Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

OurKev

I picked up a similar sounding Acer model the other day via Ebay from ebuyer with 4MB and 500MB hard drive plus carry bag for £250 delivered.

I'm not sure how the other features compare or how people rate Acer v Dell, but I've had an Acer for 18 months with no problems and was happy to get my friend one too.

grumpycrab

A sub-£350 i3-2410M. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/acer-aspire-5750-i3-2310m-sandy-bridge-4gb-320gb-15-6-for-348-dabs-ebay-outlet/970384
EDIT: sorry the CPU is i3-2310M
EDIT2: It appears that although this laptop is new, Dabs provides the 12 month warranty. Strange.

Its an Acer Aspire so an extra £30 for an extended warranty may be a good idea http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130533991522
EDIT2: Activating the extended warranty may be affected by the fact that Dabs provides the initial 12 months warranty, but I don't really know.

SammySue

Can I ask, do you know if the Acer Aspires still overheat? I have an Acer Aspire 3004WLMi which is over 5 years old. I would love to be able to replace it and am thinking about doing so but am reluctant to purchase another Acer, as this one gets so hot and very quickly too!

grumpycrab

SammySue wrote: »

Can I ask, do you know if the Acer Aspires still overheat? I have an Acer Aspire 3004WLMi which is over 5 years old. I would love to be able to replace it and am thinking about doing so but am reluctant to purchase another Acer, as this one gets so hot and very quickly too!

Don't know but does it switch off or just get hot? Does the fan work? Have you checked inlet and outlet vents for dust (a hoover may unclog obvious dust).

If the fan doesn't work here's a replacement http://www.batterymall.co.uk/acer-aspire-3004wlmi-fan-p-175706.html

You will (probably) get a better response if you ask in the main thread.

Burlesque_Babe

Can I ask for thoughts on this please? We are looking to buy a laptop for a gift this month and the top budget is £250 and it is for a laptop and not a netbook. It is for general internet use, studying (she is doing an NVQ so bog standard Word type packages), uploading photos etc

If it is not seen as worth buying, any 250 or less laptop recommendations would be really useful. We were looking at the Fujitsu at 249 at Asda discussed on HDUK but it isn't available any more.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310328774766

many thanks

SammySue

Thank you Grumpycrab! I was told by local computer shop that the fan couldn't be replaced as it is a sealed unit. No wonder they went out of business! I will investigate further. They may be life lift in my old laptop yet!

grumpycrab

SammySue wrote: »

... I was told by local computer shop that the fan couldn't be replaced as it is a sealed unit...

I just read the instructions - they look a bit horrible! But with a bit of patience will be fine. Backup important data first.
Even if it all goes wrong you will still be able to use the old drive with any new laptop (buy a cheap USB caddy for it).

grumpycrab

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310328774766

A bit slow (not surprisingly). Discussed a little here http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/new-compaq-presario-cq62-220sa-hdmi-laptop-with-free-hp-mouse-buy-uk-outlet-ebay/969946

Keep an eye out for £250 (and below) laptops on Ebay (e.g. Ebuyer, Argos, Dabs) have had good NEW deals recently. But very quiet today (unless I've been looking in the wrong place).

davidshads

grumpycrab wrote: »

A sub-£350 i3-2410M. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/acer-aspire-5750-i3-2310m-sandy-bridge-4gb-320gb-15-6-for-348-dabs-ebay-outlet/970384

Its an Acer Aspire so an extra £30 for an extended warranty may be a good idea http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130533991522

I've been looking for something like this,the one I have been looking at have a clock speed of 2.53 (Acer5742) and this one is 2.1 will there be much of a difference?
Would this be a better buy?

grumpycrab

davidshads wrote: »

I've been looking for something like this,the one I have been looking at have a clock speed of 2.53 (Acer5742) and this one is 2.1 will there be much of a difference?
Would this be a better buy?

First I assume the Acer5742 @2.53 is the i3-380M. Do you have a link?
If so, IN THEORY the benchmarks are 2609 (for the i3-2310M NOT i3-2410 I quoted above) and 2310 respectively. So the i3-2310M (newer CPU) is 13% faster. In reality you proably wont see any difference.
Really need to compare other features but the i3-2310M at less than £350 looks good to me. (But I'd still get the extra warranty, despite the Sale of Goods Act covering for a similar - if not longer - time period.)