Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Miroslav

chico wrote: »

Either machine will do what you want, and more, but with the machines costing the same, I would much prefer the Compaq.

The Compaq
- Comes with the current Windows 7 instead of the older and less regarded Vista.
- Has the 64 bit version of Windows 7, whereas Vista is 32 bit.
- Supports upgrading of the RAM up to 8 GB (both machines come with a healthy 4 GB).
- Has a bigger hard drive, 500 GB compared with 320 GB.
- Can be paid for using the usual card types whereas the Samsung is sold on the Argos ebay site and has to be paid for using paypal.
- Has a slightly faster processor, CPU Mark 1546 as compared with 1426.

Thanks chico for all the info. It looks like that Compaq is going to be the one And they've dropped another £10 off of it

z1000000

Hi


As we all love saving money, think of this before splashing out on a new laptop.


Many people here just want a basic laptop for surfing, music and photos. Most people already have a computer, it's just it's getting old and slow. Spending £400 doesn't seem to be saving money, especially when it's just the start. There will be other software to buy, Office and Anti Virus, then in a year or two you can pay some more when the new versions come out.


My laptop was getting old and slow, really it was just full up with music. I got an external hard drive and put everything I wanted on to that, anything else I deleted. These HD's are cheap and besides, everyone should back up important stuff like docs and photos off their computer. Now, all my stuff is kept on the Ext HD.


Then I followed Martin's advice and looked at alternate software, (in the Freebie section). Let's face it, if your browser or OS is playing up, change them and not your computer. There are plenty of free browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari and the new and fast Chrome. As XP was getting slow and my laptop wouldn't run Vista, I ended up changing to Linux. Yes Linux is different from Windows and Mac, but it's not hard to use and comes as standard on some phones and netbooks now. I have a full version, that has a full office package, internet, music and dvd's, Skype and can edit photos. Like Apple machines, I don't need an Anti Virus, oh, and the best part, it's all legally FREE. For people with very old and under powered computers, there are light weight versions of Linux, so even those can be kept working well.


Even if you do really want a shiny new expensive laptop, keep your old machine and play about with Linux and other software. It's free and after all, you were going to scrap the old computer anyway.


I did check this thread for a new laptop, not because my machine runs slow, it runs perfectly well. But after 6 years, the screen hinges are worn and broken. However, I've found how to repair those so with luck I can get another few years out of this laptop. Google really is your best friend!

NiVZ

Hi z1000000,

Not a bad idea. Perhaps we should start a thread of free alternatves to popular software (if there's not one already)

I'd certainly be happy to contribute to it.

[edit] In fact Martin has already done a post on this. Follow the link below:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/free-office-software

[/edit]

NiVZ

harz99

z1000000 wrote: »

Hi


As we all love saving money, think of this before splashing out on a new laptop.


Many people here just want a basic laptop for surfing, music and photos. Most people already have a computer, it's just it's getting old and slow. Spending £400 doesn't seem to be saving money, especially when it's just the start. There will be other software to buy, Office and Anti Virus, then in a year or two you can pay some more when the new versions come out.


My laptop was getting old and slow, really it was just full up with music. I got an external hard drive and put everything I wanted on to that, anything else I deleted. These HD's are cheap and besides, everyone should back up important stuff like docs and photos off their computer. Now, all my stuff is kept on the Ext HD.


Then I followed Martin's advice and looked at alternate software, (in the Freebie section). Let's face it, if your browser or OS is playing up, change them and not your computer. There are plenty of free browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari and the new and fast Chrome. As XP was getting slow and my laptop wouldn't run Vista, I ended up changing to Linux. Yes Linux is different from Windows and Mac, but it's not hard to use and comes as standard on some phones and netbooks now. I have a full version, that has a full office package, internet, music and dvd's, Skype and can edit photos. Like Apple machines, I don't need an Anti Virus, oh, and the best part, it's all legally FREE. For people with very old and under powered computers, there are light weight versions of Linux, so even those can be kept working well.


Even if you do really want a shiny new expensive laptop, keep your old machine and play about with Linux and other software. It's free and after all, you were going to scrap the old computer anyway.


I did check this thread for a new laptop, not because my machine runs slow, it runs perfectly well. But after 6 years, the screen hinges are worn and broken. However, I've found how to repair those so with luck I can get another few years out of this laptop. Google really is your best friend!

Whilst I don't disagree with your philosophy of "make do and mend", things don't just become old and out of date, sometimes they wear out and the cost of getting things repaired makes doing so uneconomic - time to upgrade.

Both the CPU and hard drive on my 8 year old desktop gave up gradually until one day it refused to play at all, replacing both would have cost a good chunk of the £400 I paid for a new laptop with more capability than my old system had for twice the price when it was new.

I guess what I am saying is that it is "horses for courses" and todays prices really are much better than a few years back.

Snooze

z1000000 wrote: »

Hi


As we all love saving money, think of this before splashing out on a new laptop.


Many people here just want a basic laptop for surfing, music and photos. Most people already have a computer, it's just it's getting old and slow. Spending £400 doesn't seem to be saving money, especially when it's just the start. There will be other software to buy, Office and Anti Virus, then in a year or two you can pay some more when the new versions come out.


My laptop was getting old and slow, really it was just full up with music. I got an external hard drive and put everything I wanted on to that, anything else I deleted. These HD's are cheap and besides, everyone should back up important stuff like docs and photos off their computer. Now, all my stuff is kept on the Ext HD.


Then I followed Martin's advice and looked at alternate software, (in the Freebie section). Let's face it, if your browser or OS is playing up, change them and not your computer. There are plenty of free browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari and the new and fast Chrome. As XP was getting slow and my laptop wouldn't run Vista, I ended up changing to Linux. Yes Linux is different from Windows and Mac, but it's not hard to use and comes as standard on some phones and netbooks now. I have a full version, that has a full office package, internet, music and dvd's, Skype and can edit photos. Like Apple machines, I don't need an Anti Virus, oh, and the best part, it's all legally FREE. For people with very old and under powered computers, there are light weight versions of Linux, so even those can be kept working well.


Even if you do really want a shiny new expensive laptop, keep your old machine and play about with Linux and other software. It's free and after all, you were going to scrap the old computer anyway.


I did check this thread for a new laptop, not because my machine runs slow, it runs perfectly well. But after 6 years, the screen hinges are worn and broken. However, I've found how to repair those so with luck I can get another few years out of this laptop. Google really is your best friend!

If you can't get XP to run any faster than "slow" then your machine needs to go in the bin. I have XP Pro running fine on a 15 year old ThinkPad that has 512 RAM and a processor in mhz not ghz (ie. out of the ark).

I bet your 6 year old machine has at least a ~ 1.7 ghz processor and probably 1 gig of RAM. XP should work fine. No doubt there's a whole bunch of cheese still on there that you haven't yet deleted.

z1000000

I'm sure XP would run well on this older machine, it did again once I had cleared it out and moved almost everything to an external Hard Drive. But back then MS was talking of ending support for XP as it wanted customers to upgrade to Vista.


And I'm sure my machine is on borrowed time. If anything goes now it will be off to the scrap heap as it's not worth repairing. But the thing about keeping all my important stuff on the external HD means this laptop could explode tonight and it wouldn't be too annoying for me. And because the spec of new machines improves every month while the price seems to get cheaper, if I can hang on for just six months, I'm sure I'll get a much better laptop for my £400 then.


Anyway, for those looking for a laptop now, I'm tempted by this. It seems HP have a deal where you get cashback if you post in your old machine.


http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/697449/hp-g62-107sa-from-currys-only-399-g


http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/694707/hp-g62-105sa-laptop-i3-330m-3-gb-32


PS. The links are from HotUKDeals, I hope this is ok, but if not could someone please
put the original Currys or HP link in if that's prefered.

Pikeyp

I found this cashback offer page just now ... http://www.compaqcashback.com/

Is that the one you are thinking of?

Carrera74

Can anyone help? I am really not clued up with specs etc on laptops. I would like to buy one to use at home mainly for surfing the internet and doing paperwork. I would like to store photo's and possibly use it for games for my 12 year old son. I am looking at the ones suggested above but I'm not sure what to go for. Can anyone help

techtitch

Anyone got a Medion Akoya willing to share their impressions? They have been described as cheap and tacky on these forums (unf not in much detail), but I read what seemed to be a pretty detailed and balanced review of one on TrustedReviews and they came out well, especially if you compare same-priced machines (can't include link but Google 'Medion Akoya S5610 TrustedReviews' if interested).

Also, I'm pretty geeky but I can't keep up with all the CPU families Intel Celeron vs Centrino, Dual vs Duo, GHz vs power consumption, and then AMD... - anyone come across a simple chart? I want a reasonable spec but only for music production, everything else I do is lightweight.

Thanks for any thoughts at all
Chris

I_luv_cats

Samsung R519,

Pentium Dual Core, 2.2 ghz, 250 gb hdd, 4gb ram, dvd/cd drive, 15.6",

Free Samsung 3 yr Warranty, Free 3yr Avg,


£400 Argos page 563


Nice screen, keyboard good, easy set up, Windows 7 Premium, web cam.