Would anyone have a recommendation for a cheap laptop. 
I’ve been thinking of upgrading my wheel and pedal set on the sim for a while to a Thrustmaster TS-XW and a set of T-lCM pedals, but they both need updated and calibrated using windows software. As I have nothing but iOS products in the house I was going to buy a cheap secondhand laptop to cover these duty’s as and when needed. Given my reluctance to take any interest in anything computer related, I am at a complete disadvantage as to what I should be looking for, make, model or software etc. Any help much appreciated. 
I’ll also be at a disadvantage as to how to use it, but that’s a different hurdle 😂. 

52 minutes ago, UndertheRadar said:

need updated and calibrated using windows software.

I can't claim any IOS expertise (other than that it's a variant of Linux) but I understamnd there's a Windows emulator available.  In the words of the old AA adverts "I know a man who can" so I'll drop him a line and see what he has to say.  He's Stateside so could be a day or two before I get a response.

Caught him in a good moment  

 

Not sure his response will help you much but here it is anyway:

 

"On IOS? Not really. On Mac OS, yes, using Parallels or VMWare, but I'm not sure that it would actually work (i.e. you might be able to run the program, but if the calibration would work, I have no clue)"

Thanks. I have an older iMac that more or less gets used as a back up for photos, music, phones etc and acts as a server for the Sonos stuff dotted about the place. I was always dubious of putting anything windows related near it as I don’t use it enough to know what I’m doing. 
I had to add a handbrake to the sim setup and a neighbour did the software for me last time, but he’s stationed on the mainland and not home that often. Thrustmaster just told me it wasn’t Mac comparable. 
Ill google the suggestions you’ve provided and see if I understand any of it. Appreciate the help. 

Not knowing which Windoze Thrustmaster mandates, I can't be definitive, but if I were buying a Windoze laptop (rather than using a work one), I'd buy a Dell with Windoze 10 and an SSD, then use Internet Explorer or Edge to download Google Chrome.

Thanks. It’s literally only ever going to be used for updates on the wheel,pedals,haddbrake and shifter units. Haven’t had it done since the new console came out, and it just doesn’t feel right on kerbs and corners. Probably needs an update and new calibration settings to comply with the new software in the console. 
I’ve a computer store not far away that does recon units with 2yrs warranty and windows 10 with ssd etc, starting at about £150ish. So that might be my best bet. 

19 minutes ago, UndertheRadar said:

I’ve a computer store not far away that does recon units with 2yrs warranty and windows 10 with ssd etc, starting at about £150ish. So that might be my best bet.

If you budget a bit above the cheapest - say 200 squid - and explicitly state it needs to talk with your Thrustmaster setup then I'd say that would be a good deal.

 

N.B. Not all Windows 10 versions are created equal and have various inherent limits on networking depending on the version - hence the above caution.

 

Agreed, subject to the note that I'd download Chrome, so as to not have to use either of the 2 worst browsers in the World for any reason.

No friends or family that would let you use a Windows machin to do your update?

 

Seems like a big expense to do this job.

 

Looks like it is possible to put Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 4

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/how-to/install-windows-10-raspberry-pi

 

Might be cheaper than £150 and you could use the Pi for something else, just keep the Windows install on an SD card.

36 minutes ago, Aspman said:

No friends or family that would let you use a Windows machin to do your update?

 

Seems like a big expense to do this job.

 

Looks like it is possible to put Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 4

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/how-to/install-windows-10-raspberry-pi

 

Might be cheaper than £150 and you could use the Pi for something else, just keep the Windows install on an SD card.

Like myself, they all seem to use apple products. I use them as I find them easier to work. Given away by the fact I had to google the meaning to half your reply 😂. 
I’ve  one neighbour who can do it with ease, but he’s rarely home as he’s generally stationed abroad for most of the year and only back at holiday times. Seems unfair to ask him to do it when he’s home to see family. 
unsure whether as my eldest gets older if she might need one for the last few years of secondary school. 
I’ve sort of been hoping seeing as it’s now 2021 that Thrustmaster would make their products comparable with Mac OS, but no joy. 

OK so thread revival... 

 

Eldest will hopefully be off to uni to do physics with astrophysics in a few months.  They have all the gear but she's after a laptop anyway so I've been thinking about HP or Lenovo win11 home based min 8gb ram and 256 0r 512gb ssd and 14 inch screen. 

 

Any thoughts?  Am I over or under cooking it?  Any good deals out there (Lenovo looking favourite at the moment. 

12 minutes ago, skomaz said:

OK so thread revival... 

 

Eldest will hopefully be off to uni to do physics with astrophysics in a few months.  They have all the gear but she's after a laptop anyway so I've been thinking about HP or Lenovo win11 home based min 8gb ram and 256 0r 512gb ssd and 14 inch screen. 

 

Any thoughts?  Am I over or under cooking it?  Any good deals out there (Lenovo looking favourite at the moment. 

 

You've come to the right man... I do English Literature and Film & TV Studies (Joint Honours Degree) and my 'hack' is a stickerbombed Lenovo ThinkPad X201i. Cost me £90, chucked in a 480GB SSD, and an extra 4GB of RAM to bring it up to 8GB. Goes like stink. However, an X220/230/240 may be a much better choice, or even an X201 that doesn't have an Intel i3 processor at the heart of it. I get about 4 hours battery life out of mine, it has a 12.1" screen. Only issues are it's a little heavy and thick for such a small laptop, and won't run Windows 11 without some ****ery, but it's reassuringly well built and very good under Windows 10. See also: HP Elitebook 8470p, I had one of these with an i5-3320 some time ago, and am buying another for my brother when his Dell packs in.

What kind of budget have yous got for a laptop, as both of my suggestions can be had for under £180-250.

Hi Ryan - probably looking at £400 to £500 ish at a guess and had spotted these two:

 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 4 | Powerful laptop for work | Lenovo UK

 

Lenovo V14 Gen 2 (14" Intel) | 14”everyday small business laptop | Lenovo UK

 

Or similar (there's a few on the Lenovo websitge about that price...

Currently it's a case of what you can get in stock.

 

I'd look for something with a long battery life, 8-16GB RAM and a reasonably sized SSD.

I'd also chuck in a portable USB HDD for your daughter to backup onto and put somewhere safe.

 

The number of people who don't back up the essentials then the laptop gets dropped, soaked, nicked with their data gone is shocking.

11 hours ago, skomaz said:

Hi Ryan - probably looking at £400 to £500 ish at a guess and had spotted these two:

 

Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 4 | Powerful laptop for work | Lenovo UK

 

Lenovo V14 Gen 2 (14" Intel) | 14”everyday small business laptop | Lenovo UK

 

Or similar (there's a few on the Lenovo websitge about that price...

 

I like that Gen 2, SSD is a bit small for my needs, but may suit your daughter fine. Maybe see if you can spec it with 480/500/512GB of SSD storage.

Went for the V14 Gen 2 Intel i5 in the end as I eventually spotted it with a significant reduction - turned up today and looks to be a decent bit of kit

External 2.5" WD drives are reliable and pretty sensibly priced.

Very handy for back-ups and making sure important college work doesn't get lost.

EDIT: I only ever bought one of their 3.5 external drives and it failed pretty quickly.

Also needing external power other than the USB connection was a pain.

But I have a load of their external 2.5" Passport drives, and they are all still going strong, even my old 250GB USB-2 speed drives which I bought off Play.com  what seems a lifetime ago.

I've got one 4T drive which is a bit noisy, but hasn't put a foot wrong, reliability wise.

Edited 28 July, 20223 yr by EnterName

Good shout @EnterName this is often overlooked when people buy IT equipment.

 

They later complain their homework/wedding pics/family photos are in the computer and the hard drive has failed or a rampant virus has chewed them up and spat them out.

Yep - I have an online back up of everything work related plus off line copies and three back ups of personal stuff like photos (external HDD, portable HDD and portable SSD).

 

What I need to do is get my daughter into the same frame of mind and get her to think about security and avoiding viruses / malware (I've already added Malwarebytes and the like to the new laptop and got rid of a load of guff software from it she'll never need). 

1 minute ago, varooom said:

Good shout @EnterName this is often overlooked when people buy IT equipment.

 

They later complain their homework/wedding pics/family photos are in the computer and the hard drive has failed or a rampant virus has chewed them up and spat them out.

I tend to have a "belt and braces" approach, with data backed up onto external drives and USB sticks, if it's really important.

Time was I used to use optical drives for back-ups, but in my experience they are a bit slow and can't really can't be relied on, so now I haven't even got an optical drive on my PC. (I have an external R/W drive, though. Mind you, I've got an external 3.5" floppy drive reader too, just in case. )

I used to use optical back-ups as well (still got a load somewhere) and do have optical drives in the home desktop machine but haven't used them for a while (other than to rip CDs...)

Mines proper belt and braces.

 

Source file backed up to NAS

They are backed up to a Desktop USB Drive
My NAS also has 2nd Desktop USB Drive that is backed up to weekly, and has versioning control (lives in fireproof safe)
 

Files I cannot download again, so family photos etc, get copied from the NAS backed up to password protected files, before being uploaded to one of my old NAS units offsite.
And then my NAS also backs up to a 3rd NAS (yes I have 3x NAS systems) offsite in another location with versioning controls also.

 

 

I need a nuclear war to take out my data, but I will be crispy, so not too worried about files at that point.

Write once optical disks are almost essential as a backup, because they can't be altered once you've backed it up.

Off site is an important, but hard to achieve component for most home IT users.

13 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

Write once optical disks are almost essential as a backup, because they can't be altered once you've backed it up.

Off site is an important, but hard to achieve component for most home IT users.

For WO integrity they're good, but I found they were prone to corruption. I found the odd JPG would be unreadable later, which as I was storing family photos was unacceptable.

I might have had a bad batch, but rightly or wrongly I took it as a warning and stopped using them for critical backups.

The more dense they get the more risk, however if you keep them in a suitable case in a room that doesn't get too hot/cold and without lots of UV light, then they're just fine.

 

At the end of the day, if you can reach a NAS or any other read/write medium from the main computer, then it can be hacked/corrupted too.

It's a shame apple time machine type features are not a standard feature available in all OS also.

 

Each item in a backup/archive strategy is just one layer, but the different layers protect against different risks.