Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Craftyscholar

Sport_Billy wrote: »

Packard Bell is one of the cheaper value budget brands which is actually owned by Acer. It has nothing to do with the more established Hewlett Packard brand, although I reckon some people mistakenly make this association.

If you are mainly word processing and want something very light, then it might be an idea to try out the different keyboards of netbooks in your local PC World, Currys, etc as the keyboard quality might make a difference. But a 1GB RAM Windows 7 Starter netbook should suffice for word processing. MS Word might be more of a memory hog (so perhaps check this out when you visit the shops too), but OpenOffice works OK on this set up.

As for netbook deals, the similarly spec'd MSI Wind U135 from Argos at £179 looks like a very good deal. The Argos spec on the website is wrong since the U135 has faster b/g/N wifi rather than just b/g wifi, according to reviews I've just googled like this PCAdvisor U135 review and this Pocket-Lint U135 review (there are other good reviews if you google them too).

Thanks for the advice, Sport Billy and for taking the time to find the reviews.
If I had come across that one I would probably have dismissed it because I didn't recognise the brand name and assumed it was too cheap to be worth considering

JDPower

Sport_Billy wrote: »

I'd go for the 3GB memory. Generally, having more memory should mean that the laptop runs faster. Having a larger hard disk wont normally make the laptop run faster.

Not strictly speaking true. Assuming both were the same speed drives a larger HD will have slightly faster disk read due to the greater data density

grumpycrab

Toshiba Satelite C660D-124, AMD P340 CPU, 250GB HD, 4GB RAM £304.99 @ Zavvi ebay outlet
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290524738066

Processor is dual core running at 2.2GHz. Dedicated ATI Radeon HD 4250 Graphics.
New. 1 year warranty.

Sport_Billy

JDPower wrote: »

Not strictly speaking true. Assuming both were the same speed drives a larger HD will have slightly faster disk read due to the greater data density

So with all other things being equal which machine do you think will offer the better general performance?

1. 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD

or

2. 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD

Personally, I'd go for the extra RAM configuration.

JDPower

Sport_Billy wrote: »

So with all other things being equal which machine do you think will offer the better general performance?

1. 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD

or

2. 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD

Personally, I'd go for the extra RAM configuration.

Based on just those two spec factors, I'd go for the latter and upgrade the 2gb RAM to 4gb myself, but thats just me

Sport_Billy

Good answer!

But with all other things being equal, and upgrade not being an option within the budget, which machine do you think will offer the better general performance, as is, out of the box from day one?

1. 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD

or

2. 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD

grumpycrab

Intel Core i3 -370m (2.4GHz) 2GB/250GB 15.6" Laptop £330 @ Sainsburys
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/technology/computing/laptops_and_netbooks/120987532_emachines_e732z_eme732372g25mnkk_core_i3_2gb250gb_156_laptop.html

MyRubyRed

Guys, Ive been out today looking for a laptop for my daughter who is at Uni. I am totally lost as to what is good/bad and also not too sure about the sales pitch in Cuury's and PCWorld who told me I would need to buy Office 2010 as Office 2003 won't run on Windows 7. I have a budget of around £350-400. Can any one advise please. Would like the best I can get for the money (webcam, wireless, dvd reader/burner, plenty of storage for her music and photos, and of course the ability to load Office 2003 (which I have). Saw a refurbished Acer in my local Argos Clearance shop for £299, which seemed very good but no nowt about the make or spec.

emc

MyRubyRed wrote: »

Guys, Ive been out today looking for a laptop for my daughter who is at Uni. I am totally lost as to what is good/bad and also not too sure about the sales pitch in Cuury's and PCWorld who told me I would need to buy Office 2010 as Office 2003 won't run on Windows 7.

Regarding the Office version, Currys/PC World are telling you porkies. Office 2003 does run on Windows 7, so if your current Office 2003 has a multi-user licence, or if you plan to transfer the licence from the old pc, you should be able to run your Office 2003 on the new laptop with Windows 7.

Microsoft provide compatibility packs that allow Office 2003 to handle the new file formats in Office 2007/2010.

However, if your daughter does need a new Office licence, you would buy the current Office 2010. Check whether a cheap deal is available through the university, or by an academic licence such as the £38.95 deal for Office 2010 Professional Plus from software4students .co.uk. Do not buy the inferior Office Home and Student 2010 version from Currys at a higher price of £80.99.

InDebted2U_2

Sport_Billy wrote: »

Good answer!

But with all other things being equal, and upgrade not being an option within the budget, which machine do you think will offer the better general performance, as is, out of the box from day one?

1. 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD

or

2. 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD

3Gb RAM will give you better performance 'out of the box' but I would go for the one with the bigger hard-drive as it's easier to upgrade the RAM later when you need to, whereas running out of HD space is a pain and will require a 2nd/replacement drive.