I haven't had to buy a Windows computer in 20 years. I am back in school for stenography. As I get older I wanted to learn a "trade" that would ensure I could work into my older years. The school requires Windows as they work with Stenograph hardware.
I've looked everywhere to buy a laptop. I need ram mostly and a few USB ports.
I bought a cheap $200 laptop (16gb ram) at Walmart and after a few months of nothing but troubles I need to acquire something better that is budget friendly but reliable. The problems have been with using the stenography hardware and everything freezing up. The company that makes the stenotype machine is blaming my laptop.
I could spend $500-$1000 (perhaps more if it is compelling). I don't really need all the fluff that comes when you buy a machine these days.
Can anyone recommend a path to finding a reliable, laptop with lots of RAM that will last for several years?
Thank you for clarifying my confusion in the market.
Festro•29m ago
You have a niche use-case but RAM does indeed appear to be the main bottleneck. You don't need fancy graphics, or a particularly fast CPU. You likely only need good single-core speeds.
The i5-12400 is a workhorse on the CPU front that isn't crazy old, and should do you well enough on the single core front. Pair that with 16GB of RAM and I would think you'd be set.
$1,000 might get you more if you wanted to be safe and future proof a bit more. However, RAM prices are very high right now and venturing up to 32GB of RAM might hard.
Something like this: https://www.bestbuy.com/product/asus-zenbook-14-14-fhd-oled-...
32GB RAM, nice screen, touch screen, very modern CPU (beating the 12400 benchmark). $100 under your top end of budget. It is only a 14 inch screen, great for portability, but maybe you like a bigger screen for reviewing as much content as possible?
meifun•12m ago
I think I found it on Costco.com for cheaper: https://www.costco.com/p/-/acer-aspire-14-ai-copilot-pc-touc...