Need laptop advice

Arhu

Two Sides
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Fellow watchers,

my parents live in a village and until now had an old single core Win XP desktop PC with 128MB of RAM and dialup Internet speed (about 7.6kb/s without a flatrate). Yes, you read that right.

The village is finally getting real Internet access in the form of glass fiber, and my dad said he just got 100Mbit with a theoretical limit of 125Mbit (!). Now I'm jealous, and he needs to replace his old PC in order to harness all that juicy speed (and a WLAN router and all that, of course).

I already narrowed the choice down to a more or less budget 17" laptop as a desktop replacement with Win 8.1. He's going to work on it (Office and basic photo / video editing plus lots of music listening and soon YouTube video watching ;)) ) — nothing too fancy though and no real gaming.

So, is there anything any of you can recommend in that regard?


I'm also wondering about which brand I should get for him. I'm mostly interested in their support policy. Like, can the OS be upgraded later? I had contact with a HP laptop with Windows Vista once, which could be upgraded later to Win7 — there was official driver support. But now I read that some Win8 laptops can't be upgraded to Win 8.1? Any experience with HP, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, etc.?

His budget is about €500 - €700 ($685 - $960). I don't suppose he could get an SSD with that...? :)
 
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I am wondering about an 'all-in-one' rather than a laptop - I had one to review from HP a couple of years ago with a 24" monitor and everything built in and wireless mouse & keyboard (more or less an iMac clone) and it was pretty decent and cheaper than a similarly spec'd laptop (I think the one I had was fully configured for $699 or something).

In general you can always get more for your $ with a 'stationary' system, so if it is going to sit on a desk 95% of the time, get a desktop.
 
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Interesting -- actually this is the first time I've heard about 'all-in-one's. Yeah, I've been living under a rock or something. This does sound like an alternative. Got any links for more info or reviews?

That said, I'm positive he needs at least a minimum of mobility -- 1) working room in the house, 2) living room, 3) garden (mostly for music / videos connected to some speakers when he's outside). Electrical power supply won't be a problem. Maybe he could build a stand or casing for the monitor when he's outside... Hmm.
 
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All-in-one can be mounted on a wall "hand", dunno the proper word for it.
A moveable stick, so your folks can sit and pull the "gadget" in a close position, when they're done, they just move it back near the wall.

I ought to buy one for my mother as it's practically a big touchscreen you may use to watch movies, TV and to skype. And win8 on it should do great. The problem is… She says it's too expensive and would get angry if I buy it for her, so… Oh and she doesn't want a smartphone although I'm trying to persuade her for years. Her big buttons motorola seems to be a love of her life.

This model is pretty popular (as an illegal gambling device!) in my country:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAK8TbfcvRs
I'll try to visit a place with it tomorrow and get a proper pic with my iPhone, can't promise I'll manage to pull it through as I can't afford to get caught. Yes, the place where people gamble illegally. :)
 
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Sorry, took me a while, but well… I didn't want to lose my head.

Here's the pic:
2130sas.jpg


So you mount it on the wall where it sticks till you need it. It's moveable and all you have to do is to pull it near your chair.
And I'll definetly buy one of these allinones with the "arm", if nothing, skype will be thankful. :)
 
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