in reality you don’t ever need a smart TV - just hook up a Roku or Firestick, or use Chromecast from a phone/tablet - and you’re good to go for most stuff you watch.
400 quid on a low spec laptop, what are you crazy!
For zwift graphics card matters as much as everything else.
https://www.tier1online.com/refurbished-laptops-with-Graphics-cards/?sort=priceasc
but of course, I’d just get an X230… Or if you have a screen, a dedicated box for your turbo room.
So probably a £12 part has died (price of a 120GB SSD) and your first thought is to spend £400+ on a new laptop?
Fix the old one first (maybe £22 for a 240GB SSD, £15 to max out RAM) and 1-2 hours to reinstall OS, then see how much better it runs than before (assuming old HDD was mech type) before deciding what you expect to get from a newer model.
Standard mech HDD only have a 5yr life (like car parts, they are built down to a spec and are almost guaranteed to fail close to predicted life or sooner if heat is a factor).
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I recently picked up a refurbished Dell from their outlet.
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbished/cp/outlet
If it’s just zwift you want to run couldn’t you hook up an Apple TV unit to a monitor via hdmi?
Well the HDD probably hasn’t even failed, if the recovery partition is there, you could just rebuild it in place, but as you suggest it’s an easy upgrade.
If HDD has glitched and PC is running hot then I reckon odds on it has only hours to live.
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Okay thanks guys; I have dropped it into the local PC Repair place and they are going to stick a new SSD in it; he said it was a good spec laptop that shouldn’t need any more upgrades for what I use it for. It’ll cost a bit more than Tony said, but happy to pay for next day convenience and paying the fraction of what a equivalent spec costs new.
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and more importantly you’ve saved a ton of the most valuable thing of all … your own time!!!
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Which is worth a lot. I cam to that conclusion recently. Out the front out tree and bushes were getting over grown. Kept saying I would do it as I always like to do things myself., but never gets done Tree guy knocks on the door, £100 including taking all the rubbish away, here’s my waste licence. Deal, looks great and saved me a lot of time and hassle
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I almost did that with a big bush out front, but I’m a skin flint in some respects and almost feel like my wife is testing me 
It actually only took me an afternoon to get it down and do the first run to the tip; followed by a second trip a few days later. Finally dug the root up yesterday; that was good exercise! With the cash I saved, it gets me a new SSD and OS installed 
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No point in starting another thread, given @Adam mentioned Chromecast here.
So on that subject, done some searching, and Chromecast with the Google TV/Remote looks like a good option for us. We have Netflix/Prime/Disney services. The kids use it as much as us, so having the remote is probably easiest at the moment (as opposed to phone/tablet control). Bit wary of Amazon, as our daughter has a Fire tablet, and I find the Amazon operating system very pervasive (annoying).
Obvs WiFi is the default connection, but with our thick stone fireplace between router & TV, thinking Ethernet would give best results & stability; either that or get a wireless powerline adaptor for right behind the TV.
What do other people without Smart TVs use? Thanks 
We have a Roku stick, primarily because it came with a remote and at the time the Chromecast didn’t. And it is cheap - we don’t have a 4K TV, so don’t need the top-end kit. Only did minimal research at the time, and this was a few years ago, so things will have moved on, but thought Amazon was too locked down for adding other channels and Apple cost a lot more - although it does have an ethernet port which might help you.
Now TV is just rebadged Roku I think, so might be a good deal if you want Sky.
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If you can run an ethernet cable, always run an ethernet cable, don’t even think about wireless for TV streaming, and powerline only if you’re desperate, you might get lucky with the power - but freezer motors and stuff even in neighbours houses if the electrics are interesting can screw it.
If you do need to run wifi, TV will need to go on a 5G one and get everything else you don’t absolutely need on a 2.4G one.
Which stick you want connected is really about who you care least about slurping up all that lovely data and targetting you with adverts (pihole becomes more relevant with these devices) on the interface the amazon devices do win out for me, and the android apps provide more flexibility than the google chromecast, but that is fine too.
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Firestick - got the 4k version on Prime day for not much money. I have an old non-4K TV but it has a faster processor in it and I get annoyed with lag.
Use wifi because we didn’t think to run ethernet, manages ok but then it’s pretty close to the router. Amazon Prime video, iPlayer and Netflix both work perfectly on it which is all we’ll ever need. No expensive Sky subs for us.
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In my office I use a powerline adaptor which then has a WiFi repeater on it. It is 35m from the house to my office. I then have an Amazon Firestick in the back of my dumb TV and just use that to access Prime/Netflix/Disney+. This set up is fine for running Zwift plus streamingTV at the same time or for mobile gaming + discord chat even whilst others are streaming in the house.
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Yeah I use ethernet in the garage off the power line.
Before the new TV we had a chromecast on wifi in the back of the old telly. Netflix, Disney, Prime, iPlayer etc all run through it. Generally it was trouble free.
Still use the chromecast for some stuff even on the smart tv as it’s easier.
Not found an issue with data and ads and stuff like that.
So this peaked my interest to do a bit of googling during another conference call. Seems both Chromecast and Firestick can add an ethernet port adapter for <£20 if required, which is still less than buying a streaming device with built in port. No such option for the Roku.
So seems to be a straight fight, do you give your tv viewing preferences to Google or Amazon?
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I suppose Google already has the full shooting match anyway 
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