The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

kats53

When did you see the £50 cashback from HP?

pigeonpie

username - which laptop model is that? The 6400?
Can you post the HP spec that got you the deal please?
I wonder if it's worth bothering with a better graphics card than the integrated or waiting until next week? Will it make that much difference to photo work?

:username:

pigeonpie wrote: »

username - which laptop model is that? The 6400?
Can you post the HP spec that got you the deal please?
I wonder if it's worth bothering with a better graphics card than the integrated or waiting until next week? Will it make that much difference to photo work?

Yeah it is the Inspiron 6400. I also managed to get XP Pro for £30 more so the whole deal is £503 including VAT & Delivery which will be 6th of June apparenty.

If photo work is what you will be doing then having a beter graphics card can only be a good thing IMO.

I think I used this HP laptop as a bargining tool but i'm not 100%. I will bring the paperwork home with me tomorrow and will know for sure then. http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=386332
I did tell a few white lies about the spec on it but what do Dell know, they just want the sale and your money.

I got the standard deal first then phoned up the next day to haggle then phoned up the next to purchase. It took 3 days to get the deal but it was worth it.
When he offered me XP Pro instead of Home I said that I was over my bugget and the price quickly dropped from £80-£50-£30. I think if you drag the deal out abit it can work in your favor. Did for me anyhow.

Good luck.

Jon_01

Anyone know if you can get Dell to drop windows from the spec (as I'll be running linux) ? I seem to remember reading somewhere you can get another 50 quid off ? (I did try a while ago and they said they'd only do that on biz machines ? why that makes a difference I really don't know...).

bellas-mummy_2

Hello - can anyone help me please?

I will be going to uni in sept as a mature student and need to get a leptop really. It will only be used for uni work etc and general browsing for 2 reasons, 1 - i have a desktop at home, and 2 - i dont use any games/downloads etc.

I have been told that the Gateway MT6223b notebook is on sale for £385 at Tesco and that this would be ok, it has Vista basic on it i think. Is this any good?

I really dont wanna spend that much as already have a comp, but want something that will get me through 3 years and be nice and quick etc. I have ben told that pentium is better than celeron - but i really have no idea?!?!

Can anyone recommened a good laptop that is cheap that will do the above? Or tell me is the Tesco one above worth it?

As i am sure you can see I understand no techie lingo AT ALL so please explain anything to me as you would to say your granny!!!!!!

bellas-mummy_2

ooooh and by the way i would rather not get a dell, have heard a lot of horror stories from friends and family on them an really put me off

ta

melancholly

kats53 wrote: »

When did you see the £50 cashback from HP?

OH bought an HP laptop around Christmas time - he had to send in a form and wait about a month, but the £50 came back to him in the end.

Sammz

Think I'm going to go for this one from Dell. £411 plus I'll get 5% cashback at Quidco.

Components
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2080 Processor (1.73GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Business - English
Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software
6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)

Accessories
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for Dual-Core Processors)
Free - Deluxe Nylon Carry Case
Free Kensington Pilot Mini Wireless

far_away

I only wanted a pretty low end specification, and so didn't have much wiggle room. However, I was still able to get almost £30 off.

BASE AMD® Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL50 edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Collect & Return, 90 Day Service only edit

Dell Recommends
Increase your productivity and get peace of mind
Basic Package, 3 Year At-Home Service
Learn More
Upgrade to Basic Package, 3 Year At-Home Service [add £88.12 £66.08 or £2/month1]
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen XGA TFT Display: 1280x800 edit
MEMORY 1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512] edit
HARD DRIVE 80GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY 4 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (29 Whr) edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for AMD Processors) edit
CARRY CASES No Carry Case

By the way, does anybody know what the differences between the WXGA and the XGA? They both say they are widescreen.

judosteffer

Can anyone comment on the plethora of IBM thinkpad T41s on ebay at the moment? They sell for anywhere between £200 and £300 pound and are all 1 gig ram, 40 gig hard drive and Centrino 1.6 Ghz. How dos this compare with the current round of brand new £299 laptops like the Toshiba L30 ?