Currys Dixons or whatever they call themselves these days normally do good value deals. The cost seems to reflect processor speed the cheaper the PC the slower.

If all you are doing is basic stuff such surfing, spreadsheets, email and zoom then a cheap model is fine.

If you want gaming and the like that is a different type of PC and speed is important.

One more point

It can still be worth getting as quick a laptop as you can for your budget. It's not a good time to buy, but probably won't change for a while. My last laptop, I looked in PC world for what I wanted. Then I searched for the same one at the cheapest price. What was 649 in PC world, was 369 in Tescos - there can be massive price differences. It was maybe five or six years ago. I decided 8 gb RAM as minimum (I would want 16 gb minimum now). At the time SD card memory was expensive, but is now much cheaper. Don't bother with the traditional hard drive - so slow. And with SD cards you can easily buy a bigger one and replace.
So if I were buying a laptop, I'd be looking for at least 16gb RAM and at least 256gb SD drive. It's worth making sure it has slots for expansion later. It's surprising how quickly they break, or become obsolete. I have ordered one from this site:
[Link]

it's literally half the high street prices but top spec. It's in Holland so not cheap crap. However, I can't recommend as I haven't received it yet.

Nevertheless, I play FM a lot and want to run a wide database, so could do with quicker. You wouldn't actually need it for what you're describing. If you're good at file management and understand things like the cloud, Drop boxes, one drive, Google Drive etc., you could get a decent Chrome Book. They have not much internal memory so don't do much unless online. If you have WI fi and a mobile hot spot for on the move a decent Chrome book would easily do you - and they're cheap. Perhaps 250 for a good one.

Bare in mind that you get what you pay for. I know Stirling is quite into computing - he could be worth asking? I'm more an FM addict who's forced to use computers to work from home. My own is an Acer, I've had no trouble and they're usually high spec for cheap, but not easily upgraded. I couldn't complain about Acer, it's years old and the battery still lasts for hours.

Work one is a quick, low memory, cheap HP. I and others have had power problems and at work the motherboard went on another. When work got them I told them they were unreliable. So, personally, I wouldn't buy HP (even though they're based where I live!). Others may tell you different, just my personal experience.

Edited by ASCPFC (14 May 2021 8.56pm)

Red and Blue Army!

That will bump up the price. Where you would probably get a good deal is like the Ryzen 5 or or the Pentium I 5. They are the 7 now - so previous spec. However, easily good enough for what you want. Search all the online deals with at least I5 or Ryzen 5, at least 8gb Ram (with spare slot), and at least 256gb sd drive (500gb better but probably not required). You might just about get one in your budget. If you can get 16gb Ram then all the better. Ram is easy to install and is perhaps 100 to upgrade if you do get 8gb. I hope this helps and makes sense.

Red and Blue Army!

The zen (Ryzen) processors are way too overpowered and overpriced for your needs. Something like an Ultranote ( [Link] ) is what you probably need. Zen is the new generation thing. Also if you buy from an independent supplier, it's not going to be preloaded with loads of apps you will never use. All that guff they load onto your hard-drive slows it down drastically, and needs constant updates. Shop around too.

Systematically dragged down by the lawmakers

Have you thought about a second hand laptop from somewhere like Ebay?

That's where I tend to get mine from and whilst there is plenty of rubbish there are also some good deals to be had. The last one I bought had an up to date i5 processor, still had warranty left on it and was under half the brand new price as there are loads of people that upgrade every year and must have the latest specs.

I bought a Dell Latitude E7250 but my requirements were different to yours as I needed something thin and light to take on holiday as I use a PC at home

I work in IT and people are always asking me what PC to buy.

This is what I say to the average Joe, for what you want it for pretty much any PC will do for you, don't spend too much on processing power you don't need.

Criteria you need to bear in mind is if you intend to travel a lot with your machine, if no.. go for a larger screen, if yes maybe go for a lightweight with an external screen keyboard and mouse for home use.

Over here I tell people that want a decent everyday laptop to go to Conforama ( a furniture store that sells some home electronics).
The reason for this is when HP (say) change a model, they buy out all the previous for a song and sell them at cost to get punters in the store, there will not be much difference in the performance and will last you a good few years before considering a new one.

I like HP's and Lenovo (especially Lenovo as their online updates for drivers etc is foolproof).

Hope this helps.

Edited by mr. apollo (15 May 2021 10.20am)