Chromebooks any good?

[R.O.S.S.I]

Been tasked with finding a new laptop for the MIL.

She's had a fairly new Acer laptop about 2-3 years ago from Currys but it is woefully slow and tbh it would be better served being chucked in thr bin.

She probs wants to spend around £500-£600ish on something and I want to get something that is going to last her now and just "works".

All she does on it is email, write up notes from meetings at the golf club and browse the web on it so doesn't need to be a beast but just needs to be snappy and responsive and not something g that's going to feel awfully slow in a couple of years.

A Mac is out of the question as they're a bit too expensive and the OS will blow their mind so I've been thinking about something like a Surface Laptop Go 2 or potentially a Chromebook.

Are Chromebooks any good? She does use Google docs exclusively so think it could be a good solution but just struggling to suss out whats going to last the longest.

Are Chromebooks a good option for the elderly?

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

I cant remember the exact spec/model but i've tried removing whatever junk off it i could find. Maybe it is a bit older than 3 years but it is woefully slow now. I even upped the RAM from 4gb to 8gb as a last ditch attempt and was considering trying an SSD in it but think she may just be better with something that its a bit better overall.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Well ive got the model number (HP 8UD54EA) and the spec is as follows - so as suspected the CPU isn't much cop and the HDD is poss a problem. Do we think an SSD will be the best upgrade here?

Microprocessor​	AMD A6-9225 Dual-Core (2.6 GHz base clock, up to 3 GHz max boost clock, 1 MB cache)​
Memory, standard​	4 GB DDR4-1866 SDRAM (1 x 4 GB)​
Video graphics​	AMD Radeon™ R4 Graphics​
Hard drive​	1 TB 5400 rpm SATA\​

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Wild, didn't realise SSD's were so cheap. The only thing i'm not sure on is how to do a Windows reinstall with a completely new drive, its been years since i've done one tbh, but I'm presuming i'll need to make a bootable USB and install from that?

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

yeh thats what i thought, told the MIL for the sake of 24 quid its worth a punt.

Whats the best process for slapping a fresh install of windows on these days? back in the day i used to make a bootable USB and then just use the license stuck to the laptop but got a feeling that isnt how its done these days?

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Yeah, same... if you're doing a clean install...make a bootable USB, download it from microsoft so you know it's a clean copy.
Fit New drive.
Install windows from USB.

You're only swapping the drive out so assuming its already registered it will just re-register itself when it goes online. (make sure to get the same version of windows you already have to put on the USB).
Keep the old drive handy incase of any issues/mistakes.

Your're not going to be doing any multi-tasking with that CPU, but as said..if it's just a web browsing machine/ bit of word processing etc, it should be fine.

How does Windows re-register itself when installed on the fresh SSD? I take it CD-Keys and the like arent a thing anymore?