Need help with laptop selection for a 13th birthday present

[Thaco]

Also depending on the laptop, if your ram is limited, you will be caching to the drive, so it would help even more on older systems that dont support a lot of ram.

[Seth1968]

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Laptops get turned on and off many times per day. At least mine does and I suspect that's how a student would use it.

No, they just close the lid which puts it into sleep mode. There's no need to constantly shut down a laptop or desktop. You're just adding needless wear and tear on the components. The only exception is once in a while it's a good idea to do a shutdown / restart to re-initialize the ram, as Thaco points out:

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Also depending on the laptop, if your ram is limited, you will be caching to the drive, so it would help even more on older systems that dont support a lot of ram.

https://www.howtogeek.com/256395/psa...r-hibernation/

[Mitsu3000gt]

I always turn off my laptop after use. I don't feel comfortable having it on, but sleeping/hibernating in a laptop bag especially when I don't know for sure when I will use it again. It cold boots in 3-5 seconds so I am much happier knowing it's turned off when it's stored away, and it turns on pretty much instantly. I also still use the original fabric keyboard cover before shutting it, so maybe I am just anal

[ExtraSlow]

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No, they just close the lid which puts it into sleep mode. There's no need to constantly shut down a laptop or desktop. You're just adding needless wear and tear on the components. The only exception is once in a while it's a good idea to do a shutdown / restart to re-initialize the ram, as Thaco points out:



https://www.howtogeek.com/256395/psa...r-hibernation/

You know a lot more about tech stuff than me usually, but doesn't sleep/hibernate still use reasonably significant power? Or am I doing it all wrong?

[Seth1968]

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Doesn't sleep/hibernate still use reasonably significant power?

No, it's insignificant.

[Thaco]

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You know a lot more about tech stuff than me usually, but doesn't sleep/hibernate still use reasonably significant power? Or am I doing it all wrong?

all sleep does is use enough power to keep the ram active so it doesn't dump, similar to how your CMOS battery stores your bios settings.

[ExtraSlow]

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but doesn't sleep/hibernate still use reasonably significant power? Or am I doing it all wrong?

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No, it's insignificant.

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all sleep does is use enough power to keep the ram active so it doesn't dump, similar to how your CMOS battery stores your bios settings.

Did a quick test this morning. In 3 hours and 42 minutes of "sleep" mode my lenovo laptop used 3% of it's battery power (from 43 to 40 percent). That's not huge, but I wouldn't want to leave it in sleep mode for days at a time.

So, yeah, looks like I HAVE been doing it wrong, that's cool to know.

[spikerS]

pulled the trigger last night and got one of the E7440 comps they had there. unfortunately, all the touch screens seem to have sold out, but, i don't think that is an issue and she should be happy with her present. Thanks Thaco and all for the input.

[rx7boi]

Right on. What's the warranty on these refurbished laptops and what was your final price?

4GB RAM is a bit low but it's still a decent laptop.

Edit: Nvm, 100 day limited warranty as per website.

[Euro838]

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/ncix-...-february-2018

Might be some good deals to be had.

[captain134]

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Uh disagree on what?

Of course an SSD is much faster and more reliable than a spin drive, but that's mainly only applicable on initially opening a program, or boot time. Once a program is cached, the SSD will have little to do with speed, especially when just about all uses of a computer are web based. For example, wait until you have fully restarted your computer, then try to open a program. There will be a significant speed advantage with an SSD at this point. Now close the program and re-open it. It should now open almost instantaneously regardless if you use an SSD or spin drive.

Also, what's this big deal about boot time? A properly running computer shouldn't take more than 1 minute to boot, and a computer should be put to sleep, and rarely need a shutdown / restart.

Maybe disagree is the wrong word but I took your post as if you were saying an SSD isn't an important component and I disagree with that. As I stated it should be a priority and will make a HUGE difference in user experience. I am well aware of how computers and their components work and I DO think the difference of 1 minute vs 10 second boot times is a big deal.