Help me make the right choice - LAPTOP

davidmcg2u

Hi guys,

I'd really appreciate your opinion.

My girlfriend got me a laptop for Xmas, Packard Bell MH35W-200 (code - 741074) which I was excited about. Anyway I wasn't impressed with the performance of it as it really strruggled to play DVDs & basically didn't do what the Currys website promised it would.

I have managed to get Currys to exchange it for me so I need to pick another.

My budget is £400 tops & I was considering this one:

Dell 1545 (code-557073)

I'm not a gamer so would only use it for net access, cds,dvd & maybe microsoft office programs.

If there is anything else that I can get from Currys which you'd think is better for my needs feel free to point me in that direction.

Thanks for you help in advance!

mattogier

it may be worth looking at their recon units?

atencorps

Dell are pretty good / reliable brand or if they have HP ( look at teh pavilion series) they are again really good for the price

[Deleted User]

Dell 1545
Same CPU, same RAM, bigger HDD, shorter battery life, same weight


Acer 5735
Same CPU, same RAM, smaller HDD, longer battery life, same weight

Can't see any recondition units which are better spec'd. Only similar laptop which doesn't have such a good CPU is the Acer 5735

Of course if you could get the money back, maybe stamp your feet, ask for the manager, then you could get:

HP 6735s
Slightly worse CPU, more RAM, same HDD as Dell, bigger than Acer

HP 6730s
Better CPU, same RAM, same RAM as Acer, less than Dell

davidmcg2u

Deleted_User wrote: »

Dell 1545
Same CPU, same RAM, bigger HDD, shorter battery life, same weight

Acer 5735
Same CPU, same RAM, smaller HDD, longer battery life, same weight

Can't see any recondition units which are better spec'd. Only similar laptop which doesn't have such a good CPU is the Acer 5735

Of course if you could get the money back, maybe stamp your feet, ask for the manager, then you could get:

HP 6735s
Slightly worse CPU, more RAM, same HDD as Dell, bigger than Acer

HP 6730s
Better CPU, same RAM, same RAM as Acer, less than Dell

Hi,

Thanks for that - that was me stamping my feet and asking for the manager. He said that "in a court if law" their website description would stand up - I know it wouldn't but was just happy to get a 2nd chance to choose something which would do the job.

When you compare the DELL 1545, sorry not sure how to do the sort links, you say same CPU, same RAM, bigger HDD, shorter battery life & same weight - can I ask what this is against as I think the spec is greater than the PB I returned.

Sorry for being a nuisance, jut want to be clear & also get best value for my money.

Conor_3

There was nothing wrong with the Packard Bell other than all the pre-installed rubbish and the fact the hard drive needed a quick defrag. Considering laptops from the mid 90's can play DVDs, to suggest the PB wasn't capable is quite frankly stupid.

Currys are quite correct about their description standing up. The spec of the laptop exceeds that required to do what they state several dozen times over especially as laptops over a decade old can do all of that.

No matter which of the above you buy, they're all going to have the same issues - that they're preloaded with a load of junk nobody needs including either Norton or McAfee which brings a computer to its knees.

The golden rule when buying a laptop is to make a set of recovery CDs then run DeCrapifier to clean out all the rubbish, finally finishing off with a defrag.

mattogier

Conor wrote: »

There was nothing wrong with the Packard Bell other than all the pre-installed rubbish and the fact the hard drive needed a quick defrag. Considering laptops from the mid 90's can play DVDs, to suggest the PB wasn't capable is quite frankly stupid.

Currys are quite correct about their description standing up. The spec of the laptop exceeds that required to do what they state several dozen times over especially as laptops over a decade old can do all of that.

No matter which of the above you buy, they're all going to have the same issues - that they're preloaded with a load of junk nobody needs including either Norton or McAfee which brings a computer to its knees.

The golden rule when buying a laptop is to make a set of recovery CDs then run DeCrapifier to clean out all the rubbish, finally finishing off with a defrag.

I agree - and it's Vista that has such a HUGE overhead too.

I recently got a Quad CPU machine and it's almost as slow my old Laptop (HP pavillion zt3000) which is only one CPU BUT I have installed the Ubuntu OS (Linux) -

I can even watch TV from the uSB stick, listen to music stored on my 1TB network drive AND tune my sons new guitar via the mic!!! (and it's FREE so MSE approved)

FREE Open Office too (MS Office compatible) and a host of other apps.

My advice - get an old laptop at a carboot sale or even Freecycle and install Linux! put the £400 in the bank (or under the bed :-))

davidmcg2u

Conor wrote: »

Considering laptops from the mid 90's can play DVDs, to suggest the PB wasn't capable is quite frankly stupid.

Currys are quite correct about their description standing up.

No matter which of the above you buy, they're all going to have the same issues - that they're preloaded with a load of junk nobody needs including either Norton or McAfee which brings a computer to its knees.

The golden rule when buying a laptop is to make a set of recovery CDs then run DeCrapifier to clean out all the rubbish, finally finishing off with a defrag.

Hi,

I appreciate your response.

However, I took off as much as I possibly could've, including Norton and when I tried to run a dvd with nothing else open 75-80% off the memory was taken up. I realise that Vista has taken up most of that but the fact that the machine only had 1GB RAM didn't help, so their experts told me - the dvd player was slow to react & froze several times.

Anway, a compromise was reached in store yesterday & I purchased the DELL laptop & they even gave me £25 off of that too. This is working great - everything is what I'd expect. Only possible issue I have is the preloaded rubbish as you said - this time McAfee.

Now making a recovery CD, will I need to do this for the DELL as I have all the system disks here or should I get the system how I want it, for example McAfee off - AVG, CCleaner & Super Antispyware, defrag then make a disk.

Again I appreciate your help.