Thanks to everyone who chimed in yesterday. Helped a lot. I typically take every other Wednesday off (and every other Thursday), so, was off today. Ran around to multiple Best Buys and Office Depots, ended up with a Dell Inspiron 3501. 16GB ram (though, not the fastest type, no biggie), 256GB SSD hard drive (512 is nice, but, even after copying all my files for music, photos (lost a bunch of downloaded pinups), etc, I still have about 142GB, especially since I’m not installing a bunch of programs that I never, ever use, including all the add on graphics and stuff for the photo program I use. Full 1920 x 1080 display, which is pretty nice so far.
Speakers aren’t anything special, but, then, for all the named stuff in laptops, they’re rarely special, just too thin. Loud enough.
A fingerprint reader, which is nice.
Backlit keyboard, which times out after so many second of use, with 2 bright settings. Bright enough for sitting in the living room with the lights low.
Intel Core i5-1135G7. While some say the base speed is 1.5ghz, others say 2.4ghz. Regardless, the benchmarks I’ve read on multiple sites is good. Up to 4.2ghz.
Plenty of USBs, 1 HDMI, a memory card reader, even has an ethernet port, which is rather rare these days on laptops. Only thing missing is a USB C port, but, for those rare times I need to move something, usually a song or 2, to the phone, I have a USB to C cable in the car.
Only sorta negative is that it looks rather plasticy, and feels that way. Not smooth plastic as you rest your palms. But, in feeling the 4 other old laptops (2 now dead, but, could put new HDs in them, but would have to purchase Windows for them), and 2 that have real old copies of Windows and just barely allow work) which are smooth, the plastic is just as thick.
The keyboard, which has some really, really nice action, does sit a lot higher up towards the screen, we’ll see if this makes a difference. Huge touchpad, but, I rarely use that.
So far, impressed.
There are conversion devices to turn your old HD into a USB drive. The problem is that new 1-2TB USB drives are dirt cheap so no point keeping your old ones.
True, true. I have a pretty good sized external HD. Small size. Also have an older giant one for double backup. If I try and format the old one, will probably lose everything, but, at this point, all that I lost was a bunch of photos use for If All You See and Sunday pinups, everything gathered since January. None of my personal photos were lost, and none of my music.
And, boy, is this thing quiet. Not getting warm, haven’t heard the fan kick in, but, not doing anything beyond Internet. Actually starting to like the cheaper feeling plastic, hands slide better on it, not sticking to it. Lots of Dells seem to use the same type.