cheapish laptop

snowmen

hello,
wondered if anyone could help.
I am looking for a cheapish laptop (sub £500) that must have the following -

reasonably quick and good enough memory (160gb would be OK more if you can get it)
definitely a rewriteable cd/dvd drive
not fussed on whether it is vista or xp
wireless enabled (I am sure most laptops are if not all)

anyone recommend one that they have bought or a site that they would commend?!

Thanks.

bob_a_builder

You don't says exctly what you want to use for

Try the usual suspects

DELL - this site lists total price

Acer - Tesco usually have these around 350ish

EBUYER - its NOT ebay This ONE being about the cheapest (but is celeron, so may not be fast enough)

M4RKM

160gb of memory???? or do you mean hard drive storage?

3gb memory in a windows laptop is more than enough!

sorry. i shouldn't be sarcastic, but it is friday..

M

labp04

Hi snowmen, try currys and look at the Packard Bell MH35W-200, might fit your bill? Ok it's out of stock and curry's but still looks like it might fit your bill.

snowmen

I'll let you off this time markymoo! Can tell I'm a novice cant you?!
Thanks to all for their comments
some good prices around at the mo.
Take it that I need to avoid the insurance that currys and places like that try to sell, and buy on my credit card rather than my debit card.

streather

you could configure a reasonably spec'd up dell studio 15 or 17 for sub 500,

ravravrav

You can find loads of great deals in the shops! I bought a really stylish looking Samsung netbook for around 300 - when I was looking around I saw loads of high-spec laptops around the same price - seriously check out currys, comet etc.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

If you were willing to go up to the £500 and get one from Dell outlet, they have a 'buy now save £100' offer on at the moment.

This is one I picked out for just under £500.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]INSPIRON STUDIO 1737 (System Identifier. FXDB0TA8)[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Studio 1737 Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB)[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]English Genuine Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Memory: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Memory 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR2 [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Hard Disk Drive: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Hard Drive 320GB (5400rpm) [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Video: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Graphics 256 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650 [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]NoteBook Screen: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Display 17.0 Widescreen WXGA+ Truelife CCFL [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]CD Read-Write Drive: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]System [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Color: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]LCD Back Cover Jet Black Colour Matte Finish [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]MISC: [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Keyboard Internal UK English Qwerty [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Image Restore - Vista [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]MS Vista Premium [/SIZE][/FONT]
Wireless Intel WiFi Link 5100
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Battery Primary 6 cell [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Wireless Europe Dell [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Bluetooth 370 Card [/SIZE][/FONT]

You could of course go for a slower porcessor, 15 inch screen, less memory, integrated graphics or smaller HDD to save money.
e.g. a 15 inch, 1537 Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz), 3GB memory, 250 GB HDD and a 256 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450 card could be had for £370 (which includes the £100 off).

amdavies

If you're not too tech savvy, get down to a bricks and mortar establishment and buy one from there. Pay the shop front tax, it's a lot easier to demand your money back from a shop manager than the handset of a telephone.
If your laptop goes wrong and it's not your fault (within a reasonable period of time), take it back to the shop and ask nicely for a full refund. No credit note, no offer to exchange it for a refurb and certainly no "it'll be a month to send it back to the manufacturer."
Now, what classifies as "a reasonable period of time" is open to interpretation. From my experience, technology normally goes wrong within the first few months (take it back) or after 4-5 years (pay for the repair or buy a new one, normally works out cheaper than the extended warranty they'll try and sell you).

Buy something similar to this:-
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-5206.aspx
(Core 2 Duo processor is the main thing you're looking for at around £350-£400)
and realise that you'll probably have to buy a new one in 4-5 years time but if you're lucky, you may not have to.
I'd recommend a visit to a Tesco Extra and having a look at what they have that's similar. DSGi is looking a bit shaky at this moment so you'd want a store that's as likely as possible to be in business over the next few years.