School computer recommendations.

[Lisagrantb]

My daughter needs a computer for her 7th grade class. She will be taking advanced classes so probably equivalent to freshman high school. Would like one that’s reliable and good enough to last her a couple of years. It doesn’t need to have the best graphics or processor (no gaming). Trying to stay around the $5-600 range if possible. Here are the specs from the school. Thanks


Although nearly all devices have a Microsoft App available, the app does not offer the full capabilities of Microsoft. During their time at Menard, students will learn many of the uses for Microsoft office and will sometimes need the full downloaded version of the software in order to complete assignments. This means that students will need a laptop that has the ability to have software downloaded and installed onto it; so not a tablet, not an ipad, and not a chromebook. While these devices are good for many day to day uses, they lack the ability to have the full version of software installed on them. This means that your student may have difficulty completing some assignments that require the use of Office or Adobe. Laptops do not need to be expensive or fancy, but they do need to meet a few minimum requirements. The recommended hardware to run the software is

* 2.0 GHz or faster processor
* 4 GB RAM for 64-bit; 2 GB RAM for 32-bit.
* 16 GB free disk space.
* 1280 x 768 or higher screen resolution.
* Windows 10

 

[root]

Hi @Lisagrantb, welcome to Computer Forums.

The specs you've been asked to find are relatively low end, so you shouldn't have to blow your entire budget. Here are a few machines I've found and my own personal thoughts. Note that I'm based in the UK, I have tried to find machines for sale in the USA as I am assuming this is where you're located.

1) Inspiron 15-3000 - Dell Inspiron 15.6-inch laptop | Dell USA
$400 USD

This machine will provide pretty decent performance for office / school tasks. In terms of build quality/longevity, Dell is probably middle of the road. I deal with Dell laptops exclusively for my work and we normally get around 4 years out of them, albeit we only buy the business grade machines.

2) Jumper Notebook - https://www.amazon.com/Celeron-Windows-Computer-Dual-Band-Expansion/dp/B09Z9MHSXM/
$239 USD

At my old job our staff would need to bring their own hardware and this was one of the machines we reccomended. I've never heard of the brand but they seem fine, perhaps not quite as robust as a Dell but this one should do the job. The CPU is quite low end but for Office tasks you don't need anything too powerful.

3) Lenovo IdeaPad - https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-i3-1005G1-8GB-Platinum-81WE011UUS
$405 USD

This one takes a bigger chunk of your budget, though from my own personal use Lenovo is my preferred brand for quality/longevity. My old laptop was 8 years old and still working when I swapped it for something slightly newer. Again this machine should meet the specs and perform very well.

Hopefully this is useful to you - let us know what you go for!

 

[Lisagrantb]

Thanks for the feedback. Yea there minimum requirements are pretty much well minimum. I will give those a look. Im willing to pay a little extra to get a decent machine that she can enjoy. Thanks again