Laptop with a SD card slot

I had the same issue!

Now just use an adapter.

Jim

I had to check my Lenovo ideapad 310 and it has got one, the pc is young enough to use DDR4. I simply stick the SD cards in a USB adaptor and bung them in the top of the desktop case.

I think a pencil and paper is the solution here - no wait, pencils are old hat, we now have scarpies.....

I use an external, self powered, 7 way USB hub. I can connect an external hard drive, CD/DVD burner, printer, memory cards and sticks, using suitable adapters where required. It has a 1 metre cable to connect to the laptop, so it sits out of the way when using the computer on my lap.

Just as well it's out of the way as it's a bit messy.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 13/04/2021 10:04:53

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It’s worth remembering how Henry uses his laptop ^^^

Once upon a time ... the customer was always right

MichaelG.

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Edit: There may be the germ of an idea here: 

https://www.instructables.com/Raspberry-Pi-Wi-Fi-Media-Server/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 13/04/2021 10:30:26

My Creality Ender 3 came with a micro SD card and also a USB reader that just slots into a full sized USB port - no cable, no nothing - did you get one too?

Here it is.

Here it is.

You could try an HP Pavilion 17-cd1014na for £1049 from Argos (I'm very happy with the 8GB version I've got as my gaming pc).

Seems to meet all your requirements except maybe the price.

Edited By Martin Payne on 13/04/2021 11:21:56

Ah yes Michael I always had this in mind when offering advice from years of experience -- " The customer is always right, sometimes a little misguided sometimes downright stupid but always right ! "

John

Edit PS I also think its a retrograde step to remove the SD slots etc -- who wants a heap of accessories when they can be built in ?

Edited By JohnF on 13/04/2021 11:07:30

Edited By JohnF on 13/04/2021 11:09:08

So ... looking at your laptop specs ... I can recommend you consider the following to be the cheapest pretty close off-the-shelf system:

Lenovo Thinkpad w541 - Intel I7 and up to 32gb ram, and a dedicated onboard Nvidia graphics accellerator.

it has a sd card reader, media bay which can hold either a dvd or hdd, it can have two internal disks (so redundancy)

with an external lenovo docking station - so you can plug in your big monitor (or 2), keyboard, mouse, and wacom tablet

Get a raspberry pi 4 and install octoprint for your 3d printing - and transfer the files over the wifi.

2nd hand W541 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=thinkpad+w541&_sacat=0

Everything together is probably under £750

Nothing wrong with Dell Inspiron 17 3000 kit except check the specification carefully. It's not a particular computer, rather one of a series ranging from basic to rather good. For example, the first one I found has only 8Gb RAM and a 128Gb SSD with a relatively slow CPU, the second has a faster CPU, 32Gb RAM, 128Gb SSD and a 1Tb Hard Drive. Check the detailed spec before buying - they might not all come with an SD Card.

Dell aren't the only firm selling rather different computers with the similar names; maybe they are all doing it now. Price is a good clue; the budget version might cost a quarter of the top of the range machine. Don't buy the expensive games machine when the budget version would do, and don't accidentally buy the budget version expecting top of the range features and performance!

I own an expensive Dell laptop, very pleased with it because it's super-quick and the graphics are excellent. No good at all for this requirement: it only has two USB-C ports, no DVD, SD-Card or anything else useful. Although USB-C is faster and more general than older USB, I have to use an adaptor to connect anything to it because all my USB peripherals are old-school. Ho hum...

Dave

Yes mine did too Nick, but I wanted a quiet main board and one or two other things so I printed an enclosure to take the new mb and added a quiet fan and full sized SD card reader as fat fingers and micro SD cards don't go well together! I didn't give it a thought that any new PC wouldn't have a SD card slot...

Ok, thanks for the posts chaps, all interesting reading (well, most of it )

Jann and George, thanks especially for that - I'll take another look as I'd missed or skipped over those. Jann I have a R Pi in the pipeline for the other half of my new enclosure, all this software stuff has been a huge learning curve for me. I was delighted to get the new main board working after a couple of attempts at compiling the firmware thanks to the Kay 3D guide. I've been playing with Fusion 360 on my old laptop (an old Toshiba Satellite with16" screen) designing the enclosure and a new fan system for the upgraded hot end that's in the pipeline, I've enjoyed the challenge of 3D CAD after spending many years on 2D at work hence the new laptop.

I'd almost pushed the button on a Lenovo Francis until I saw it was without the SD slot and still may go that route with the smallest SD to USB adaptor I can find!

I'm off to trawl the internet again!

Thanks Martin, missed your post! I've had a bad experience with a HP laptop, not to mention one of their printers so I'd skipped over that one. Looks very good value for money though but the screen hinge looks a bit delicate in the blurb. I may well pop into my local Argos and take a look...

Actually, the hinge is quite sturdy... the worst thing about it is the feel* of the trackpad, but all the other computers in the house are Apple: so maybe I'm a bit biased.

* This seems to be a fairly common problem that can be easily sorted by a competent person.

Running Fusion360.

Edited By Martin Payne on 13/04/2021 20:29:59