Help in choosing a laptop please!

drsusan

Hi, im new to this forum but could really use some technical advise. Im looking to replace my current studenty laptop (Dell inspiron 6000) for a new one. My requirements are - microsoft office if possible - good DVD player, large screen with non matt finish, reasonable storage and speed but light as my current one is a boulder!.
I have looked on the forums but as I dont understand a lot of the technical aspects I dont want to end up paying for things I just dont need and which can go wrong (of which many did in my Dell so not really looking to get another one from them!)

Im looking to spend around £400 and really want to get the most for my money and not get sucked in by salespeople, if anyone has any recommendations I would really appreciate it

hendersonb

My first advice would be to get it without office if your a student - you can usually borrow the cds from your university library and use office legally under their licence agreement while you are a student - technically you'd need to remove it when you finish your course though.
If not the Student version of office is £49-£100 i believe.

Stay away from Advent, Packard Bell, E-machines laptops or other small brands that have no support etc

Dell's don't really appear to be any worse than the rest of the major name laptops, but do remember laptops are much more fragile than their desktop counterparts and much more expensive for parts i.e laptop keyboard could cost you 10-20x more than a cheap desktop keyboard.

Any laptop you buy should play dvd's without issue these days
Storage should also be no problem on most modern laptops - make sure you backup critical documents if its for uni work etc

Most laptops seem to come either with Norton or McAfee installed - both of these will slow your laptop down significantly.

drsusan

hendersonb wrote: »

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Stay away from Advent, Packard Bell, E-machines laptops or other small brands that have no support etc



Most laptops seem to come either with Norton or McAfee installed - both of these will slow your laptop down significantly.

Thanks for your advice - is it worth getting a separate warranty? I had one with Dell but they often quoted small print which meant the problems i encountered werent covered.

Are there any good security programs for laptops which wont slow them down? I currently have Comodo but I think it requires more knowledge than I have!

drsusan

loaner wrote: »

what problems did you have that weren't covered?

the most recent was a latch that broke, not through misuse which they stated would require a whole new screen to be fitted.

Also the power connection at the back has now come loose so power alternates between battery and mains causing the screen to flicker and that is not covered.

Marty_J

If you're a student, you could see what sort of discount you could get on an Apple MacBook. A friend of mine got a rather hefty reduction, and I believe a university student would get even more.

Apple are consistently rated as having the best customer satisfaction and customer support there is. Their computers are fantastically well built, and when it comes time to get a new one, they have a high resale value.

And, their laptops have magnetic power leads; no more loose connections!

lee26g

drsusan wrote: »

Thanks for your advice - is it worth getting a separate warranty? I had one with Dell but they often quoted small print which meant the problems i encountered werent covered.

Are there any good security programs for laptops which wont slow them down? I currently have Comodo but I think it requires more knowledge than I have!

I always recommend ASUS laptops.
Here is one which is a pretty good deal, its sexy and damn fast!!
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_X58L-AP004E_Laptop_X58L-AP004E/version.asp
Allthough I only spent 2 mins looking so there may be better about.

For security Comodo make a good firewall but I dont think their antivirus is up to scratch. I would suggest installing AVG aswell. If you were going to pay for software I would say Outpost Firewall Pro for a firewall and Bitdefender as an antivirus.

drsusan

found a deal at play Acer Aspire 6930G - 583G25BN/C2D T5800/ 3GB / 250GB / 16" screen with blu ray and vista £479.99 delivered has over £100 off and cashback through various sites, any comments welcome!

lee26g

drsusan wrote: »

found a deal at play Acer Aspire 6930G - 583G25BN/C2D T5800/ 3GB / 250GB / 16" screen with blu ray and vista £479.99 delivered has over £100 off and cashback through various sites, any comments welcome!

looks good, 3g of ram and a fast processor and blueray.
good reviews on amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aspire-16-inch-Premium-GeForce-Blu-ray/dp/B001G7PI30

aliEnRIK

Marty_J wrote: »

If you're a student, you could see what sort of discount you could get on an Apple MacBook. A friend of mine got a rather hefty reduction, and I believe a university student would get even more.

Apple are consistently rated as having the best customer satisfaction and customer support there is. Their computers are fantastically well built, and when it comes time to get a new one, they have a high resale value.

And, their laptops have magnetic power leads; no more loose connections!

I could be wrong here Marty as im no mac expert

But the student I helped last needed her work done in office 2003. So how do you go about that on a mac ~ does it have conversion software or suchlike? (She also NEEDED to use powerpoint at one stage)

Marty_J

I guess you'd use Microsoft Office for Mac (which Microsoft released a year before the first Windows version btw). I'm not sure about the ins and outs of the different versions though, but it includes PowerPoint. You can get it for half-price at the minute when you buy a new Mac.

OpenOffice could also be an option.

lee26g

Macs are great if you dont have a budget, but there is no way you would get around the same specs as what you could get for a pc for the same money. The OP has found a laptop with 3gigs of ram, a Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 250gb harddrive, NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GS 256MB card, Blueray ROM with HDMI outtput for under £500. I doubt you could find a mac with these specs for under £1000