Buying a new laptop - advice plse

SwingsitlikeHogan

SwingsitlikeHogan

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For my daughter for uni. Standard student useage and she isn't a 'gamer'.

Budget up to £400 - maybe to £450. Been advised to avoid Windows 8 for time being. And she's not that bothered about having a Touch Screen. Other than that - there seem to be loads of budget laptops out there but I have no idea where to start. She's muttering that she likes the look (literally - the style) of a Dell - but that's as far as her assessment goes. All advice very welcome.
 
Windows 8 is fine, just download a thing called classic shell, this makes it look a bit like xp. Don't forget to factor in the cost for office, I assume she will need excel, word etc. you can buy student versions at a discounted price..
 
Rooter said:
Windows 8 is fine, just download a thing called classic shell, this makes it look a bit like xp. Don't forget to factor in the cost for office, I assume she will need excel, word etc. you can buy student versions at a discounted price..
Click to expand...

Thanks Rooter et al. Fortunately I get full Office Professional for £11 through my work :)

Stability of Windows 8 has been cited as an issue (by mum of a friend of my daughter - so maybe pinch of salt). But looking around I see it a buit tricky to buy a laptop with Windows XP or Windows 7 installed.

Makes - Asus and Linovo (was IBM laptop brand) are new brands so know nothing about them. HP and Dell - traditional - but do they live on their brand rather than quality. Samsung make good TVs? Sony are always expensive. Acer - don't really know about them but seem popular.
 
Personally, dell have been great for me. Them and toshiba(current one)

I have not had a single win8 problem at all in 6 months of heavy use....
 
If you want windows 7 go to the Dell website and click on "for Work" rather than "For Home"
This takes you to the small business site where you can still get W7

The Vostro with an I3 CPU, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive should keep within budget.
and from experience, I know that students like to watch DVDs on their laptops, so one with a dvd drive is useful.

As far as im concerned windows 8 is fast and stable, its just too darn different from what everyone over 40 is used to

Also buy an external hard drive and make sure she backs up her stuff weekly as a minimum
 
PhilTheFragger said:
If you want windows 7 go to the Dell website and click on "for Work" rather than "For Home"
This takes you to the small business site where you can still get W7

The Vostro with an I3 CPU, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive should keep within budget.
and from experience, I know that students like to watch DVDs on their laptops, so one with a dvd drive is useful.

As far as im concerned windows 8 is fast and stable, its just too darn different from what everyone over 40 is used to

Also buy an external hard drive and make sure she backs up her stuff weekly as a minimum
Click to expand...

Thanks Phil - my daughter can get 15% off laptops through her work - but limited by what they stock - but I'll have a look at Vostro. Guy in Currys (not where she works0 was saying I must get lappy with either Intel Core i3 or i5 processor - seems sensible advice.

Will check out her DVD drive needs. She will have Sky Go and we have Sky On Demand so plenty of film choice - but she is typical girl teen - watches same films over and over. So DVD player (as opposed to straight-forward CD Drive?) probably needed.
 
these days they are all cd/dvd drives, so no need to choose
Dont bother with the I5, even though its quad core, there isnt any multi core software about to make use of it, most software out there is still single core based,
The I3 is dual core, but each individual core is faster than an individual I5 core , The I7 is by far the best buy, but will be out of the price range
 
I bought the laptop I'm using for this from E-Buyer about 4 years ago.

Still does all I need!

You can get free 'Office' applications that work as well as MS-Office (maybe not Access). use Open Office which is managed by Oracle.

I don't believe Windows 8 is particularly relevant for pure Laptop work - though it does unify all Microsoft's platforms.
 
Old Skier said:
Might be an idea for daughter to check with her Uni that they aren't doing some good offers. My muckers son is even getting a free laptop from his Uni.
Click to expand...

I'll ask her to check but I've not seen any sign of such an offer myself - she's going to The University of Manchester
 
PhilTheFragger said:
Also buy an external hard drive and make sure she backs up her stuff weekly as a minimum
Click to expand...

Plus 1 for this, my wife lost one of her final year projects due to not backing up. Cost many £££ to get it recovered!

Just make sure ALL your uni stuff is in more than one place. We all keep good backups in this house now and the last 2 hard drive failures have lost us very little, only a weeks worth of stuff and took an afternoon or two to recreate the important files.
 
If you buy from somewhere like currys, typically they will throw in 500GB of cloud storage too. they did with me.
 
Rooter said:
If you buy from somewhere like currys, typically they will throw in 500GB of cloud storage too. they did with me.
Click to expand...

It's likely to be Argos (as she get's the discount there) but this could make me change my mind - the Currys/PC World Knowhow cover has also been good for sorting issues with my son's laptop. It's knacked and the Knowhow promise is that if a laptop is knacked they may well replace it with a new one rather than repair it. And this is whatever has resulted in the laptop being knacked. We'll see.

Anyway - that aside - all further suggestions on what to buy gladly accepted. Closing date for your advice about 14th September :)
 
Rooter said:
I would be keeping a daily eye on the Dell refurb sales site, it updates daily with new stock. all standard warranty etc. the Insiron Ultrabook 14" is looking good right now, depends, did you mention what screen size she wants? i have an 11" ultrabook and its perfect, light as a feather, but big enough to watch TV on etc IMHO. no need for the massive 17" things that weigh a ton!

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=7&fid=1467
Click to expand...

Now that looks very promising. She'll have her big 32" HD telly with her so she'll be watching Sky Go and DVDs on that screen in her room. Hmmm. What an excellent price as well - and not having to cart around a 15.6" screen laptop.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Now that looks very promising. She'll have her big 32" HD telly with her so she'll be watching Sky Go and DVDs on that screen in her room. Hmmm. What an excellent price as well - and not having to cart around a 15.6" screen laptop.
Click to expand...

IIRC all of the dell outlet products are either cancelled config orders, or have gone to customer and been returned. all working fully, all with standard warranty..

I love my ultrabook, it weighs nothing! perfect for the travelling i do, nothing worse than being on the tube lugging a huge laptop about! mine weighs 1.2kg! SSD drive and win8 is brilliant IMHO. 8 seconds from shut down to being in windows.
 
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