Thetownend.com

Just thought i'd ask for some help from the all seeing TEF.

My little sister needs a new laptop, she smashed hers playing poker, and wants to spend as little as possible.

I don't want to waste her money and have found a few on Staples and Tesco Direct with 2-4GB Ram, 160GB+ HD and Celeron Dual Core for between £330 and £400.

I ideally think she should have Windows 7, 3 or 4GB Ram and a Core 2 Duo or some other proper dual core, not celeron/sempron crap.

She doesn't use it for anything really, so doesn't actually need any great spec, but when i look the price constantly creeps up because i think she should spend an extra £30 here and there for more ram better processor etc.

Will it really matter if she gets a Celeron and 2GB of ram is what i really want to know and has anyone seen any really sweet bargains for around the £300 mark?

Thanks friendly TEFers. :)

Surprisingly recently I have a few friends that have bought these

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0117520389.1258109603@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfgadeildlefflcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=907584&category_oid=

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0117520389.1258109603@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfgadeildlefflcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=240757&category_oid=-28487

Both fit the bill at around £300-330 both are refurbished both have good dual core processors.

I have had a few of these delivered and they are all brand new returned products with faults repaired and all have 1 year guarentees and boxed.

And approx £50 off retail price, I would have no hisitation in buying them even though they are from the dreaded PCWorld.

I managed to pick up an Acer Aspire 5536 which had 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD and an Athlon Dual Core
for £350ish. Can't seem to find the same deal online any more though.

And yeah, I'd steer clear of Sempron and Celeron. For the kind of money you're looking at you can easily get better than a crappy Celeron!

I got mine from PCWorld too. I always vowed never to buy from them, but surprisingly they had the best deal.

Cheers. Those PC World ones look perfect, although they are sans Windows 7.

Are they available in Store or is it online only? Because i'll also get her to get Kaspersky 2010 while it's £19 or whatever in store.

They are online only deals, but if you are willing to spend £10 more there is a win 7 upgrade its a similar spec but a smaller HD.

They do have some good deals in there TBH.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0801156634.1258111627@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccladeikmmhleecflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=852262&category_oid=-34460#productInformationSection

That's fucking perfect jj. My sister likes those Compaqs as well, so that's pretty much on the money. Cheers.

http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/cheapest-refurbished-laptops.htm

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/GRADE_A1_-_Acer_Aspire_5735_Laptop_A1-LX.ATL0Y.008/version.asp?PID=1315

Does it have to be a laptop? There are some good netbook deals around with Win 7 for sub £300

Yeah, has to be a Laptop, as she hates tiny screens. She's got, sorry had, a 15.4" and she wants that again.

I bet she does.

Thanks all. I've just got her the Windows 7 number jj showed, with Kaspersky at £19. Everyone's a winner.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172314

bit above budget but still...

That was lucky. Completely forgot to check eBuyer. I think i'd have felt sick if i could've got her something better for similar money.

That looks good, but she was determined to spend as little as possible, within reason, and being charged with sorting it out means you really don't want to waste money that isn't yours. :)

Although there is your 10% "lazy cow" commission to consider :)

I'll just blag the old one and rip any parts which i think could be any good. Although it is a Dell so it'll only be full of cheap tat, so maybe i'll replace the screen and bosh it on eBay.

I too need a decentish laptop around the £350 mark. Not required for gaming, just internet usage is all thats required for me. Is this a good deal?

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-2269.aspx

Thoughts appreciated especially if someone knows of a better deal!

That's got a Celeron, which isn't a nice processor. My sister just got the one below, as mentioned earlier in the thread. It's cheaper, comes with a better spec and Windows 7. Win, win. I really do think this is about as good as you can get, because as you'll notice, i was chasing a similarly priced lapper to yourself.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1854431386.1258828848@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccladeiljljdeecflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&category_oid=-34460&sku=852262&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null#productInformationSection

Edit: Cheaper? What the fuck am i on. Sorry, it's £20 more. :)

Edit 2: It is refurbed as well, which i forgot to mention, but my sister's one may as well have been new. You also get Win 7 on disk, so you have to install the upgrade yourself, which is a piece of piss anyway. Although it does take some time.

BUMP

Could one of you techy types help me with finding a good laptop please? I'm not a complete newbie on the laptop specification front, but i wanna make sure i'm gettin value for money un'all.

Basically, i have £600 to spend ona laptop (Well it's not actually my money, it's for my birthday), which is a fair wedge to blow on a laptop i guess.

Anyway, i guess i don't specifically need it for gaming as that's what the ol' 360 is for, but i'd obv like to play FM10 at a fast speed with plenty of leagues open etc etc. I watch movies/videos and all that crap on the current laptop, as well as store plenty of music and pictures, so i'm guessing i need a fairly good graphics card, processor speed etc.

So any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

I was lookin at the following:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&source=hp&q=Acer+Aspire+5536&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2490624610302662976&ei=6KxQS626MsnRjAfl79CmCg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCcQ8wIwBA&os=tech-specs

Any good?

Cheers guys

Or:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-6920G-Laptop-Premium/dp/B00284C9A0

?

I've got that exact laptop (the 5536).

Can't complain for the cost. Does everything I want it to. Can be a bit sluggish for FM2010 if you're running a lot of leagues.

Fair enough. The price is bloody good to be fair. Any idea whether the graphics card is integrated or dedicated? This is where my computer knowledge fails....

Integrated.

On a laptop it's (pretty much) always integrated.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/188587

T6500 processor very good for a laptop, FSB800 and 2.1ghz speed, 2mb of L2 cache, 3gb ram, X4500 graphics, Windows 7.

£488.53, a very good spec lappy for the money.

Ah i'm liking the sound of that Laptop. Seems very good value for money.

What about these two:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-6920G-Laptop-Premium/dp/tech-data/B00284C9A0/ref=de_a_smtd

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173591

Would they be able to play FM10 and be able to cope with a lot of internet usage, for instance?

Cheers for the help so far guys!

Personally I wouldnt touch the Acer 7535G as it uses a slow (real world performance) Turion processor, but the 6920G is a better processor much faster in applications than the Turion, the only disadvantage being Vista compaired to Win 7 on the Samsung.

As for FM2010 they can all run it if you only run 1 league and set the graphics at lower settings.

Well all the £450+ lappys can, the lower spec ones will struggle e.g. Athlon/Celeron processor based systems.

Just for info

http://tinyurl.com/ykytfgq

I'll be after a new lappie soon and have decided on the Samsung R720, reasonable spec for the money

http://tinyurl.com/yl2sb7u