Laptop Died. New Laptop Purchase For Shop & CAD/CAM - BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY

So, the main laptop died. More correctly, it is dying a slow, painful death and will completely poop the bed at any time now. I am not one to run out and upgrade computers all the time. I tend to keep them on hand until they die and that usually means "when it is no longer economically prudent to keep it running". This one is 7 or 8 years old. It has been upgraded along the way with new and larger memory as well as SSD drive. It performs completely satisfactorily for its purpose. Mainly, typical shop clerical and CAD/CAM. CAD/CAM is both high end and medium level CAD/CAM.

I am partial to HP laptops. I am also partial to 17" screens as well as built in number pads. As a guideline, this machine is an HP Pavilion DV7T and I've been thoroughly pleased with it. Frankly, I don't really care about shaving 1.3 seconds off processing time, so I don't need top of the heap type stuff.

I would imagine that just about most mid level performance laptops would suffice well enough. My biggest hassle will be transferring all the software and making sure it works again. Being able to throw this hard drive into another HP would likely make that less of a hassle...

So, with that all said, has anyone else been down this road lately? Has anyone heard of any deals for Black Friday / Cyber Monday that would make sense to wait the two weeks before purchasing something? I am thinking that something along the lines of i7 processor in the 2.5Ghz range, with 8 - 16 Gb of DDR4 RAM ( can always add ), with moderately decent video card and memory, having the aforementioned 17.3" screen and whatever hard drive will suffice.

I am not looking forward to being forced into Windows 10. I would MUCH rather keep plodding along with Win7 Pro. ( sigh ) I am perfectly fine with considering a factory refurbished/certified offering.

Sock it to me...

ZK,
I have seen some deals previously on HP stuff, and been attracted to them from a feature vs.cost standpoint, but then keep reading reviews of HP gear with associated horror stories, generally about battery failure. Then I go back to Dell for new hardware.

Up until a few months ago (at least) Dell was still offering desktops (and I think laptops as well) with W7 through their Business arm. I think there is a LARGE following in the business and professional community for that. May be worth looking at that. When we bought computers from Dell over the last 12 months for my company, W7 was always the choice made, and was available at Dell. My designer guy is using a W10 machine (Dell from Costco) with SolidWorks Pro, and it took a few months to get decently used to it, FWIW.

Make sure if you get less memory than you really want (16 GB would be good), that the machine actually can accept additional memory without throwing away what's already installed, based on DIMM capacity and available slots. Laptop memory seems expensive.

Newegg often has refurbs of various sorts, and I've seen some decent laptops there. Almost bought one last year around BlkFriday, but ended up buying a T1600 Dell workstation for $380 or something close. Great deal on slightly dated tech, but very usable.

** Just looked at Dell website, and they are still offering machines with W7 Pro and i7s. If you want a 17" screen on laptop, maybe not so much with W7, but could be worth checking out.

I am not looking forward to being forced into Windows 10. I would MUCH rather keep plodding along with Win7 Pro.

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Just FWIW, I'm a Microsoft Luddite and felt the same way. Over a year ago I let my home laptop upgrade to 10 just to get rid of 8. Then I began more recently to acknowlege that CAD and CAM were soon going to leave 7 behind and I better get prepared. So when one of the bookkeeping PCs died and I couldn't jury rig something old to work, I bough a refurbed W10 PC to put in the office, thinking it would be a step to getting 10 to work with the rest of the network. It worked, and I liked it - no one is more surprised by that than I! Then a CAM PC died, so I replaced with with an off-lease W10 HP Z620. Shazam - It works too. In a short period I've become a convert, and seriously don't want any more W7 machines the same way I don't want to daily drive a carbureted car any more. W10 installs super easy, things that are a real pain to get working in 7 are almost automatic in 10. YMMV but from a MS Skeptic, I recommend going to 10 now when it will be cheaper than later.

Hello, I have in the past, bought refurbished Lenovo brand laptops and desktops from Newegg with good outcomes. From what I understand, Newegg’s refurbished equipment offered are corporate lease buybacks, so could be considered “used”. In my experiences the goods were received in excellent, scratch and defect free condition, with a generous warranty, packaged in generic box. These computers were a bit dated at the time of purchase, but they suited my intended isolated office use well. This option may also afford you W7. I too am avoiding the “upgrade” to W10 due to legacy software I use, which I’m not sure will run on W10. Arttech.

DO NOT get the new HP Z book with the Thunderbolt dock. We switched from Dell to HP because purchasing got an extra couple $$ off on them. They have been nothing but trouble. While the computer performs satisfactory, the Thunderbolt dock is a buggy POS. You'll be typing along and the keyboard will just quit. Or the 3D mouse will just quit.... or a monitor will start coming on / going off on about a 5-6 second cycle when you re-dock. It's annoying, it shouldn't be happening and it's unproductive. I'd go back to my old Dell 6800 in a heartbeat. That thing never gave me any trouble, ever. But the lease was up so alas I had to go the the HP. I'd go with a Dell honestly.

Tonytn36 said:

DO NOT get the new HP Z book with the Thunderbolt dock. We switched from Dell to HP because purchasing got an extra couple $$ off on them. They have been nothing but trouble. While the computer performs satisfactory, the Thunderbolt dock is a buggy POS. You'll be typing along and the keyboard will just quit. Or the 3D mouse will just quit.... or a monitor will start coming on / going off on about a 5-6 second cycle when you re-dock. It's annoying, it shouldn't be happening and it's unproductive. I'd go back to my old Dell 6800 in a heartbeat. That thing never gave me any trouble, ever. But the lease was up so alas I had to go the the HP. I'd go with a Dell honestly.

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Funny, our IT department has the same complaints, but I am using a Z book and have not had one single problem with the thunderbolt port/dock. FWIW, my dock has an ethernet cable, speakers, wireless mouse receiver, two monitors, and the power supply plugged into it. I normally plug my 3d connexion directly into my laptop usb, just because I travel and take my 3d with me so no need to have it connected 'permanently' to the dock station...

What are the symptoms that suggest the demise of the laptop?

Bruce Griffing said:

What are the symptoms that suggest the demise of the laptop?

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It involves the Earth orbiting the sun...

Thank you for all the input, Gentlemen. I appreciate it all. Keep it coming.

A few points - I don't really care about a docking station. At one point, we did purchase a used laptop for a second CAD/CAM station/general shop computer and one of its features was the docking station. As it has always been stationary, it seemed a good idea. I never actually got around to it, and frankly I have not missed it one bit. Too, this laptop rarely stays put long enough to actually benefit a docking station. I don't really have a desk, per se.

Too, I'm glad to hear that at least there might be some hope regarding Win10... And the point of current and future software being compatible with Win7 is a good one.

Lastly, as for what the symptoms of the impending doom are, it's a moot point. Physical damage led to component damage. Can it be repaired? Sure. I'm sure it could be. And it would be stupid to put that much money or time and effort to doing so to 7+ year old laptop. It is time. Plain and simple. That comes from someone that fixes and keeps things WAY past their time.

Onward...

I used to work in a shop as a kind of design technician/shop hand. I regularly used two different professional laptops. I also served as the IT guy setting up new computers.

The first was a Dell workstation laptop. I think it was an early 7000 series or whatever came before that. The second was a brand new HP Zbook. There was no comparison in my mind. On paper they were configured very similarly with the major difference being the zbook had a newer generation Intel processor and I think it was configured with an SSD when it was ordered whereas we added an SSD to the Dell later on.

The Dell was by far my favorite of the two. Having to actually carry it around and use it in different places, the build quality was far superior. The HP did everything we needed it to do, but I wasn't always comfortable carrying it around. The keyboard was garbage to type on and keys often stuck once depressed. It overall felt like the guts of a $1500 laptop in the body of a $300 laptop. The Dell had both build quality and power on its side.

Not trying to sway you towards Dell from HP, but if build quality is a concern, maybe try finding somewhere that has one and try doing some basic tasks on it. If the HP had the build quality of the Dell it would have been perfect. Usually I love to hate on Dell every chance I get, but this is one laptop they got right compared to the competition.

I, and many of my friends, personally like the professional lines from Lenovo. At least in the old thinkpad days. Haven't seen much of their newer stuff in person yet. May be worth looking into.

I buy used HP 8740 laptops off ebay ($300-500), so far they've been working well, an 8720 from Newegg has also been working well, they maybe a little long in the tooth for you. The 8740 though has plenty of power, even doing FEA doesn't slow it down.

If you don't like the look or feel of W10 (I don't) there's a download from MS that will make the interface look like W7.

Just looked at Newegg, there's plenty of refurb'd 87XX laptops there at reasoneable $'s

Every 18 months or so, I go on the eBay and go snag a latest model refurb ThinkPad W series laptop... Probably will move to the new P series in a few months.

The ThinkPad has a whole world of people who wheel and dell in them for big corporate clients (likely the same for Dell and HP), so you can usually find good deals on over-purchased ones or factory refurb ones, with full warranties, just a few weeks after release. Short of the MacBook Pro's fully machined unibody chassis, the ThinkPads are very well built and I've never had a problem with them beyond the usual Windows maintenance bullshit. In fact, the W550s I'm currently on is running well enough I'll probably extend it for a while longer than I normally do.

I hated my new(back then) Win 8 workstation that I searched out and built a Win 7 workstation to replace it. 4 other computers kept getting Win 10 pop ups so I took the free upgrades. Painless.

I’d be going solid state drives where possible. Those things are fast and have better longevity

WILLEO6709 said:

I’d be going solid state drives where possible. Those things are fast and have better longevity

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5th sentence, original opening post. Standard procedure for every laptop.

I have concluded that computer power is an overrated factor. I have a laptop that is about 6 years old that I purchased originally for use while traveling. I went to the local Best Buy and purchased what was close to the least expensive laptop that they had. The sales guy talked to me about what I really wanted/needed. I told him what I would do with it: Word, Excel, CAD, photo editing, audio editing, video editing, web surfing, etc. Sounds like something like CAD would really need a top-of-the-line screamer and he insisted that I needed a $2000+ laptop. Not so. My bottom-of-the-line laptop (under $300) has handled everything I have thrown at it. I did not even upgrade the memory in it. It works for everything I do. And it has done so for at least six years now. Still going strong. It is sitting besides my keyboard for my desktop tower right now. I use it for my digital scope software, for CAD, for cleaning up my old LPs, and many, many more tasks. It has been upgraded to Windows 10 and that works just fine on it too. Oh, and the WiFi works just fine too. I used it in our motel room when I recently evacuated for the hurricane.

My best guess is that some of the more advanced games actually need the top line machines. I don't know and don't care. You CAN get along quite well with all the tasks that I use it for on a very inexpensive machine.

One thing I do recommend for laptops is one of those fan units that sit under them and help with the cooling. I have purchased them for my laptop, my wife's, and my son's. So far, none of them have given any trouble. Buy a fan unit and use it. Your laptop will thank you with longer life.

Mike1974 said:

Funny, our IT department has the same complaints, but I am using a Z book and have not had one single problem with the thunderbolt port/dock. FWIW, my dock has an ethernet cable, speakers, wireless mouse receiver, two monitors, and the power supply plugged into it. I normally plug my 3d connexion directly into my laptop usb, just because I travel and take my 3d with me so no need to have it connected 'permanently' to the dock station...

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The dock has my desktop keyboard, 3D connexion mouse, 2 monitors, Ethernet and a micro-usb cable (for cameras, etc). The Z book only has 4 usb ports on it and I need those for software dongles, usb mouse and usb drives/external hdd. I have to use a 4 port hub for the dongles. I have a 3D connexion mouse in my laptop backpack for travel and on-the-floor work. Over a year's time, I'm probably 60/40 desk/floor or travel respectively. I dock/undock quite often, sometimes several times a day depending on what issues arise on the manufacturing floor.

It would be really nice if they came out with a roll-up 27" monitor and you could just carry a couple with you wherever you are working, my eyes aren't what they used to be.

"It performs completely satisfactorily for it's purpose."

"I am not looking forward to being forced into Windows 10."

This makes no sense at all. I've got a couple of Win7 machines, several WinXP machines, and a Win98 or two. So what? I use what works. I don't like change for the sake of change, or because Bill Gates says that I must. Screw him!

steve45 said:

"It performs completely satisfactorily for it's purpose."

"I am not looking forward to being forced into Windows 10."

This makes no sense at all. I've got a couple of Win7 machines, several WinXP machines, and a Win98 or two. So what? I use what works. I don't like change for the sake of change, or because Bill Gates says that I must. Screw him!

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i just got a high zoot new pc for my office which is windows 10 capable but alas i have to run windows 7 to support ie9 (not 8 or 10 - 9 only) so i can work with a factory's website. my business computer is sco unix so i use xp machines for clients or virtual xp on windows 7. why is it that older software is not compatible with upgrades!!! pisses me off. not everyone can shit can everything when a new version is released

Are you 100% set on another HP?
There are usually some good Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on sites like Newegg.com and Tiger Direct.com
If it were me, I'd take a serious look at an MSI 17" gaming laptop.
Don't let the "gaming" tag turn you off. They make really good powerful laptops.
Anything from a few hundred bucks to thousands.
17." - 17.3", Intel Core i7, New, MSI, Gaming Laptops, Laptops / Notebooks, Computer Systems - Newegg.com