New Laptop Recommendations asap please

AndyD_OHD

HI All,

I bought a laptop from Dell at the end of March and had issue after issue, and asked for my money back a number of times, with that request being ignored. They have now agreed to give me my money back so I wondered whether anyone had any recommendations of laptop to replace a Latitude D830? Max spend is £700 to £800.

Cheers
Andy

isofa

Rough Spec?

For a lot less, the Samsung R700 is a good laptop £560 inc vat from www.LaptopsDirect.co.uk

It's 1 .66 Core 2 Duo T5450 2GB/250GB with a 17" screen, got a rave review in this months PC Pro (Sept 2008 issue).

The Q70 is also very good, but £890 a bit over your budget.

AndyD_OHD

After a decent HDD although I usually store most things backed up to external HDD.
Thinking of Core 2 Duo, quite a decent speed too so that I can do some web design work on it.... can't find the exact specs of this machine at the moment, but will post them later... Is it worthwhile asking if XP is possible these days? That was the real reason I went to Dell, but I have been put off them by this machine.
Specs of machine going back to Dell:

D830 Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/4MB/800MHz)
1.0GB, 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
80GB SATA 5400rpm HD
8x DVD+/-RW
Core 2 Duo Intel 4965AGN Wireless Card

AndyD_OHD

I went to laptopsdirect and enquired into downgrading from Vista to XP, and was told it would cost an additional £139....

Marty_J

Have you considered a MacBook?

£699 will get you the basic model with 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 GB of RAM and a 120 GB HDD. It has no DVD writer though.

£829 will get you the 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model with 2 GB of RAM, an 160 GB HDD, and a x8 speed DVD writer.

You can often get them quite a bit cheaper buying a refurbished model from Apple.

AndyD_OHD

Looks like Dell have now given the option to have my money back or a replacement laptop of same specs... I am seriously considering the replacement laptop.... oh decisions, decisions....

johng_uk

AndyD_OHD wrote: »

HI All,

I bought a laptop from Dell at the end of March and had issue after issue, and asked for my money back a number of times, with that request being ignored. They have now agreed to give me my money back so I wondered whether anyone had any recommendations of laptop to replace a Latitude D830? Max spend is £700 to £800.

Cheers
Andy

Would you be looking to play games on it at all Andy?

I only ask because this factor would change which laptops you are looking at considerably. You could find a decent spec machine for your money, but it would depend on whether or not you need a decent graphics card installed. Also, does the machine HAVE to be a laptop as you could get a better spec desktop system for the equivelant price.

AndyD_OHD

I'm looking to do web design and some other graphics stuff on it. I haven't ever used Macs so I generally stay clear of those.
I think I'll see whether Dell will honour their offer to replace this present machine..

johng_uk

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1720?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=PEGASUS%20710

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/

I would shop around very carefully Andy. And I wouldn't just get a replacement from Dell. You can get a better system for your money and so may as well upgrade yourself for free!

The above are just a couple of links I found. I have had 3 laptops from Rock Direct and find them fantastic. The systems are great, customer services really friendly and you get a 3 year collect and return warranty as standard.

As I say, have a browse around mate, and find something better than what you had originally - You can't beat a 'free' upgrade!

Marty_J

AndyD_OHD wrote: »

I'm looking to do web design and some other graphics stuff on it. I haven't ever used Macs so I generally stay clear of those.
I think I'll see whether Dell will honour their offer to replace this present machine..

Every professional web and graphics designer I've ever met (and I've met quite a few) uses a Mac.

Presumably once you had never used XP either.