Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

starM

Hi,

I have been looking for a touchscreen laptop. Seen couple of them so far:-

Dell Inspiron 15R - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15r-5521/pd?oc=n0055126&id=db918909-e6b0-4bdd-8756-7455bf331c17&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1 - £431 which includes 10% off laptops code taken from TCB

Acer V5-571P Silver - http://www.debenhamsplus.com/DE_Acer_Notebook_10074983/version.asp - £504 - Abit expensive but I have £150 worth of gift cards which I can use.

What you think or any other good once?

Thanks

Kernel_Sanders

Somebody spotted this Packard Bell for a possible £202.95 including delivery and put it on a new thread over 24 hours ago, but nobody has replied.
http://www.itproportal.com/2013/03/07/200-packard-bell-easy-note-ts-laptop-best-value-money-laptop-market/
It looks amazing value, but are this company's refurbishments up to the standards that Nifty Digits cites for Argus? I don't see an exact model number, so can't find out the battery life. Features include an AMD A4-3300M processor, 'a model has two cores'(sic) clocked at 1.9GHz (turbo boosted to 2.5GHz), comes with a Radeon HD 6480G GPU and has 2MB of L2 cache and Windows 7 Home Premium. There’s also three USB ports (including a USB 3.0 one), a webcam, 4GB of RAM, a 750GB hard disk drive, a DVD writer and a 15.6in 1,366 x 768 pixels display.
I'm attracted by the fact that Visa is accepted, so it shouldn't matter much if the '20 per cent across the site' is a prelude to administration.
Would anybody care to comment on the merits of this machine?

bob_a_builder

It is sub £350 - not sure if really it counts as powerful but looks quite good value with the cashback offer

£239 with cash back ( offer until April )

http://www.ebuyer.com/419456-acer-aspire-v5-thin-and-light-nx-m18ek-003

chicaloca

hi everyone

looking for a bit of help, sorry if this has been asked previously in the thread but havent looked back at all the old answers. i really need a new laptop as my current one has a keyboard that doesnt work (i have to plug in one to use it) and overheads causing it to crash at random. anyway cant really afford to buy one outright so was wondering if anyone could give me any suggestions of any reasonable payment plans? i really dont like the idea of buying something on credit but just cant afford to buy a new one outright just now

NiftyDigits

chicaloca wrote: »

hi everyone

looking for a bit of help, sorry if this has been asked previously in the thread but havent looked back at all the old answers. i really need a new laptop as my current one has a keyboard that doesnt work (i have to plug in one to use it) and overheads causing it to crash at random. anyway cant really afford to buy one outright so was wondering if anyone could give me any suggestions of any reasonable payment plans? i really dont like the idea of buying something on credit but just cant afford to buy a new one outright just now

Make and full model number of current laptop?

Can possibly be restored at no to low cost.

If you are on a budget, you can get an 'as new' Netbook, the MSI Wind U180 for £123.94.

Other colours available for £10 more.

Full laptops from £200. All with a twelve month guarantee.

Forget about payment plans. Though perhaps you can try applying for a credit card that has an interest free period for purchases.

chicaloca

hiya

thanks for the reply. its an Acer Aspire 5735Z. I've actually taken it to a computer shop today and asked them to tell me whats wrong with it and how much it'll cost to fix. I'm by no means a computer expert and have never attempted a repair before but i might if it sounds doable.

Thanks for the info about a credit card, hadn't actually thought of that. I'm not keen on credit the way I'd imagine others are, dont want to get into debt in case something horrible financially happens but a credit card is an option to consider.

the computer shop said theyd phone tomorrow to let me know whats going on with it. my compy i think is just past its best but maybe i can pull it back from the brink until more money appears (whenever thatll be!)
from £200 for a laptop does sound good tho....hmmm

i'll report back when the compy shop has been in tuoch

NiftyDigits

chicaloca wrote: »

hiya

thanks for the reply. its an Acer Aspire 5735Z. I've actually taken it to a computer shop today and asked them to tell me whats wrong with it and how much it'll cost to fix. I'm by no means a computer expert and have never attempted a repair before but i might if it sounds doable.

Thanks for the info about a credit card, hadn't actually thought of that. I'm not keen on credit the way I'd imagine others are, dont want to get into debt in case something horrible financially happens but a credit card is an option to consider.

the computer shop said theyd phone tomorrow to let me know whats going on with it. my compy i think is just past its best but maybe i can pull it back from the brink until more money appears (whenever thatll be!)
from £200 for a laptop does sound good tho....hmmm

i'll report back when the compy shop has been in tuoch

Hope that they don't ask for money just to give it back to you.

chicaloca

i checked before i took my laptop there they wouldn't charge me for looking at it. good news tho! I had previously opened it up myself and cleaned out the fan thinking this was the problem but it didnt make any difference. the helpful man showed me a bit i didnt know i could take off (a kinda fan cover) and there was dirt inside it. he offered to charge me 60 quid to clean out / replace the fan. funnily enough i didnt take him up on his offer, took it home, took my laptop to bits and cleaned it out myself! It works perfectly fine now! So chuffed with myself, i know its not a great achievement in the computer repair world but i've never had the confidence to try anything like this before and it was so satisfying to do it myself! Especially when a couple of people have told me to get rid and buy a new one! just had to share :D:D

NiftyDigits

chicaloca wrote: »

i checked before i took my laptop there they wouldn't charge me for looking at it. good news tho! I had previously opened it up myself and cleaned out the fan thinking this was the problem but it didnt make any difference. the helpful man showed me a bit i didnt know i could take off (a kinda fan cover) and there was dirt inside it. he offered to charge me 60 quid to clean out / replace the fan. funnily enough i didnt take him up on his offer, took it home, took my laptop to bits and cleaned it out myself! It works perfectly fine now! So chuffed with myself, i know its not a great achievement in the computer repair world but i've never had the confidence to try anything like this before and it was so satisfying to do it myself! Especially when a couple of people have told me to get rid and buy a new one! just had to share :D:D

Good job.

Though I do think that you should give him a drink(at least a tenner, though £20 is better) for his time, taking the thing apart for you and for pointing you in the right direction and not attempting hold you to ransom.
He is running a business after all. Plus you've saved yourself a couple of hundred perhaps.
So, I hope you play fair.
Nice one in doing the work yourself though. :beer:

Which operating system are you running? Vista Home Basic?

chicaloca

thanks yeah it was nice to achieve something computer related as i dont have much techy confidence. theyre a local business so can always point people in their direction if they have IT problems, word of mouth is important in business. yeah its vista i'm running