Solved Laptop recommendations please!

HI all, I am looking for a laptop recommendation for my wife. I am a software/network engineer by trade, so my laptops (Windows and Macs) have been hi end configs. So I am not super current on the best quality manufacturers to check out for her - even though they all have similar configs. I would likely go grab a Dell, but I thought you all may have some better/more knowledgeable recommendations.

Background:
I am contemplating an upgrade for her soon, as she is on a very old (10 years?) Dell Precision. Specs:
32GB
C drive - 1 TB - (she is only using 200GB though)
D drive - 1 TB - (she is using it as her backup drive - we strove for simplicity, lack of cables and other "boxes" that would drive her crazy lol)
17" display

The only things she uses it for are Word and Excel (she has an Office 365 subscription but won't get off of Word/Excel 2016 I think it is), printing (via our network), Edge/browsing, and Malwarebytes. I have TeamViewer running on it so I can do her updates etc. remotely from my office (lazy).

Needs:

I would like it to have a USB-C 2.5GB port for Ethernet, as we have that internet service and it will be a nice upgrade for her - there is a connection at her desk, and I have cab;e and adapters to plug into the USB-C (note - her existing Dell gets 1GB d/l Ethernet speed through a similar connection).

I know 17" display might be hard to find, the bigger the better if not 17". She might not be happy if she thinks it's hard to read. Yet newer displays are probably much better than a 10+ year old display!?!?

I suspect her config is way overkill and doesn't have to be replicated.

Maybe she could do backup to the cloud, and avoid the second disk drive, since we have a 2500/350 internet service? Do they work reliably?

I don't mind erroring on the side of "future-proofing" the config, as she will have this PC for 10 years guaranteed!

We have always used Dell for her, but I am open to any quality models/mfrs.

Would you have any thoughts on manufacturers/models to check out - and basic configs (memory/disk/back strategy/display)?

Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction!

Find your perfect laptop with this handy laptop buying guide.

How about this? 17.3” HP laptop, Ryzen 3 - less than £400. usbc and USBA. HDMI. No Ethernet though - which seems to be quite common in new laptops now. I personally prefer HP to Dell - they’re usually reliable - but maybe there’s an equivalent.

Hp 17.3” laptop

I use idrive for cloud backups but it costs $90 a year. Gives me good peace of mind though.

If she needs such a big screen though it’s presumably going to be used as a desktop - so how about something like this all in one pc - 24” screen. Core i5 around £500 but there a cheaper core i3 version without the nvidia graphics.

HP all in one

Dell only seem to do one 17” laptop (workstation) and it costs about £2000!

The ones I’ve linked I think are all 8gb ram but if you want to future proof it you could upgrade them to 16gb ram. In fact I think 16gb ram is “now” rather than future proofing - I think they all have upgradeable ram though (but check).

Most will have M2 ssd’s so they’ll be good drives but go with the largest maybe (eg 1tb). But it’s not too expensive to upgrade the M2 ssd and just about all allow you to upgrade the ssd (not all laptops allow ram upgrades however some are soldered ram now).

Article here with best 17 and 18” laptops here - although all but one are gaming laptops and a Chromebook. I don’t think there are many 17” laptops these days. The ones I’ve linked they recommend that isn’t a gaming machine or Chromebook is the LG Pro

I suspect if you want an Ethernet port it would need to be a gaming laptop or an all in one pc - since laptops went thin they stopped putting Ethernet ports on them.

Ah sorry - I don't need an Ethernet port - just a USB-C, that can handle our 2.5G service via a Ethernet->USB-C adapter.

Awalt said:

Ah sorry - I don't need an Ethernet port - just a USB-C, that can handle our 2.5G service via a Ethernet->USB-C adapter.

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What you can achieve with Ethernet speed is Fast Ethernet transfers data packets at rates of up to 100 Mbps, while Gigabit Ethernet operates at speeds of up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps).

That old Precision gets 1Gbps now. More modern laptops should get 2.5G easily, we have 2 Macs in the house that both get 2500 Mbps d/l over provisioned.

Power over Ethernet (PoE)

Far as i know, 10Gbps speed is new and not widely included with laptops.

I don't know what you are saying. Are you saying Windows laptops don't support 2GB speeds? I have two newer Macs in the house, with RJ-45 Cat 6a cable to a USB-C - 5Gbps Ethernet adapter to a USB-C port, and both get this in prime evening hours on Comcast; I don't expect a 10-11 year old Dell to do this but a new laptop should be able to:

EDIT: It's not 10 Gbps; the spec on the USB-C is 120 Gbps per apple's tech specs. The modem and router both support 10 Gbps. The service is 2Gbps d/l. So I imagine any modern laptop with a USB-C port will get the same speeds as the Mac.

You confusing USB speed with Ethernet speed, the highest Ethernet speed 10 Gbps but not widely used on public domain.

The spec on the USB-C is 120 Gbps per apple's tech specs. The modem and router both support 10 Gbps. The service is 2Gbps d/l. So I would think any modern laptop with a USB-C port will get the same speeds as the Mac. It works now on a Mac, why wouldn't it on a Windows laptop. 2GB -> modem ->router ->Cat 6e ->USB-C.

You saw this, right? Greater than 1GB, via USB-C input port:

That speed is that you post picture of broadband internet speed anyhow if your router support 10Gbps Ethernet port then you can use USB-C 3.2 Gen 2** port as it has speed of 10 Gbps speed.

10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) is a telecommunication technology that offers data speeds up to 10 billion bits per second. Launched in 2002, GbE is also known as 10GE or 10 GigE, and although it offers a 10 times speed increase over gigabit Ethernet (1 GbE), its adoption has been gradual.

Whatever. I never said anything about 10GbE, anywhere in this thread so I don't know why you are off on that. I want full 2GB download speed on the new laptop like I get now on the Macs. Call it what you like.

Awalt said:

Whatever. I never said anything about 10GbE, anywhere in this thread so I don't know why you are off on that. I want full 2GB download speed on the new laptop like I get now on the Macs. Call it what you like.

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To get download speed of broadband, don't you need greater or equal connection speed to achieve it, that is what i'm explaining to you there is 10 GBps Ethernet speed which you can use it to achieve 2Gbps download speed.

Awalt said:

I don't know what you are saying. Are you saying Windows laptops don't support 2GB speeds? I have two newer Macs in the house, with RJ-45 Cat 6a cable to a USB-C - 5Gbps Ethernet adapter to a USB-C port, and both get this in prime evening hours on Comcast; I don't expect a 10-11 year old Dell to do this but a new laptop should be able to:

EDIT: It's not 10 Gbps; the spec on the USB-C is 120 Gbps per apple's tech specs. The modem and router both support 10 Gbps. The service is 2Gbps d/l. So I imagine any modern laptop with a USB-C port will get the same speeds as the Mac.


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USB Speed specs:


USB-C doesn't imply any speed in particular. I believe that USB 4 is only available with a USB-C port.

I looked at the specs on a couple of Macs (the Studi and the Pro). Both are spec'd as using Thunderbolt 4, maximum of 40Gbps. No 120Gbps. Thunderbolt (interface) - Wikipedia Their ports are basically USB-C.

MacBook Pro M4: