The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

John_M_Business

pin wrote:

John, have you looked at the new Dell Latitude 620 or 820? They look like good business machines. Also could you go over your specs again?

Sure. I got:
Rock Direct XTCX
Core Duo 1.83
1Gb Corsair DDRAM
ATI Mobility Radeon X1800XT 256MB Graphics
17" WUXGA+ X-Glass TFT Screen (1920 x 1200)
100 Gb 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
8x Dual Layer (-/+) DVD Writer
Digital TV Tuner & Aerial
2x 8-Cell Batteries
Intel Pro 802.11a/b/g Integrated Wireless LAN
1 x IEEE1394 Firewire
4 x USB 2.0
Bluetooth
4 in 1 Card Reader
Webcam with digital zoom and video recording
SRS WOW Surround sound
7.1 Surround Sound Output
Windows XP Pro
MS Office Small Business
3 yrs on-site Warranty
Carry Case

For £1550 delivered (ex VAT)

I specced up a similar Dell machine (Inspiron 9400)... with all their savings options... £1533 ex VAT and Shipping and doesn't have a webcam, as good sound options and looks 'boxy' with a cheaper casing. The Latitudes are just plain... plain. And the displays don't go to 17"!

daffynspacegirl

Can anyone help? I've been told that you can import a laptop from USA, for approx half the price we pay over here, dont get any import tax because its electrical goods. The only drawback being you cant get any phone help for installing progs.
Is this true? Any help appreciated.

pin

Cool. I've actually just bought a Rock myself, but its one of the smaller ones! If you want any help re your new lappie have a look at www.rockforums.co.uk

John_M_Business

pin wrote:

Cool. I've actually just bought a Rock myself, but its one of the smaller ones! If you want any help re your new lappie have a look at www.rockforums.co.uk

Cheers - yes, have been pointed in that direction. Though I must admit even though it LOOKS like it, I am not going to be doing much gaming (unlike most of the XCTX owners!!!!)

pin

John_M_Business wrote:

Cheers - yes, have been pointed in that direction. Though I must admit even though it LOOKS like it, I am not going to be doing much gaming (unlike most of the XCTX owners!!!!)

I have to say they are a friendly bunch there, and they have answered some of my laptop specific quetions very well there.

John_LG

https://www.aria.co.uk are selling a Digimate M-4522 laptop on their super specials page at £293 (normal price £358 - which is still a bargain). Don't know how good it is, but looks OK on the spec. Intel P4-M 2.2GHz, 40GB Hard drive, 256MB RAM (up to 1GB max), 3 USB, modem, CDRW/DVD ROM, firewire, 14inch screen, good 2year warranty (collect and return!) and under 3kg.
Main weakness, no wireless built in (but space for a PC card), and as far as I can see no operating system included (although I know aria sell xp home for £58)

Looks good (if you can get it on offer)... good luck. Hope that helps someone, looking for a cheap starter - and with 2 year warranty can't be bad, obviously it's not going to be as good as one of these £1k+ laptops, but then, who has £1k to blow on a laptop, when desktops are so much cheaper?

painfulcost

i am looking for a laptop for my wife( architect) . got only less than £1000 to spend. She needs to use a lot of Photoshop and Autocad softwares running at the same time. I myself wants to use the laptop to burn dvd from our family videocam( grandparents live too far away). Which one should i get. Heard of gateway laptop ? any goodor should i go for something else?

John_M_Business

pin wrote:

I have to say they are a friendly bunch there, and they have answered some of my laptop specific quetions very well there.

After all that, Rock have let me down badly on delivery of the new machine. So I have had to go to Dell instead. Ah, well... XPS on Tuesday!!

pin

John_M_Business wrote:

After all that, Rock have let me down badly on delivery of the new machine. So I have had to go to Dell instead. Ah, well... XPS on Tuesday!!

Yes, saw your postings there. I've also had delivery issues and have actually decided not to go ahead with Rock (wasn't just the delivery side of things, but the warranty not covering the Channel Islands).

tomS_4

painfulcost wrote:

i am looking for a laptop for my wife( architect) . got only less than £1000 to spend. She needs to use a lot of Photoshop and Autocad softwares running at the same time. I myself wants to use the laptop to burn dvd from our family videocam( grandparents live too far away). Which one should i get. Heard of gateway laptop ? any goodor should i go for something else?

Doesn't sound likely to be possible to me, but if you want to run more than one app at once then the Core Duo processors are probably the way to go.

Is there are Mac version of Autocad? cos if there is then a Macbook Pro might be an option.. though i think that will cost you more than £1000.

Now the macbook pros can run XP (for games) I gotta say i'm very tempted by a core duo Mac... but i don't need a laptop for a month or two so i'm hoping the prices will drop a bit by then.