Help Me Find A Decent Laptop For £500

Jo4

I am currently studying with the OU and I have applied for a grant to get a new computer. Apparently I will have £500 to purchase a new laptop, can anyone tell me what one I should purchase or what I should look out for when I am purchasing it? What do I need, I haven't a clue!!

DCFC79

Jo4 wrote: »

I am currently studying with the OU and I have applied for a grant to get a new computer. Apparently I will have £500 to purchase a new laptop, can anyone tell me what one I should purchase or what I should look out for when I am purchasing it? What do I need, I haven't a clue!!

What would you be using it for, uni work i guess so typing, internet access, anything else

isofa

As you don't have any ideas, I'd have a quick read through of a couple of good PC/laptop magazines in the newsagents and look at their recommendations. There are 100s of laptops out there, and often best to read comparative reviews.

Personally for a PC laptop I'd start looking at the Dell Inspiron 1525, it's a very good all round laptop, in a variety of specifications.

With your budget ensure you get a good Core 2 Duo processor (not a Celeron), and plenty of RAM.

If you fancy a MacBook, as a student (potentially high-ed student?) you'll get very good deals either through the OU or direct from Apple.

Jo4

DCFC79 wrote: »

What would you be using it for, uni work i guess so typing, internet access, anything else

Nothing else as far as I can think!

Jo4

isofa wrote: »

As you don't have any ideas, I'd have a quick read through of a couple of good PC/laptop magazines in the newsagents and look at their recommendations. There are 100s of laptops out there, and often best to read comparative reviews.

Personally for a PC laptop I'd start looking at the Dell Inspiron 1525, it's a very good all round laptop, in a variety of specifications.

With your budget ensure you get a good Core 2 Duo processor (not a Celeron), and plenty of RAM.

If you fancy a MacBook, as a student (potentially high-ed student?) you'll get very good deals either through the OU or direct from Apple.

What's a MacBook?

totalsolutions

www.apple.com Nice and posh - Careful with the AIR no cd disc drive

AdrianHi

Jo4 wrote: »

What's a MacBook?

Apple Mac Laptop
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
Very sexy and easy to use Laptop computer that's also a bit expensive for what it is, but painless to own.

In the world of Windows Vista and so called "IBM compatible" Laptop PC's definately a Core2 Duo CPU and I'd suggest 1GB of RAM, past that it's hard to go wrong. I have a Dell Inspiron and it is very good. A company called Acer target the individual buyer (because they are more brand loyal than corporate buyers who go by price alone) so service tends to be better.

Here is an example specification from Novatech, see the X60MV, about £40 over budget
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=nb&c=all&r=X60
I like this one for the big screen which is not so good if you are mobile with the computer a lot but gives you 900 pixels vertically where most Laptops have screen with only 800 pixels in the vertical (1280x800). The more vertical pixels the better within your budget but 1440x900 is as good as you will get for this money.
On the basis there are a lot of Laptops which will be more than fast enough I really would look at screen quality and resolution first and other features next. Don't get hung up on CPU speeds, any Core 2 Duo CPU / Processor will be fast.
Vista Home Basic will do the job, Vista Home Premium looks nicer with clever graphical effects.
Make sure you get your student discount (it's a very big discount) when buying Microsoft Office software or download the free OpenOffice.

Jo4

isofa wrote: »

As you don't have any ideas, I'd have a quick read through of a couple of good PC/laptop magazines in the newsagents and look at their recommendations. There are 100s of laptops out there, and often best to read comparative reviews.

Personally for a PC laptop I'd start looking at the Dell Inspiron 1525, it's a very good all round laptop, in a variety of specifications.

With your budget ensure you get a good Core 2 Duo processor (not a Celeron), and plenty of RAM.

If you fancy a MacBook, as a student (potentially high-ed student?) you'll get very good deals either through the OU or direct from Apple.

What is the differene in a duo processor and a dual processor or is there any difference? Which should I consider purchasing a MacBook or a laptop?

I visited PC World yesterday and the sales person attempted to get me to purchase a Sony VGN-FW11M, £799.99. Is this one any good? She emphasised to make sure that whatever I puchased should have blu ray but she did not explain what it was. How do you pronounce Sonys "VAI0"?

unrich

Whoa there.....
Forget anything Mac.
Forget anything Linux.
Forget a netbook.

Have a look in the course guides and you will see there some minimum specifications for the computers required to run the course software. Stuff like, XP not Vista, minimum screen resolution of 1024*768, sound card,, DVD/CD drive, Direct X 9 or higher.

I think the specs are not too bad and don't require the most up to date stuff.

Probably any £300 laptop will do.

But check first.

You don't want to spend your grant and then have to sell at a loss to buy one that your software will run on.

geoffky

check out ebuyer.com for laptops.....i always use them and have had no problems at all

Jo4

unrich wrote: »

Whoa there.....
Forget anything Mac.
Forget anything Linux.
Forget a netbook.

Have a look in the course guides and you will see there some minimum specifications for the computers required to run the course software. Stuff like, XP not Vista, minimum screen resolution of 1024*768, sound card,, DVD/CD drive, Direct X 9 or higher.

I think the specs are not too bad and don't require the most up to date stuff.

Probably any £300 laptop will do.

But check first.

You don't want to spend your grant and then have to sell at a loss to buy one that your software will run on.

I need a new laptop any way so I want to make sure that I get one which will last a while and I will be able to complete my current course and furture courses on. My course which ends on October 2009 can run with Windows Vista.