Good deal on a refurb HP laptop...

[K Frame]

I just sprang for a refurb laptop from NewEgg.

It's on sale right now for $149.99, on sale until tomorrow (down from $480).

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6A378S7755&cm_re=hp_8570p-_-9SIA6A378S7755-_-Product

It should be a good platform for me for occasional light work and also travel/entertainment.

[Ben]

That's a really good deal for an i-5. With the 8gig of RAM, that could be an everyday laptop - especially if a guy bought it and then got in on an Amazon Cyber Monday deal on an SSD.

[K Frame]

Yep. I'm trying to get my customer to let me do some incidental off site work during times I want to visit friends out of area, and this laptop will allow me to do that.

Mtnbkr is also suggesting upgrading to the SSD. I tend to be very low impact on my hard drive storage, but as he pointed out, the speeds are a lot greater with the SSDs and they can increase your battery use time between charges because they're very power friendly.

[cordex]

I do like the EliteBooks for what they are.

Definitely do the SSD upgrade.  Not all SSDs are created equal, but just about any should be a huge upgrade in speed and power efficiency.

[RocketMan]

I've got the model just below, the 8560p.  Upgraded to a SSD some time back.  Windows 7 Pro, 32 bit, 4 gig of RAM.  Runs very well. You'll like the 8570p, though I second the notion of upgrading to a SSD.

[Ben]

Definitely do the SSD upgrade.  Not all SSDs are created equal, but just about any should be a huge upgrade in speed and power efficiency.

You know, as much as I talk a good game of "get an SSD!" around here, I didn't do it for my main laptop until last week. I posted not too long ago that the MSATA on my laptop had died, and it was an SSD "buffer drive" for the main mechanical drive. After it died, startup slowed painfully, so I finally did the SSD swap last week.

I went with the Samsung 860 EVO. These are a pretty reasonable price these days, and get consistently great reviews. By no means the speediest out there, but very adequate. I used the Samsung software to clone it. Piece of cake and all done in a couple of hours with zero hitches. The 850-860 series seems to go on sale a lot too, especially with all the new M2 NVMe drives coming out now.

It's been a few years, but at work I always bought Crucial drives and had zero issues with them. They also seem to be reasonably priced. Especially in the smaller sizes, and for Mike's stated uses, it seems like under 500gig would be fine. But again, I'm thinking there are going to be great deals across the Interwebz come Cyber Monday.

[Calumus]

Get the SSD. A Samsung 860 250gb is going for around $60, and will completely transform that PC. Right now, you probably want to stick with Samsung. Over the last 6 months I've had to replace relatively new Intels, Sandisks, and Crucials. So far, the only brand that I've installed that I haven't had to replace at least one of is Samsung.

[K Frame]

Well poo. I finally got around to looking at the computer that I brought back from my Mom's house. I thought I grabbed the wireless adapter that was plugged into it, but it's nowhere.

So, I need to get a wireless adapter.

Fortunately, they're cheap.

[K Frame]

New laptop is here. It has wireless. Still setting it up but I like it so far.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Ron]

Will I be forced to get Windows 10 in the near future if I get this?

Personally, I really was comfortable with Win 7 Pro on my previous desktop.

I’m just concerned I’m going to lose functionality right away due to the older operating system.

[Ben]

Will I be forced to get Windows 10 in the near future if I get this?

Personally, I really was comfortable with Win 7 Pro on my previous desktop.

I’m just concerned I’m going to lose functionality right away due to the older operating system.

You won't really lose functionality, just security updates once Microsoft cuts off Win7. Though with all the ridiculous problems they have had with Win 10 mandatory updates of late, maybe 7 will get some longer life. 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/problems-with-windows-10-october-2018-update/

[Brad Johnson]

Dell Outlet just rolled out a bunch of Black Friday "regular discount plus additional BF discount" on a bunch of their stuff. I saw prices up to 45% off. Be sure to pay attention to the "extra discount" code under the radio button for each product type.

Brad

[Angel Eyes]

I just sprang for a refurb laptop from NewEgg.

It's on sale right now for $149.99, on sale until tomorrow (down from $480).

Mine was delivered last Thursday, so I've had a few days to play with it.

There is minor cosmetic damage on the exterior.  Monitor and keyboard look almost brand new.

In a nutshell, everything works.  Four USB ports, HDMI output, VGA output, a DVD drive.  Battery holds a charge and is good for about 3 hours of moderate use.  Boots up quickly, no crashes as yet.

It is a bit heavy compared to more modern laptops, but that's not an issue for me.

The system is fairly basic: Windows 7 and Google Chrome were installed, but nothing else, which is good.  No bloatware that I have to spend time uninstalling.

Seller threw in a packet of Skittles.

Overall, $150 well spent.  Newegg still has some in stock, but the price is up to $175.  Still not bad.

[K Frame]

Thumbs up to CTech City, which was the actual vendor of the laptop I got from New Egg...

I was supposed to get an OS recovery disk in the box with the laptop, but it wasn't included.

So, this morning I got on CTech's website and sent them a note about the omission, but noting how much I like the machine.

Within 12 minutes I got a response with a profuse apology and a statement that they'll drop the disk into today's mail.

I like responses like that.

[Hawkmoon]

Will I be forced to get Windows 10 in the near future if I get this?

Personally, I really was comfortable with Win 7 Pro on my previous desktop.

I’m just concerned I’m going to lose functionality right away due to the older operating system.

Microsoft will be providing security updates for Windows 7 through January 14, 2020. I plan to stay with Windows 7 at least that long, because I much prefer it over Windows 10.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

[K Frame]

That's my plan, too. But, if I actually get permission to use this box more than occasionally for work I may be required to update it to W10.

[Hawkmoon]

Another curve ball Microsoft threw at us is that Office 2019 only runs under Windows 10.