Sub-£350 powerful laptops discussion

Donnie

rbnrbn wrote: »

can anyone beat this?

Forget about it if you actually want a laptop. It's just a Netbook.

rbnrbn

Donnie wrote: »

Forget about it if you actually want a laptop. It's just a Netbook.

Yeah, i understand. I;ve read reviews and there are some promosing ones out there lauding it with praise. It is in fact capable of playing Crysis albeit on a low setting...not bad for a Netbook.

HWOEVER, as it doesn;t come with a CD rom drive id have to buy an external drive to accompany it and also increase the RAM to 4GB, which ive worked out will cost an additonal £100. SO i guess you're right, it ain't worth the hassle/cash.

A laptop eyy.. my only stipulation concerning a laptop is the size...it has to be under 13". Lugging a 15" block of granite for the past 4 years hasn't bin that pleasurable. Atleast 250GB+ hard disk space, 4GB RAM with the option to expand to 8GB (64bit win) and a minimum duel core with at least 256mb dedicated graphics card, oh and a webcam...is this possible for sub £300/£350?

I've seen ASUS UL30A on Ebay for 235 with 1 day to go. Though the intel graphics kinda makes me weary.

argh, too much choiiice!!:mad:

zaralondon

Had to send MSICR610 back - screen flickering.

Lovely machine though I must say. Great graphics/picture and not slow.

Donnie

zaralondon wrote: »

Had to send MSICR610 back - screen flickering.

Lovely machine though I must say. Great graphics/picture and not slow.

Did you attempt the BIOS update?

InDebted2U_2

Has anyone had any success buying the Athlon-based (AMD Athlon 2 dual core M300, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HD, HDMI, etc) MSI CR610 (was £299, currently too much) from Argos Clearance? I've been reading through the thread and have only found negative comments both regarding problems with the machine and Argos' customer service (or lack thereof).

Would be really interested to know if anyone has had a positive experience with either this particular MSI or when contacting Argos Clearance about a problem. This machine is still on my watch list at the right price but I don't fancy going through all that hassle again if they're still sending faulty ones out.

Donnie

InDebted2U wrote: »

Has anyone had any success buying the Athlon-based (AMD Athlon 2 dual core M300, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HD, HDMI, etc) MSI CR610 (was £299, currently too much) from Argos Clearance? I've been reading through the thread and have only found negative comments both regarding problems with the machine and Argos' customer service (or lack thereof).

Would be really interested to know if anyone has had a positive experience with either this particular MSI or when contacting Argos Clearance about a problem. This machine is still on my watch list at the right price but I don't fancy going through all that hassle again if they're still sending faulty ones out.

No one seems to have attempted the BIOS update that is claimed to fix the problem. I haven't seen any negative posts regarding the quality of the customer service.

InDebted2U_2

Donnie wrote: »

No one seems to have attempted the BIOS update that is claimed to fix the problem. I haven't seen any negative posts regarding the quality of the customer service.

You should pay more attention Donnie. You responded to at least one of the comments about Argos Clearance (lack of) customer service yourself! :rotfl:

Where is the info about the BIOS update?

Donnie

InDebted2U wrote: »

You should pay more attention Donnie. You responded to at least one of the comments about Argos Clearance (lack of) customer service yourself! :rotfl:

Where is the info about the BIOS update?

Why not link to all of the negative comments about the customer service, so that they are all in one place.

You write as if you have seen nothing but negative comments about their customer service, so perhaps you can make your case by posting the actual links.

The BIOS is in the MSI CR610 thread.

joshm_2

Re: GBP 299 Athlon Dual Core 16" MSI:

The first machine I got had a stuck red pixel and went back because of that. I dealt with D&J Henry and they were very helpful, polite and nice on the phone. That said I felt had to chase them a bit to get them to hurry the replacement process up. From reporting the fault to receiving the replacement took almost 2 weeks IIRC. Maybe a touch under, but more than a week for sure.

The screen problem on the second machine was quite subtle compared to the first and to what others seem to be reporting. When viewing off-white windows (and some grey windows/screens) you would see thin diagonal lines move across the screen. At some angles you would not see these, but at some angles where you would use the screen they were visible. As a result it is going back and I'm getting a refund.

To be fair, it's possible that D&J Henry didn't pick up on this 2nd fault if & when they tested the machine at their end since it's quite subtle.

I did try (unsuccessfully) to update the ATI video drivers and also checked with MSI Live Update to see if there any newer drivers available - which there weren't.

I would happily deal with Argos Clearance / D&J Henry again, but wouldn't consider another MSI unless it was a truly amazing deal.

Donnie

joshm wrote: »

Re: GBP 299 Athlon Dual Core 16" MSI:

The first machine I got had a stuck red pixel and went back because of that. I dealt with D&J Henry and they were very helpful, polite and nice on the phone. That said I felt had to chase them a bit to get them to hurry the replacement process up. From reporting the fault to receiving the replacement took almost 2 weeks IIRC. Maybe a touch under, but more than a week for sure.

The screen problem on the second machine was quite subtle compared to the first and to what others seem to be reporting. When viewing off-white windows (and some grey windows/screens) you would see thin diagonal lines move across the screen. At some angles you would not see these, but at some angles where you would use the screen they were visible. As a result it is going back and I'm getting a refund.

To be fair, it's possible that D&J Henry didn't pick up on this 2nd fault if & when they tested the machine at their end since it's quite subtle.

I did try (unsuccessfully) to update the ATI video drivers and also checked with MSI Live Update to see if there any newer drivers available - which there weren't.

I would happily deal with Argos Clearance / D&J Henry again, but wouldn't consider another MSI unless it was a truly amazing deal.

Here is the BIOS Update that claims to Patch LED panel blinking issue. Would be interesting to know if these machines had been updated on not.