Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

RussJK

Nickyg wrote: »

Guys,

I'm looking at buying this laptop and was wondering what the tech bods think as I am a bit clueless about this stuff. Many Thanks!

Inspiron Studio 1555(System Identifier: EPAC6B1M)
System Price:£312.24
Operating System
English Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory 4GB (2x2GB Dual Rank DIMMs) 800MHz
Hard Disk Drive 250GB (5400rpm) HD
Video Graphics 512 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570
Scratch and Dent Scratch and Dent
NoteBook Screen 15.6in Widescreen High Definition (1366X768) WLED with TrueLife
System Color LCD Back Cover Black Chainlink
MISC
Camera Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Camera
Grade 1 Scratch or Dent
6 cell 56W HR LI-ION Battery
Base Inspiron Studio 1555
Media Bay 8 X DVD +/- RW
Processor Pentium Dual Core T4300 (2.1GHz,800MHz,1MB)

Looks okay. The CPU is okay but not great; hard drive size will do; and has decent graphics card - it'll do most common tasks quickly and even some semi-recent games:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4570.13885.0.html

Does this price include VAT and shipping? I'd wait for comments on how scratched and dented these can be.

If you don't need a nice graphics card, then you might be better off with one of the i3 based ones that have been previously discussed in this thread, as the i3 will be much faster for general purposes and I'm sure will do even 1080p flawlessly (since my U230 netbook can do it watchably).

I use these two sites as a quick guide to the general power of laptops:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php (because its easy to quickly read) AND
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

The Dell Inspiron Studio 1555 CPU score is 1446, and the graphics card 3623 in 3dmark06;

The Dell with the i3s have a cpu score of 2029 I think, but a graphics score of 594 in 3dmark06. By itself, the graphics card isn't good at running 1080p videos, but coupled with an i3 it should be fine (but I'd check proper reviews just to be safe, but as I said, if my little netbook can do 1080p then I'm sure an i3 can).

As a reference point, a £550 laptop (£500 with voucher code and topcashback) I bought last year has a CPU score of ~1550, and a graphics score in 3dmark06 of ~5000. Not that most people will need a graphics card like that, although gamers would want even better to play new games.

Nickyg

Many thanks guys, it will be mainly used for Internet, watching films and using office apps at home, not really gaming on it so should I go for this i3 processor?

drivebyargument

Hello

Can anybody explain to me what is wrong with going to Dixons, Comet, Currys etc, deciding on a budget [for arguments sake and the purpose of this thread say £400] and simply picking a laptop that falls into that price range at the cheapest of the two/three stores?

I see that nobody has suggested using any of these stores on this thread when they probably cover a big % of the market.

Obviously I'd use topcashback and any discount codes available etc.

I just don't feel comfortable with Argos clearance and the like ??

Nickyg

I ended up going for this:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=417261

It cost £430 all in but look like good value with everything I need really!

Thanks again for your help.

RussJK

drivebyargument wrote: »

Can anybody explain to me what is wrong with going to Dixons, Comet, Currys etc, deciding on a budget [for arguments sake and the purpose of this thread say £400] and simply picking a laptop that falls into that price range at the cheapest of the two/three stores? [...]
I just don't feel comfortable with Argos clearance and the like ??

Nothing is wrong with those stores if you know what you are buying. Most people don't, and will buy based purely on the price and the shop assistants' urgings. You need to consider performance vs the price.

The reasons you don't see many deals from them being posted, is simply because there aren't many great deals at those places. I certainly don't have a bias against any of them, considering I bought my main laptop from Comet.

As for Argos Clearance, it is one of those things that sounds bad but is good. But it is your money. All I can say is that I'm glad I kept checking the Argos Clearance laptop page, because I got a crazy deal on a brand new MSI U230 netbook/ultraportable that was returned without even being used. A netbook that can play watchable 1080p for £214? Outrageous.

drivebyargument

Thank you Russ JK.

I guess it is because there is a lot to learn and the nice shiny marketing and advertising from the big stores is effective.

It's very easy and appealing to use, almost as if they have done your research for you!

For example, could anybody tell me what makes this laptop not a great deal and suggest an alternative, as I think this is what I'd go for if it wasn't for this site.

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/623180/TOSHIBA-L500-1WG/tab/specification

Primary uses would be latest Football Manager instalments with NO other gaming and usual internet, music/videos etc.

Many thanks again. I think there are probably too many of us on here who are still yet to be educated on what and where good value is to be had in this area.

RussJK

drivebyargument wrote: »

For example, could anybody tell me what makes this laptop not a great deal and suggest an alternative, as I think this is what I'd go for if it wasn't for this site.
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/623180/TOSHIBA-L500-1WG/tab/specification

Its not a terrible deal, but technically its not sub-£400 yet. The CPU is about as powerful as the one I got last year (for £550 excluding cashback/discounts) but the graphic card isn't very powerful at all - which won't be a problem if you don't game.

Well if you use this discount code (5300AW) you can get 3% off the price to bring it down to £408.49.

Also if you first go through a cashback site such as www.topcashback.co.uk, you can get a further 3% off, but Comet are bad for cashback and you'll probably have to submit a claim for it. Cashback would be £12.26 roughly, so total price £396.24 roughly. Not bad.

If you were serious about getting it, you'd want to read some proper reviews on it (not just user reviews). Make sure the specs that the expert reviews match the specs you are buying as well, as they can vary.

ds1980

Not far off £400 thoughts please?

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_13898.htm

JDPower

ds1980 wrote: »

Not far off £400 thoughts please?

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_13898.htm

Nothing special IMO, got a good processor but that's about it and for a cheap brand its not the best price.

witchypoo

AMD Athlon dual core M300 2.0GHz processor
4GB DDR2 RAM
1366 x 768 resolution
250GB hard drive
Multi format dual layer
ATI RADEON HD4330 graphics 256MB

I'm thinking this is pretty powerful, but is it ideal for running Sims 3 at high detail graphics? The only reason I feel unsure is that processor types confuse me, but graphics card and speed/memory look pretty good.