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The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt
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THE GREAT ‘Cheapest New Laptop’ HUNT: This week’s Hunt taps MoneySavers’ huge collective research power. While PC prices have plummeted, laptops costs have been static for years, with the consistent low price point regardless of power usually around £800. Finally LCD & other display prices dropping means £500 for a new, decently performing laptop is possible.
To take part click reply
***Boardguide comment***
I have merged a poll started on 18th May 2005 by "fatboyonadiet" with this thread as I thought it would be complementary. Fran
Last edited by MSE Wendy; 17-04-2007 at 6:31 PM..
The Following 19 Users Say Thank You to MSE Martin For This Useful Post:Show me >>
I thought I would start this one of myself. !I have deliberately picked the old high street knee trembler PC World, as I know posting from such a shop (i know, don't spit) will goad all techies into finding a better deal within a millisecond to ensure it isn't the current running.
Not sure if this website will be the cheapest but they are who supply Aldi with all their computer stuff and they now seem to have Laptops etc in their online shop.
www.medion.co.uk (don't know how to do one of those nice links )
They currently have 9 Laptops listed for sale ranging from £399 for a refurbished one - with 1.7Ghz Celeron Processor with windows XP, 20GB hard drive, 256 memory and loads of other stuff
up to the highest priced one for £799 Notebook Intel® Pentium® 4 with 2.6 GHz MD6488 with Microsoft® Windows® XP Home, Intel® Pentium® 4 with 2.6 GHz, 15" TFT XGA Colour Display, 512 MB DDR-RAM, 40 GB hard disk, DVD/CD-RW Combo drive Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce# 4 488 Go with 64MB DDR-RAM along with a few bits of software - Microsoft Works 2003, Cyberlink Power DVD and Nero Burning Rom. If they are anything like the ones Aldi get in I am sure they will be well worth the money. I have no link at all to Aldi or Medion but I do now that Computeractive always reviews Aldi's computers and gives them top marks.
The Following User Says Thank You to blondierowe For This Useful Post:Show me >>
www.computerbargains.co.uk have got an Intel Celeron 1.2GHz laptop, 128MB RAM, 20GB hard disk for £399. Brand new with a year's warranty and Windows XP Home...
Can anyone beat that? I'm thinking of getting one myself!
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to esuhl For This Useful Post:Show me >>
Can't beat the £399 post but I have a rival for Martins laptop.
http://www.laptopsuperstore.co.uk/ seem to have a lot of reasonable new and used laptops for sale. £15 more than Martins laptop gets you a brand new AMD Athlon 1.4GHz with DVD, CD/RW, & 256mb RAM. Not bad, but probably not the best ...
I got a brand new 2.2GHz Compaq EVO N800c with trimmings for half price by going to my local friendly independant tech shop and talking to them. They were able to source it as a factory return. New, boxed and warrantied. It wouldn't have been the cheapest laptop on this discussion (RRP was £2k at the time), but you may just have someone local to you who can do similar deals and get something really cheap - as a return, bankrupt/clearance stock, unsold inventory etc.
Andrew
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to agerrard For This Useful Post:Show me >>
Note that the 399 post doesnt include vat, still cheap though...like everything sometimes its worth paying a little ectra for a better spec..Toshiba have been regarded for some time as one of the better makes for laptops
a) Bit like the 399 one, you get what you pay for:-
PC Chips Desknote A530 Notebook Transmeta 1GigaPro 20GB 128MB CDRW/DVD 14"TFT WLAN/Modem - Our Price £386.27 (£453.87 inc VAT)
B) slightly more but much better spec:-
**Special Purchase** Acer Travelmate 244XE Notebook Celeron 2.6GHz 20GB 256MB CD 14"TFT Windows XP Home
434.03 plus vat (509.99 inc VAT
c) cheapest Toshiba on this site:-
Toshiba Satellite Pro A40 Notebook Celeron 2.6GHz 256MB 30GB DVD 14"TFT Windows XP Home £474.31 +VAT (557.32 inc VAT)
you can getthis at eurpoc for 359 plus vat but its a refurbished one...
- Famous Brand - iGo 3203
- Windows XP Home
- AMD Athlon 1600Mhz Processor
- Notebook 256Mb DDR SDRAM pc266Mhz
- 30Gb IDE notebook hard drive
- 15" TFT screen
- Notebook 1.44Mb internal FDD
- Notebook internal DVD
- CDRW Combo
- Graphics on Board
- Sound on board
- Standard onboard 10-100 RJ45 NIC
- Modem 56K
- Three USB ports
- 0 notebook PCMCIA slots used 2 free
- UK keyboard layout
- 1 DIMM slot used 1 free
- Microsoft Works
if you are looking for refurbished equipment, these guys are pretty good http://www.rdc.co.uk/shops/main.php and they have an "end of line" store for new kit.
I've used them a few times and never had a problem - but beware, there is no warranty or guarantee on a used battery. Better allow around £75-£100 for a new battery, just in case.
Beware refurbished,; they might have a short-lived display..
I don't know how long colour screens last. Monochrome screens don't last long. I've had to chuck out two monochrome laptops, a Palm Pilot and a mobile phone becuse the display conked out and were not repairable.
If anyone knows the life expectancy of colour versus monochrome, please tell all. Ans does anyone know why there are so many refurbished laptops on the market?
I know this is not exactly a money saving tip, but perhaps someone could give us help on the differences between Celeron and Pentium processors?
Celeron are cheaper (most of the tips above are for laptops with this processor) but I've been warned off them by various people. Is it not better just spending a bit more and getting a better Pentium processor?
Dell C400 laptop, for £400 inc Vat. Seems to be loads of parts available across the internet and ebay, one of those laptops they may not have been the best, but is easy to maintain, upgrade, is less than 2kg and is 'portable'.
;D going to kick this discussion back into life
Tiny doing a £499.99(incl vat) brand new with a better spec that pc world INCLS CD REWRITER !
find it at http://www.tiny.com/packages.php?prodid=10752
the spec is
Processor - AMD® Athlon XP1800+M Genuine Mobile Processor
Operating System - Microsoft® Windows XP Home
Memory - 256MB DDR RAM
Hard Disk - 30GB Hard Disk
Optical 1 - CD-Rw Re-Writer / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Display - 15" XGA TFT Screen (1024 x 768)
Graphics - 32MB Integrated Graphics
Modem - 56K V90 Modem
Internet Access - Supanet Internet Access Preloaded
TV Out - TV Out For Large Screen Presentations
Network - 10/100 Ethernet Port For Home Networking
Sound - Built-in Microphone and Twin Speakers
Keyboard etc. - Advanced keyboard and Two Button Track Pad
Ports etc. - 4x USB2.0 Ports, 9 Cell Li-Ion Battery & A/C Charger, PCMCIA
Software 1 - Microsoft® Works Version 7
Software 2 - Microsoft® Office XP - 60 Day Trial
Software 3 - Cyberlink PowerDVD Software Suite
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps. Take care over copyright. Use excerpts and links rather than copying long text. This site asserts copyright on all comments posted on the board.
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps.
The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt
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