New laptop suggestions please

grumpycrab wrote: »

I wouldn't spend any money on the C855. If you are considering a £500 spend I'd get one with an SSD (256GB rather than 128GB).
e.g. Argos Acer (not a great fan of acer myself) but reasonable spec
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6555755.htm

Please let me talk in more general thing. This is a great money saving site, so I rather want to make a different approach.

This Acer Aspire is the more or less the same spec as Toshiba C855. (Well the former has a slightly better CPU) The difference? This Acer has a superfast SSD.

As I explained before, CPU cost/performance is more or less flat in last 5-7 years, this is a typical case.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=72351323#post72351323

If you would replace a hard disk with an SSD, you can add (save) £300 to the existing computer in this case as you don’t have to buy a new one.

Acer red Aspire SSD model : £379.99 – 1 year warranty
A Brand new 250/256GB SSD £80 - 3 years warranty. + Toshiba C855 = more or less the same performance with Acer Aspire SSD

I know the most of you don’t bother; you don’t want to learn a simple computer basic, (Then I would say you are ripping off target NO1 :j) So dumping your computer every a couple of years, buying, buying, buying, dumping, dumping, dumping. I am not really happy about this IT disposable business.

It seems that mobile phone culture takes over computer as well. But unlike mobile phone, computer is actually part-upgradable. As explained, your CPU is already powerful enough, just get an SSD. Save your wallet as well as this planet. (less eWaste)

I don’t talk about this specific case, this Toshiba C855 might be badly maintained physically. Please take care of your computers with a lot of love :A!

Thank you for listening :beer:

Happy SSD computing:)

Looking at your requirements do you really want to spend that much? I was in a similar position a couple of years ago and plumped for a second user Dell Latitude with an i5 processor for £175, it has proved a very good buy.

Sots80 wrote: »

Many thanks for the later replies.

We've held fire for the minute as our circumstances have changed slightly. I did however replace the keyboard and battery of the Toshiba for the grand sum of £20 whilst we decide what our laptop needs are. Whilst it's flaky, we can make do for the time being and at least i don't have to use the on screen keyboard anymore ��However, thanks to earlier replies I do have a list of places to check when ready whilst giving PCWORLD a wide berth!
Thanks again

Wow, Good move ! As a next step, I really encourage to install an SSD. Believe me, I actually installed an SSD to the same notebook. The user was about to dump this notebook, as it took nearly 5 min to start Windows, unbearably slow…


After I installed an SSD, I have done usual cleaning up work in 10 min, (CCLeaner, malwarebytes etc) This notebook became faster than a brand new computer.

The one of the most demanding operation at home use may be video streaming. Thanks to SSD, this notebook should be able to perform 1080HD video streaming very comfortably. (Actually 720HD is fine for this notebook)

Edit:
(video link edit as original video link was dead)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8zLJlU_-60

Edit ends:

Let's test your notebook Select 720HD. You should be able to watch he beautiful video streaming with your notebook. If not, you don't get the optimal performance. Again a brand new computer would work fine after purchase, but getting slower as you have experienced now.






Solutions? Get an SSD. Then you will have got some basic understanding on computing and you are able to use your computer more confidently. You would take care of it and love it more. Then now it is time to enjoy computer finally!

Happy computing