The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

supermonkey

JamesN wrote: »

i doubt it. It would'nt easily run on an older machine, plus we have no idea what spec your laptop has. It being 5 years old doesnt give much, was it £2,000 or £400 5 years ago?

That's what I thought, but I'm sure my PC cant be much worse than an Acer One with an Atom processor! It's a Dell Inspiron 1200

boobbby wrote: »

Run the upgrade advisor to check if it will run on your laptop

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&displayLang=en

I'll take a look thanks!

butterfriends

been reading the last few pages but getting all confused... i need to buy a laptop for work, i was looking at the vaios priced around £550-650 - is there much difference between a £400 laptop and a £600 one? or am i just getting dazzled by the brand and the pretty cases?

long battery life, lightweight, comfortable keyboard and screen, speed and finding one that's not prone to overheating when running lots of different programmes (photoshop, office programmes, databases, explorer etc) are my priorities.

any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated

JDPower

butterfriends wrote: »

is there much difference between a £400 laptop and a £600 one?

Depends on the laptop.

butterfriends wrote: »

or am i just getting dazzled by the brand and the pretty cases?

In the case of the Vaios the answer would probably be yes, you will be paying over the odds for just for the name and looks (as is the case with pretty much all Sony products anyway)

woodys_wonders

Hi
I have been looking at the Aspire One £199 for my 9 year old daughter for xmas, just for a bit of surfing, iplayer, itunes
Is this a good netbook in the sub £200, i don't really want to spend any more.

Thanks

WaxiesDargle

going to get my daughter a laptop...all the usual...college work / facebook etc etc

reading the last few pages there is mention of integrated graphics cards and independent graphics cards..I understand the theory...built in and not built in!
(I think!)....now for a complete computer bozo...can someone explain how the independent one works...ie is it a CD...or usb or erm summink else

oh any updated laptop recommendations would be appreciated (about 400-450 quid)

cheers

boobbby

WaxiesDargle wrote: »

going to get my daughter a laptop...all the usual...college work / facebook etc etc

reading the last few pages there is mention of integrated graphics cards and independent graphics cards..I understand the theory...built in and not built in!
(I think!)....now for a complete computer bozo...can someone explain how the independent one works...ie is it a CD...or usb or erm summink else

oh any updated laptop recommendations would be appreciated (about 400-450 quid)

cheers

The intergrated is part of the motherboard and the independent is an additional bit of hardware that will already be in the laptop when you buy it. I wouldnt really worry about these things unless your daughter wants to play the latest games. Any modern laptop will carry out any basic tasks like surfing the internet or home work etc

bevvy

woodys_wonders wrote: »

Hi
I have been looking at the Aspire One £199 for my 9 year old daughter for xmas, just for a bit of surfing, iplayer, itunes
Is this a good netbook in the sub £200, i don't really want to spend any more.

Thanks

Have a look at the MSI Wind from argos, on offer at £199, looks similar spec to the Aspire One but this also has a card reader, bluetooth and 2 YEAR WARRANTY after researching this comes up with really good reviews/comments, so I bought it as a standby until I got my 'proper' laptop fixed/replaced and I am really impressed with it, using it just now, I've even went and bought another one for my daughters xmas, and if your daughter is anything like mine, added benefit is the girly pink colour, although you do also get white and black.

hueknight1969

hi, hope u can help me. No idea where to start,:mad: so here goes:

Looking for a laptop/netbook/ notebook with a DVD viewer/burner and web cam for daughter, ofcourse for the best price, any suggestions?

Many thanks:D

hueknight

flagpole_corner

Hi Guys, am looking for a replacement for a 6 year old Inspiron 14. Been looking at Dell again and think I might opt for the Inspiron 1750 as I don't really travel with my laptop anywhere.

Celeron Dual Core T3000 (1.8ghz, 800mhz, 1mb cache)
17.3" WLED 1600x900
3gb DDR2 SDRAM
250gb Serial ATA HDD
512mb ATI mobility Radeon HD4330
DVD +/- RW
6-cell battery

with student discount and delivery comes to £424.96. The processor can be upgraded to a Pentium Dual core T4300 for an extra £20 but I'm not too bothered about that. I only intend it for general daily internet use, office work and watching movies.

Decent price or not? Most entry level 17" laptops seem to be about the ~£400 mark but with an integrated graphics card. Is there any need for a dedicated graphics card actually? I don't really intend to use it for gaming but does it make a noticeable (to someone who isn't a technophile) difference with DVDs etc? Not having the ATI will knock off £45 the price which would be nice.

Alternatively I had a look at the dell outlet site and for a similar price can get the Studio 1737 which has an extra couple of USB ports and a HDMI port. Not sure about refurbished laptops though.

Thanks for the help.

edit - sorry forgot to say I don't really intend spending more than £450. I know that restricts it to entry level laptops for this screen size but it should suffice.

WaxiesDargle

Ok I'll lay my cards on the table and say I know absolutely nowt about laptops and I've been reading the last few pages and although there is some very good advice I'm still very confused

As I've previously mentioned, I am after a laptop for my student daughter...lets say £450 ish
Like everyone else I'm really looking for a good deal

traipsing round PC World, Comet etc is a minefield for me...I think Christmas eve will arrive and I'll still be looking!

Some really really basic questions....sorry

My home computer obviously has a Internet Provider (madasafish)...do laptops work in the same way...ie I have to get a IP and pay the same monthly fees?

My computer has word, excel etc...do laptops come with these installed or have I got to buy it seperately

is 3 Gb of RAM about right for surfing/studenty stuff/music downloading etc
do they have Windows7/ webcam/graphics card/bluetooth (whatever that is lol) already installed

oh yes nearly forgot...anyone really happy with their laptop and can tell me what make etc it is...any recommendations would be appreciated

Thank you