The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Own-Brand-Paul

Well, now it looks like I'm gonna go for one of the new two that Dave111 has thrown up on here....haha, I must be easily swayed. I wasn't going to, because I;d never heard of either Asus or Lenovo, but after a little digging around it seems they're both highly reliable brands that won't just break in your hands (Asus even dislodged Apple as 'Most Reliable Laptop' in a survey this year). the Lenovo looks like slightly better specs, but that machine hasn't had any reviews yet so I'm tempted to play it safe and go for the Asus which has had entirely great customer reviews.

RacyRed

Arrrgh, now I'm confused.

This one dave111 found

Asus X59GL-AP007C Laptop, Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HDD, 15.4" TFT, DVD SM DL, 6 Cell Batt, nVIDIA GeForce 8200 Vista Home Premium

dave111 wrote: »

Asus X59GL-AP007C
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150324/show_product_reviews
£409.99

or the cheaper one from Littlewoods direct? (£332 after casback)

Asus Core 2 Duo "T5750" 15.4in laptop 2Gb DDR2 RAM.
160Gb hard drive 15.4in WXGA Colour-Shine display with 1280x800 resolution. DVD Super Multi Dual Layer drive. Embedded ATI Radeon X1100 graphics. 802.11 b/g WiFi.

Are the additional specs worth the extra cash or is it feasible to get the cheaper one now and upgrade the hard drive if/when I need to?

What I'm really asking is, in day to day use, what benefits would I see if I got the X59GL instead of the cheaper one and are they worth the extra money?

DealCruncher

RacyRed wrote: »

Arrrgh, now I'm confused.

This one dave111 found

Asus X59GL-AP007C Laptop, Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HDD, 15.4" TFT, DVD SM DL, 6 Cell Batt, nVIDIA GeForce 8200 Vista Home Premium



or the cheaper one from Littlewoods direct? (£332 after casback)

Asus Core 2 Duo "T5750" 15.4in laptop 2Gb DDR2 RAM.
160Gb hard drive 15.4in WXGA Colour-Shine display with 1280x800 resolution. DVD Super Multi Dual Layer drive. Embedded ATI Radeon X1100 graphics. 802.11 b/g WiFi.

Are the additional specs worth the extra cash or is it feasible to get the cheaper one now and upgrade the hard drive if/when I need to?

What I'm really asking is, in day to day use, what benefits would I see if I got the X59GL instead of the cheaper one and are they worth the extra money?

Personally I would spend the extra for the extra Gb RAM and the graphics card.

I think the decision depends on how you would be using it. If you want to use it for gaming on/offline, running multiple applications or for any more complex programs, such as design or similar, then consider the higher spec, more expensive X59.

For general surfing, youtube, and less intensive work, go for the cheaper, as it is great value and has pretty much all the neccessary reqs to work well with Vista.

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RacyRed

Thank you DealCruncher.

I'm not planning to use it for gaming, but do want to use multiple business applications, so maybe for the extra £70 odd the higher spec machine is worth it.

I appreciate your taking the time to respond. Thank you.

DealCruncher

RacyRed wrote: »

Thank you DealCruncher.

I'm not planning to use it for gaming, but do want to use multiple business applications, so maybe for the extra £70 odd the higher spec machine is worth it.

I appreciate your taking the time to respond. Thank you.

No probs.

Yes i agree. Even the smallest business apps seem to be pretty power hungry.

Enjoy.

dave111

Any reviews on this machine.

dave111 wrote: »

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159355
Lenovo N500 Laptop, Dual Core T3400 2.16GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.4" WXGA, DVDRW DL, Bluetooth, Vista Home Premium

Now £409.96

RacyRed

dave111 wrote: »

Any reviews on this machine.

Found a few reviews for you, hope they are of some use.

Ciao

Retrevo

Thanks for posting about the Asus X59GL, I went with the Ebuyer deal, it arrived to day and I'm well pleased with it
:T

hardy1976

Has the Asus X59GL got a glossy finish to it?! Will you be forever cleaning finger prints from it?!

RacyRed

hardy1976 wrote: »

Has the Asus X59GL got a glossy finish to it?! Will you be forever cleaning finger prints from it?!

The screen does have a glossy finish, that is probably why an LCD cleaning cloth was included in the box. I've not marked it while setting it up though, the screen has enough "edge" to get hold of without having to touch the screen. Keyboard and touchpad seem nice to use.

Whole thing has a quality feel to it, nothing flimsy about it at all and everything is nice and streamlined, good ergonomics. Its got a much better feel to it than laptops I've handled in the past. No major heat generation either, my lprevious lappy used to run really hot!

Set up was a doddle and it is very quiet.

JDPower

RacyRed wrote: »

No major heat generation either, my lprevious lappy used to run really hot!

New laptops do generally feel cooler as they tend to run warmer as they get older which does them little good in the long term. Personally I always recommend people use a laptop cooling pad whenever practical to prolong the life of the laptop, and definitely always follow the advice of using it on a solid surface to allow proper airflow (and unless you have money to throw away, don't go sitting it directly on a cushion or your bed )