Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

RussJK

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

I only use my PC for email and surfing (no gaming, though I do watch the odd video). Min 15" screen. Many thanks for your help

Depends on how much you want to spend. Are you familiar with the concept of screen resolution? I'll skip the medion akoyas and the Acers due to reliability, and anything below 1366x768 resolution.

£270 Toshiba, 15.6" screen, 1366x768 resolution, can handle 1080p because of graphics card, but slow CPU for general usage:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-SATELLITE-L450D-11V-15-6IN-LAPTOP-REFURB-/330429980859?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item4cef2960bb


£284 Toshiba, 17" screen, 1440x900 resolution, slightly faster but graphics card probably can only handle 720p movies:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-L35021Q-17IN-DUAL-CORE-LAPTOP-REFURB-/330429980803?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item4cef296083

£304 MSI, 16" 1366x768 resolution, can easily handle 1080p, and a little faster than the first two. Nice.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-CR610-16IN-LAPTOP-REFURB-/350349480902?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item519274d3c6

£374, Toshiba 17" 1600x900, probably handle 1080p, same CPU as the £304 MSI, possibly overpriced but does have good quality screen with high resolution.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-L550-17-3IN-LAPTOP-REFURB-/330429980806?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item4cef296086

All these will do the job.

Kaje

RussJK wrote: »

Not bad. The CPU passmark for that is 1363.

The MSI CR60 is £304ish, has CPU passmark of 1201 so a bit slower but quite a bit cheaper:

The CR60 has Blu-ray, and 4gb memory so you could put 64bit Windows7 on it.

Can't find anything better than your deal under £400 in my brief look at Argos Clearance.

Thanks for the heads-up! I've had a look at the CR60 (and a quick Google) but it only mentions a DVD Super Multi writer and doesn't mention Blu-Ray playback. Are you sure it has Blu-Ray?

Hobsons_Choice

Many thanks for your help Russ., off to check 'em out and will probably get the MSI one.

Hobsons_Choice

Darn it...I had a rotten cold over the weekend and didn't take a look. Those listings have ended...so it's back to the drawing board!

Murielson

Thoughts please on the Toshiba Satellite L500-1XC available from Amazon for £398.25 delivered.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Satellite-15-6-inch-Processor-SuperMulti/dp/B00336EFZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1272648435&sr=8-1

Toshiba Satellite L500-1XC 15.6-inch Notebook (Intel Core i3-330M 2.13 GHz Processor, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, DVD SuperMulti Drive, 6 Cell Battery, Windows 7 Home Premium)

Dr_Withnail

my laptop has packed in so i'm after something new, nothing flashy, about £300 max, all i really do is surf the web, play on footie manager and record songs, a decent hard drive and amount of RAM would be nice, windows 7 would be a plus, any suggestions?

Evilm

Tescos are currently selling a Toshiba Satellite L450-18D for £339.99.

Good machine, if a bit big, and selling about £60-100 cheaper than you can find it elsewhere. Seems to be as good as the L500s.

K-Man_2

I've been following this forum for the past month and its great what you guys are doing here. My laptop had packed up a a couple of months ago and i learnt a thing or two about what to really lookout for in my next buy (since my old one lasted 5 yrs; i was out of touch with the most powerful systems).
I bought a new dell (i3 core, 2GB ram, 250GB Hdd, Bluetooth, Windows 7 64bit, Intel HD, 15.6", HDMI out, integrated webcam) on tueday and it was ready to collect from my nearest store on wednesday from carphone warehouse for £399 through quidco resulting in approximately £20 off. (free delivery)
wwwdotcarphonewarehousedotcom
(replace dot with .)

The website says no bluetooth but it does have it. I managed to pair my phone with it using the bluetooth. Only problem is:
1- the 2GB memory BUT i can easily buy more for less than £20 second hand from wwwdotcexdotcodotuk (replace dot with .) (I welcome any link to a cheaper place to buy DDR3 2GB memory)
2- the graphics card is an intel onboard but i imagine with the i3 core it wont be too bad if u r not looking to play very demanding games (I switched to console a few years ago to avoid contantly having to upgrade my laptop when a new game comes out)

Apart from that, service is great. Laptop's wotking fine and its pretty shinny.

Micky

rhubarbs wrote: »

Hi,

Is this offer from Staples any good? Selling for 237.45. Offer apparently ends on Monday so I'd really appreciate some quick feedback.

Thank you

eMachines e525 V.3 Laptop - Intel Celeron Dual-Core T3100 Processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 15.6" High Brightness Widescreen, Windows 7 Home Premium

A great value 15.6” laptop ideal for basic home computing needs

Store up to 40,000 songs, 45,500 photos or 80 hours of DVD video.
Ideal for multitasking between office, music, photo and internet.
Intel Celeron Dual-Core T3100
1.9GHz processor speed
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD Super Multi Optical Drive
15.6" High Brightness Widescreen Display
5 in 1 Card Reader
Media Card Slots: 5 in 1 (SD,MMC, xD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Graphics: Integrated/Shared Graphics up to 1.3GB Mobile Intel GMA 4500M
Windows 7 Home Premium
2 USB ports
Manufacturers 1 Year Warranty

I bought one of these to replace a doddery Compaq, certainly faster and crisper in operation but speakers are rubbish and keyboard feels flakey. I had just about mastered XP but now I am wrestling with the delights of Windows something else.

Andother

Hi, new here, after checking elsewhere and reading this forum I bought a refurbed Toshiba L500 from the Argos Clearance Ebay site, so far, very nice machine delivered but found to be not factory reset, short on software and with a hardware fault, the machine still had the previous user disk partitions and settings etc.
The return process has so far worked well with a very rapid collection of the faulty machine arranged by Henrys who deal with the Argos refurbed Laptops and am now awaiting the Paypal refund.
After once bitten etc I have decided to buy new.