Getting A Faster Laptop - Programming - Nairaland
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| Getting A Faster Laptop by mrfizy(m): 4:21pm On Jan 24, 2023 |
I have been learning and practicing my web development skills and especially was learning react and framer motion before my Acer aspire 5 core i3 8th generation got stolen. The issue is I am contemplating buying a HP PROBOOK 445 G8 open box with the following specs 16GB RAM 512GB SSD AMD RYZEN 7 5800U WITH AMD Radeon™ renoir dedicated graphics.Price is 390k. Will this be a wise or an unwise financial decision considering that I haven't made money from web development yet? Please your suggestions for any other device(s) are welcome. Thanks. |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by yrhuhfy113: 4:27pm On Jan 24, 2023 |
mrfizy: Its is a good choice but if your pocket will cry, GO FOR SOMETHING LOWER PLS.... 1tb hdd-16gb ram-amd/nvidia - 200k. on jiji |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by Tallesty1(m): 4:43pm On Jan 24, 2023 |
yrhuhfy113:AMD? |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by truthCoder: 5:28pm On Jan 24, 2023 |
mrfizy: Since you have the funds and you are into web development, buy a 2015 Macbook Pro 15 inches, core i7, 16gb ram. You can get a clean one for 300k With a MacBook Pro, you can decide to sell back to upgrade at a good price anytime you want. For every other laptop brand, you will lose value when you want to sell to upgrade. When you want to move to mobile apps’ development, you would need the apple eco system anyways. |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by Nwaotu10(m): 10:31pm On Jan 24, 2023 |
AMD??  |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 12:02pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
mrfizy: for web design / development, and for a learner who's yet to even become a Basic user, the above is way way overKill. A simple Core i5 + Normal Traditional hardDisk of anyWhere from 320GB + atLeast 8GB ram with good battery life or power source is all you need sir even as a medium level programmer, especially if you not going into Mobile Apps or Graphics. And for someone who's at your stage or even a beginner programmer, you need keep costs low. Go , search for (UK) used laptops there and you should find something <= 70,000 naira there which could even last you over 4-years sef. Some of Us today started in Cyber cafes, doing Nights & Days along with those yahoo boys, na so all of us go dey inside dey sweat. It's what you know that matters, not how much you spent. A lot of Us might never recover what we spent in school, don't add this to it abeg 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 12:05pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
truthCoder: what if the LapTop no live long enough or He never venture into mobile Apps ? and every laptop depreciates and depending on how you bought your laptop, and the kind you bought, you could buy something, use it over 4-years and still sell it higher than you bought it. 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by truthCoder: 1:09pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
bassdow: One of the symptoms of having little is the general assumption that others also have little. A friend bought a brand new MacBook Air M2 in Dubai Mall last year in her bid to start learning web development. This is over N1 million. She also uses an iPhone 14 Pro. Put people’s budget into context when giving advice. The OP has N350,000 budget for a computer. Why should he buy a 70k own? 6 Likes |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by Nobody: 1:24pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
Buy MacBook sha. If u hate Lag. Also u can still run your windows with MacBook BootCamp... Just Download Windows and partition a specific Ram to it.... Mac would even optimize your windows better than Hp  1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 1:34pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
truthCoder: Atimes, we should be frugal in our spendings except of course, you care not. I only made suggestions and Who knows, OP might not even know it's possible to get such quality at such a cost. Also that machine you mentioned above may not be best option for very intensive tasks. That something does something doesn't mean it does it well. I know a client who was looking to buy a PC with budget of about 450,000 naira, He asked of my opinions and I gave him suggestions including costs ranges both for new or Used. he ended up buying something less than 200,000 naira and it still was brand New. no be every body know certain things and even those of us wey sabi, we have paid our dues one way or the other. let's try to learn from others so as not to rePeat same mistakes. Moreover do you know how many people have tried learning web design / development and gave up along the way ? Why allow someone put in so much money upfront on something even their god isn't sure would work for them. even companies starting out new try to keep costs low at the initial stage. Na suggestion I do, i no insult or force anyone. moreover, that you don't use an information doesn't necessarily mean it wouldn't be useful to others. Let OP be aware is all I'm saying. Most people landing high paying gigs sef are using laptops costing less than 200,000 naira . this is just like those wives that their husbands give money to open shop and they go overBoard over spending to open a flashy overBig & overStocked shop only to end up not having up to 20% of the customers those in makeShift stores have. e get people wey start market with less than 10,000 naira and have remained in business but those who started with >= 500,000 naira couldn't last long enough to recover part of their capital, let alone be able to reNew their shop/office rent. Just so you know, I stroll around no be say I be junior for this line 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by Nobody: 2:04pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
bassdow: So much long talk without making any sense. 3 Likes |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 3:32pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
GREATIGBOMAN: You need first ask if I have sense to begin with |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by airsaylongcome: 5:01pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
Bassdow, I saw your comment on my Freeswitch thread. And I must say I was impressed with what you said. I've not been able to get around to updating the thread because I've been stuck with figuring out Kamailio for use as a SIP Proxy and SBC. I'm literally swimming in the middle of the Pacific ocean without life jacket and no swimming skills. It has been brutal. I feel really bad not updating that thread for a few weeks now cos I was really enjoying figuring out FS from scratch. I will get around to do a lot of updates as soon as daytime work abates. What was your experience self-hosting VOIP solutions when you did? I find that a lot of businesses aren't interested in all the "fancy" stuff that VOIP can offer them. They are happy to have many GSM numbers for their staff without any form of centralization of all of their telephony. OP, apologies if my post derails your thread. |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 5:22pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
airsaylongcome: issue is, most of us don't think outside the box or try things differently. We're just okay with how things are. I did it for a couple of small medium sized establishment, and also when we tried having a dedicated office for ourselves but been long. No need feeling bad about anything. Nowadays, that NairaLand section is just a shadow of it's former self. Can't forget Asterisk because she was my first. person don waka Oooo. OpenSource dey sweet but after you don figure am out. Glad there still are real devs in here different from script & plugin installers. 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by KrazyDave16(m): 6:30pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
Long epistle... I agree with bassdow on the laptop being overkill for what op wants to use it for but do not agree on getting a PC from 70k below. That's just asking for trouble. I followed such advice, boy was that machine a headache to use with VScode and Chrome running. You might think its performance should mean nothing if I'm motivated but tell me how I'm supposed to learn with that without worrying if it'll freeze... Hell, some people I follow on Twitter knew about the shortcomings of using such cheap machine and said so till one got support to buy a laptop within the price range of 150k-200k early last year and last I checked, guy's doing fine as a freelancer and mentioned how potential clients ask for the type of PC you'd use, if it's slow or fast. Hell, my last job had my former employer ask what type of device I used before carrying on with the interview, was weird at the time but it got me the job nonetheless despite other factors against me. Fast forward today, I borrowed sense from the guys experience and mine, got a 745 G5 laptop (8GB dual channel upgradable RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U) for 170k. Flashed Fedora with Gnome, currently got 3 instances of Emacs and Firefox open with about 10 tabs and a few buffers open in different workspaces, at some point a VM running Ubuntu and a few apps running in the background scattered about in each workspace and its fast. Short of it is op, look for better budget options. If spending that much won't make your pockets bleed, go for it, else consider budget options but from 150k-250k unless you can snag a deal for way less than 200k Basically target laptops with CPUs from 5 years ago. Avoid the i3s laptops and MacBooks from 2k16 up to 2k19 though (unless you plan on buying an external keyboard to use), keyboard issues and upgrades are hella expensive |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 8:23pm On Jan 26, 2023 |
KrazyDave16: see eh, we all have our ways of buying thing and experience helps also. Still yet, one can get a decent PC for between 50,000 naira and 70,000 naira. You could spend huge and still buy trash. if buying used PC, 70,000 or 80,000 naira is maximum. I always suggest people avoid core i3 and only consider core i7 if they really know what they're doing. The fine middle ground has always been core i5. No need owning a gadget whose feature wouldn't be utilized up to 50% . And when it comes to PCs, it's either I custom build a desktop or I buy a laptop. When shopping for laptops, I go for the business lines which are more engineered to be durable e.g HP has eliteBook , Toshiba has the Tecra line, Dell has the Precision lines, Asus have the ExpertBook line, etc . I listed just the above brands because na only them I don ever use as a laptop and know them enough. I doubt what OP has in mind with 350,000 naira price range might not even fall in the groups I listed above. Rather for such price range, it just might be one sleek fancy looking laptop. As for Mac, personally, I rather spend more on any of the above brands than buy a Mac PC. yea one might argue they are durable but that ain't always true and if you spend and do your homework well, any product line from the above brands I listed should give you similar. To some people, Dell XPS product line is Dell's equivalent of MacBook Pro. other brands have similar and those would cost much more than the regulars. As for you mentioning about keyboard issues, I wonder how anyOne would be able to work with a PC for over 16-hours daily and rely on laptop's internal keyboard and mouse. me get external Keyboards, mouse, and monitors. trust me, just use external keyBoard & Mouse just a couple of days and you would wonder how you managed to last that long without them. Anytime I go shopping for Keyboards & mice, I buy the used ones since they last years longer than brand new and you know what. Right now, I still have over 6pcs as spare just in case. The laptop wey don make me so much money is over 6-years old and was bought just 40,000 naira used. Bottom-line is, if OP is just starting out, he shouldn't buy any laptop costing above 70,000 naira. if no be say Dollar don high, and naira don fall, it shouldn't be up to 70,000 naira sef. OP should focus more on learning, and doing a number of projects to get better. Hopefully OP no go carry laptop of 350,000 naira go client office who after lots of talks, go begin request for website or application of 20,000 naira. trust me, such clients dey. Na experience and trials go teach you how to filter them off. I share these information here not just for the OP but for anyOne else that might need such information. When you have Laptop PCs that stays ON for over 6-hours (or rarely goes off in 6-months), then you need PCs beyond your everyday laptops e.g 1. Dell's Inspiron, even Dell's Vostro , XPS , and Latitude have varying levels of durability, yet not up to the level of Dell Precision lines. 2. HP's Pavillion is entry level, Envy their mid range, and Spectre their flaships, and ProBook their entry level business line. They all are not as durable as HP EliteBook laptops. 3. Toshiba's satellite, portege, dynabook, etc all have varying levels of durability, yet not in the league of of Toshiba Tecra which is their most durable. 4. ASUS, just like other brands, get their own product lines also. no matter if buying USED or NEW, always research the model you're buying to know what those who've been there before you encountered. I spend nothing less than 1-week before making a choice. Even premium laptops do sometimes have issues or not worth that extra money it asks for. Forgot to mention that my costing is based on my state of residence which is Lagos Nigeria and ought not differ from those in ogun state, Osun, eastern Nigeria, etc. In some parts of Nigeria (e.g Northen Nigeria including Abuja sef), you might struggle to get Intel Celeron for 30,000 naira used. For those in such parts of Nigeria... 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by KrazyDave16(m): 9:53am On Jan 27, 2023 |
bassdow:You definitely know your hardware. All salient points there and like you said, experience helps. But still, a laptop of 70k feels so-so to me, unless op can find a hidden gem out there for that price and is truly focused on react alone, then no biggie. And yeah, agree on the MacBooks hype. Still suggested it if op just wants a MacBook for its resale value and hype but if op were serious with react, resale value would be the last thing on his mind. |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 11:02am On Jan 27, 2023 |
KrazyDave16: No issue, yea if not for first hand experience, 50,000 naira looks too small to get a decent used laptop in todays market but that's true. Forgot to mention that my costing is based for those who resides in Lagos Nigeria. In some parts of Nigeria, you might struggle to get Intel Celeron for 30,000 naira used. For those in such parts of Nigeria... |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by truthCoder: 11:55am On Jan 27, 2023 |
@bassdow. Your comments are not structured in a way that makes it comprehensible to the average reader. You are also extremely opinionated based on your own personal experience which is clearly limited to cheap systems. In a previous thread, I recommended an 80k laptop for someone with a low budget. This does not mean everyone should buy cheap laptops. I personally cannot use a TN panel display and my lowest resolution is 1080p. I would rather go hungry than use something that hangs and spins up the fans just to run chrome on windows. But that is me. If i can afford a 300k phone, why should I use a crappy laptop that heats up like a microwave. 300k is just 400 usd. You lambast Apple computers. I am guessing you have never owned one. When you do, you can revisit the conversation. |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by bassdow: 2:13pm On Jan 27, 2023 |
truthCoder: You know what, we all are Right / Wrong in our own ways. and what makes you think such PCs hangs or are low quality. yea about TN panel display, I don't care because I rely mostly on my external Monitors and one of my external monitor costs over 90,000 naira as at when I bought it. Also way before TN panel display was invented, people used computers and were comfortable with them. I'm someone who could stand and list out all Display types with their PROs and CONs to best of my knowledge. Wetin even concern person wey never know (clear) difference between DDR3 and DDR4 with TN panel display ? is that what would make him/her a better developer ? e get the kind argument person just no fit win. me just dey try inform those wey fit no know. Who care if your keyboard costs over $9-million . If you know me eh, common sluggish internet is frustrating to me, let alone a PC. Spending Huge amount on PC doesn't always equate to better SPECs. I only suggested OP go for UK or fairly used PC since He's just getting started and you know what, the first bank project I did & delivered, was with a Core i5 15-inch PC costing less than 50,000 naira used. Yea Apple products are good but at an astronomical price point. if you are willing to spend 2/3 of their cost sensibly on some brands, you should get same. Moreover, Apple products are too limiting and not everyOne is okay with being spoon-fed hence reason all my Desktops are custom Built. Even 1 of my laptop is partially custom built. Even external monitors I use, is just because I sometimes need multiple displays else the laptop's internal display is more than Okay for me. Na coding I dey do, no be complex animations. and I'm not the sort to buy something $5 and shout to everyOne I spent over $500 just to look wealthy. OP is just trying to get started and shouldn't even spend up to 50,000 naira on a PC. Some of us started in cyberCafes and if you've used cyberCafes in Lagos, you go understand say even Pentium 4 fit slow pass Pentium 1. if you allow the newbies believe they need truck loads of money before they could get started, then you further reduce the number of newComers and who knows, there could have been those who would have done really well who would be left out due to cost issues. It's even possible to fail just because You have something in you constantly reminding you things are difficult because you not using the right gadgets. Now let's assume OP get's a PC for 350,000 naira , spends X-months learning and ends up dropping out for whatever reason (to be good in this our field, even your lifeStyle most times need change) , what happens to the PC ? Would he keep it or sell it off ? either way, he would be loosing. We never even consider the fact say the PC fit packUp before him learn finish. I've never had a PC die on me, and my PC is ON for months and running at least 18-hours daily. yet I keep seeing people having a plethora of issues like dead motherboards and majority of these people are just basic users. Let those of us who are able to see beyond marketing gimmicks try to educate others abeg. I use only Sony Xperia phones and have been with them right from days of Sony Ericson for one major reason. Their specs are not overBlown. No be say phone wey get 4GB ram on paper go dey work like say na ram of 512MB . For anyOne looking to get a PC, enter Market or visit ji ji.ng, take note of available brands and models and research on them (which is very important), after which, you decide on whether you going for New or Used ones. Newbies should even ignore SSDs and their variants. My PC has 3 DISKs and just one is 128GB SSD and all it does is handle System boots and a few data that I need retrieved/written very fast. The rest is normal traditional HardDisk. I see people spend a lot of Money on SSDs without having the slightest idea what they're doing. Even SSDs sef get levels sef. And it's just mid last year I added the SSD sef. Newer technology or gadget doesn't always mean better, or worthy of the extra price point. Also that something COSTs more, doesn't necessarily mean it's much better. MoreOver, sensibly buying Used PC (or anything else) gives you ability to buy a really durable premium product at LOWer costs. You say I use cheap systems, well the word "cheap" is relative. For anyOne looking to get into web design / development or even mobile app development, a PC with Core i5, minimum of 4GB or 8GB ram and Old school hardDisk of anywhere from 320GB is what you need. When it's time to upgrade, you surely would know. Who knows by then, you might have made x5 of the cost of that PC as profits from gigs/projects. And as you upgrade with reason, you learn along the way. No need getting your fingers burnt unnecessary. Approximately 50% of those who insisted on a core i7 PC really don't know why exactly it's better than core i5, and often times, all they needed was a core i5. How many of us even knows there are core i5 that are faster than core i7 (especially those early ones). Even me sef get core i7 yet I use the core i5 more. So despite my core i7 being faster, I run the core i5 most times because the core i7 requires more power. I go let this matter die but you guys should try not to discourage others indirectly with these huge upFront costs. One of my PC has 32GB ram but the PC I use the most has just 16GB ram. Person wey get sense and earn more than I do might even have way less than that. na your knowledge and what you can deliver that matters first, no be how much your PC costs. People should focus more on acquiring knowledge. Did you notice I hinted on how to select best Brands & Models ? if you going to counter my comment, at the very least make reasonable alternate suggestion(s). We're here to learn, not to be RIGHT Just went through one of your POSTs and saw someOne ask you this https://www.nairaland.com/7253669/2012-macbook-pro-16gb-core#119369336 to which you responded with this https://www.nairaland.com/7253669/2012-macbook-pro-16gb-core#119370166 I sign Off 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by truthCoder: 2:42pm On Jan 27, 2023 |
Bros, To read and follow your post is hard work, apologies. Use coding principles of KISS and DRY and it helps the reader. So if i have a budget of N1m for a laptop, you would still advice a pentium 2? Abi what exactly are you trying to say? |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by genaro2000(m): 1:49pm On Jan 28, 2023 |
GREATIGBOMAN:He made a lot of sense, don’t be too arrogant to learn 1 Like |
| Re: Getting A Faster Laptop by Nobody: 3:47pm On Jan 28, 2023 |
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