Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Millionaire

grumpycrab wrote: »

Good timing - here's your i5 laptop - a snip at £350 (ensure you understand the cashback arrangements FIRST).

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e520-core-i5-2410m-4gb-500gb-15-6-windows-7-pro-64-348-98-after-1090313

EDIT: To check cashback details serach for NZ33LUK here -> https://www.lenovo-promotions.com/notebook

EDIT2: 4% off with Qudico too. http://www.quidco.com/dabs-com/?ac

Flippin heck! Good find there Grumpy.

carpool72

Hi,
I was moaning about the slowness of my laptop and OH, to my surprise, said to go look for a new one. Help - where to start!

I currently have an HP compaq 6120 with a 1.68ghz pentium processor and 504mb ram. I do the admin for my husband's business and my own teaching, so I usually have several excel or word documents open, as well as my email and several web pages. I don't play games, but am interested in being able to stream tv/film onto my big tv, and I have a lot of files saved for work as well as photos & music. I don't want to have to upgrade again any time soon, so what sort of thing should I be looking at?

Also, since I use excel & word a lot, do I need windows 7 home or pro?
Thank you!
C

TakeThis

carpool72 wrote: »

Hi,
I was moaning about the slowness of my laptop and OH, to my surprise, said to go look for a new one. Help - where to start!

I currently have an HP compaq 6120 with a 1.68ghz pentium processor and 504mb ram. I do the admin for my husband's business and my own teaching, so I usually have several excel or word documents open, as well as my email and several web pages. I don't play games, but am interested in being able to stream tv/film onto my big tv, and I have a lot of files saved for work as well as photos & music. I don't want to have to upgrade again any time soon, so what sort of thing should I be looking at?

Also, since I use excel & word a lot, do I need windows 7 home or pro?
Thank you!
C

Add some RAM for goodness sakes. Don't tell your husband though or he'll veto the new one.

Doesn't make a difference as far as those programs are concerned.

plodder73

I want to get a new laptop for my OH for crimbo. To be used 90% time for the internet and a bit of office work. Does it matter what processor it has for that purpose will a better one speed up internet access.?

Currently looking at The fujitsu one at Dabs for £279, the HP one at Dabs for about £290 or a Sony at Comet for £349http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sony-15-5-laptop-pentium-b940-4gb-memory-320gb-disk-349-99-comet-1089563

the look of the laptop will also be important to her as well!!

Any advice please, my current thoughts are towards the Fujitsu, the HP looks a little bulky.

Thanks in advance

carpool72

TakeThis wrote: »

Add some RAM for goodness sakes. Don't tell your husband though or he'll veto the new one.

Doesn't make a difference as far as those programs are concerned.

So if I just add some RAM it should be able to cope with multi-tasking several programs at once? For example, just now I have 2 word docs & an excel open which I'm flitting between, plus sending several emails in between keeping an eye on MSE, facebook & yahoo...
It is tempting to keep the same laptop as I wouldn't have to mess about migrating my emails, though on the other hand I quite fancy a larger screen for my spreadsheets and the whizziness of windows 7 instead of xp.

nicka99

yes, thats what ram does - its the memory in which the programs reside whilst running. the more programs you have the more memory you need to work. if there isnt enough, system will run sloooow. other components of course play a part but increasing ram is a very quick and cheap way of bringing an ageing machine back to life again.
check http://www.crucial.com/uk as a good place to buy memory as it should tell you what to buy and how much your machine can take.

TakeThis

nicka99 wrote: »

yes, thats what ram does - its the memory in which the programs reside whilst running. the more programs you have the more memory you need to work. if there isnt enough, system will run sloooow. other components of course play a part but increasing ram is a very quick and cheap way of bringing an ageing machine back to life again.
check http://www.crucial.com/uk as a good place to buy memory as it should tell you what to buy and how much your machine can take.

No need, as I have already linked her to suitable RAM. Crucial's prices are 50% more.

grumpycrab

plodder73 wrote: »

I want to get a new laptop for my OH for crimbo. To be used 90% time for the internet and a bit of office work. Does it matter what processor it has for that purpose will a better one speed up internet access.?

A better one will speed up loading office docs and handle multiple web pages better. The £290 i3-370M is good value.

plodder73 wrote: »

the look of the laptop will also be important to her as well!!

Probably best to take her to PCWorld/Comet etc to have a look.

AirCooledHeaven

HP 630 i3 370m, 4GB, 500GB, 3 year warranty, HP carry case, £346 after 50 quid cashback

Not the highest spec for the price but the 3 year warranty makes it a very good deal imho

http://www.technoworld.com/HP_630_A1F78ES/62198/product.aspx

jazabelle

I'm looking at an Asus K53E laptop (£398 + free delivery). The cheapest I've found is on eBuyer, but they seem to have bad reviews. Tesco has it for £319 plus £5 delivery.

Has anyone had to use eBuyer to report problems, etc?