Best laptop (fast) under 300$-400$

[symbolipoint]

I returned the Dell I bought after their tech support tried to scam me. I have used HP for years. Excellent tech support!

See this thread

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/dell-tried-to-scam-me.894322/#post-5626006

Fine. We should not blame you for your evolving choices. So far so good with my Dell laptop, but I myself would look for other options in the future. Toshiba's WERE relatively inexpensive but not any more, since no more production of the lower-cost "Satellite" models. I know of two of them now over 9 years old still working well.

 

[Evo]

Fine. We should not blame you for your evolving choices. So far so good with my Dell laptop, but I myself would look for other options in the future. Toshiba's WERE relatively inexpensive but not any more, since no more production of the lower-cost "Satellite" models. I know of two of them now over 9 years old still working well.

I used Toshiba's Portege laptop's for years, loved them.

 

[Qamerash]

I'm about to start a simple project on machine learning and I need a laptop. I've been looking for this on several pages, but I don't really understand much of if. I think for 300$-400$ an intel i5 would fit pretty well or something like that. I don't really care about the graphics or all that sort of things, I just want it to be fast. Thank you.

As a Dell laptop user , i have been using the Dell laptop for 5 years , there is enough memory for you to use,,

 

[NTL2009]

I'm about to start a simple project on machine learning and I need a laptop. I've been looking for this on several pages, but I don't really understand much of if. I think for 300$-400$ an intel i5 would fit pretty well or something like that. I don't really care about the graphics or all that sort of things, I just want it to be fast. Thank you.

To optimize the cost/performance point, you really need to understand your requirements. You took a good first step in identifying that graphics are not important to your application. Good, you can avoid spending extra $ on a GPU.

Next step, and how far you take this is up to you, but the more you can ID, the better. People have mentioned RAM and SSD. But again, how important are they to you? Is machine learning a RAM hog? Then maybe RAM is more important than CPU capability. In that case, look for a cheap laptop that has a high "max RAM' figure. It will probably be cheaper to buy one with a small amount of RAM, and then load it to the max with RAM you purchase (which is what I did, since RAM was important to my usage).

SSD is really only important if your application hits the disk a lot. If not, a standard HDD will be fine. And you might save money with a smaller HDD. And I assume you will be running on AC power, so battery hours is a low concern.

If money isn't an issue, sure, just max out all this stuff. But if you want the most for your $ (as your OP states), you need to put your $ where they will do the most good (weakest link in the chain theory). You might even get down to the detail level of looking at which specific computations that are the gating factor in your application, and looking for CPUs that excel for those specific benchmarks.

Here's a place to start to compare CPUs: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

 

[phinds]

SSD is really only important if your application hits the disk a lot.

I disagree. It's ALSO important if waiting forever for Windows to boot up causes you to want to go find someone at Microsoft and hurt them.

 

[NTL2009]

But how often will the OP need to reboot? I haven't re-booted in (... looking at my panel app "System Load Monitor"...), 15 days ( but that's Linux/Xubuntu, not Windows, if it makes a difference). A couple minutes in boot time isn't an issue for me. Though an SSD would help me for other things, but I'm not the OP.

 

[phinds]

But how often will the OP need to reboot? I haven't re-booted in (... looking at my panel app "System Load Monitor"...), 15 days ( but that's Linux/Xubuntu, not Windows, if it makes a difference). A couple minutes in boot time isn't an issue for me. Though an SSD would help me for other things, but I'm not the OP.

Makes a big difference, although much less in recent years as Windows has begun to have some of the stability that UNIX & derivatives have had for decades.

 

[Mark44]

east or west asus and dell are the best.

NEVER ever go for HP and Compact.

Why? I've been using nothing but HP for years for me, my wife, and my son. Their systems are as good as any and they have superior technical support. I recommend them to everyone. What's your problem w/ HP?

I've had my HP desktop with i7 for more than 4 years, with no problems whatsoever.

I had my exams going on.
Well their after sales service is extremely bad.Laptops overheat and shut down.Fans keep clogging with dust.Highly priced for no reason.Even my school threw all their Hp desktops and installed Dell ones.
You work at hp or something?

If your computer is in a dusty environment, the fans will get clogged with dust. Doesn't matter what kind of computer it is.
With regard to Dell, my brother bought a Dell laptop that was bad right out of the box. He returned it and got another one -- same problem. His solution was to get a Mac of some kind.

 

[Qamerash]

I disagree. It's ALSO important if waiting forever for Windows to boot up causes you to want to go find someone at Microsoft and hurt them.

Perhaps you've found something, too, that Microsoft has a lot of holes in this ,if they can't fix these problems in time, one day they will lose a lot of customers

 

[phinds]

Perhaps you've found something, too, that Microsoft has a lot of holes in this ,if they can't fix these problems in time, one day they will lose a lot of customers

No, they will not. Windows sucks bigtime in many ways but it has steadily improved over the years and people who hate it have already migrated to UNIX-based system.

 

[Jaccer]

I'm more bullish on dell and asustek

 

[symbolipoint]

No, they will not. Windows sucks bigtime in many ways but it has steadily improved over the years and people who hate it have already migrated to UNIX-based system.

Many of us only know how to use Windows; we just don't know any better. A few or more of us would like to try and begin to use Apple, but these computers are much more expensive than the one on which Windows was pre-installed. Therefore, some machines from Lenovo, Dell, Asus, Toshiba, etc. (even HP), are what we buy.

 

[Suyash Singh]

I think electronic devices(mobile,laptop,etc ) selling companies are good for specific countries.Like ASUS is one of the best mobiles here in India(overall) and in US Apple is quite famous.Similarly from your comments i see that Westerners like Hp while Indians like Dell.The temperaratures here in Delhi reach upto 40 degree celsius sometimes and drop down to 0 degree sometimes and any company which does not account for this temperature difference for laptops is bound to suffer.

 

[Jummy_anderson]

It's sounds like to be a good budget for having laptop with good specs.With in a budget you have to go with dell or hp because Apple has just increased their products too much. For that I would like to suggest you the HP envy 17 series which is a good machine personally used by me. However you also can't avoid Dell Inspirons series under 400$.