The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Nikolic

GeordieLad wrote:

As Little_ange mentions above (thanks!), over299 still gets you 10% discount at Curry's.

I like the look of the Toshiba too, my only question would be whether it is better to buy a laptop before Christmas - or will there be significant reductions to be had in the January sales? I realise that this is not necessarily easy to predict, but any thoughts welcome. For example, is some new processor technology likely to be released then, meaning that firms will want to get rid of older stock?

This Toshiba is already sort of old tech. It uses the older Core Duo Processor, instead of the latest Core 2 Duo.

Craftyscholar

Comet has ACER AS3682WXMI for £349.00.

I only need a fairly basic laptop. Main requirements are low weight, cost and reliability. I know the lightest ones are expensive so it will be a trade off.

Can anyone advise if this ACER is a good idea and would there be any advantage in waiting till January for sale deals?

johnd_2

Nikolic wrote:

This Toshiba is already sort of old tech. It uses the older Core Duo Processor, instead of the latest Core 2 Duo.

There's actually precious little difference in notebook use (as opposed to desktops). It does depend what sort of applications you're running but for general use the Core 2 Duo might be say 5% faster (for the same clock speed). (See http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808 for example for a fairly techie review and bear in mind that the max 15% difference quoted was only for top-end CPUs and for certain specialised apps only.)

I've been tempted by a Toshiba A120 (not dissimilar to the A100 series but with a stronger case) and found a Core 2 Duo version today for around the £500 mark, which I think is a good deal. This is available from online shops only sadly, but I've trusted my cash (or rather my business's cash) to More at:
https://www.morecomputers.co.uk/textra.asp?extension=&product_number=PSAC1E%2D04E010EN

There's also the same model at TechnoWorld for a few pounds cheaper:

https://www.technoworld.com/laptops/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A120-144_PSAC1E-04E010EN.htm

I don't know anything about these two outlets and never bought from them before so caveat emptor. But the reviews for More seemed a bit more reassuring so I used them.

Also there's no DVD writer on these models (DVD-reader/CD burner only) but for my intended use that's fine. But there is XP Pro and hence an £11 upgrade route to Vista in the New Year.

I'm not convinced I made the right decision!! Well almost, but there's another variant of the A120 in the A120SE-177, which has the Core Duo CPU and costs about the same price as the one above. Why am I not sure? Well, turns out that on certain A120SE models Toshiba have a cashback scheme running currently. (See https://www.toshibacashback.com/). IF you spend over £50 (+VAT) on accessories when buying your notebook they'll refund £50. So I could have bought a 512MB memory expansion plus cheapest carry bag to take the price over £50. This would have given me a Core Duo PC with 1GM RAM that would probably have been the same speed as a Core 2 Duo one with the standard 512MB and I'd still have £50 left. But in the end I succumbed to the lure of the Core 2 Duo label.

If you're happy with a 40GB hard drive (which is still reasonably OK for a laptop) and XP Home then there's some even cheaper deals around eg

https://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10290493&pid=30&rstrat=0

(Play the little video on this page to see the benefits in the A120 design - well worth a look.)

Carlsbrosound

Hi,
thanks for the Curry's discount code but in the end I've picked up 2 x Acer Travelmate 4262WLMi from an Ebay shop (bluecentstore) at £500+£20p&p each. They had 4 but there all gone now!

I was after something more than a basic laptop which my lads would have half a chance at some games on, but at a basic price. This model has a T2300 Core Duo and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphic card.

If your struggling to compare processors & graphic cards as I was, I found the best reference was:http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html for the cards and http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html for the processors.

CheeseOnToast

simon42 wrote:

Hi,

I've been following this thread and thought I would add the following for general information:

The Toshiba A100-147 is being sold for £499.99 in the Grantham branch of Curry's. I nipped in this afternoon for a quick look.

It is also listed at that price on the Currys and Dixons website at the moment.

Which is to be expected as they are both owned by DSG International plc, but so is PC World... PC World want £595 for the same laptop!

I would also be grateful if anyone out there does have a valid promotional code as I'm also keen to grab a bargin. I've tried all those listed before and haven't had any luck yet.

I want this machine too, its backup to £599 again, the cheek!!
I am going to keep my eye on the site..

HCDayantis

Nikolic wrote:

This Toshiba is already sort of old tech. It uses the older Core Duo Processor, instead of the latest Core 2 Duo.

Not really. Although intel call Core 2 '25% better', that's not so much the case. It's more in the region of 10-15% by independant testing, so getting a normal Core Duo isn't a great loss. You probably wouldn't notice the difference. RAM has more of an influence on speed than whether you run core 1 or core 2 duos.

Nikolic

When I said 'old tech' I meant that it wasn't the newest - shops want to be slowly getting rid of Core Duo stock and replacing it with Core 2 Duo.

I didn't mean it was old tech as in slow or anything - sorry about that :rolleyes:

wazza

CheeseOnToast wrote:

I want this machine too, its backup to £599 again, the cheek!!
I am going to keep my eye on the site..

looking at currys website the toshiba is listed at £599. BUT while in town today i popped into currys digital who has it at £499. So pop into or phone your local currys digital store to see if any in stock etc.

jfeb

Any one got any opinions on the Sony Vaio VGN-N11M? It is being sold for £550 at play.com and has an Intel Core Duo T2050 processor, 512mb ram and a DVD re-writer - which seems rare on laptops at this price point.

Thoughts?

gamston

that look a good lappie
has anyone got any codes or discounts for play.com

"Any one got any opinions on the Sony Vaio VGN-N11M? It is being sold for £550 at play.com "