Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

rbnrbn

hey guys.

this thread is huge and i have read a little, however i havnt found a suitable laptop for my needs.

im currently looking for a 13" or smaller , duel core min , 2/4GB RAM , with minimum of 250GB hard disk space. Id like dedicated graphics memory but it isnt a neccesity.

hope someone can be of assistance,

cheers

rbnrbn

i think the Acer Ferrari One for £349 is reasonable, however id like to get morebang for my money. can anyone better this?



AMD Athlon XL L310 1.2GHz with ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics

2GB RAM

250GB HDD

11.6" WXGA

Webcam

Windows 7 Home Premium

blackswan2

can't see if this one got a DVD drive, if so may be a good buy?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-X610-WIDESCREEN-WINDOWS-7-15-6IN-LAPTOP-REFURB-/350395296685?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item51952febad

blackswan2

any thoughts?

joshm_2

blackswan2 wrote: »

can't see if this one got a DVD drive, if so may be a good buy?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-X610-WIDESCREEN-WINDOWS-7-15-6IN-LAPTOP-REFURB-/350395296685?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item51952febad

No optical drive with that - I don't think it's a particularly good deal.

I recently purchased the GBP 299 MSI CR610 (AMD Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 16" screen etc) from Argos Clearance. I say recently, in fact it was a few weeks ago now.

I wouldn't consider another MSI - my original unit had a faulty screen and the replacement they sent yesterday has a different screen fault. I'm getting a refund and looking elsewhere at a reputable brand (most likely Toshiba or Lenovo). I just wish I'd bagged one of those ebuyer express Toshiba's the other day - I had the opportunity but didn't know at the time that I was going to be sent another dud machine :mad:

blackswan2

I didn't see any Toshiba deals - might have suited me well!
One of my daughter's has that CR610, battery didn't work but otherwise she says it is good. My other daughter's birthday is just over a week away and I aim to get her a laptop too for up to £300.
I was going to play safe and not get another MSI (no negative experience, but eggs and baskets etc.) - not so sure now, will pounce on another CR610 if it comes back to £300.

joshm_2

blackswan2 wrote: »

I didn't see any Toshiba deals - might have suited me well!
One of my daughter's has that CR610, battery didn't work but otherwise she says it is good. My other daughter's birthday is just over a week away and I aim to get her a laptop too for up to £300.
I was going to play safe and not get another MSI (no negative experience, but eggs and baskets etc.) - not so sure now, will pounce on another CR610 if it comes back to £300.

The Toshiba seemed (on the surface, at least) to be a cracker - brand new C650-110 dual core Intel with 4GB RAM & 250GB HDD for 299.
That's the sort of machine I'm waiting for now that my MSI is going back. It's a pity about the MSI since apart from the screen it looks like a quite a good machine.
I also had a Dell Inspiron 1764 core i5 with 4GB from Dell Outlet (only GBP 410 delivered - seemed like a bargain at the time) which went back due to a screen fault which Dell repeatedly tried (and failed) to fix. So Dell's not on my xmas card list either - awful customer service too (in my opinion and experience), and that's even with next-day on-site business support!

Dustykitten

Please could somebody help me compare these two laptops? I need to learn what the different specs mean to help me choose for my son

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186602

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/231421

Laptop needs to be able to multitask (MSN, facebook, playing music, docs open for editing, BBC webpage, video streaming etc not much gaming)

Many thanks

acc

Dustykitten wrote: »

Please could somebody help me compare these two laptops? I need to learn what the different specs mean to help me choose for my son

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186602

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/231421

The first (Compaq) is better, as it has a faster processor, more memory (2 GB rather than the inadequate 1 GB) and faster hard drive (7200 rather than 5400), and yet is slightly cheaper.

The second (Toshiba) has a bigger 250GB hard drive, but the Compaq's 160 GB is adequate.

Pikeyp

I wonder how the Dell Inspiron 1545 stacks up in the current scheme of things?

There seem to be a few available here .. http://www.uklaptops.co.uk/shop/Dell_Inspiron_15__1545_.html

All around , or just over the £300 mark .. depends on the configuration.

Also does anyone have any experience of uklaptops.co.uk .. they only sell refurbed Dell stuff it seems.

I've borrowed a friends lappie recently which was a Dell Inspiron 1525 an it seemed really nice to use , hence my interest!