npolite Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 HI All, My E5540 is getting a bit slow running OSX and Windows 11. I'm looking to upgrade to something faster that will handle both OS. I know that the 10th gen is as far as we can go in terms of laptops because of the video. I have a budget between 400-500 and am willing to buy used if needed but I would prefer new. You just don't know how slimy a used one is going to be worn. Does anyone have a laptop in mind that has a backlit keyboard and will support a SSD 2.5" drive? The reason for the 2.5" SSD is it is a 2TB and I would hate to have to throw it into an enclosure. Thanks Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Hervé Posted November 22, 2021 Administrators Share Posted November 22, 2021 We don't usually do such kind of recommendations here.... Anyway, from Broadwell onwards, many if not most manufacturers moved to mSATA then M.2 SSDs. I think you'd have a hard time finding a new 10th gen (Ice Lake/Comet Lake) for the budget you mentioned (assuming $ or €, not rupees) and with support for a legacy 2.5" SATA SSD. More likely used/refurbished 7th and 8th gen Kaby Lake/Kaby Lake R/Coffee Lake models. I believe only some large 15.6" or 17" laptops may still retain the kind of SATA disk option you desire. Do shop around on the usual well-known commercial sites and look at manufacturers sites for model specs. For instance, you may look at Dell models of the Latitude xx70, xx80 or xx90 families or Inspiron 15 families. Examples: Latitude 5590 Latitude 3500 Inspiron 15 7591 Inspiron 7786 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
npolite Posted November 22, 2021 Author Share Posted November 22, 2021 Thanks for the reply. I'll have a look the SATA 2.5" isn't a dealbreaker...anything new that you can suggest? I'm located in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Hervé Posted November 23, 2021 Administrators Share Posted November 23, 2021 Your stated budget is unlikely to get you anything outside (unsuitable) low-end Pentium/Celeron-based Chromebook-type platforms. In addition, I doubt you'll find many new laptops fitted with 10th gen comet Lake/Ice Lake CPUs. By far and large, (mainstream) manufacturers have moved to Intel 11th gen now. But, as I said, do shop around, some manufacturers (like Dell) do offer to filter searches by price ranges and/or CPU generations. You may get lucky on all fronts with the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (model 15 3511 with i5-1035G1) with Black Friday round the corner... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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