The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

mw00001

Thanks JDPower and Fallen Angel, will give dell a go in the next few days, I think that I can get a 17" similar to the Acer mentioned before.

The Acer 7720 17" is on Play.com for £439 - £60 cheaper than Amazon
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3477743/Acer-Aspire-7720Z-Pentium-T2310-1-46GHz-2GB-160GB-17-WXGA+-DVD-SM-Vista-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html

The Inspiron 1720 17" has a marginally better CPU for £449
http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=CFG&oid=015bce36-d51f-4186-98d2-151edae30759

There seem to be better value deals available, but I am specifically looking for a 17" model and looking to get the best bang per buck below £500.

If anyone spots any other good 17" please post... and thanks again for the help or any additional guidance.

Matt

d123

obsessednewbie wrote: »

Have read back 15 Pages and have picked up a few "essential" must haves, however a few friends have suggested i also "must haves". Please can someone help guide me in the direction of a laptop that has the following:-

** Core2duo processor
** 2gb Ram
** DVD dual Layer
** Wireless ability (assume all have this nowadays?)
** Bluetooth & firewire (is this really essential)
** 4 USB
** XP (currently have vista pc and cant get on with it)
** Widescreen - any size
** 120gb hard drive

Graphics - was told not to go for on board graphics - how do i tell?

Have a budget of £300 - £550 - Am i asking for the moon on a stick or is any / all of this possible.

Thank you so much in advance!

PC World are selling a Toshiba laptop with a very similar spec, was advertised on TV tonight - £399

Zeldazog

Hi All

Apologies if this has been asked recently -

Would *like* it to be able to handle Photoshop CS2. Other than that, Office, and just normal other stuff, internet, and of course, MSN....

What's my minimum spec/spend - I know nothing about laptops, or integrated cards, etc.

Got an external DVD writer for Xmas, have a 19" desktop monitor I can use, so don't need big screen, also looking for decent portability, so don't want a big thing anyway.

Many thanks for your help! (And patience, you may need it with me.....)

firebird1

mw00001 wrote: »

Hi all,

I am trying to but a decent 17" laptop, have seen this at amazon for £499...



Acer Aspire 7720Z Notebook, Dual Core T2310 1.46GHz, 17" TFT, 2048MB RAM, 160GB Hard-drive, DVD±RW, GL960 Graphics, WiFi, Vista Home Premium

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000VPJDW0/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Is it any good? Or any other stores I should consider? Is there any other 17" laptops I should consider?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

,
,
I have the HP pavilion 17 inch wide screen
Twin 120 gig hard drives
Dual processor
I bought it on a trip to the U.S.

here are some more specs.
The HP Pavilion dv9000 is a desktop replacement that's serious about multimedia. Its matte- or glossy-finished, 17-inch wide-screen display comes with a native resolution of either WXGA+ (1,440x900) or WSXGA+ (1,680x1,050), and the system features LED-backlit, touch-sensitive multimedia controls; two headphone jacks (one of which supports S/PDIF out); and HP's QuickPlay 2.1 software for accessing media without booting into Windows. You can configure the notebook with an AMD Turion 64 X2 processor at speeds from 1.6GHz to 1.8GHz; up to 2GB of 533MHz or 667MHz RAM; an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card with 256MB of dedicated VRAM; and a 5,400rpm hard drive with up to 120GB of capacity. The HP Pavilion dv9000 also supports two hard drives on a RAID controller for up to 240GB of space. Other features include HP's Mobile Remote Control, S-Video out and FireWire ports, an ExpressCard slot, 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth, a dual-layer DVD burner, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader. A Webcam, dual microphones, and Windows XP Media Center Edition are all optional.

brucers9

Hello

I'd appreciate some help choosing a laptop, I've never purchased one before so I'll give you the basics of what I want, and if anyone has any suggestions please hit me with them:

Budget: Between £600-£850ish
The laptop will be to replace my existing desktop PC
Mainly used for internet, photos & video editing, some gaming
Processing speed and memory are a high priority (my current PC is painfully slow)
Something reliable, user friendly and a good all rounder.

I know this is a bit vague but can anyone help?

Should I go for a Mac or not?

Thanks

BB

elpaw

Are there any retailers out there with the option of not bundling an OS onto the laptop? I know about novatech...

dog1

mw00001 wrote: »

Hi all,

I am trying to but a decent 17" laptop, have seen this at amazon for £499...

Acer Aspire 7720Z Notebook, Dual Core T2310 1.46GHz, 17" TFT, 2048MB RAM, 160GB Hard-drive, DVD±RW, GL960 Graphics, WiFi, Vista Home Premium

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000VPJDW0/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Is it any good? Or any other stores I should consider? Is there any other 17" laptops I should consider?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Tesco have this acer 17" at £399 was £599, don't know how good/bad it is though!

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-5525.aspx

sam1970

i am thinking of buying a new laptop and i found this acer for £391 after rebate and quidco and i would like to know waht people think of it...thanks

Acer TravelMate 5720-301G16Mi Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 / 15.4 WXGA / 1GB / 160GB / DVD+/-RW / Vista Home Premium / Laptop

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )

Hard Drive -160 GB - Serial ATA-150

Networking - Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g Telecom Fax / modem - 56 Kbps

RAM - 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM - 533 MHz ( 2 x 512 MB )
Graphics Controller - Intel GMA X3100
Built-in Devices - Stereo speakers, wireless LAN aerial

Display
15.4" CrystalBrite TFT Display active matrix 1280 x 800 ( WXGA+ ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours)

Optical Storage DVD-SuperMulti
OS Provided - Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium
Dimensions (WxDxH) 36 cm x 26.7 cm x 4.3 cm

tight-git

hi , i went for the newer ver Gemstone type with a 80G HDD but 2G ram ..very happy so far - my 3rd acer.
being very honest , the keybord and on the whole - its a bit plasticky ! but the style is TOP NOTCH / 10/10 ...i change my laptop often anyway, so it wont bother me that much but go to pc world or something to see 1 1st ....:rolleyes:

JDPower

This is quite a good deal for a Toshiba laptop:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/339848