LAPTOP ADVICE

[Midnight]

Hi,
would like to buy a laptop , don't want to spend more than £300, would use it for DVD, music ,photos and dvd.

I know nothing about them , any help in regards to what is good would be very helpful.

Cheers

Midnight...

 

[brendy]

300 quid is a bit of a limiting factor, for that sort of money you will be getting a celeron (budget, think masters golf equipment) processor, slow hard drive and basic memory.
It wouldnt be much of a multimedia machine. If you can stretch to a little over 400, tescos direct have a few very capable dual core notebooks, two of which have 17" screens.

 

[RGuk]

This is about the best I can find...

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151219

Ideally, I would try for a 17" screen but this costs more.

When I first got my laptop (20 months ago) it came with Vista but only 1 gb RAM......

If you are really strapped for budget, please try to get 2 gb of RAM.....Vista uses nearly all of 1 gb just to exist.....makes the machine SO slow.

I would avoid cheap brands and look for HP/Toshiba/Fujitsu.
I have an MSI desktop and it's been flawless for 5+ years...they do laptops...cheap n cheerful kit but usually ok.

 

[brendy]

Celerons and Vista dont make for a pleasurable experience Dave, Even relatively normal jobs like opening media player and watching videos would be a little laborious (a guy in work ignored us and now struggles to watch decent bit rate videos on his hp celeron notebook.)
If its outside budget, then possibly wait or maybe buy a refurbished version of something dual core, it will be worth it.

 

[Tommo21]

I’ve not long got a new laptop, HP. 2G ram, dual core thingmybob and 160 gig hard drive. It works fine with Vista Premium, dvd’s no problem, BBC I player works a treat also. Need a little more than 300, it will be worth it. You can get some good deals, free laptop, with a broadband package, but take care and work out the long term money situation. Dont get mobile broadband, it's just not up to the job yet.

 

[gjbike]

Hi
Just order this one from tesco direct Acer 5535 RM-70 4GB 250GB 15.6" Laptop came in £399 should off been £549 the reason I got this one was my mate who is into computers told me it was the best one around for the price, was looking to spend around £400 if you know someone who works at tesco they can order it for you and you get another 10% off like i did total price was £360

 

[RGuk]

Celerons and Vista dont make for a pleasurable experience Dave, Even relatively normal jobs like opening media player and watching videos would be a little laborious (a guy in work ignored us and now struggles to watch decent bit rate videos on his hp celeron notebook.)
If its outside budget, then possibly wait or maybe buy a refurbished version of something dual core, it will be worth it.

I have INTEL core 2 duo.....

This snippet tells the story. "Fitted with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 chip, which runs at 1.66GHz, this may not be the fastest chip in the range but as it’s dual-core, it’s nibble enough to run most tasks without too much stress. Couple with 1024MB of memory and a 80GB hard drive, you won’t need to upgrade this machine for some time. "

I agree with this review, but NOT on 1 GB RAM.....it turned from Tortoise to Hare overnight once I flipped off the back slot and added another RAM stick.

 

[vig]

All this tech talk baffles me.
I still have pedals and a dynamo to power mine

I will be in the market for a new laptop around June, strangely when my mobile contract is ending. I bet the gits stop doing the packages before then

 

[brendy]

Dave your Dual Core 1.66ghz is grand for a notebook matey, mine is a year and a bit old and is centrino duo 1.83ghz with 3gb ram, vista ultimate is a pleasure to run once you get to 2+gb.
The celeron you posted the link to would be good for students wanting to word process etc, it wouldnt be much of a multimedia flier though.
Tescos are great for laptops at the moment, this time last year Id have run a mile from what they were offering, now they are selling branded decent kit I have directed a couple of friends towards them.

 

[MVP]

From my experience cheap laptops just about live there garauntee life till either ...the graphics chips blow.....or another mother board fault.....because laptop have a lot of intergrated stuff on there motherboard if they break ..your fcuked tbh


double your budget and buy a macbook its worth every penny

 

[Cernunnos]

I got a Pentium Dual Core & it cost me £300 the previous year. Very happy with it. Ironically I've been into the same shop since I got mine & not seen the same high spec since.

 

[TonyN]

I got a toshiba satellite which has 2gb ram 200gb hard drive, dual core intel centrino worth £800 at the time. I paid... £450 from the toshiba shop on the outlet where I work.

I get 10% off everything but mine was a special deal

 

[RGuk]

The celeron you posted the link to would be good for students wanting to word process etc, it wouldnt be much of a multimedia flier though.
Tescos are great for laptops at the moment, this time last year I'd have run a mile from what they were offering, now they are selling branded decent kit I have directed a couple of friends towards them.

Good point.....

Essentialy, a "good" processor and min 2gb RAM are the starting place. Sorry about the link, I 've never had the "pleasure" of using a low end processor.