Confused over Laptop Specs

Bailey101

Afternoon All

I was looking to get a bit of advice on a new laptop - I know a wee bit about computers but not a lot :rolleyes:
I'm not too fussed about the make (as long as it's a reliable brand) but it does need to have a Pentium Processor of 2.4Ghz or equivalent, a Nvidia Geforce 6200 with 128mb RAM graphics card or equivalent and 2-3GB Ram.
I've had a look at a few websites, but they all have different processors etc and I'm not too sure of what's the same and what's not IYSWIM.
Has anyone got any recommendations?
Thank You
xxx

kwikbreaks

You can spend anything from ~ £300 to not far short of £3000 and they'll all work - the trick is deciding what you need and that depends on what you want it for. If it's only surfing and email figure the low end of that range.

Probably the best bang for buck on processors is with Intel Core 2 Duo right now.

A new Windows PC will come with Vista and a realistic minumum memory is 2GB.

Hard drive - bigger the better but will be down on what you'd get with a desktop.

Graphics - if you don't intend gaming then this is quite frankly not all that critical. If you do intend gaming then give laptops a miss.

Bailey101

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Graphics - if you don't intend gaming then this is quite frankly not all that critical. If you do intend gaming then give laptops a miss.

Thanks for your advice kwikbreaks
Gaming and the internet are mainly what it'd be for - the laptop I have at the moment has onboard graphics (???) but manages ok with the games I play, but there's quite a few coming out over the next wee while which will need better graphics capabilities......
I'll start looking at desktops instead if you think I'd be better off.
xxx

4743hudsonj

how much do you want to spend?

jaydeeuk1

Good idea, gaming laptops are extortionate, and the whole point of a laptop is wasted in this use. Poor battery life so you need to be near a mains, heavy, awkward screen height..... Never seen the point in them TBH.

What is your budget? £500 will get you a pretty damn good base unit and even ones priced half that will still play all todays games at moderate settings.

Bailey101

I don't have a set budget really - nothing more then about £800, but I would hope for that sort of money it would do me for a good while. Ideally though, I'd like to spend a bit less then that.
xxx

macman

Surely if you're gaming on a laptop then you'd want to have a 17 inch screen not a 15 inch? Once you do that you lose a lot of the portability of a laptop anyway (17 inch laptops are movable, but not exactly portable, if you know what I mean).
So I reckon for ths purpose a desktop machine is better and you will get more for your money.
For gaming and Vista you should be looking at 3-4GB RAM-2GB is the minimum for Vista even on a office machine really.

4743hudsonj

Dixons will give you a good idea of what you can get for your money but dont buy from there, find a model and then look for it elsewhere!

thirascule

There is a lovely selection here.

I like the look of This one.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.4 GHz Dual-Core
RAM - 4 GB (installed) 4 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive - 320 GB
Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Screen - 16 in TFT active matrix 1366 x 768 24-bit (16.7 million colours)
Optical Drive - DVD±RW / BD-ROM
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS
Bluetooth - No
Warranty - 1 year warranty
All for less than £690. Not sure if my wife would regard it as a "Must Buy" though. Oh Well.

jaydeeuk1

Not a bad price. Despite what people say about Acer, their quality has improved massively over the last 12-18 months. I hope thats 64 bit Vista installed, really winds me up when manufacturers put in 4gb ram + and bang on a 32bit OS!

Even so, for a gaming laptop that is the lowest spec you could get away with....

4743hudsonj

oh dont i know it, you spend money for 4gb and they dont even give you the option for 64 bit