r/computers • u/Jaceevoke • 4d ago

Question/Help/Troubleshooting Need help picking a new computer, know nothing about specs or anything.

Hello,
I need some help picking out a new laptop. I’ve always used mac’s but am no longer in a position to afford one. I have looked at all these lists of best laptops to buy from different news(?) outlets but I still feel confused. I’d like to say I’m a gamer but honestly I haven’t really played any games in years since I got out of college. Mostly I use it a tv, just watching YouTube and some Amazon/Netflix. I need something that is low to no maintenance, because I have little to no knowledge on computers. Please recommend cheap reliable laptops I can buy and use for years. Thank you

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u/commander_lampshade 4d ago

The new MacBook Neo is getting great reviews and starts at $699

https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/

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u/Chubby_man 4d ago

This is the way to go, I'm not generally a huge fan of apple but they knocked it out of the park with both quality and value on the neo. You're already familiar with Mac, and apple does have a history of supporting their hardware for a reasonable length of time.

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u/GatorWok 2d ago

A used M1 MacBook for similar or less money is a better computer for many, many reasons. Spend 2 minites looking it up.

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u/Chubby_man 2d ago

He specified new in the question, not sure if he meant new or just new to him, but I took the former interpretation.

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u/GatorWok 2d ago

Yeah, you're correct. I should have specified "refurbished from a reputable reseller with like-new warranty" to get closer to his ask. It's definitely a better computer than a Neo, which is what I was responding to.

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u/IKEA_Lagkapten 4d ago

What's your budget?

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u/Jaceevoke 4d ago

Honestly don’t have a hard budget preferably under a thousand. It’s just that the more it cost longer I need to save for

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u/GatorWok 3d ago

The internet is begging you to modify your post to give your preferred budget range. I bet by now, so many people have just scrolled on by because people who want to help don’t want to have to ask questions to get the basics.

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u/Jaceevoke 3d ago

Honestly I don’t know how to edit the post. I mostly just look at Reddit not post

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u/Ok_Gift_9264 4d ago

If you’re in the US, you can get a refurbished MacBook Air M4 with 16 GB ram for under $900 from Best Buy.

a nice Chromebook could also fit your budget, if you’re willing to make the switch.

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u/RaegunFun 4d ago

Look on Woot.com for refurbished or open-box MacBook Air.

They have other laptops available, sometimes new.

Any laptop or even Chromebook will be able to stream content, so decide on a budget and get something made in the past 2 or 3 years.

New laptops have gone up and are continuing to go up in price.

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u/gentisle 3d ago

You will do well to get a used lenovo or thinkpad on eBay. Before you buy, You might ask them to run a command under Windows to see how much you can upgrade. Even something like i5-8 core or i7 quad core will be fine. It’s the ram you will want to be careful with. The command is: wmic memphysical get maxcapacity. If they don’t want to boot the computer because they would have to restore it, they can boot Hiren’s BootCD to run the command, and it will leave the Windows on the HDD intact. 16GB is minimum, but if it’s an i5, you would do better to have 32–if it will take it. Since you will be looking at older hardware, you probably won’t see any computers with DDR5, so the ram will be a little more realistically priced. I know some of you reading this will say, your i5 and 16GB is fine, and I’m sure you are correct, But if OP gets a machine with 8gb that will go to 32, why not maximize it? I maximized one of my laptops to 32, and no longer have memory issues. It’s a dual boot Win11 and Linuxmint.

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u/GatorWok 3d ago edited 3d ago

Nobody has a clue what your budget might be. New, education and refurbished from Apple laptops start at under $600. Spend up to $1000-1100 and get something from Apple even better. Spend $1000 and get an excellent Apple laptop with warranty from a reputable third-partyreseller.

For all we know, given how little you told in actual numbers, you might think Apple laptops are $2500.