The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

JDPower

BP56134 wrote: »

Ebuyer seem to think it can - they do two 'bundles' - one with an extra 1GB, the other with an extra 2GB, and that is also listed as the maximum in the specs for the laptop.
Has anyone got any experience of this please?

I have just checked on Crucial and it does only have two RAM slots so you would have 2GB RAM with that deal. Still a good deal though as it's Crucial memory in the deal and works out a couple of quid cheaper than their own site.

EDIT: By the way here's the link to Crucial so you can see for yourself: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=3000%20N200%20Series%20%28All%20Types%29

BP56134

They have a memory thing that I think is one stick with 2GB on. Is it do you know, and if so would this do if I got this instead?
Or do you think it should be OK with the 2GB in total?
Thanks for all your help!

BP56134

Whoops should have given you the link to the 2GB one

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131133

JDPower

BP56134 wrote: »

They have a memory thing that I think is one stick with 2GB on. Is it do you know, and if so would this do if I got this instead?
Or do you think it should be OK with the 2GB in total?
Thanks for all your help!

You could do but it's generally recommended to have matched pairs of RAM (eg 2x1gb). If you got a 2GB stick you'd have one 512MB and one 2GB (not ideal).

I wouldn't worry though, unless you're using some heavy resource programs 2GB is absolutely fine, it's what I have in my laptop (with a very similar spec to that Lenovo) and it is plenty. I doubt there'd even be any noticeable difference between 2 and 3GB (the max XP can use), at least with Windows XP which is what that comes with (if it were Vista I might say otherwise but it's not)

rliu

Hi I'm in a pickle over whether to go for the XPS M1530, which is on sale at the moment, for a configuration that gives a Blu-ray or not. The configuration without is reduced by £150, so I can get it for a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo T7700 with 2GB memory, 250 GB hard drive, 9 cell battery and 15.4" inch screen with 1440*900 display for £980. Whereas with Blu-ray the same configuration is £1130 but reduced by £300. Is Blu-ray worth investing with an extra £150 for at the moment? Or is it better to go for a better processor and a larger battery? Also have Dell reduced prices by as much as £150-300 before, as part of the reason I'm tempted to buy now is that I fear they won't reduce prices by as much in future.

JDPower

rliu wrote: »

Hi I'm in a pickle over whether to go for the XPS M1530, which is on sale at the moment, for a configuration that gives a Blu-ray or not. The configuration without is reduced by £150, so I can get it for a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo T7700 with 2GB memory, 250 GB hard drive, 9 cell battery and 15.4" inch screen with 1440*900 display for £980.

How much :shocked:. Whether you get a Blu-Ray drive depends on whether you want to watch Blu-Ray discs on your laptop or not.

rliu

JDPower wrote: »

How much :shocked:. Whether you get a Blu-Ray drive depends on whether you want to watch Blu-Ray discs on your laptop or not.

Yeah I was just agonising over whether I want that exactly. It's a new format and it's up against HD-DVD so one of them will at some point become obsolete, and I read articles saying older Blu-ray players have become incompatible with newer discs and firmware. So do people think it's worth going for Blu-ray?

JDPower

rliu wrote: »

Yeah I was just agonising over whether I want that exactly. It's a new format and it's up against HD-DVD so one of them will at some point become obsolete, and I read articles saying older Blu-ray players have become incompatible with newer discs and firmware. So do people think it's worth going for Blu-ray?

Like I said, are you actually going to watch Blu-Ray on your laptop??? Me personally I wouldn't, I'd rather wait and buy a standalone Blu-Ray and watch them on my actual TV. (Although there are the advantages of the increased storage size of the Blu-Ray disc for burning backups etc to but I've no experience of using them for that)

cyclotron451

rliu wrote: »

Hi I'm in a pickle over whether to go for the XPS M1530, which is on sale at the moment, for a configuration that gives a Blu-ray or not. The configuration without is reduced by £150, so I can get it for a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo T7700 with 2GB memory, 250 GB hard drive, 9 cell battery and 15.4" inch screen with 1440*900 display for £980. Whereas with Blu-ray the same configuration is £1130 but reduced by £300. Is Blu-ray worth investing with an extra £150 for at the moment? Or is it better to go for a better processor and a larger battery? Also have Dell reduced prices by as much as £150-300 before, as part of the reason I'm tempted to buy now is that I fear they won't reduce prices by as much in future.

these Dell prices are getting into Apple or Sony territory! I've always bought the €449 Dells (with XP and C2D)
As for Blu-Ray, most techies think that Blu-Ray has won, though there may be some last gasps from the HD-DVD community. Steve Jobs indicated last week that he preferred downloadable movies to either disc format.
as for 'cheap' Apples I usually buy from http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=A8E69317&nclm=Certified hopefully this will link to Apple Refurb where currently the White Shiny Macbook is on offer at £599 instead of £699. (sometimes the UKstore links time-out, in which case just look to the bottom right of the http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore and you'll see the "Save" area!)

just a reminder that all the new Apples run Windows XP perfectly, (even Vista if you must), it is recommended to use a two button mouse

dieseldog

I was in tesco today looking at the dell 1720 laptop,very nice machine £699 bit steep i thought.Just had a look on the dell website same laptop £429 a nice machine for that price.