The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Anne1954

Grahawk,

It looks like the Currys- Packard Bell E4170 @ £649 with Pentium M, 256MB, 40GB, DVD RW & CD RW, 152 display, and wireless enabled will be the best deal then.

The Thinpad is good but I can't find spec for DVD RW, etc.

Thanks,

Anne

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hi im after a gaming laptop, it has to have 512mb Ram, a Centrino (i am told they are the best) and Radeon 9700 (or should i wait for the Radeon Xseries mobile processor). i want to do some serious Half lifing on the move.

Oh a nice screen and a decent weight and slim as possible (like the samsungs)

i am willing to pay around £600-£700

can anyone help please  ???

The answer is - you'll be lucky at that price!

Firstly for serious gaming the only Centrino to go for is the latest 2ghz model. This is similar to a Pentium 3ghz in performance. However it's not the best for games. Centrinos weren't designed for gaming though this model has a following in the gaming community and is considered the first Centrino that can compete. Forget other Centrinos.

Heres a test including this Centrino from a gaming site:

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=gmso&page=1&MSCSProfile=

You can get Pentium 3ghz based laptops for £700 but I'm not sure you would find one with a decent graphics card. I don't know much about gaming laptops otherwise except that I've read a budget of about £900-£1000 is what is required.

£$&*"($£&(

Grahawk,

It looks like the Currys- Packard Bell E4170 @ £649 with Pentium M, 256MB, 40GB, DVD RW & CD RW, 152 display, and wireless enabled will be the best deal then.

The Thinpad is good but I can't find spec for DVD RW, etc.

Thanks,

Anne

Looks good - I was a bit confused by the processor as I couldn't find it on the Intel site. It is a latest generation version of the Centrino and should be similar to at least a Pentium 2.2 - 2.4ghz processor if anyone asks. It's also available at PC World.

tandeh

thanx for the reply Grahawk, what i really need is a desktop relacement, meaning i need gaming power to play latest games aswell as doing all other stuff, i am willing to expand my budget by another £100 or so, any suggestions, if possible any decent Laptops from PC world, currys or dixons as i live near all of them and would have less problems getting repairs etc.

alrabbit

Some thoughts on buying laptops... ::)

I've bought and worked on many different brands over the years and IMHO here's my input...

Wherever possible, go for a tier 1 manufacturer (I'll list a few with some strengths and weaknesses in a mo'). I've found that the quality and longevity of these against the smaller brands is nearly always better. (Probably because of the massive R&D budgets these companies have). I've also found that shopping online means you can get a similar spec laptop by say IBM for the same price as you'd pay for something of a little less quality in a store.
Best to do some online price comparisons and particularly check dabs, ebuyer, simply & savastore.

I like....

IBM - Strong, well made, will take some knocks so good if you're accident prone or mobile.
Toshiba - Very good all round, good support.
HP - Again, pretty well made - the compaq heritage is the key here.
Sony - My personal choice as style and quality are immense, but better as a desktop replacement as the more affordable models seem to weigh a ton!!
Acer - Pretty average all round.

I wouldn't touch with yours...

Dell - In my experience.. start falling apart after a year or so, bad support.
Packard Bell - Although NEC are a massive tier 1 company, the quality control seems a bit sketchy.
Time/Tiny - If they're still going... bleugh...

Specs to worry about are the things that aren't easily upgradable - mainly the screen. Personally 15" minimum and check the refresh rate and viewing angles... the new Sony black screens are fantastic to use. I'd also make sure of a dvd/cdrw combo minimum but pref dvd-rw (+&-compatible)
Of the upgradables 256 is just about ok but bear in mind you'll want 512 in a year or less (+£30to£50).
Hard drives are always a bit skimpy in laptops but 40Gb is a good start - you can buy bigger later if needed.

All this leads to what I'd recommend at the moment... well, it seems to me xmas has either depleted stocks or pushed prices up as there aren't many great deals around... An HP nx9020 comes in at about £560 inc. VAT on PC World business (https://www.pcwb.com) but don't have  time to shop round and get a better price... best time to buy is when manufacturers bring out a new model and discount the older models or when they are having a big sales push (IBM at the moment)....

Anyways, apols for the long post but hope my experience may help some peeps...    ;D

lesley2004

Have you purchased from pcworld business before.

The prices seem quite cheap

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The prices seem quite cheap

The prices shown are excluding VAT as the site is designed for business.

lesley2004

Oh right that explains that

What do you think of the acer aspire range

I am so undecided on laptop to buy, it is driving me mad!!

I keep going back to acernotebooks.co.uk and looking at 1672wlmi at £799 and 2023wlmi at £974.

Do you think either of these is a good choice for the price. Must be able to play games such as rome total war/sims2/battle for middle earth

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

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raeble

The system requirements for the sims 2 are here. You should be able to pick a laptop that matches those requirements at the very minimum, if you are playing games you really need a dedicated graphics card. I would say that second laptop on this page should be ok for the sims 2.

£$&*"($£&(

Gaming is not something Im entirely sure about but I'd say it has to better to get a laptop with a 128mb card. Not just for now but for games released during the next year. One of these games had a minimum requirement for a 64mb card and I would be wanting something more than a minimum.

Your more expensive choice is a 1.6ghz Centrino and I'm not sure how good this will be for gaming. From what I've read Centrinos aren't great for gaming though of course most games will work well enough.