Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

shell820810

I am looking to get a laptop for everyday use, iTunes, browsing, some office documents etc. download and watch films (500gb min hard drive) had a bad experience with dell so want to avoid them (laptop packed in after 15 months, independent repairer said it wasn't worth fixing, dell didn't want to know)
There wont be any graphic heavy gaming-hubby already has one for this.

Seen a few mentioned on hotdeals and wanted a few opinions on vfm. Budget is £350 max but would prefer closer to £300. Want it to last a while so would like to be able to future proof it a bit.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=330715795133&index=1&nav=SEARCH&nid=05544388160

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=220977705632

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=350547752857

Other recommendations or suggestions more than welcome! Also, am I better going for a higher spec refurb or a lower spec brand new?

m5rcc

Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop – Pentium Dual Core, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Free AntiVirus - £273.99 delivered @ Dell

m5rcc

MSI CR640 Intel Core i5 2.3Ghz, 4Gb RAM, 500GB HD - £346 - 2 left!!

m5rcc

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-2F8 Laptop, Intel Core i3 Sandybridge 2330 2.2GHz, 6GB RAM, 640GB HD - £350

TakeThis

beefster wrote: »

You make it sound so easy....
I would not know where to start unfortunatly.

Changing the hard drive seems a logical solution. May have to get someone to do for me tho. Does cloningthe hard drive mean copying it to a remote drive, change the hard drive and paste it back... in simple terms?

how much would a hard drive upgrade cost me? may as well go for the windows 7 upgrade too i suppose.

Ta very much

Changing the hard drive is as easy as pie. Reverse Cloning may seem complicated, but it isn't.

Factory Restore on page 24 and changing the HDD on page 28

Upgrading HDD info

Example HDD(though check that it has an option to make it compatible with SATA 2. Just drop a line to the seller to check.)

If she is ok with Vista, perhaps stick with that for the time being. Reverse Clone the disc and then run a Factory Restore on it.

Will give some more help if/when you need it. Pushed for time now.

rothchick

I've gone for an Asus...thanks TT - I love it!!!

Got this but a bit cheaper

http://www.simplyasus.com/ASUS_K53E-SX962V_1120763.html

grumpycrab

Acer Aspire 5733 Core i3-370M 5GB 500GB 15.6" DVDRW £299.99 Delivered @ Expansys
http://www.expansys.com/acer-aspire-5733-core-i3-370m-5gb-500gb-15-6-dvdrw-w7hp-64-bit-227682/

beefster

TakeThis wrote: »

Changing the hard drive is as easy as pie. Reverse Cloning may seem complicated, but it isn't.

Factory Restore on page 24 and changing the HDD on page 28

Upgrading HDD info

Example HDD(though check that it has an option to make it compatible with SATA 2. Just drop a line to the seller to check.)

If she is ok with Vista, perhaps stick with that for the time being. Reverse Clone the disc and then run a Factory Restore on it.

Will give some more help if/when you need it. Pushed for time now.

Thanks TT,
She has been revising for her mock exams so not been able to get hold of the lappy so far. Will take a look.

Saw these too.... £335 and £306!

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/toshiba-satellite-pro-c660-21d-i3-370m-6gb-500gb-15-6--dvd-sm-w7hp-7RBS.html

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/asus-x54h-so180v-15-6-b800-4gb-500gb-w7hp-7YCP.html?src=2

Though needs a windows 7 key to activate it.

TakeThis

beefster wrote: »

Thanks TT,
She has been revising for her mock exams so not been able to get hold of the lappy so far. Will take a look.

Saw these too.... £335 and £306!

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/toshiba-satellite-pro-c660-21d-i3-370m-6gb-500gb-15-6--dvd-sm-w7hp-7RBS.html

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/asus-x54h-so180v-15-6-b800-4gb-500gb-w7hp-7YCP.html?src=2

Though needs a windows 7 key to activate it.

Neither have anything about which to write home. Not sure that I understand your end statement.

m5rcc

Dell Inspiron N5110 Core i3 2350m, 4GB RAM 500GB HD - £280