The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

JDPower

Viz wrote: »

I thought the idea of having a graphics card was that it used its own RAM rather than the system.

In a regular computer yes. But generally laptops don't have an actual graphics card as such, it is simply a graphics chip on the motherboard and as such don't have their own RAM. Check pretty much any laptop and you'll find the system will not report the amount of RAM that is installed correctly because some is set aside for the graphics 'card'. My laptop for example has 2Gb (2048Mb) of RAM but the system only reports 1.7Gb (1792Mb) of RAM installed because 256Mb is set aside for the graphics 'card'.

siliconbits

Posted this yesterday on my blog... Hope that helps those looking for a lappy ;-)


Up to £200
If you have an absolute maximum budget of £200 all inclusive, grab the cheapest Asus EEE Laptop you can find. They are currently on sale at Ebuyer for £199.99 with free delivery. The Asus Eee PC 2GS-W001 comes with 512MB memory and 2GB onboard Flash memory, but it should me adequate for all but the lightest of tasks. Other specs include a 7″ screen, Intel Mobile processor and Linux Preloaded.

Up to £250
If you can stretch your budget to £250, then grab one of these Gateway ML6227b Celeron Notebooks from Morgancomputers for only £249.99 including VAT. You can collect your purchases from their stores.

Budget laptop it ain’t though. This factory rework Celeron notebook comes with 6 months warranty and
* Intel Celeron M 520 processor (1.6GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 533MHz bus)
* 1GB DDR2 RAM, 80GB hard disk and 8x multiformat DVD writer
* 15.4″ widescreen Ultrabright display (1280 x 800 WXGA resolution)
* Intel GMA 950 chipset with 224MB shared graphics
* Wireless networking, 4-in-1 card reader, 10/100 LAN and 56K modem
* High definition sound & stereo speakers, 6 cell lithium-ion battery
* With Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Works 8.5
You can find more about this newly released laptop in this review at PC Advisor published at the beginning of September.
Up to £300

The HP 6720s Laptop from Ebuyer is my next best buy. It comes with a powerful Intel Celeron 540 running at 1.86GHz, has 1GB memory, 80GB hard disk, DVD-RW, wireless LAN, 15.4″ WXGA (1280 x 800 resolution) and interestingly, Vista Home Premium. The price? GBP 299.99 including free delivery. Not a lot separates this one from the Gateway model. You get a slightly faster processor and 6 month extra warranty.
Up to £350

Perhaps the most difficult category to judge: I chose to go for a HP again simply because it represents fantastic value for money. The HP 6820S costs only GBP 340 after a GBP 50 cash back from HP. It is built around a Intel Celeron 530 1.73 GHz, comes with 1GB memory, a 120GB disk drive, a DVD+/-RW writer. Connectivity is great with Wifi and BT. However, it is the screen that will get your heads turning. You get a 17″ WXGA monitor powered by an excelltn ATI Mobility Radeon X1350 384MB. Last but not least, the lappy is powered by Windows Vista Home Premium.
Up to £400

You’ve got to £400 to spend on a nice laptop? How about this Dell Vostro 1ooo Laptop. The Vostro range is dedicated to businesses but nothing prevents you from grabbing one of those bargains from Dell. Go to the Dell website and look for the following e-code (N0110007). You have until the 16th of January before the price revert back to normal. Configure the laptop with 3 year warranty onsite and a 9-cell battery for only £397.15. For that price, you get a Dual Core AMD TK57 processor, 2GB memory, 120GB HDD and much more.

lethal_2

sorry what does N0110007 this code mean?


Sorry but thanx for the previous post

siliconbits

lethal wrote: »

sorry what does N0110007 this code mean?


Sorry but thanx for the previous post

Go to dell.co.uk and type that code in their search engine.

Mark_Ice

Its cheap and cheerful but for the money surely it cant be that bad....

This http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Stone-LM7W-Laptop-250-inc-1-Year-Warranty-Free-P-P_W0QQitemZ160196871895QQihZ006QQcategoryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Sold by OEG http://www.oegcomputersales.com/

Who have the same phone number as http://store.stonecomputers.co.uk/ or so someone pointed out?

Any good to anyone?

JDPower

Mark_Ice wrote: »

Its cheap and cheerful but for the money surely it cant be that bad....

This http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Stone-LM7W-Laptop-250-inc-1-Year-Warranty-Free-P-P_W0QQitemZ160196871895QQihZ006QQcategoryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Sold by OEG http://www.oegcomputersales.com/

Wouldn't touch that with a barge pole myself. Poor, badly thought out spec and the company's website isn't even a real site, just a picture of a web page with no interactive elements. Yes it's cheap but for what you're getting that's all it's really worth and not worth the risk IMO.

Mark_Ice

JDPower wrote: »

Wouldn't touch that with a barge pole myself. Poor, badly thought out spec and the company's website isn't even a real site, just a picture of a web page with no interactive elements. Yes it's cheap but for what you're getting that's all it's really worth and not worth the risk IMO.

Pretty sure OEG are Stone Computers, they both have the same phone number and I'm pretty sure they are a reputable company?

Mind you that means nothing if the laptop spec is nothing short of a good dump..... :eek:


http://rawmusicdirect.com/laptops1 some cheapies here.......

I'm_With_Stupid

I just ordered the one on the right. It won't be delivered until February, but if you're not in a hurry, it's the best spec laptop I could find for under £500. Great processor, plenty of RAM and a big enough hard drive for most people. And then all of the extras like bluetooth.

Saeed

I'm selling my Acer Extensa 5610 Laptop/Notebook. It is in new condition with box and all accessories. Bought 1 month ago, but now been given a company laptop so this is no longer needed. Comes with 11 months guarantee.

Specification:

Acer Extensa 5610
Core 2 Duo processor 1.66GHz
15.4" Widescreen XGA screen with glossy CrystalBrite technology
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
120GB Seagate HDD
LG DVDRW dual layer also reads and write RAM disks
Genuine Windows XP Pro installed
Card reader 5 in 1 reads and writes SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, XD cards
Wireless internet
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 with up to 224 MB memory
Firewire 1394 port
4x USB 2.0
S-video output
VGA output
Gibagit ethernet

Selling for £400, cost me £450 a month ago! I live in Bradford.

Don't have any pics of it, but they can be seen on the misco website below
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/searchtools/item-detailsInactive.asp?Sku=Q114079

d123

siliconbits wrote: »

Posted this yesterday on my blog... Hope that helps those looking for a lappy ;-)


Up to £200
If you have an absolute maximum budget of £200 all inclusive, grab the cheapest Asus EEE Laptop you can find. They are currently on sale at Ebuyer for £199.99 with free delivery. The Asus Eee PC 2GS-W001 comes with 512MB memory and 2GB onboard Flash memory, but it should me adequate for all but the lightest of tasks. Other specs include a 7″ screen, Intel Mobile processor and Linux Preloaded.

no,no,no.

That is bad advice, the 2G is very bad value as it means you are constrained to the linux os, the 4G is only £219 at either PC World or Toys R Us and has enough space for a normal XP install and still enough space for all the other programs people use on a regular basis.