Black Friday Computer Deal, A Review of Different Computers

Every year Black Friday brings shopping excitement to our household as it does with many others. This year is the first year I was looking to purchase a computer because I just sold my 27" Samsung All-In-One on Amazon for about a $400 profit after using it for over a year and replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive. That computer was so fast after installing that SSD.

Typically stores will get special computers for Black Friday that they don't normally carry in the store. These computers are similar to others they have in stock, but most of the time they are made with cheaper parts to be sold cheaper in order to be profitable for everyone. I would not go for one of these, so you will never see me sitting outside Best Buy missing football on Thanksgiving Day.

I have found that the best deals that I take advantage of take place as the Deal of the Day at Best Buy the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Last year I bought a beautiful 42" LG LED TV with 3D and a slim design. This year I saw and purchased an Asus laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor with 4 GB of RAM for $249.

Problem: I cam home with:

Asus - 15.6" Laptop - Intel Celeron - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Black

because it went on sale for $249 also. It looks identical to the Intel Core i3 processor Asus laptop. The display at Best Buy is the Celeron model although the shelf tag under it describes the Intel Core i3 laptop. I didn't figure it out until I was going through the 2nd set of Windows updates and decided to check the system information since the computer appeared to be moving slowly. I knew that I would upgrade the RAM, but it was moving too slow which triggered me to check it out.

I took the computer back and made it a point to complain to a manager about the bait and switch tactics. I decided that I would prefer to get the Asus laptop with the Core i5 that was on sale for $379 instead. I had to wait a little bit for the manager to come over and told him that I didn't appreciate the bait and switch tactics of that offer. It appears that they did not have any of the laptop that I originally came in for, but I told the manager that I would prefer the one with the Intel Core i5 instead. He asked me what would I like him to do for me. He said he couldn't lower the Intel Core i5 laptop to $249, so I asked him what he could do and he offered to take $30 off. I decided to go with that.

Review: 

Asus - 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Dark Gray/Blue-Gray

I was hoping for a quick little machine that would take care of my basic computer needs. I was quickly disappointed that this computer came with Windows 8, so it required many Windows updates before I could download and install Windows 8.1. During the process, my mouse was not acting right. I did like the keypad on the side like a standard keyboard, but I did not like that the "0" button was small and to the side a little which had me hitting the wrong key many times. This is the first laptop that I have had in some time, but going from a 1080 screen to a 720 was not good at all. After using it a couple of days, I felt I needed to do the RAM upgrade to determine if I would be happy with it even if I had to purchase a bigger monitor and possibly replace the hard drive.

I stopped by a Best Buy and purchased 8 GB of RAM for the computer, but had to go to Tiger Direct to purchase additional RAM for my wife's computer. I installed her RAM first, then put the new RAM in my new laptop. It didn't start up again. I checked it multiple times and it only started up when I removed the new RAM. I found on the Internet that the laptop may need to update the BIOS. I proceeded to download BIOS firmware from Asus' website and installed it. I put the RAM back in the computer and it started fine, except it would not read the RAM and still showed as having 4 GB of RAM. I decided that it was a little dated and I was not going to be happy with it, so I took it back.

Review:

I found many open box and display model computers at another Best Buy in Orlando and decided that I would probably get 

Sony - VAIO 21.5" Portable Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive 

that was listed as a open box item for $699. This appeared to be a great deal and I knew that Sony computers are known for having great displays. After purchasing it, Geek Squad had to reset Windows to a factory condition for me to take home. Unfortunately this computer had Windows 8 also, so I had to do many updates before installing Windows 8.1 on it also. My mouse was acting up on this one too.

After playing with the computer for a couple of days, I found that it froze up at times and the fan made excessive noise. The way it was acting reminded me of my old Samsung that I should have had the hard drive replaced under warranty. The display was nice, but the bottom sat directly on the desk and I was always looking down at it from my desk chair. On top of that, the display was nice, but no one with the IPS technology that I really wanted in my next computer. I think you know what happened next... I took it back. 

Review:

This past June, my father came over to Orlando and bought 

Acer - Aspire 23" Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive

for $719. Due to Thanksgiving coming up, they raised the price to $769 as it became a Black Friday sale for $649. I went over to my parent's house for Thanksgiving and saw this computer in action. It froze for a little over a minute when I was on it, but I thought that was due to the McAfee Virus Protection. I was a little excited by it because the screen was great to look at and it did have an Intel Core i3 processor with 8GB of RAM. 

In less than one week, the computer froze up on me 2 times for more than a minute each time. Before taking it back, I went to Acer's website to get support. The rep that I was chatting with recommended that I go into the BIOS, load default BIOS, save and reboot. Each time I reboot, I was reminded that this computer had a hard drive and not a SSD as it took a couple of minutes before I could do anything on it once into Windows. Then I was disappointed with the Internet speed...

Brighthouse RoadRunner Update:

So I called Brighthouse to complain about my Internet speed as my computer was only showing 48 to 50 Mbps when we are paying for 60 Mbps. The technical support person from Brighthouse found my modem did not have the most up to date firmware, so he updated it. He then asked me if I could direct connect it with a network cable. I did and the speed test came back 75 Mbps. He then told me that everyone on the RoadRunner Turbo 60 was getting upgraded to 90 Mbps at no additional cost before the end of the month. In shock, I went to my wife's computer which is directly connected to the router and her computer showed 85 Mbps on the speedtest. This got me questioning whether this new computer made sense since it did not have the most updated network card, a slow hard drive and an Intel Core i3 processor when the HP that I really wanted has a hybrid hard drive with SSD, 8 GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor that I knew that I would like. 

Since I was between jobs, I did not want to pay $1099 for the 

HP - ENVY 23" Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive

when it was on sale for $949 a month ago. So I waited a couple of days and this past Sunday it was on sale again for $949. Again I questioned that I wanted to spend that much money on a computer that I might not use it for it's full capability. 

Review:

I decided that it was time to buy and try 

HP - Chromebox - 2GB Memory - 16GB Solid State Drive - White.

The free offer of 1 TB of Google Drive space was of interest to me as I primarily use Google Drive for my cloud storage of documents. I really liked being able to set Google Drive as my default location for saving files. The access to Google Drive was seamless. I was not expecting more than 50 Mbps on the speedtest, but was surprised with the speedtest showing 85 Mbps almost every time. The access to the files from my external hard drive was very fast and responsive. I didn't like the mouse back button didn't work in the file manager application, but was OK with it. 

I was using my Logitech mouse and keyboard and tried to use my LG 42" television as my monitor, but I had to enlarge the text so big to read, it gave me a headache. I had to walk away for a little bit and when I came back, I hooked the Chromebox to my Acer computer via HDMI cable to use a monitor with speaker. 

After using the Chromebox for about 3 days, I thought that I would not need another Windows computer. I felt that I just needed to upgrade the RAM since is was lagging when I had many tabs open while searching for jobs. Unfortunately, Best Buy doesn't sell the RAM for this Chromebox and it would need to be special ordered. When printing a few copies of my resume with my picture on it, I found that my printer was not printing the colors correctly. I tried to clean the print heads, but could not do more than just the basic print head clean. 

I ended up turning on the Acer computer, installing the HP printer software and doing multiple deep cleaning of the print heads. Unfortunately for the Chromebox, this was enough that told me that I needed more than additional RAM for the Chromebox to work for me, so I took it back. Overall, the Chromebox was my favorite because it was simple and quick. 

Review:

I took the Acer back on the same trip and exchanged it for the 

HP - ENVY 23" Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive.

This computer is the closest available for to my 27" Samsung All-In-One as it has 8 GB of RAM with an Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo boost, 8 GB SSD hybrid hard drive (1 TB total), Beats Audio speakers, 23" IPS touchscreen display and the most updated network card. The Internet speedtest shows I am getting 85 Mbps with this new machine. And my mouse and keyboard have not experience any lag with it.

I did experience one problem though... The first one that I brought home did not boot and had an error with the hard drive. I got the blue screen of death, so I rebooted it and got the same error. I took it back to Best Buy in 5 O'Clock traffic to exchange it for another one and this is the one that I have not had any problems. I am happy now... I think.

To summarize, don't get a computer that runs Windows with any less than 8 GB of RAM or you will be hating it. If you get a Chromebook or Chromebox, make sure you get 4 GB of RAM to make sure that is runs smoothly. Google has done a great job developing Google Drive and compatibility with Microsoft Office files. You won't miss Office if you get a Chrome OS device.