Semi urgent query - laptop Black Friday

[ChevronB19]

Looking at this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Vivobook-X515JA-Wind...

I know nothing about PC’s, just want to get my 11 year old a laptop for school. This seems a reasonable price, and I’m not bothered about a ‘deep dive’ to save £20 here or there, or to get a slightly better spec for someone who at least at the moment only needs it for office 365 and typing.

Seem ok? Quick response appreciated, either ‘it’s fine’ or ‘it’s terrible’ please?

[Funk]

I would think it'd be absolutely fine for the use case you outline.

[ChevronB19]

Funk said:

I would think it'd be absolutely fine for the use case you outline.

Great. In true PH style I will ‘pull the trigger’.

[KaraK]

For an 11 year old to do a bit of schoolwork on? It'll do the job. The i3 is a bit wheezy for anything more than the basics though so if you think it's going to see a bit more use or you want have it last a bit longer the i5 version probably makes more sense.

[ChevronB19]

KaraK said:

For an 11 year old to do a bit of schoolwork on? It'll do the job. The i3 is a bit wheezy for anything more than the basics though so if you think it's going to see a bit more use or you want have it last a bit longer the i5 version probably makes more sense.

Appreciate the advice, many thanks. I5 is £100 more, and of she gets into stuff that needs more power I can sort it when the moment comes.

[Funk]

ChevronB19 said:

KaraK said:

For an 11 year old to do a bit of schoolwork on? It'll do the job. The i3 is a bit wheezy for anything more than the basics though so if you think it's going to see a bit more use or you want have it last a bit longer the i5 version probably makes more sense.

Appreciate the advice, many thanks. I5 is £100 more, and of she gets into stuff that needs more power I can sort it when the moment comes.

I did click to see how much the i5 was - and I concurred; I don't think for general browsing and Office docs it'd be an extra £100 well-spent at this stage.

The i3 version has its limitations for sure, but for what you say your daughter will use it for the i3 model is good value and should be up to the task.

[S6PNJ]

KaraK said:

For an 11 year old to do a bit of schoolwork on? It'll do the job. The i3 is a bit wheezy for anything more than the basics though so if you think it's going to see a bit more use or you want have it last a bit longer the i5 version probably makes more sense.

My current in-use laptop is an (old) i3-3110M with a CPU benchmark of 1626. The linked Asus laptop with it's i3 benchmarks at 5045 (bigger is clearly better) - my lappy also has 8Gb and a 240Gb SSD but I'd guess the Asus SSD will be quicker than mine, so yes, the Asus lappy will be more than fast enough. My laptop is circa 10yrs old as well!!

[sgrimshaw]

Cracking deal, hope you manage to snag one!

Those Asus's are easy to upgrade RAM and SSD on too, should the need occur.

[ChevronB19]

sgrimshaw said:

Cracking deal, hope you manage to snag one!

Those Asus's are easy to upgrade RAM and SSD on too, should the need occur.

Order confirmed, thanks

[beko1987]

Spend the time when you get it to remove all the bloatware rubbish (ccleaner or via the control panel), disable almost everything at startup (you need almost none of it, if it's wanted it can be opened. Graphics and sound drivers arre about all I run) and run any de-bloating tools you feel comfortable with and maybe tweak the visual effects but stop short of turning the themes off and it'll be nippy enough for all but gaming, even then it'll probably run minecraft/roblox if asked.

[sgrimshaw]

ChevronB19 said:

Order confirmed, thanks

Nice one.

I note from one of the Amazon reviews that it can take a second hdd/ssd, that's a nice feature to have and is relatively rare at the £500 price point.

Very tempted to grab one, just to evaluate W11.

[Funk]

sgrimshaw said:

Very tempted to grab one, just to evaluate W11.

Don't bother. I have to use a mix of W10 and W11 for various things and W11 is just a stter version of 10. Loads of stuff I use in 10 just isn't there in 11 any more and they've moved things around for no damn good reason I can ascertain. I admit I'm a bit more of a 'power user' than most though.

My own and work machine PCs will be staying on W10 as long as possible, I dislike W11. I wouldn't waste £220 on 'having a play with it' if I were you.

[S6PNJ]

Funk said:

sgrimshaw said:

Very tempted to grab one, just to evaluate W11.

Don't bother. I have to use a mix of W10 and W11 for various things and W11 is just a stter version of 10. Loads of stuff I use in 10 just isn't there in 11 any more and they've moved things around for no damn good reason I can ascertain. I admit I'm a bit more of a 'power user' than most though.

My own and work machine PCs will be staying on W10 as long as possible, I dislike W11. I wouldn't waste £220 on 'having a play with it' if I were you.

Just use rufus to 'load' Win 11 on an SD card and use that to load Win 11 to your Laptop or a spare SSD. Rufus has options to bypass the Win 11 memory / CPU spec and TP thingy - have used it to load Win 11 to a i3-2310 M laptop, runs fine with 8Gb memory

https://rufus.ie/en/

[sgrimshaw]

I haven't bought one, I bought two.

One to replace my wife's hand me down Toshiba and one as a potential replacement for a HP Envy which I've hated since I bought it 4/5 years ago.

If we don't like Win11, I'm not short of Win10 licenses.

[Funk]

sgrimshaw said:

I haven't bought one, I bought two.

One to replace my wife's hand me down Toshiba and one as a potential replacement for a HP Envy which I've hated since I bought it 4/5 years ago.

If we don't like Win11, I'm not short of Win10 licenses.

You don't need a Win10 licence - you can do a clean install that on your W11 machine and it will work fine. However, be aware Asus may not have written any drivers for Win10 for that device. It will most likely work fine but you might run into the odd anomaly.

[sgrimshaw]

ChevronB19 said:

Order confirmed, thanks

How do you find the Asus?

Must admit I am quite impressed for the price, especially as it will take a second SSD/HDD

[ChevronB19]

sgrimshaw said:

ChevronB19 said:

Order confirmed, thanks

How do you find the Asus?

Must admit I am quite impressed for the price, especially as it will take a second SSD/HDD

Only just set it up, as she gets it on Xmas day, but so far very impressed. Dare I say it’s better than my work laptop…

[sgrimshaw]

ChevronB19 said:

Only just set it up, as she gets it on Xmas day, but so far very impressed. Dare I say it’s better than my work laptop…

In case you hadn't realised "as delivered" it is running Windows 11 in S mode, which means you can only install "apps" from the Microsoft Store.

It's easy enough to get it out of S mode:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/switch...