This a decent laptop?

[Lt. Bob]

I'm gonna ask this regularly for a bit.
I get emails from a discount puter place where they sell a lot opf refurbs.

I actually like refurbs because whatever was gonna break has broken and been fixed so I do want a laptop or tablet primarily for either playing files or more likely to use with my Aerophone AE-30 which has blue tooth MIDI .. ( did ya'll know blue tooth is named after a Swedish King and the symbol for blue tooth is a combination of the runes for his initials?)

So I will be popping in to ask if I should snap something up as interesting things come to my attention>

Prolly be a month or two but if ya'll see something particularly good lemme know

This is todays offer:

HP ProBook Laptop
• 15" Screen

• Fast 5th Gen Intel i5 Processor

• 8GB RAM

• 256GB SSD

• Windows 10 Professional

• WiFi

[CrowsofFritz]

If it’s just for playing files and not a recording laptop, then it’s completely fine for what you want to do.

[Lt. Bob]

If it’s just for playing files and not a recording laptop, then it’s completely fine for what you want to do.

well ....... if it's to use with the AE-30 I believe I'll be using it to provide virtual sounds that the AE-30 would 'play' so it'd have to handle that.

But no, this one won't be a recording laptop ..... I may get into puter recording later but even then I might just want a desktop for that .... aren't they easier to build up a bad ass 'puter and change stuff out as you need to? I might record at some point but I'd be likely to buy something specific for that whether laptop or desktop.

But I do want to learn so with that in mind, what aspects of this would make it insufficient for recording?

[CrowsofFritz]

If it’s just for playing files and not a recording laptop, then it’s completely fine for what you want to do.

well ....... if it's to use with the AE-30 I believe I'll be using it to provide virtual sounds that the AE-30 would 'play' so it'd have to handle that.

But no, this one won't be a recording laptop ..... I may get into puter recording later but even then I might just want a desktop for that .... aren't they easier to build up a bad ass 'puter and change stuff out as you need to? I might record at some point but I'd be likely to buy something specific for that whether laptop or desktop.

But I do want to learn so with that in mind, what aspects of this would make it insufficient for recording?

The laptop should handle it for sure. And yes, desktops are easier to customize and are cheaper in terms of cost to power ratio. I’ve built a computer once and never again because it took me forever to figure out why games would crash my computer, so now I switched to Macs and have never looked back.

[Tadpui]

I think it'd be OK. 5th gen Intel is getting pretty old by this point, and it'd pale in comparison to an i5 from the last few generations (I think we're on 11th gen now? maybe 10th? It's hard to keep track anymore...). Depending upon the price, you could certainly do worse.

[Lt. Bob]

I think it'd be OK. 5th gen Intel is getting pretty old by this point, and it'd pale in comparison to an i5 from the last few generations (I think we're on 11th gen now? maybe 10th? It's hard to keep track anymore...). Depending upon the price, you could certainly do worse.

that one's about $280 ..... .... dunno much about prices ...... I'm inclined to pay more for newer IF it's gonna handle stuff better but I will have fairly low requirements for this one. I'm fairly happy with this place but then I dunno much about what prices should be.

But if 5th is getting old then I should look newer ...... so do the newer versions would be described as (x) generation? And what's a new enough gen that you get performance increases worth paying more for?

[Tadpui]

that one's about $280 ..... .... dunno much about prices ...... I'm inclined to pay more for newer IF it's gonna handle stuff better but I will have fairly low requirements for this one. I'm fairly happy with this place but then I dunno much about what prices should be.

But if 5th is getting old then I should look newer ...... so do the newer versions would be described as (x) generation? And what's a new enough gen that you get performance increases worth paying more for?

$280 for a computer is pretty darned cheap! I mean, that thing would run circles around the total piece of crap that I bought my wife several years ago for about that price. That was the worst computer I ever bought...it was an HP something or other, their entry-level laptop at the time, and it was a total shit box. A 5th generation i5 would absolutely stomp the AMD A-series CPU that was in that thing.

Anyways, if anything 8th gen or later comes up within your budget, I'd almost certainly give it a thumbs up. But I highly doubt they'll come up very often (if ever) in the sub-$300 range. At $280, a laptop with a 5 or 6 year old i5 wouldn't be a bad deal at all.

[Lt. Bob]

$280 for a computer is pretty darned cheap! I mean, that thing would run circles around the total piece of crap that I bought my wife several years ago for about that price. That was the worst computer I ever bought...it was an HP something or other, their entry-level laptop at the time, and it was a total shit box. A 5th generation i5 would absolutely stomp the AMD A-series CPU that was in that thing.

Anyways, if anything 8th gen or later comes up within your budget, I'd almost certainly give it a thumbs up. But I highly doubt they'll come up very often (if ever) in the sub-$300 range. At $280, a laptop with a 5 or 6 year old i5 wouldn't be a bad deal at all.

Great ...... a really helpful bit of information.

I may snap it up but I may wait and see what else they offer .... I get such things about once a week from them.

[vomitHatSteve]

A thing to keep in mind would be Windows 11 compatibility. The new version is gonna have some pretty complex requirements, and windows 10 is getting retired in 2025.
So you'll have the choice then of either upgrading (which may or may not be compatible with your laptop) or having an ever-increasing security risk from unpatched vulnerabilities in your PC