Curry’s glitch if you want a cheap laptop

[BigYellowHat]

Just ordered a Dell laptop for £99! Now got to wait and see if my order actually comes next week. Anyone in the market for one should consider getting on the site and giving it a go. Dying to know if it will turn up!

Hope everyone gets it!!

The last 4gb laptop I bought was returned. It was slower than treacle and struggled to boot up and get online.
Windows 10 says it needs 4gb min to operate so why they make machines with only this standard of processing power is a bit of a mystery.
I wont look at anything with less than 8.

@Georgieporgie29 you’re welcome. I work in the games industry and I can ask my very knowledgeable colleague, who is our hardware buyer, on Monday and see what they would recommend in your price range.

@icedcoffees thank you - I’m amazed a nine year old laptop is better, you can tell I have no clue! The old one wasn’t an expensive one either.

What is the minimum for browsing/Roblox and The Sims? Thanks!

[quote MarbleRunaway]@icedcoffees thank you - I’m amazed a nine year old laptop is better, you can tell I have no clue! The old one wasn’t an expensive one either.

What is the minimum for browsing/Roblox and The Sims? Thanks![/quote]
For roblox en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/203312800-Computer-Hardware-Operating-System-Requirements

For Sims www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/system-requirements

@Cherryberrypies that would be great, thank you so much.

I just spoke to curry’s customer service who said it is a correct price. They confirmed they won’t be cancelling any orders

They will be getting more stock and you can still buy it at the advertised price

Get in!

[quote MarbleRunaway]@icedcoffees thank you - I’m amazed a nine year old laptop is better, you can tell I have no clue! The old one wasn’t an expensive one either.

What is the minimum for browsing/Roblox and The Sims? Thanks![/quote]
Yeah, it's weird!

Lots of newer laptops are more aimed at internet browsing only, whereas older ones were designed to do absolutely everything I think!

I wouldn't get anything less than 8GB of RAM to run any kind of game, really. You want them to run smoothly and easily, especially where kids are involved. I remember being really upset playing SIMS as a kid and my PC crashed and I lost everything

It’s really only worth £99 tbf.

I've used this site before to see if my laptop would run games

www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Be aware it’s designed to run in Windows S mode which means you can only download Microsoft apps. You can usually switch S mode off, but on a model with such a low spec it will then run very slowly.

Thankyou @thetrainisinthestation. I will keep my eye out for one for DD. She needs a new laptop to run microsoft teams to take to and from college.

@Comefromaway

Be aware it’s designed to run in Windows S mode which means you can only download Microsoft apps. You can usually switch S mode off, but on a model with such a low spec it will then run very slowly.

I'm going to ask again for clarification on upgrading the RAM..

I've found 16MB for forty something quid (and will probably ask my nearest computer shop to whack it in for me) - that should solve the issues with games/Windows performance/speed, right? It would still be cheaper than buying anything new with 8MB+...

I'm assuming the 16MB would completely replace the original 4MB, so wouldn't exceed the max laptop RAM .

Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick on this completely?
TIA!

@Jinglebells21

Would a 4g ram be good for Netflix, disney, browsing and using office? I cancelled the dell laptop but now thinking i shouldn't of, he won't be gaming on it.

Probably not for streaming. This might help:

www.techsiting.com/how-much-ram-do-you-need-for-streaming/#:~:text=4GB%20of%20RAM%20is%20out%20of%20the%20question,games%20you%20may%20experience%20some%20stream%20quality%20issues.

I'll say it again:
(1. unless you upgrade ram with purchase it will void your warranty.)

1. chrome and microsoft eat a lot of memory. So even for just browsing 4mb is never going to be really enough. It will be slow as hell.

For comparison:
I'm running 1 chrome with about 20 open tabs. It is atm consuming 5.6mb of memory.
Microsoft edge is no better, have one open with 1 pdf open in it and it is using 4.2mb.
My 2 excel files are n the tray (idle) yet take up 12mb memory.

And I have a power laptop: i7 processor, 2 GPU (inbuilt and extra nvidia graphics card), big SSD,...

I'd say only but this if you are fine with a very subpar machine or the alternative is to have nothing. Then it's better.

for my above post: not MB, but GB for all.

@knittingaddict

The article is talking about streaming games, not video/audio content.
And all points are valid (obviously) for that.
BUT
for streaming - as in watching online movies, series,...- the memory is less of an issue that the buffering capacity of the GPU and the quality WIFI signal.

@TheSunIsStillShining

for my above post: not MB, but GB for all.

@knittingaddict

The article is talking about streaming games, not video/audio content.
And all points are valid (obviously) for that.
BUT
for streaming - as in watching online movies, series,...- the memory is less of an issue that the buffering capacity of the GPU and the quality WIFI signal.

I thought it talked about youtube as well.

@knittingaddict
Technically netflix and the like use a slightly different technology for streaming and code is written in a way to allow for more buffering both in ram and gpu. Youtube - as it was designed to deliver short videos- was never written with that in mind. and afaik (although haven't checked lately) they have not rewritten the base code.

Those in the know, is this a better buy?

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-3-14-laptop-amd-athlon-gold-128-gb-ssd-grey-10207999-pdt.html

[quote MarbleRunaway]Those in the know, is this a better buy?

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-3-14-laptop-amd-athlon-gold-128-gb-ssd-grey-10207999-pdt.html[/quote]
My non-expert opinion: better, but a few caveats:

• amd can be dodgy. Personally I would never buy one again, because I have burnt myself. But it could have been a fluke.
• this amd is equal to somewhere between i3 and i5, nowhere near i7 or i9.
• ram and ssd very small
• screen is usually great in lenovos
• it's not a lightweight laptop. If you plan to carry it around 1.6 kg will be a lot.
• depending on what you want it for, for this money it is a better choice. Don't plan on playing mega games or running many things at once.

It is very hard to give an opinion. I have to say that my perspective is of someone who uses the laptop for heavy work (lots of office things at once and many chromes), lots of gaming (again - mostly highly complex ones with high graphics requirements) and also for lot of photo editing (semi-professional level). Because of this I bought a very high end machine 3 yrs ago. I don't think many normal users actually need the config I have :)

It says on the Dell website this model can be upgraded to Windows 11.

It doesn't mention the 15 but the 3583 is there under Inspiron.

www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000187485/dell-computers-tested-for-upgrade-to-windows-11#Inspiron-NB-W11

They must have been left with a big stockpile of these crap computers!

I've just cancelled my order. Bought in haste as I thought it was a good deal for children's homework but reading these posts realised it probably wasn't much good for anything other than internet surfing.