Need help, looking for a laptop!

Willeh

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a laptop and I'm in great need of help. I wouldn't say I'm clueless with specification terminology i.e. CPU, RAM, GFX Card etc but what I'm clueless with is what is the best laptop for my budget which is also 'future proof' (will last for a few years) and will suit my needs - I know, I'm fussy .
Firstly, my budget is around £300-£500. I'm giving my desktop away to my cousin and I have always wanted a laptop for the main reason of mobility (and you have to admit, they're pretty cool too:P). Instead of building myself another desktop PC, I'm taking the opportunity of converting myself from a 'full-time' desktop user to a 'full-time' laptop user. That said, I will be using the laptop for everything - gaming, studying & working, internet surfing, watching videos, listening to music etc etc. Using the laptop for internet surfing and studying will make up the bulk of the laptop usage. Gaming, downloading and listening to music will come second, and watching videos and whatever else you can do will be the minority.
The games I'll be playing are not really graphic intensive compared to FPS games. I'll be playing things such as Sims 2, Age of Empires III, Spore, Diablo III (when it's released), Warcraft III - basically games which keeps you amused for about an hour before you return back to work (or studying in my case).
I'm looking throughout cclonline, novatech, ebuyer and play.com, and I'll be posting what I think is suitable and if possible I need your opinion. Also if anyone could recommend possible laptops then that will be great as well. Thank you!

Conor_3

TBH, you're going to find that pretty much any laptop will do what you want. Look for at least 1GB RAM with Vista. Compaq, Toshiba, Lenovo are all good brands.

jaydeeuk1

Main issue would be gfx card. Avoid the intel GMA 950 and the x3100 and the geforce 7000, esp if you want to play games at your LCD's native resolution. Bear in mind games like sims 3 will be out next year too

The following chipsets will be fine and should be within your budget

Ati 3450
Ati 3650 *
Geforce 8600gt *
Geforce 9400
Geforce 9600 *
Intel 4500hd

The ones marked with an * will give you the best performance.

jjscotman

If you are looking for a specific recommendation, take a look at the Acer Aspire 5920G for around £400 on Amazon or Play.

It was originally recommended a few months ago by the main site here at moneysavingexpert.com.

I did lots of research and read up on it. It got several great reviews plus a poor one from Cnet which was mainly about its styling.

I bought it and have been delighted with my purchase. I have been using it every day since July for at least a couple of hours with absolutely no problems (touch wood!!).

Despite the Cnet review, I also think it looks cool.

My only minor niggles are the lack of a recovery disk (you can burn your own easily using the Acer eRecovery facility) and a noisy and cheap-sounding scroll wheel.

For a versatile all-round laptop capable of playing games at a reasonable but not high level, I think you would be hard pressed to beat the 5920's specs for the money.

Hope this helps

stamford

Check out this thread full of info

The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1993

Willeh

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144182/show_product_overview - How is this?
And would you guys recommend purchasing custom chosen / made laptops from Dell.co.uk themselves?
I'm trying to find the GFX Cards that jaydeeuk1 said would be the best (for the reason of the laptop being future proof), but I can't seem to find reasonably priced laptops with ATI 3650 / Nvidia 8600GT/9600 GFX Cards - I know there are laptops out there somewhere which is within my budget and has those GFX cards. Thanks everyone.

jjscotman

The Acer Aspire 5920G I was telling you about has the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT dedicated card which makes it reasonably good for games at its price.

Willeh

Thanks for the suggestion jjscotman but it seems like the laptop you mentioned has a 8600GS version and a 8600GT version and they don't stock the GT version anymore but only the GS version /
Could someone take a review of these laptops please, they're about £150-£200 ish over my budget but that's okay as they appear to fit the criteria of being pretty future proof and worth the money with the specifications:
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_7720G_-_Santa_Rosa_T7500_3GB_500GB_17in_LX.ANU0U.106/version.asp
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Acer_Aspire_6920G__Core_2_Duo_2.0GHz__4GB_16_inch_HD_TFT_Display_LX.APQ0X.351&pagetype=version&page=
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Toshiba_Satellite_A300D-15B_PSAKCE-00K00DEN&pagetype=version&page=

I'm very tempted to purchase the first laptop. Opinions please, thank you !

GunJack

Or try this thread.....

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1147017

It's all about powerful laptops under £400...may be just what you're looking for is in there somewhere...