The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

supermonkey

Have only had a quick look, but I would definately go for the Dell for the processor alone... ram etc is upgradeable so not as important. Looks like they are all integrated graphics? I personally recommend 17" now but there is a cost implication

ratham41

Hi everyone, just wondered if you could give me your opinion on this laptop. Going to be using it for uni work, listening to music and the odd game (like sims 3). At staples at the moment its £447. I was originally looking for a Toshiba, but saw this one and wondered what everyone thought of the brand? Not really heard of any reviews of them.

15.6-inch Compaq Presario CQ61-340SA

Processor, operating system and memory
Processor type Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6600 • 2.2 Ghz, Level 2 cache 2 MB
Operating system installed Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Standard memory 4096 MB
Memory layout (2 x 2048 MB)
Maximum memory Supports up to 8 GB DDR2 memory
Internal drives
Internal drives 320 GB
Storage controller SATA Hard Disk Drive

Hard disk drive speed 5400 rpm
Optical drive type Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
Lightscribe Create silkscreen-quality disc labels direct from your PC with LightScribe: Just burn, flip, burn.

Many thanks for you help!

supermonkey

Sowilo wrote: »

For the sake of all that is holy do not get a Hewlett Packard. Bought 2 just over a year ago. Both got motherboard problems, one got fixed the other is now junk. I would take all day to list the problems and the ludicrous solutions HP suggested. Eventually someone from their complaints dept rang. After listening to me he says he has no technical knowhow, it is out of warranty, £267 to repair or replace.

I've had a few HPs in my time (using one now) and have never had a problem with it. It sounds like you've had a bad experience, but I've found their support to very helpful.

Sounds like you to take the complaint to the next level.

theloft

FirstTimer4Me wrote: »

ok thans i take it i'll find it on dells site.

Sorry, forgot to ask for notification of replies!.

Look here :- http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Laptops/ct.aspx?refid=notebooks&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1#subcats=inspnnb&navla=&a=


PS. Notice the price is now £349 - but keep checking around as Dell are always having offers.

theloft

Found it again at £329 !

See here:- http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/minicat/uk/en/services_N0054502_promo?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

plus 3% off with Quidco.

Welsh_2

hey

Been looking for a good value (<400) laptop myself, haven’t really kept up with advances in processors in recent years, so ended up looking for “benchmark” comparison sites of different processors currently on the market.

Found
www cpubenchmark net do a search for cpubenchmark , but not sure how accurate it is.

Has anyone had any experience with this site?


Also found on dell

Inspiron 1564 (NOO56401)

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i3-330M (2.13Ghz, 4Threads, 3M cache)
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
MEMORY 3072MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM
LCD 15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED
GRAPHICS CARD Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

Price 398.98

Has a very good score on cpubenchmark .net ,

Do you guys think this system is good value for money?

JDPower

Welsh wrote: »

hey

Been looking for a good value (<400) laptop myself, haven’t really kept up with advances in processors in recent years, so ended up looking for “benchmark” comparison sites of different processors currently on the market.

Found
www cpubenchmark net do a search for cpubenchmark , but not sure how accurate it is.

Has anyone had any experience with this site?

Its a fairly respected site so a good guide and that processor is pretty good by laptop standards. The other spec that is always tricky to compare is graphics, this site is useful for that: www.notebookcheck.net. Though the Dell site doesn't actually state what graphics that laptop uses, just the vague "Graphics Media Accelerator HD", which is not very helpful :undecided

stevemcol

Hi

Has anyone stumbled across a good value desktop + laptop bundle?
My mum and dad (sliver surfers) can't decide which way to go in ugrading their ageing desktop so I'm wondering if they can get both (at least it would stop them bickering over the computer and make them play nicely).

boobbby

stevemcol wrote: »

Hi

Has anyone stumbled across a good value desktop + laptop bundle?
My mum and dad (sliver surfers) can't decide which way to go in ugrading their ageing desktop so I'm wondering if they can get both (at least it would stop them bickering over the computer and make them play nicely).

How about his offer from Dell which is a bit of both laptop/desktop and also has a touch screen facility. The silver surfers would be able to boast to their mates how modern they had become !!

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Desktops/inspiron-one-19-touch/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-one-19-touch&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&~ck=mn&dgc=EM&cid=40799&lid=1050665&acd=W4X9EH-22CUY-R6YGA8-CWGI5L-O41Z9-v1

theloft

Does anyone know how to contact the moderator for this thread ? I would like to know why DELL computers are not shown in the poll above !! It doesn't make sense as they must be the largest manufacturers. OK. they may have been excluded for some reason but WHY ???