Laptop help for son

Sensemaya

Hello

My son has the opportunity of purchasing a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M1405 for £200 refurb from a local shop. It comes with only a 30 day warranty.

It's Windows XP..intel pentium m 1.6ghz...( I know this has been replaced with dual core )...512mb ram...80gig HDD...

He needs it for his schoolwork and playing Sims 2 plus University and Nightlife.

Is this a good deal for the money and would you advise to upgrade to 1GB.

I've done a google search but can't find much info. I suspect it's quite old?

Many thanks,
Sensemaya.

penrhyn

Possibly better value here, I bought a Dell D610 similar to this one recently and have been pleased with it.


http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?nav=227&product=SOLV004&title=Dell+D610+Centrino+1.73+Ghz+Laptop+-+1Gb+RAM+-+40GB+-+DVD%2FCDRW+-+Wi-Fi+-+XP+Pro

Sensemaya

Thank you for your reply.

I forgot to add the shop has offered to p/ex his old one ( Dell Inspirion - about 6 years old ) for £50.

thomas01155

p/ex? i would go for something a bit more modern http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158887 but its 419 pounds theirs probably better deals around than that one from ebuyer.

Sensemaya

thomas01155 wrote: »

p/ex? i would go for something a bit more modern http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158887 but its 419 pounds theirs probably better deals around than that one from ebuyer.

That is a really nice laptop! But my son is putting all his pocket money towards the purchase. He can get the Amilo for £150.

I'm debating whether to try to get some funds together to help him out. Or do you think Amilo would do for the next year or so?

Sorry for all the silly questions, but I'm hopeless when it comes to computers!

culpepper

you should ask the shop if it will run sims2, my daughters new one won't, the graphics just aren't up to it.

asininity

On the back of the games are the minimum requirements for the system, if the amilo doesn't have them or better then you're wasting your money. Really you want better than the minimum.

Sensemaya

Thanks for everybody's replies.

I will take the games into the shop tomorrow.

udjamaflip

The fact they only give a 30 day warranty shows how old it is, as they know people take time to realise certain issues with laptop like the battery only lasting 10minutes.

If you go curries you can get the Asus EEE PC for 199£ I guarantee this will run faster and supply the requirements for him, if he is going to need windows however this won't be an alternative for him as it comes with Linux (a very easy to use version)

When buying 2nd hand computer parts you really need more than 30 days warranty especially on laptops as there is the following things:

1) Harddisk failure, you won't notice it at first but it can be lethal to data. Ask for a full HDD test and paste it here I'll be happy to diagnose!

2) Older laptops especially use shared memory which means graphics use your ramm which means if it advertises 128mb graphics with 1gb of ram you only get 872mb of ram as the other is used on graphics.

3) Bigger screens eat battery and are generally quite cumbersome, so be aware of this.

4) The processor isn't too old but I'm guessing it will be DDR not DDR2 so if upgrading this will be something to keep in mind.

finally..

5) Batteries are the worst on laptops, ask what kind of USAGE on time you should expect, don't let them fool you with standby times.

And just an additional note:

- Dell Inspirons are quite popular for parts (if your willing to break it up and sell on ebay)

I hope this helps!

macman

If you do go for the Fujitsu, an upgrade to 1GB of RAM is well worthwhile. Why not ask the shop to include that in the price, since it's quite a low spec?

AirCooledHeaven

Sensemaya wrote: »

Hello

My son has the opportunity of purchasing a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M1405 for £200 refurb from a local shop. It comes with only a 30 day warranty.

It's Windows XP..intel pentium m 1.6ghz...( I know this has been replaced with dual core )...512mb ram...80gig HDD...

He needs it for his schoolwork and playing Sims 2 plus University and Nightlife.

Is this a good deal for the money and would you advise to upgrade to 1GB.

I've done a google search but can't find much info. I suspect it's quite old?

Many thanks,
Sensemaya.

Hi

There are too problems as I see it, first is that a refurb could well last for the next 2 years, but equally it could die after 32 days and you're left with an expensive doorstop. Secondly, while it will be fine for email, web surfing, word processing etc it won't run Sims 2 satisfactorily in its current configuration and your son is likely to be disappointed with it. Of course upgrading the memory will help a lot, but it also depends on the integrated graphics. I know this is not what you want to hear but I think you really need to spend 350 - 400 quid to meet his needs.