Buying laptop from Currys PC World. Need pointing in the rright direction please.

Marty_J

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Alternatively, it could be replaced with... nothing. Even if the camera cannot normally be accessed without it, a simple card reader would render it totally redundant.

If you check out their website, it does a bit more than a card reader.

Picasa looks like a much better program anyway.

-TangleFoot-

Marty_J wrote: »

If you check out their website, it does a bit more than a card reader.

I checked: it's not very clearly explained, but it appears to do the kinds of things Windows does anyway. The rest is just fluff.

Marty_J

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

I checked: it's not very clearly explained, but it appears to do the kinds of things Windows does anyway. The rest is just fluff.

I'd tend to agree, but we don't know what the OP uses it for.

Esqui

If you buy a laptop/PC with Vista on (except basic), you'll get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when released. You just have to pay P&P. Some manufacturers will be sending there in solid gold envelopes, as they are charging almost £30 to post you a CD.

http://win7upgrade.co.uk/ to register once you've bought it

Strider590

"Buying laptop from Currys PC World. Need pointing in the rright direction please"

*points in the other direction*

Save your money, buy one somewhere else and spend the voucher on something else. You'll be paying £100 too much in PC world so unless the voucher is worth £100+ you'll be better off elsewhere.

Have you looked at Dell's website? at least they're half decent quality

-TangleFoot-

Strider590 wrote: »

...unless the voucher is worth £100+ you'll be better off elsewhere.

The value of the voucher(s) was clarified a few posts back:

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

My vouchers are gift vouchers for £500 but I could add a bit more. Conversely, I could do with buying 2 (one for son) so going cheaper would be good.

Like I said, the Toshiba A300 looks decent enough but unfortunately DSGi don't appear to sell them in-store. And getting two for the same amount of money puts us in netbook territory, which isn't a terribly good place to be if you're after a multimedia powerhouse.

Any ideas?

Strider590

Ah
Ok, I admit to being a little rushed and not really reading everything in detail.... My brother gets vouchers for Curry's instead of getting his sales bonus, he's gotten TV's and all sorts of things.

Penny_Farthing_2

Tanglefoot and Marty - I have to admit that I don't 'mess' with photos much. Maybe cropping and red eye reduction at most. I'm just storing them.

I don't need to get 2 machines for £500 as I can put extra cash towards them but I'd definitely not be wanting a netbook - more a replacement for the desktop PC.

I must admit that now I've read your advice, I'm tempted to wait for Windows 7 and save up to buy elsewhere. I can always use the vouchers to get a nice TV as we are planning to do that in the next 6 months or so anyway. I'm thinking it would be easier to argue with the shop about a faulty TV than have the hassle of poor customer service if a laptop went wrong.

All the info given will be very useful when I do go shopping, though, so thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.

cmatt360

Penny_Farthing wrote: »

Tanglefoot and Marty - I have to admit that I don't 'mess' with photos much. Maybe cropping and red eye reduction at most. I'm just storing them.

I don't need to get 2 machines for £500 as I can put extra cash towards them but I'd definitely not be wanting a netbook - more a replacement for the desktop PC.

I must admit that now I've read your advice, I'm tempted to wait for Windows 7 and save up to buy elsewhere. I can always use the vouchers to get a nice TV as we are planning to do that in the next 6 months or so anyway. I'm thinking it would be easier to argue with the shop about a faulty TV than have the hassle of poor customer service if a laptop went wrong.

All the info given will be very useful when I do go shopping, though, so thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.

sorry to interject - but, vista (must admit - with updates) is not as bad as people make out. Weigh it up against a new OS and you will find it to probably be a fair bit more stable (yes I know there has been updates for the past year, and a pre release... but it is still not openly out in the wild yet ) not to mention vista has been patched to high heaven

first and foremost - you will find you may need to tweak various options in the OS in order to make it work - however you can find tweak guides on google (cannot link - new user)

(if you really think vista is under performing)

I think everything else has been said really - my departing is advice is to avoid Dixons own brands:

Advent
Packard Bell

You can buy dells from PC World/Currys.digital and thats the laptop I would bat for - if you can however, at least make sure that you are not buying a laptop with shared memory with regards to the graphics card. Aim for one with a radeon or Nvidia graphics card (I would pick Nvidia). Vista needs 2GB+ of memory - so don't skimp on that one. On my pc laptop I have 4GB, and vista runs like a champ.

Open office is OK - however I would seriously consider upgrading to at least Office 2003.

I would say in support of MartyJ however - that apple are bang on your buck for media requirements - but are also higher then your budget Plus - it is an alien os that takes a while to get used to.

-TangleFoot-

cmatt360 wrote: »

avoid Dixons own brands:

Advent
Packard Bell

Packard Bell is not a Dixons brand - Acer acquired it over a year ago! Furthermore, Advent is just a placeholder for re-branded machines made by a third party; the Advent 4211 for example is virtually identical to the MSI Wind!