Buying a laptop

missb_4

Hi,
I need to buy a laptop and would really appreciate any advice on where to get the best value for money. I only need it for emailing, watching stuff on the internet, watching DVDs, and Word/Excel. I'd like to spend the least amount of money possible! Any suggestions? I would get a second hand one, but have been told that it would be safer to get a new one.
Any suggestions very gratefully received!
Thanks!

cornmint

It depends on how much you want to pay for it. According to your requirement, a generic laptop is OK.
You can go to some online store, choose a generic laptop and the price in low.

totalsolutions

Good second hand (cheaper) from dealers at your local PC fair, normally on at the weekends
www.britishcomputerfairs.co.uk

KingL

I got a laptop from ebay for £14 last week, but I'm guessing you want one which gives you someone to turn to if it goes wrong. Finding laptop retailers is fairly easy (e.g. google 'laptop deals'). Here's a couple of popular ones:

http://www.ebuyer.com/
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/AdvSearch/


But your first challenge is to decide what specification you need.

The leading established computer operating system is Microsoft XP, but this is coming to the end of it's self life and won't be supported in future, so you will need to decide what operating system you want.

This in turn, will be a factor in deciding how powerful a computer you need. (The newer Operating System Microsoft Vista needs a more powerful computer than XP, and the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Windows 7 needs less power than Vista, but more than XP). Second hand computers will have XP (or older), which is fine for now, but as support for XP tails off, it may leave you open to security threats in the future.

You're looking for the amount of Memory/RAM (a small number (1-4) measured in GB, the processor type (a spacey kindof a word) and the Clockspeed (a small number (1-4) measured in GHz). The bigger the numbers, the more powerful (and expensive) the computer.

Also have a think about futureproofing. How long are you going to want to keep it? You can get away with a fairly low specification at the moment, but as software gets updated over time, it tends to demand more and more power from your computer.


The main thread for 'which laptop' is here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1993


Leopard is referring to other recent 'which laptop' threads - have a read through and glean some information about specs and suppliers from people with similar requirements to yourself:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1842243
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1893415
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1889013
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1886455
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1881623
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1881439
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1880265
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1879507
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1875203
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1879151
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1878189
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1864725
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1876551
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1866969
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1867543
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1870209
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1869211
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1868657
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1866287
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1865845
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1865581
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1860813
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1855287
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1854123
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1852543
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1845779
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1840993
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1836843
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1836595
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1836449
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1831391

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