Laptop advice

[Saxondale]

Sure this has been done before, but could any of you computery people give me some advice.

Have £400 to spend on a laptop.  Fairly quickly as Im about to throw this piece of shit out of the window (30gb hard drive and half a gig of ram isn't running quickly).  Seriously does take about 5 minutes to boot up and often the same to open bloody programmes.

So I use it for work, travel about the place, do spreadsheets, word processing mainly.  Would like to waste hours on CM as well, but sure I cant run it on this machine!

Also use it for web use and fannying about on this forum.

Will probably have it for 2 years before changing again.

So any ideas you can give me of what I should look for in terms of ram, hard disc memory.  Any anything else.

I am as technical as a log by the way.

[Samdy Gray]

For £400 you should be looking at something with a dual core processor, at least 1gb of RAM and around 200gb of hard-disk.

[Simon Pieman]

Most come with Windows Vista these days. You'll need a minimum of 2gb of RAM but try and get more. Laptops at this price have graphics that share some memory from the RAM so this is important, especially with the intensive Vista operating system.

For the processor, look for a dual core Intel processor. You want a fast speed (the GHz reading) but you also want one with a decent cache size (you may need to look at the detailed spec for this). Finding a good balance is what it's about, but Intel's processor model numbering tends to be quite intuitive. Don't get a celeron or be tempted by a cheaper processor.

Hard disk space is usually common sense with laptops, there won't be massive speed differences so if it has a big enough hard drive for your needs then it's fine.

Other considerations are screen size, portability, keyboard/mouse pad functions and battery life. Probably best to look for online reviews concerning these particular matters especially as they're easy to overlook.

Other than that you'll probably find similar laptops for the money which won't have absolutely perfect features on them, so get the one which ticks the most boxes for you.

[Nemo]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158353 seems pretty reasonable, I quite like Toshiba laptops. Solid if unexciting.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159674 tiny bit slower processor, but more RAM and more hard drive if that's what your into.

Si Pie will undoubtedly tell me they're crap.

[Sippo]

you use the fackin search button....

[Samdy Gray]

That's rich coming from you.

[Sippo]

 

[Saxondale]

Thankyou all.  Especially you Sippo.

Not got it yet but Im tempted by the latest tescos offer of £349 for a dell inspiron 2gb memory, 160gb hard drive, intel dual core processor.

Being technically limited as mentioned, im blinded by the fact that its quite pretty and you can get it in red. 

Ill let you know how I get on.

[Simon Pieman]

Upgrade the memory if you can, 2gb is bare minimum you should aim for, maybe look at Dell directly and customise it, although memory is cheap and Dell sometimes rip you off a bit to put the extra in. If you wanted to do this yourself it's easy and the Dell instruction manuals show you how to do it.

Dell's are evil though.

[Peter Venkman]

Dell are Satans own sputum.

[jim]

Ebuyer every time

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150324

[santasdead]

Dells are a bit expensive, but the inspirons work well. my inspiron 1300 i've had no problems (touch wood) and its at least 4 years old.

[Batch]

Dell are Satans own sputum.

I'm starting to agree.

Last time I bought a Dell was 4 or 5 years ago (Inspron 8600) and they were great.

Broke that so bought another on insurance (Studio 15) and it sucks. They've put shit speaker in it along with a shit sound driver making movie watching a chore. And they put a stupid touch media buttons it it, and they were fucked straight out the box. Now I find out it's a common problem So it's back with them. It seems it's only this model that is screwed but even so.

Funny thing is I picked up a new screen for my perfectly functional inspiron for £45 so I guess I didn't need a replacement in the first place.

The only thing keeping me sane is the other option I had - Acer-  get just as bad reports!

[Sussex]

Dell are Satans own sputum.

Did I mention my Dell laptop is still working fine?

*kiss of death!*

 

[Saxondale]

I'm starting to agree.

Last time I bought a Dell was 4 or 5 years ago (Inspron 8600) and they were great.

Broke that so bought another on insurance (Studio 15) and it sucks. They've put shit speaker in it along with a shit sound driver making movie watching a chore. And they put a stupid touch media buttons it it, and they were fucked straight out the box. Now I find out it's a common problem So it's back with them. It seems it's only this model that is screwed but even so.

Funny thing is I picked up a new screen for my perfectly functional inspiron for £45 so I guess I didn't need a replacement in the first place.

The only thing keeping me sane is the other option I had - Acer-  get just as bad reports!

Hooray.  Well Im just back from the shops with a 3gb / 250gb dual core acer aspire for £380.  Ill let you know when it all goes tits up!  Got to be better than the one Im using now.