Hi, I'm not particularly computer savvy although I have been using them pretty much daily since the Dark Ages (1983!)
The bulk of my work is spent with spreadsheets; massive multi-page Excel workbooks with millions of cells, vast amounts of database functions.... I've usually got multi company Sage v24 open too, plus Outlook, Chrome, Teams, Word plus ITSupport247 when WFH.
I have an i7 desktop at work, 8GB RAM, frankly a bit meh. My home laptop is i5 6200U, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Plus 8 GB SSD, and performs rather better, but it's 5 years old and beginning to wear out mechanically; keys are sticking or simply not working. It's a Acer 15.6 and was a very good spec when I got it - my son has exactly the same machine which he quite happily uses for gaming (I'm too old; Sudokus are more my thing.)
So I thing it's time to replace and I want to get one which will see me through the next 5 years without irritating me. I'd quite like a bigger screen so I'm particularly interested in the 17.3 laptops. I know I want masses of RAM so I'm quite happy to fork out for the highest possible amount I can stuff in. I think I need about 2TB of storage. I do want Bluetooth capability but I prefer wired accessories so a few USB ports are necessary. And I'd like an ethernet port for when it goes into the office. But after that I'm stuck. Should I stick with Intel or wait for an AMD version to appear? What are these M.2 SSD drives? What's Optane memory and do I need it? Help!!!
The bulk of my work is spent with spreadsheets; massive multi-page Excel workbooks with millions of cells, vast amounts of database functions.... I've usually got multi company Sage v24 open too, plus Outlook, Chrome, Teams, Word plus ITSupport247 when WFH.
I have an i7 desktop at work, 8GB RAM, frankly a bit meh. My home laptop is i5 6200U, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Plus 8 GB SSD, and performs rather better, but it's 5 years old and beginning to wear out mechanically; keys are sticking or simply not working. It's a Acer 15.6 and was a very good spec when I got it - my son has exactly the same machine which he quite happily uses for gaming (I'm too old; Sudokus are more my thing.)
So I thing it's time to replace and I want to get one which will see me through the next 5 years without irritating me. I'd quite like a bigger screen so I'm particularly interested in the 17.3 laptops. I know I want masses of RAM so I'm quite happy to fork out for the highest possible amount I can stuff in. I think I need about 2TB of storage. I do want Bluetooth capability but I prefer wired accessories so a few USB ports are necessary. And I'd like an ethernet port for when it goes into the office. But after that I'm stuck. Should I stick with Intel or wait for an AMD version to appear? What are these M.2 SSD drives? What's Optane memory and do I need it? Help!!!
). However, the drawbacks of more performance within the same price would be a bit less battery life, a bit more fan noise and less storage. But that's the best performance that you can get at this price (imo). If you can stretch the budget a bit, then you could add more storage (I would suggest another 1TB+ SATA drive), and maybe also replace the PCS M.2 by a Samsung one that's a lot faster.