The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

olly_2

Can anyone tell me if this is a good deal,as im after this type of spec,and price range,no more really.Also,whats your thoughts on owning an Asus? cheers.;)
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_X51RL-AS499C_Laptop_X51RL-AS499C/version.asp?tref=fpg-Asus%20X51RL

Arch_23

is this a good deal?

Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo Mobile D9500 Notebook PC

Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0GHz / 2GB RAM / 80GB HDD / 15.4" WXGA TFT / DVD±RW / LAN WLAN / No OS / Intel GMA X3100

£293.74 (excl. P&P)


http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=294500&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

NineThreeNine

For anybody that's looking at a good deal checkout PC Worlds "recon" range. Normally I would tell anyone to avoid PC World completely, as their prices are usually a rip-off, but the refurbished range of laptops has some real bargins!

I was looking for a 12" Laptop, as I sold my Asus eee to get a slightly bigger machine. Now at first I was looking at second hand stuff on ebay, but £200 seems to only get you an old Pentium III ~1gHz or an early Centrino. However, if you don't mind going to £360 you can get this beast:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/__Laptops_12-1-NEW-Duo-Core1-73GHz-2GB-RAM-160HD-HASEE-Laptop_W0QQitemZ250252341858QQptdnZLaptopsQQptdiZ4214QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item250252341858&_trkparms=72%3A12|39%3A1|65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1308

The chip is a Core 2 Duo with half the cache, it's not your standard 'Dual Pentium'. Now, the only worry with that machine is the warranty since its a Chinese brand. (Supposibly the UN are supplied by this brand!)

Now examine the pictures, then look at this Advent at PC World:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/504389

Hmm... the same chassis... a different processor, but it will be the same motherboard, battery, screen, etc. However, that thing will set you back £450.

Now here's where the PC World 'recon' range comes in. The above Laptop can be bought for £289!!! That's a fricking Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, modern chipset, 12" lappy for under £300!!!!

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?page=Product&source_id=aw&sku=339071&camp_id=GiftPal&source_id=aw&camp_id=GiftPal&awc=1598_1211982608_be60f8e0b2df760463a2013e1bb5ad9d

Sadly, its out of stock where I am
But, there are plenty of other great machines there. The machines are all Laptops that were returned within 28days and are all cleaned up with original packaging + parts. You get a nice 1 year warranty too, so it's practically a new machine!

Just search for 'refurbished laptop' on the PC World site. I bought a Advent 8112, which is almost the same as the 9212. All I need is to pick up 2GB of ram for £15 on ebay

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1536349561.1211982100@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdladeeemimjhjcflgceggdhhmdgmh.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=185724&category_oid=

Core 2 Duo T5250 1.5gHz // 1GB DDR2 (Chipset supports upto 4GB) // 120 GB HDD // DVD RW // LAN WLAN // Vista Premium // Intel X3100

About the same size as an A4 piece of paper

One more tip. Don't be put off by machines with 512MB or 1GB of ram. Companies are going to charge you a lot more for a 2GB machine; when you can simply buy and install the ram yourself for less than £20. Just make sure the chipset uses DDR2 and supports 2GB; most modern chipsets will support upto 4GB of DDR2. Step away from anything with plain DDR, as the stuff costs a fortune these days...

Roger_Rampant

So one has a wxga screen, but only onboard graphics. Whereas the other has a standard screen, but has a separate graphics card? Also one doesn't say whether it takes DDR2 memory or not, as far as I can see...

NineThreeNine

Roger_Rampant wrote: »

So one has a wxga screen, but only onboard graphics. Whereas the other has a standard screen, but has a separate graphics card? Also one doesn't say whether it takes DDR2 memory or not, as far as I can see...

If you're replying to my post all the laptops in it use the same GMA965 chipset; thus, they all take DDR2 memory, they all use the X3100 onboard graphics, and they all have wxga screens.

The X3100 is pretty decent for onboard graphics. It's actually 4 times more powerful than the top GMA 9xx card and actually features hardware T&L. It's not going to be as good as any 7xxx or 8xxx series nVidia card; nor will it match any 2xxx series ATi card. But it does deserve some credit, on Youtube many people use the X3100 to run Call Of Duty 4, Half Life 2, FEAR, and World of Warcraft on low/medium settings with good (~30) fps.

From looking at benchmarks of other onboard cards the X3100 is faster than the nVidia 6150 and ATi X1100, and is just behind the ATi X1300. The thing with the card is the initial drivers were very poor, so reviews of the card on release are rather negative. Although Intels driver team does suck in comparison to ATi/nVidias, the drivers do considerably improve the card.

Basically, any Intel onboard card that isn't the X3100 or above (basically any GMA9xx card) is going to be tripe.

Of course any modern dedicated ATi or nVidia card will seriously outperform it!

---

olly that Asus is a pretty good machine, the ATi graphics aren't very good (but considerably better than any GMAxxx.) If you're just web browsing + using office that machine is more than enough. Although the site says 'Intel Dual Core' that chip is a Core 2 Duo, which is a good family of laptop chips ASUS are a strong brand, they excel in the component market and thus aren't as famous for their laptops; the build and support should be top-notch.

Arch_23 as long as you don't mind the lack of an Operating System, that machine is another fine machine.

Arch_23

NineThreeNine wrote: »

Arch_23 as long as you don't mind the lack of an Operating System, that machine is another fine machine.

Could I use the Windows XP disc I received with my desktop PC?

tbh I just want a laptop for basic web browsing, email + word processing. I'll still be using my desktop for the multimedia.

NineThreeNine

Arch_23 wrote: »

Could I use the Windows XP disc I received with my desktop PC?

tbh I just want a laptop for basic web browsing, email + word processing. I'll still be using my desktop for the multimedia.

Technically if that XP license is still installed on the desktop then you can't legally install XP on another machine. Sometimes the license will only work on machines with a certain BIOS (Dell do something like this.) Whilst on others there's only your conscience stopping you from installing XP across multiple machines.

An OEM copy of XP home can be bought for only £50.

For what you want to do I'd recommend any Core 2 Duo or Turon X2 with 1GB of memory under XP or 2GB under Vista. Whilst you may get away with a Celeron, the computer will be much more 'snappy' with either of the other processors. Likewise you'll get away with 1GB of memory under Vista for basic tasks; however, upgrading memory is easy and cheap. In 90% of lappies you can't do anything about the processor.

I'd say getting a Duo /w 2GB of ram seems to head around the £300-400 mark, usually at the higher of that band. The lappy you chose would be a good purchase even with the extra £50 for Windows; or you could go try Ubuntu Linux for free!

You may look into refurbished laptops, which you can find under £300 with some serious specs:

This is good spec, apart from the ram, Packard Bell @ £259 . A good buy if you dare spend £20 on some memory and install it yourself:

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0369133917.1212027120@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdeadeeemhddfjcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=175067&category_oid=-32665

An Advent for £289.99, not as good a brand, but brilliant spec (C2D @ 1.5ghz, 2GB ram, 120GB HDD)
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0369133917.1212027120@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdeadeeemhddfjcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=942250&category_oid=-32665

A Packard Bell with the same specs as the Advent, slightly better brand:
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0369133917.1212027120@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdeadeeemhddfjcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=889394&category_oid=-32665

AliceBanned

Hi

Is this something a layperson can do; installing RAM yourself? I want to buy a laptop over the next day or two 17" and the 2GBs tend to be over £450 - could I spend less by getting 1GB and then installing more?

Thanks

bart569

there's a great deal at tesco.com a HP G6062ea laptop, 2GB RAM 120GB Hard drive winow vista home premium webcam 15.4inch screen looks pretty good i was thinking of getting it, has anybody bought it or have similar please let me know as i need to know more about it thanks!!!!! BTW the link is 1098.aspxhttp://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-1098.aspx

NineThreeNine

This video does a good job explaining:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLBKaOq7yOQ

As you can see installing ram is as easy as building with lego Well that's how I put it to people... My elder sister who knows nothing about the insides of computers managed to upgrade the ram on her desktop herself, so I reckon most people will be able to it with ease.

Two 1GB sticks can be bought for around £25 on ebay or any decent computer hardware site (aria, scan, dabs.)

Around 80% of laptops will have a compartment for upgrading the ram like the one in the video.