I'm doing a business course next year I think and I'm not going to be using any touch screen/ 4K etc, nothing a normal laptop doesn't already have. I'm also from a poor background and had to earn my own money + teach myself frugality, so while I am willing to spending £500 on a new laptop if needed, I would really like to stay cheap. How I see it, £150 got me 4 years of good use, so I'm sure I don't need to spend 500 for the modern day equivalent.

So based on what I have used over the years, I need 2 USB ports, a HDMI and headphone jack (less important). Not sure about how fast it needs to be, but this 2011 made laptop is loading pretty fast so anything around this processing or above? Other than that, no special features / anything is needed, other than Windows, I have never used Apple alternatives and based on the look of them, never will.

I'm sorry if this is a big ask lol, if I'm misusing this forum then please feel free to get a moderator to remove it. If this isn't for asking for suggestions, then can someone please tell me where I could learn / search by features, as I am not good with tech. Thank you everyone :smile:

Reply 1

Chopinnocturne31

Post edited automatically

Reply 2

D.E.Velopment

no set budget but I'd like to not spend too much. Thank you for this guide, it looks like you put a lot of work into this, very grateful :biggrin:

Reply 3

D.E.Velopment

Well I suppose anywhere up to 600 is what I can afford to put in a laptop, but the sweet spot that I would say is worth the investment would be in the 300's 350's. Of course if lower then that's great but I doubt there would be any.
edit: as your guide says performance wont be the best, but I think as long as it can do office and browser I wont really be that fussed. I don't use it for games / streaming or downloading applications.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 4

D.E.Velopment

You said the ideal laptop was something like https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=1E6Z9EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB
But what if I got the cheaper alternative https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=1N8E8EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB
What will I be missing out on getting Athlon Gold over Ryzen 5? For a £170 price difference it's definitely standing out more, but I don't want to go head first and get it if the 170 means I lose out on functionality. Sorry if I'm asking too much