Atom processor really know how to test a man's patience.

Happy father's day

I'm kinda torn, yes it's cheap but it's so low spec I can't help but feel that anyone buying this would be better off buying a tablet which would be far more efficient at using low end hardware. With a 32gb HDD you won't even have room for office and your left with something which can browse the web which a tablet would do better. So I'm not voting

Cheap as chips. Inbuilt keyboards on laptops trump tablets if you need to type much so will suit some people.

good find op, heat added

As a Linx 10 owner, I can say that Office fits easily on these machines.

The last time I put Win 10 and Office 2013 on a 64gb SSD there wasn't much left. Leave some space for page file and whatever hidden partitions these machine will have I just don't see it happening. If you do fit it on Windows won't be happy with such little HDD space left

11GB for windows 10
3GB for office 2013 complete install
2gb of the page file that can be changed
under 500mb hidden partition

Leaving you about 13-15gb of free space

Great hadrware for the price but Windows 10 spoils the deal.. Not voting in or out, oops, hot or cold ..

Also can be had for £89 refurbed here - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351712896881?clk_rvr_id=1041778969219&rmvSB=true

Seems decent. This Atom is of course quite under powered, and even a Z3 or Z5 from the current generation with 4GB of RAM would be a lot more powerful. But it is ok for Office, light browsing and casual games - even Minecraft works.

PS: I would really prefer Full HD resolution, but with the Atom graphics that is a double edged sword.

£89.99 here at Argos Refurb


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-IdeaPad-100S-11-6-Inch-Intel1-83-Ghz-2GB-32GB-Windows-8-Laptop-White-/351712896881?hash=item51e3b8e771:g:Su8AAOSwH71XPPkk

Atom processor really know how to test a man's patience.

Is it good for older games like Heroes of Might and Magic, Baldurs Gate, Warcraft III, Diablo II?

For my next Open uni module I'm thinking of taking a IT course, which requires a Windows laptop due to the software used. I currently use a MacBook Air so need to consider a laptop solely for the course.

The requirements for the course are -
The screen size should be at least 1024 (H) x 768 (W) pixels and be able to run Windows 7 or later and various software, mainly audacity and avisynth.

Ideally I don't want a snail paced laptop but also understandably want to spend much either!
Would one of these do?
Any advice most appreciated, thanks :smiley:

Thank you :smiley:

'Everything'... that's a BIG remit and I think you're way out.
Is it? That's true for business is it?
Not everyone is looking for a machine to game on. In terms of business, even with moves to Azure, there's still going to be a requirement from some users to have access to data/programs when not in a networked office or with range of some form of WiFi, how is cloud going to solve that?

While I agree with the sentiments, I'd argue that second hand laptops are not really 'well dodgy'. I say that with the last 4 laptops I have purchased being 2nd hand units and all still going strong with daily use.


What sort of budget do you have to play with?

Have you considered if you can just run parallels desktop on your OS X system? That may be a cheaper option and probably faster than buying a £100 atom powered laptop.

http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/

AVISynth is rather performance intensive so while it's just a course and not a real world job, I'd suggest you want to aim for something with as much power as you can afford as you will spend less time rendering videos and more time getting the work done and on with other things you want to do in your life. This Atom powered machine is going to spend hours or days rendering videos

Another set of important points is that I'd be looking for a much higher resolution screen than 1024 x 768 ideally 900p or 1080p which in the second hand market is quite possible.

If you can give your budget, I'm sure there are plenty of better alternatives to this.

I think you're taking my general comments about these systems and confusing them with the full blown windows laptop/desktop computers. Especially with those first two quotes. I was talking Chromebook vs these basic windows books. And yes, owning both, I stand by those comments, for these specific machines.

Your third quote, yep, you can have that. Although I was talking more about home use. But yes, I stand corrected.

I was hoping for as close to £100/£150 as possible. Really annoying as it looks like I can get audacity for mac anyway but not avisynth. I'd not however thought of using parallels and would ideally love if I could stick to my mac.
If I used parallels, would I have to buy that and then a windows license, as not sure how it actually works either?
Many thanks

Just wanted to add i was in the same situation as you. i have a macbook air but needed windows 7. parallels is fantastic you can run win7 alongside osx in another desktop. if you look online you can get it for "free" and then you just need a windows 7 image which you can also get for "free". Take some time and have a look online for more info. Its definatly worth it.

I've not used parallels but it's universally praised.

A free alternative is VirtualBox - https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

It's available for Mac but I don't know if there are any limitations as I don't personally service any OS X powered machines so I'm very out of touch in that respect. However, it's worth a look on the free side to start with to see if you can do what you want/need. In many cases other than the power optimisations (longer battery life) I think VirtualBox should replicate identically the rest of the features you need. Just that you won't be able to get as long on battery with it but then it being free vs £30+ I think most people would be willing to accept that compromise.

https://isic.onthehub.com/WebStore/ProductsByMajorVersionList.aspx?cmi_cs=1&cmi_mnuMain=20abd7bb-44c7-e011-ae14-f04da23e67f6

If you have a student card you can get deals starting around £30 for parallels.

Windows licences wise, This was posted a few weeks ago. - http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/windows-10-professional-9-95-windows-8-professional-7-10-oem-opium-pulses-2463301

That's brill, thank you. I'll try and have a nosy around to find out a bit more about it. I do have a student card, so maybe it won't be too expensive :smiley:

Not heard of virtual box either, thanks. I'll see what that's capable of :smiley: hopefully there's only really avisynth I'll need Windows for!

The £129 Asus from ebuyer is probably better value for money if you don't mind something bigger. Has a Pentium processor, USB 3.0 & it's possible to upgrade the hard drive.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/asus-e402ma-laptop-ebuyer-for-129-99-2445584

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