Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Indigomoon_2

stilltheone wrote: »

They don't make them like this any more

How much RAM is installed?

A clean install and more RAM?

Drivers here. XP disc on request.

I hope you're wrong , but yes, in terms of durability and reliability, it's priceless. unfortunately, the RAM is just 128 mb. to be honest, i've thought of doing what you suggest, but it's just that i don't want to go spending half the money for a new laptop on improving this one and ending up still having an old one. it's been good so far, but you never know when it'll decide to give up.

Lynchoid

"2. The Argos one (listed above) for £350 has a 2 year warranty. I know you don't want to, but 2GB of memory could be added for about £20 (1GB for £11)"





How easy is it to do this? I wouldn't want to tamper with a new computer and would probably take it into a shop for them to fit the extra RAM. How easy is this (ie, how much would I expect to pay a shop to do this?)

Thanks

Lynchoid

stilltheone

Indigomoon wrote: »

I hope you're wrong , but yes, in terms of durability and reliability, it's priceless. unfortunately, the RAM is just 128 mb. to be honest, i've thought of doing what you suggest, but it's just that i don't want to go spending half the money for a new laptop on improving this one and ending up still having an old one. it's been good so far, but you never know when it'll decide to give up.

128MB RAM is ridiculously low. No wonder it is slow!. You surely can't be running Windows XP on that??

Get some more RAM in there. £18.50 for 512MB. That's not "half the money for a new laptop".

You can fit the memory in minutes. No need to go to a shop. There will be a little door on the underside of the laptop. Undo the screws there. You'll see one stick of memory already there. Slot the new module in and clip it into place. Replace the door.
Done in five minutes.
640MB RAM for Windows XP SP3 will bring a noticeable difference.

You could even experiment with Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu in order to bring more life to the machine.

I used a similarly specified laptop until recently. taking the RAM to 640MB made the laptop usable.

grumpycrab

Lynchoid wrote: »

"How easy is it to do this? [add extra RAM]. I wouldn't want to tamper with a new computer and would probably take it into a shop for them to fit the extra RAM. How easy is this (ie, how much would I expect to pay a shop to do this?)

Thanks

Lynchoid

1. Buy laptop
2. run this scanner - will tell you what memory EXACTLY to buy
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/ and buy the memory
3. shutdown laptop and unplug power lead
4. turn it over and remove screw(s) of memory cover
5. add new memory (you shouldn't have to remove existing memory); this is a little tricky but BE PATIENT
6. put cover back on
7. startup and see if new memory has been recognised

5. is easier than you think; just need a little care that you don't have any static on you. e.g. touch an earth point first (kitchen sink tap?)
e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbPaR1Ci-Ug
I don't usually remove the battery - earthing yourself is more important I think.

Indigomoon_2

stilltheone wrote: »

128MB RAM is ridiculously low. No wonder it is slow!. You surely can't be running Windows XP on that??

Get some more RAM in there. £18.50 for 512MB. That's not "half the money for a new laptop".

640MB RAM for Windows XP SP3 will bring a noticeable difference.

You could even experiment with Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu in order to bring more life to the machine.

I used a similarly specified laptop until recently. taking the RAM to 640MB made the laptop usable.

OK i admit it's not 128 but 256 MB (i had forgotten this), i might try what you suggest, if it's just under 20 pound, see how it goes.
When i said half the price of a new one, i didn't mean just the memory. for example, because of the virtually non-existent battery life, it can't be used as a laptop - i.e. moved around, i've had to replace the adaptor a couple of times and that's not too cheap, i can't have wireless on it, because something is an older version, my cd burner is starting to complain and basically, it's probably nearly 10 years old, so i jsut don't know when it'll die on me (hope not too soon). Don't get me wrong, i'm all for getting the max use out of everything you have (my digital camera is 7 years old - still working btw without a single glitch, i have a portable 14'' Tv that's 13 years old, still not had any problems... and so on), but the computer just drives me crazy, and in my experience, when you start putting money into something old, little by little it builds up, till you've spent too much to stop investing in it but you don't really want to ditch it because you've spent too much - i.e. a bit of a vicious circle.
that being said, i still thank you very much for taking the time and effort to suggest alternatives. :T

stilltheone

Indigomoon wrote: »

OK i admit it's not 128 but 256 MB (i had forgotten this), i might try what you suggest, if it's just under 20 pound, see how it goes.
When i said half the price of a new one, i didn't mean just the memory. for example, because of the virtually non-existent battery life, it can't be used as a laptop - i.e. moved around, i've had to replace the adaptor a couple of times and that's not too cheap, i can't have wireless on it, because something is an older version, my cd burner is starting to complain and basically, it's probably nearly 10 years old, so i jsut don't know when it'll die on me (hope not too soon). Don't get me wrong, i'm all for getting the max use out of everything you have (my digital camera is 7 years old - still working btw without a single glitch, i have a portable 14'' Tv that's 13 years old, still not had any problems... and so on), but the computer just drives me crazy, and in my experience, when you start putting money into something old, little by little it builds up, till you've spent too much to stop investing in it but you don't really want to ditch it because you've spent too much - i.e. a bit of a vicious circle.
that being said, i still thank you very much for taking the time and effort to suggest alternatives. :T

256MB is still a bind for XP SP3. I'm sure that would make me angry unless I disabled many Services.

Adaptors are cheap if you know where to look. But you don't need one now anyway.

Wireless is easy. You can get a PCMCIA Card for £6.99 or a USB card for around £5. The former is a neater solution. Either will update your system to make it compatible with current technology.

I wouldn't bother splashing out on a new battery. Would estimate £40 for that.

So around £25 for a more responsive laptop with wireless capability is perhaps not too much to risk.

Only you can decide.

grumpycrab

A bit off topic but here's a quite high-spec Dell (i3-370M processor and a good graphics card), available for 2-day delivery (makes a change from Dell) for £499

AND possible £25 off "ships fast Inspiron" over £349 + 10% Quidco cashback at Dell
Voucher 0$4Q11RJQ06G0F expires 20 Apr 2011
If you go through Quidco the E-value code for this laptop is N00N5326

megaphoenix

ok just to all the naysayers out there, that lynbo tech place is ok
bought this from them

Acer 5552 3 cores amd chip, ati graphics card 4gb ram, 500 hard drive and windows 7, £347
and no I am not advertising for them, just wanted to let you all know what I ended up with,
I went into their shop in the end and talked to them, they were helpful and seemed to know what they were talking about, they are very small and you can tell they havent been there long

cheers
megaphoenix

JDPower

grumpycrab wrote: »

A bit off topic but here's a quite high-spec Dell (i3-370M processor and a good graphics card), available for 2-day delivery (makes a change from Dell) for £499

AND possible £25 off "ships fast Inspiron" over £349 + 10% Quidco cashback at Dell
Voucher 0$4Q11RJQ06G0F expires 20 Apr 2011
If you go through Quidco the E-value code for this laptop is N00N5326

Not like you to forget the links

grumpycrab

grumpycrab wrote: »

A bit off topic but here's a quite high-spec Dell (i3-370M processor and a good graphics card), available for 2-day delivery (makes a change from Dell) for £499

AND possible £25 off "ships fast Inspiron" over £349 + 10% Quidco cashback at Dell
Voucher 0$4Q11RJQ06G0F expires 20 Apr 2011
If you go through Quidco the E-value code for this laptop is N00N5326

JDPower wrote: »

Not like you to forget the links

Whoops... http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&l=en&oc=N00XL510&s=dhs&dgc=AF&cid=5212&lid=122756&acd=e360884683406de9a0bb035c5274bbde