Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

grumpycrab

Spiderpig1 wrote: »

Hi Everyone, my first post so please go easy on me

I've just purchased a Toshiba C650-1KL from PCWB for my girlfriend, I think it is great value for money. £234.99...

Inc or excl VAT?

llandeilo100

ENDS TODAY June 1st 2011 - act quickly!!

Toshiba C660-173 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i3, 250GB, 2GB Memory for only £319.95 less 8% cashback (Quidco/TCB) that's under £295 with free delivery!!

This is with BESTBUY

I ordered mine last night.
i3 processor is the latest range which uses LESS POWER than older cpu's , so you get over 5 hours use on the battery!

Extra RAM you can get for about £15 to take it up to 4GB
Or £28 for 4GB Kingston to give you total of 6GB
(on Amazon or CCL) DDR3 SODIMM 1066MHz / PC3-8500

Okay, only 250GB HDD but you can always plug in a USB Portable Disk Drive for those big movie files.

Oh, one more thing it comes with Windows 7 (64 bit version)!!!!!

I think this current deal is totally unbeatable

Good luck, Steve

grumpycrab

llandeilo100 wrote: »

Toshiba C660-173 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i3, 250GB, 2GB Memory for only £319.95 less 8% cashback (Quidco/TCB) that's under £295 with free delivery!!

This is with BESTBUY...

Good price if cashback works. Also cheap is this Argos refurb (12 months warranty). Should be able to get extension warranty from Toshiba (extra 1 year £25, 2 years £50) @Toshiba.
£244 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-C660-320GB-15-6IN-LAPTOP-/350467403443?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item51997c2eb3

Spend

Ok, I will make this post as detailed as possible, and hopefully some tech savvy moneysaver will have the patience to assist

So I have been looking for a laptop for the following use:

General web browsing, emails, pics, youtube, movies, etc. Nothing too heavy and definitely no care for "gaming". I would like it to be reliable and fast; so minimal crashes, etc and no need to buy a new one next year!

Notebooks are a no-go. Mac also far too expensive and a big pain.

So I have been looking at the following type items. All are from currys website, as I would like to first find the type of laptop I need and then I can start browsing other companies for the best deals. Currys site seems to give a good variety to make the right choice.

HP G56-100SA 15.6" - £280
From the experience of many people I know, HP is unreliable, the fan always makes too much noise/doesnt work very well and wont last

Advent Modena M100 15.6" - £290
Celeron 900 processor. Apparently worthless

Advent Modena M200 15.6" - £300
Comparing with the above, this would be a MUCH better deal?
Bigger hard drive, better processor
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..

Samsung NP-S3510-A01UK 15.6" Dual Core - £300
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..
Smaller memory and hard drive than the Toshiba below (C660-119)

Toshiba Satellite C660-119 15.6" - £300
Celeron T3500 also worthless? No idea..
Does that mean Toshiba is better and more reliable than Samsung above?

Toshiba Satellite L655D-133 15.6" - £350 (was £650 apparently)
Dual-core AMD Athlon™ II X2 P320 processor much better?

Acer Aspire 5742Z - £350
Dual-core Intel® Pentium® P6200 processor any good?
In comparison to the Toshiba above, which is best?

ASUS A52F-EX1240V - £400
Intel® Core™ i3-350M processor - best?
In comparison to others, much better?

At this rate, I will be listing all the laptops on the site...

So in general, if specs are relatively similar etc, which is usually best? ACER, ASUS, TOSHIBA, ADVENT or SAMSUNG? Are any worth paying that little bit extra for? What about Sony for lower range. Approx £450.

So many processors, how do you choose??

Celeron 900
Celeron T3500
Dual-core Celeron T3500 processor (different to the above)
Dual-core AMD Athlon™ II X2 P320
Dual-core Intel® Pentium® P6200
Intel® Core™ i3-350M processor
Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor
AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350

The other problem I am having is that I think 15.6" may be too big for me. And as I mentioned earlier, the netbooks are a no go and too small anyway. So, if it wasnt a matter of price, I would definitely get the medium 13"-14" types.

Dont mind spending a little extra, and giving up a little of the specs. Need to strike the balance right.

The cheapest I can find is:

Sony Vaio VPCEA3M1E/B.CEK 14" - £550 (various colours)
Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor - as discussed above
But I've heard Sonys are rubbish, Vaio in particular, especially the lower range models?
Rubbish battery life and very low reliability?

Toshiba Satellite R630-156 13.3" - £600
Intel® Core™ i3-380M processor
Likely to be more reliable than the Sony above?

Sony Vaio VPCCA1S1E 14" - £650 (various colours)
Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor
Better than the Toshiba above?
worth the extra £100 in comparison to Sony above?

If I wanted to go all out and get this (for heavy use, long life and reliability):

Sony Vaio VPCSB1X9E/s 13.3" - £900
Would I be getting a lot (enough for my money)?
Would I be better off spending that kind of money on a Mac?

I get the feeling no one is going to be fighting to reply to this post! Hope someone can help though...

RussJK

Best deal I've seen so far:
Toshiba C6660 i3 380m, 2gb, 320gb, 15.6", 5hrs battery life) £244
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350467403443&clk_rvr_id=236755411934

It's refurbished by Argos, but comes with a standard 12 month warranty.

This would do the majority of what the majority of people would want it for, and very quickly.

Only significant drawbacks are only two USB ports and no HDMI, but this won't affect the average user. 2gb of memory is the most most people even use.

grumpycrab

RussJK wrote: »

Best deal I've seen so far:
Toshiba C6660 i3 380m, 2gb, 320gb, 15.6", 5hrs battery life) £244
...

I don't mind repeat posts (2 posts up) esp. when its a good deal. Should be able to add a 2 years extra warranty, making about £300.

clankit

I have been using a Fujitsu desktop and laptop computers for nearly ten years, so when my lapyop recently packed up I decided to buy another Fujitsu, I only need a basic laptop for general use so found the AH530 in ASDA for £249, which was cheaper than having my old one repaired.

cantagalo

I've just bought an Advent Quantum Q200 (2GB 13 inch screen) laptop for £200 in PC World.

The snag is that this price includes a 20% discount which is only available for the rest of today. I presume that tomorrow it reverts to £250.

Lakes

Any Laptops with Matte Screens?

All the ones I see in the shops have reflective ones, which I will not use!

Thinking about replacing my old 15" lappy with a dual core machine, HDMI out would be nice to have as well, but not essential.

stilltheone

Pigeonpoo wrote: »

I have a Toshiba L35OD. It is almost three years old and sooo slow. I have run a registry cleaner, C cleaner, defragmenter, disc cleaner and now feel that the above might be the answer......is there any help that can take you through this step by step? I am not very confident at computers.

This is the wrong part of the forum for this post. Create a new thread of your own in the Tech forum proper.
Then all of the replies will be dedicated to you.