The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Lady_K

snowqueen555 wrote: »

the dell website adds on vat at the checkout, so the prices dont end up cheap

That is decieving I hate sites that do it that way. If I had the most expensive one at £349 even if I didnt have any upgrades it works out at an extra £60 £410.08 to be exact. I was thinking of having the graphics card but the extra cost puts me off now plus not sure about that incompatibility thing that pjala has mentioned.

I won't rule it out though just yet but at least I know now rather than find out once I got to check out.

I want to use quidco or similar aswell and does it have microsoft word on it at all or do I have to get that separately?

what is the difference between windows vista home premium and the vista business one?

snowqueen555

Yeh, Dell were recently in trouble for an ad they had, laptop from 169, however this didn't include VAT and delivery of £60, they got fined or something or other because their ad was very misleading.

The vostro 1510 or £349 is a good offer at that price, if you have a business or something, but add on vat and then its not such a good deal, but compared to high street stores its very good

It really depends on what you want the laptop for, stuff like core 2 duo isn't necessary if yo uare just using the laptop for basic stuff, there isn't a need to spend the extra money

chris667

About a year ago, I bought a laptop from Staples. Our business regularly buys things from there and they do interest free credit for six months if you spend £500 or more. So we bought £150 of stock items for our day to day business, and £350 for the cheapest laptop. It's a Fujitsu-Siemens, and works quite well.
I went in there the other week and noticed they had a laptop for £300. If you pay it off in time, it's quite a good deal.
Of course, if you only want to go online you could buy a Pentium 2 or better laptop, install Puppy Linux(https://www.puppylinux.org), and then you can use a secondhand one! This one I'm typing on right now cost £45 on Ebay. It has better battery life than the Fujitsu, and of course, all the software is free!

clueless1

I need a new laptop but I dont know what what exactly I should be looking for. I would really appreciate it If anyone can advise me of what specs I will need for when I am searching for a laptop. I use for mainly going online but I store a lot of music and photos, so will need a big harddrive? thanks!

snowqueen555

you won't require very much in terms of power and ram then, no need to opt for core 2 duo etc, any bog standard budget laptop will easily fulfill those needs, typical laptops have 160gb and over

i would recommened 2gig ram minimum for vista though

Lady_K

Does anyone know if there are any discount codes for the Dell Vostro range? I'm now thinking of going for the Vostro 17in because it has a full sized keyboard so I wouldnt need to attach another keyboard

mortgagelurker

@ Pjala & Lady_K - the graphic card issue is very simple to resolve as the Nvidia card needs a 90W adapter. Simply choose the nvidia gfx card and whatever else you want. When the error pops up, ignore it by closing it. Now Click on the Tab No.3 (ACCESSORISE MY DELL) and goto the bottom and choose the 90W POWER ADAPTER (3 WIRE) free upgrade. This should resolve that issue.

Lady_K wrote: »

That is decieving I hate sites that do it that way. If I had the most expensive one at £349 even if I didnt have any upgrades it works out at an extra £60 £410.08 to be exact. I was thinking of having the graphics card but the extra cost puts me off now plus not sure about that incompatibility thing that pjala has mentioned.

I won't rule it out though just yet but at least I know now rather than find out once I got to check out.

I want to use quidco or similar aswell and does it have microsoft word on it at all or do I have to get that separately?

what is the difference between windows vista home premium and the vista business one?

Lady_K - Currently there is an offer where your shipping is FREE!!! When you have chosen your spec, simply go all the way to the checkout where you will see the shipping discount. Now the laptop will cost you a total of £351, which includes the nvidia card, vat and delivery.

The laptop does not include word, but its Works 9.0, i believe.

You can use quidco too which will bring the cost down a further £13 i think.

Hope this helps.

Lady_K

mortgagelurker wrote: »

@ Pjala & Lady_K - the graphic card issue is very simple to resolve as the Nvidia card needs a 90W adapter. Simply choose the nvidia gfx card and whatever else you want. When the error pops up, ignore it by closing it. Now Click on the Tab No.3 (ACCESSORISE MY DELL) and goto the bottom and choose the 90W POWER ADAPTER (3 WIRE) free upgrade. This should resolve that issue.





Lady_K - Currently there is an offer where your shipping is FREE!!! When you have chosen your spec, simply go all the way to the checkout where you will see the shipping discount. Now the laptop will cost you a total of £351, which includes the nvidia card, vat and delivery.

The laptop does not include word, but its Works 9.0, i believe.

You can use quidco too which will bring the cost down a further £13 i think.

Hope this helps.

You must be meaning the system that says £299 on the site I was looking at the £349 system which does work out at just over £410 excluding the card upgrade and including the free delivery.

I have decided to go for the 17inch one though now even though it will cost more its better for me because of the full size keyboard I'm just trying to see if I can get a discount code to use with it too if possible.

Can you tell me how you got the accidental damage cover as it says in the customise bit that you cant have that with any of these laptops?

mortgagelurker

Lady_K - You asked and your getting more discount:-

Special discount code for 10% off all vostro desktops and laptops between 2pm and 4pm today and tomorrow. Code: BG1D23XVTRVZ14

I rang them up and they offered me accidental cover.

Lady_K

Thankyou Yes I noticed that myself early this morning. I haven't been able to get one ordered today but I'm going to order it tomorrow, just hope they are still available tomorrow.

Pity they have the accidental cover marked as declined for online ordering, how much did the cover cost?

I didn't order yesterday as I needed the final encouragement of an extra code to use as it is more than I really wanted to pay now I'm having the 17inch one but in the long run I think that size is best for me.

I was pleased to see that offer code this morning and glad I hadn't ordered yesterday now I might get a bag aswell but I noticed the cost of the bags are more in the configure part than on the actual site selling the exact same bags.