buying laptop advice

jockettuk

Hi my daughters birthday first week in Jan and we was going to wait till after christmas see what deals on a new laptop for her but there seems to be some good deals around at the moment

now heres were you wonderful lot come in .. what laptop lol

she will be 14 laptop will be for homework coursework and the usual teenage things. music and general internet use.. we would like one with a dvd writer.

so with all the deals out there what is or isnt the best bargain.. i dont want to spend a fortune on one if i can get similar cheaper but i dont want to get one thats of no use to anyone if you know what i mean

thanks..

rose

albionrovers

I have a DELL Inspiron 6400 which cost me £349.
Well pleased with it, fully-loaded media PC with Windows Vista.

3 of us from work ordered 1 each at the same time after doing hours of research.

Not exactly funky for a 14-year old though. Is it an adult laptop you are after?

jockettuk

albionrovers wrote: »

I have a DELL Inspiron 6400 which cost me £349.
Well pleased with it, fully-loaded media PC with Windows Vista.

3 of us from work ordered 1 each at the same time after doing hours of research.

Not exactly funky for a 14-year old though. Is it an adult laptop you are after?

after a decent laptop.. not bothered about funky lol if she wants funky let her save up for ohhh a thousand years bless her.. just want one thats does what it says on the box so to speak..

chunter

I'll offer 2 choices:

Dell Inspiron 1525 (Celeron processor)
£322 including Vat and delivery.
Spec :Intel Celeron Processor 560 / Vista / 15.4" Widescreen / 1024MB / 160GB / DVD +/- RW Drive / Wireless card
And buy 2Gb memory from Crucial at 21 quid and stick it in yourself

OR
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Celeron dual core processor)
£361 including Vat and delivery.
Spec :Celeron Dual Core Processor T1400 / Vista / 15.4" Widescreen / 2048MB / 160GB / DVD +/- RW Drive / Wireless card

Main thing is it should last about 4 years,
and you need at least 2 gbyte of memory for Vista..

gecko

Hi Rose,

With Vista the most important thing is memory as the OS is pretty bloated and takes almost 600mb at rest! Make sure you get a laptop with 2Gb of RAM and if possible a Core 2 Duo processor (or similar AMD chip).

Recently I got my girlfriend an Acer AS5920, it has a Core 2 Duo 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD and DVDRW. Very impressive for under £400. You can also get a 12" version which would be easier to fit in a bag if your daughter needs to take it to school, etc.

Most newer computers have wi-fi cards built-in but it is always good to check.

SJames_3

Excellent spec for the price: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152652#

Dual core processor, 2GB DDR2, kinda half decent graphics performance (by laptop standards), wireless LAN, bluetooth, large hard drive, DVD rewriter, integrated webcam, card reader...Don't know what else a teenage girl can want in a laptop except that it isn't bright pink. :rolleyes: