Do not plan to buy a computer on your first visit, but talk to a salesperson.

You can get a basic laptop pretty inexpensively.

Oh, heck, here's a link to their laptop portion of their website. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/black-friday-laptop-computer-deals-1

I realize the extreme deals here may not be around after a bit, but they all show what the original price was. Its a start, at least.

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I live way north of the border....

Didn't think to add the .ca to the address.
That is only about a 4 hour drive south.
I think I'll phone them and have something shipped.

Cyber monday here I come.
this is one of the reasons I love DU.
You guys have been a great help. Thanks

Periodically I discover I have equally huge empty spaces in my knowledge of things. You just never had occasion to either notice a Best Buy in that city, or to look it up.

all built into the screen:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-23-8-touch-screen-all-in-one-intel-core-i5-12gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-snowflake-white/6331729.p?skuId=6331729

We generally prefer a mouse.

Thanks..

My MIL has one very similar that we bought her a couple years ago. The touchscreen function has probably never been used.

But the point wasn’t the touchscreen...the point was the entire computer only takes up the “real estate” of your screen...no tower, mini or otherwise.

flat screen monitor. The laptop can act like a tower. I got one and love it.

2 laptops and a 2 pound Acer notebook on the coffee table in the tv room. I sort of know how all of this works.

keyboard that I don't need to replace. But again Bestbuy won't send it here.

Thanks it looks a lovely deal.

A laptop gives you mobility when you want it.
You can take it out the porch or to a friend's house or the library.

If you want to use it in the home off, you can connect it the larger monitor.

From what you described, the screen size will be the largest cost determinant for you.

RAM, processor, HDD size won't matter for you.

I found decent computer at Walmart for under $300, Target will have something similar. The warehouse clubs will be a little cheaper. It won't track satellites or crack the human gnome -- but it will easily do everything you want.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-ideapad-S340-15-6-Laptop-Intel-Core-i3-8145U-Dual-Core-Processor-8GB-Memory-128GB-Solid-State-Drive-Windows-10-Abyss-Blue-81N800H1US/335796482

I just never liked it. When I traveled I used my tablet. Those days are over and now I just want to stay in touch with DU, friends and family. I really like my desk top. I know "I am just an old foggy"... set in my ways.

2 HP all-in-ones that broke after less than a year for one and two years for the other. I really like the all-in-ones, but am leery of them now-- dunno whether it's the concept or HP. Also had a Lenovo desktop that was pig-slow but reliable, and got stolen.

I am also a fogey, but care about cost and convenience.

Oh, and the desktop with separate monitor make it real pain to join a Zoom or Skype meeting because you almost always have get a separate camera. Skyping with friends and family is cool when you get into it.

Windows will take up 1/3 of that from the jump ... start putting vids or a lot of photos on it and it'll be used up pretty quick. Also, small SSD's wear out much faster than larger ones do and then die a horrible death.

Get at least a 512GB SSD in your PC is my advice unless you are REALLY sure you are only browsing the internet and don't give a crap about any data that's on the machine.

I am so glad you mentioned that, I do have pictures that could take up space.Thanks.

I did that on our trip to the UK - copied the photos off the card out of the cameras every night. Plus, I took two external 4 TB drives, and copied the images to both, just in case one failed.

Originally I meant to upload them to the Adobe Creative Cloud through their Lightroom program, but the laptop with Lightroom loaded failed. I couldn't get into my Adobe account with my replacement laptop, so I relied on the external drives.

Just that one trip filled half of each of those drives - about 2 TBs of digital images.

My desktop has a 6TB drive for family photos - that is getting close to full. Oh, for the days when I could burn my pictures to CDRs or DVDRs! Now, there are too many to sort through.

monitor.

I agree with poster above, nowadays a sub $500 lap top works great for your needs — and very intense needs too — and you can get a decent size monitor for less than $200. I use a wired large keyboard and wired mouse, old school as well.

For surfing, the internet connection is the key.

Good luck.

I use it in business but they gave simpler models. Best Buy, staples, etc. I was happy when I called dell direct. I felt they were pretty straight on what I needed and what I didn’t. I think going to a store would be best cause you can get support from a person when needed.

Last edited Sat Nov 30, 2019, 12:24 AM - Edit history (1)

I like to have a counter I can pound on when I need to.
I also like to support local businesses.
Thanks Matt.

questiona would not be a. bad Idea.
Without confusing the issue more you might look at Chromebooks if you want a a latop or a Chrome Box. It is a small but powerful computer in a box thst you connect a monitor, mouse and Keyboard to.
With out going to far diwn a rathole, theydon't run windows the run a
The chromium OS from google. They boot almost instantaneously and are great for surfing the internet and sending mail with simplicity and they are pretty immune to viruses.

A video on Chtomebooks.

Whenever I'm traveling I hate babysitting my more expensive Linux/Windows laptop, almost as much as I hate being chained to my desktop machine.

For writing, web browsing, and email my Chromebook just works. It's reliable, it's quiet, and it gets at least eight hours on a battery charge.

My Chromebook doesn't have a touch screen. I much prefer a touch pad and keyboard shortcuts to a touch screen.

And no, Chromebooks do not require internet connections to do non-internet things like writing or simple photo sorting and editing.

The last computer I spent more than $300 on ran Windows 3.1 on a 386 processor. That was a long time ago. I don't spend money on computers or software any more. I do spend money on things like solid state hard drives and RAM.

If you are already going to spend up to a thousand dollars on a desktop machine, put about a hundred dollars aside for a Chromebook.

The Chromebook may become your favorite computer.

But I would choose the Core I7. Buy without a hard drive and put in a 1 TB solid state. You can buy them for about $200.

I use Best Buy Geek Squad
.

laptop. Except for the fact that it had some Chinese porn on it that Geek Squad fixed, it has served me very well. It is heavy to take on a trip. It has everything I need.