Laptop recommendations

[PhilTheFragger]

Phil, I paid just over 100 quid for the 128gb Crucial M4 SSD drive (which is Sata3 compatible for future upgrades). This is plenty for 99% of people as you really shouldnt be keeping much else on there other than the operating system, few programs and documents, images and documents should really be backed up onto a removable drive.

For those who love numbers, the windows experience for my Dell Vostro 1720, p8700 (Core 2 Duo 2.53ghz x 2), 4gb ram, Nvidia geforce 9600m GS and crucual M4 128 Sata 6gb/s SSD drive.

For the record though, most laptop "makes" are not actually made by that company. in fact Dell, HP and Apple are all made by the same company in Taiwan.

Wow Brendy

Normal hard drives come out at 5.9 so getting that score is phenominal

Ill still wait as a typical laptop user will have 15Gb for windows, 5 GB programs a shedload of Itunes and pictures and a few GB of Iplayer programs
So 128 GB still doesnt go very far

When they start doing 250GB+ at the current 128Gb price point, thats when it becomes viable for people to pay to have it done

Fragger

 

[brendy]

I agree they are still twice as expensive as they should be but that will settle down with time. In my 17 or so years in IT I have owned WD raptors, F1's, raided serial satas etc and none of them made such a dramatic difference to the all round response of an SSD drive. Opening programs now is a joy, paintshop etc opens immediately, on some programs it is the splash screen delay which actually slows it down, remove the splash screens and they sprint! I wonder how a pair of these striped would fair on a 6gb/s sata 3 rig...

As for disk usage, I have windows7, office2007,crystal reports 2008, some docs, images and usual plugins, AV, itunes, 5gb worth of paging and hibernation files etc and still have 82gb left to play with. Now, my home pc has almost maxxed out the 500gb main drive, I have a second running as a backup though, As you well know, there is nothing like having a backup!

 

[RGDave]

That's an impressive score brendy....not messing around with that kind of kit!

I checked mine and they're all pretty high (although not as high as yours) except I get a pathetic 3.8 or something for the Desktop Performance for Windows aero. The reason is that I bought an entry-level GPU/card with HDMI output (for 26" TV) to run as a 2nd monitor. I don't actually need anything more than on-board capability. I am surprised it gets such a rubbish score though.....

I am right in thinking I don't need anything more? Shame about the baseline score though.

It's a cracking machine even on 32-bit pro.

 

[brendy]

Unless you are to change your reasons for usage, no,its perfect the way it is.
I bought this laptop for 421 (plus the 15% vat at the time) through the Dell outlet, added the SSD drive and it is good for at least another 3 years high performance (its over a year old already) then when I change, the drive will be going into the new setup unless something radically faster comes along again but I dont think anything is planned.

 

[Scouser]

One word..... Sony......expensive but love the build quality p

 

[Aztecs27]

Yes, but surely the question is if you're going to buy a laptop for 3-5 years use, do you want it to cost you £500 or £1,000.

Or the question is, why buy one that's only going to last 5 years? I've had my macbook nearly 6 and in that time I've spent the princely sum of £50 on it. £20 upgrading the OS and £30 to add a bit more memory (which it didn't need, but I'm impatient and used GarageBand a lot for music recording); With no signs of slowing down. Plus it was the top spec MacBook at the time and cost around £850 - yes, still more than £500, but considerably less than £1000 and a decent investment when it still works as good as it did (actually better with the upgraded memory) than the day I bought it.

The only reason I would get rid of this would be for a bigger hard drive (which I can actually upgrade this one for less than £50 if I wanted) and the shiny titanium casing of the MacBook Pro.

I don't want to turn this into a Mac's are better than PC's debate. but I've never had a laptop that's lasted more than a couple of years without dying or something going wrong. And I'm a competent computer user and have built/repaired PC's in the past, so I know the precautions to take. Even the battery (still original) still charges well and I get around 4 hours (light use, web browsing etc) out of a charge or a couple to three hours if I'm watching video.

 

[RichardC]

Or the question is, why buy one that's only going to last 5 years? I've had my macbook nearly 6 and in that time I've spent the princely sum of £50 on it. £20 upgrading the OS and £30 to add a bit more memory (which it didn't need, but I'm impatient and used GarageBand a lot for music recording); With no signs of slowing down. Plus it was the top spec MacBook at the time and cost around £850 - yes, still more than £500, but considerably less than £1000 and a decent investment when it still works as good as it did (actually better with the upgraded memory) than the day I bought it.

The only reason I would get rid of this would be for a bigger hard drive (which I can actually upgrade this one for less than £50 if I wanted) and the shiny titanium casing of the MacBook Pro.

I don't want to turn this into a Mac's are better than PC's debate. but I've never had a laptop that's lasted more than a couple of years without dying or something going wrong. And I'm a competent computer user and have built/repaired PC's in the past, so I know the precautions to take. Even the battery (still original) still charges well and I get around 4 hours (light use, web browsing etc) out of a charge or a couple to three hours if I'm watching video.

Could not agree more.

My Macbook Pro is the best laptop I have ever owned, and when I do finally decide to upgrade it will certainly be another Macbook.

 

[Whee]

Have to agree with the Mac boys.

I bought an Acer, it last 18 months. I bought a Samsung, it lasted a year before I wanted to put it through the window. HID spent lots on a Vaio and wants to kill it.

I bought a Mac 2 years ago and it's as quick now as it was when I pulled it out of the box.

 

[Mark_G]

OOOOH Macbook, I feel uneasy just thinking about one lol, how much compatabilty issues do you have if you swap files from Mac to PC?

 

[Ethan]

OOOOH Macbook, I feel uneasy just thinking about one lol, how much compatabilty issues do you have if you swap files from Mac to PC?

Somewhere between very little and none. I use a PC at work and a Mac at home and switch files between one and the other every day. My wife switched from her Sony Vaio to an iMac and took to it very easily.

On the specifics, internet, email and all that stuff is no bother at all.

Microsoft Office for Mac is available and is considered by many Microsoft people to be a better version than the PC version. But you don't even need that. iWork, the Apple business suite will import Office documents, work on them and re-export them as Office. Occasionally an obscure font will not be available, but that is very rare.

If you want a computer that works well and is pretty safe, a Mac is a great choice.

 

[Mark_G]

Just checked the website and it appears to me that a Macbook is approx twice the price of a comparable laptop, £2000 for a 17 inch is ridiculous. I cant afford one.

 

[RGDave]

Just checked the website and it appears to me that a Macbook is approx twice the price of a comparable laptop, £2000 for a 17 inch is ridiculous. I cant afford one.

Well, there we have it.

A Macbook is like the Mercedes Benz S Class of laptops. If you can afford one, great, otherwise just pop down your local Ford dealership.

I get to mess around on something silly like 8 computers regularly over the course of a month or so, and I really don't care which is which or what OS, I don't even care that much about the speed of the thing as long as it works reasonably well. Most people who have Macs rate them and clearly there are elements to them that are far superior to some windows PCs, but ultimately, it's just a consumer item like a Fridge or TV.

When the upfront costs outweigh the sense or the gain, it's simply not worth it. Everyone I know who has apple stuff at home (as in, has bought personally) can afford to buy a £1,000 laptop every 6 months without it really hurting. As for me, I'm making my £499 laptop eek out to 5 years and will replace it with another one.

Only about 4 months to go, but planning (and saving) already.

 

[Mark_G]

Same here Dave, I am having to reload a ghost image of my hard disc every few days due to a seemingly impossible to diagnose fault has set in.