Can anyone help recommend a laptop for me please :)

[MiGatoEsBonito]

I've tried searching online but there's so much info that I don't understand (just seems like gibberish to me 😅) and I'm finding it all a bit overwhelming and it's all going over my head a bit...I'm not the brightest 🤣
So if anyone could help me or if they have a laptop they'd recommend that would be so helpful!!

I'm starting a course soon, on writing and illustrating your own book so I need something for that. But I'd also like one with a built in CD drive, this is the part I'm having trouble with as everything I've found so far doesn't have one!
I have a budget of about £500

Thanks so much to anyone who can help 💐

They're all good and people are going to jump in with all sorts of suggestions I think you should just pick a random one tbh rather than give yourself a headache over it

My issue is finding one with a CD drive. I'm finding it difficult to find one.
I don't have a lot of money and it's taken time to save for it so I won't be buying another for a very long time and I want to make the right choice. I'd rather not just pick one at random and would appreciate any suggestions.

Like I said I'm finding the large amount of info out there overwhelming and would like a bit of advice.

No one really uses CDs anymore so you won't find one

Look on the JL site and put in your preferences

You'll probably need a cheap £30 drawing pad to connect to it

Microsoft have a free drawing app on all their laptops ie all laptops with Microsoft not apple

Look at HP on the JL website you'll find what you need

Have you asked your course facilitator for any suggestions? They may know what programmes you'll need to run and what capabilities the laptop will need for that.

You'll be able to buy an external cd drive that plugs into a laptop for £20 or so, so just buy that separately and get the best laptop to help you with your course.

Get an external cd drive to go with a 17" screen laptop. I bought a laptop last month and Argos and John Lewis had.two under £350.

External.CD drivers are under £20.

Definitely check what software you will need to run for your course. Some need a separate graphics card, most entry level laptops will have integrated graphics card. Worth checking before you buy the wrong one.

As above don't worry about cd drive, very rarely used now.

Do shop around John Lewis, Curry's, Amazon etc. Sometimes the same model will be cheaper elsewhere.

If you have any more questions do share, I'm sure we can help.

I bought a laptop last September in the £350 range, purely for online study. It is absolutely awful. Takes about 20 minutes to fully power up, randomly crashes and screen freezes. Manufacturer troubleshooting advice hasn't helped much. I remember buying a different brand about 10 years ago which was much the same, so slow.

This time round I decided to figure out the jargon a bit and found this quite helpful: www.techwalla.com/articles/what-makes-a-laptop-fast

The new one is so much better so far, so I think it's worth finding out what's best for your needs.