Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

grumpycrab

donny-gal wrote: »

...look at Dixons, at the moment until tomorrow there is a voucher for 10% off laptops + the normal 3% via Quidco. DG

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/computing-14-u.html?utm_campaign=HomePage&utm_medium=Display&utm_source=Internal&utm_content=8percentoff&utm_term=slider?srcid=198&!!!!!SEC-152-GOO&mc!!!!!gg_goog_7904&gclid=CNvq3KLxgKgCFUdP4QodZDFArQ&srcid=369&xtor=AL-63

donny-gal

At the time I was considering this one. But now have ordered more memory and larger hdd for my existing. Hope it does the trick for me.
DG

attemptedangel

Any advice? my laptop has finally died and need to replace it. I mainly just surf the net, I do a little bit of online admin too (so a numerical keypad is important). I have been looking at these 2 but to be honest have no idea what the difference is between them in real terms:
Acer Aspire 5742Z and acer aspire 5736.
(sorry, was going to put links but as a new user it won't let me)
can anyone offer some advice?

thanks

JDPower

megaphoenix wrote: »

I can't post links yet either, but finding the cheapest prices got me to...

You seem a little keen to recommend a company you've never heard of. It seems to be a brand new site so I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone at the moment without a large dose of caution.

megaphoenix

not too keen??, they are near where I live, and came up cheap thats all
I have had laptops from plenty of places before Novatech are great.
maybe I will try them out and let you know, just haven't decided which laptop I want yet

attemptedangel

thanks for that, but i'm more looking for someone who can tell me which one is better in real terms as they are around the same price:

5736 :

ProcessorIntel® Pentium® Processor T4500
- 2.3 GHz
- 800 MHz FSB
- 1 MB L2 CacheOperating System<A class=ms-tooltip 64-bitRAM- 3 GB RAM
- DDR3Graphics cardIntel® HD Graphics
- 128 MB of dedicated system memory
- Supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 10

5742z:
ProcessorIntel® Pentium® P6100 Dual Core (2.0 GHz, 3MB Cache)Screen15.6" (Acer CineCrystal, 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit)Operating SystemWindows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bitRAM3GBHard Drive250GBOptical DriveDVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)GraphicsIntegrated (Intel® GMA X4500 3D Graphics with up to 384MB Shared Memory)
ProcessorIntel® Pentium® P6100 Dual Core (2.0 GHz, 3MB Cache)Screen15.6" (Acer CineCrystal, 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit)Operating SystemWindows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bitRAM3GBHard Drive250GBOptical DriveDVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)GraphicsIntegrated (Intel® GMA X4500 3D Graphics with up to 384MB Shared Memory)
ProcessorIntel® Pentium® P6100 Dual Core (2.0 GHz, 3MB Cache)Screen15.6" (Acer CineCrystal, 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit)Operating SystemWindows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bitRAM3GBHard Drive250GBOptical DriveDVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)GraphicsIntegrated (Intel® GMA X4500 3D Graphics with up to 384MB Shared Memory)
General InformationProcessorIntel® Pentium® Processor P6200
- 2.13 GHz
- 2.5 GT/s
- 3 MB L3 Cache
- Dual-coreOperating System<A class=ms-tooltip
64-bitRAM- 3GB installed DDR3 RAM (1066 MHz)Graphics cardIntel® HD Graphics

grumpycrab

Your Acers(above) look similar, so pick the one with best CPU. The 5736 CPU (T4500) has a benchmark score of 1563 (higher is better) and the P6100 score is 1525 (P6200 is 1672).

You should be able to get these laptops for no more than £300 which , I guess, is your budget. £350 will get you a faster CPU -> http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42386572&postcount=1359
OR this one for £300 (P6100) has a big disk which is nice -> http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/product/id/1006553

EDIT: I didn't check for numerical keypads.

attemptedangel

thanks grumpycrab, just the sort of advice i was looking for! the lenovo one looks like a very good buy

megaphoenix

looking for numeric keypads myself I found that Acer and Toshiba have them on their cheap laptops, other makes are hit and miss on the keypad.
Packard bell do some really stylish looking laptops that have keypads too.

lilaclisa

Hi, just joined to ask for some advice. Been visiting for ages but never joined up ^^;

I've got a ASUS X51RL laptop and I'm looking to handing this to my OH and getting myself a new laptop.

I'm happy to go up to £450. I'm completely confused as to all these different things that come with laptops now;

Somebody recommended the Sony VPC-EE3J0E (on bestbuy) to me recently for £399.99

Can anybody help me know if this is the best laptop I can get for my money? What about the Toshiba Satellite Pro series, or other ASUS laptops? (such as the ASUS X61S-1EJX (on saveonlaptops)?) Are there any others I should consider to get the best for my money?

I know both the Sony and ASUS have the same price, but different processors, graphics cards - which are better?

I need it for basic office, long usage on the internet, and games such as the Sims 3 comfortably. Preferably around 15". Please let me know if I need to make my own board?