How Computers Work · Inside a Computer · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: A Used Laptop for Leo

Help a student compare used laptops and pick one that will last.

Three laptops, one budget

Your neighbor Leo starts college next month. He needs a laptop for essays, research and video calls, and his budget only stretches to a used one. He found three listings and asks you to help.

• Laptop A, $120: 4 GB RAM, 128 GB hard drive, can't run Windows 11.
• Laptop B, $320: Intel Core i5 from 2021, 2.4 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Windows 11.
• Laptop C, $280: Intel Core i7 from 2015, 3.4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive, can't run Windows 11.

Leo usually has a few dozen browser tabs open while he writes. Remember the desk: everything open at once has to fit on it.

The bigger number trap

Leo's cousin says Laptop C is the best deal. "It's an i7, and 3.4 GHz is faster than 2.4 GHz. Plus it has a whole terabyte."

Look again at what you learned. GHz only compares fairly between chips of the same age. Laptop C's chip is six years older than B's. Its terabyte is on a spinning hard drive, not an SSD. And it can't run Windows 11.

Trust, but check

Leo picks Laptop B and meets the seller at a coffee shop. Listings can be wrong, by mistake or on purpose. Before he hands over any money, he should turn the laptop on and see the specs for himself.

He opens Start, then Settings, then System. One more click shows the processor, the installed RAM and the system type.

A year later

The laptop works great. A year later, though, Leo's 512 GB SSD is almost full of class videos and projects. He looks up his exact model. The maker's support page says the RAM is soldered, but the SSD sits in a standard M.2 slot.

He wants to fix this without buying a new laptop.