The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

Lord_Chris

scotnan wireless connectivity is not really something you need to worry about when it comes to buying a laptop. If its a good make (Sony, Dell, Acer, Toshiba etc.) and it says it has Wi-FI or wireless connectivity, it will work.

Your best off focusing more on picking a laptop wich is 1) a decent make and 2) has decent specs in light of processing, memory, hard drive.

You will pay a lot of money buying a 'gaming' laptop, however the graphics cards available for laptops are very limited at the moment... i have a sony vaio which is not designed for gaming, and will play all but the most heavy duty games. Ignore what it says on the tin when it comes to gaming, particularly since its not an essential to you.

niceguyrichy

Arzon wrote:

I'm looking to buy a new laptop at the moment and heres the spec i want,

Intel 1.83Ghz Core Duo
1gb RAM
80-100gb Hard Drive

you say (lord chris) that there's no point getting 1gb RAM if the processor is under 2Ghz, how exactly do you know this to be the case?

I want the very best spec possible and i have 1gb RAM on my desktop and i would really love 1gb in my laptop too, but at dell, the cost of upgrade from 512gb to 1gb RAM is £141 which is alot, so are you saying 512mb is good enough? i assume you have a laptop with 512mb of RAM, is it honestly good enough? wouldn't you ever be tempted to slide in another 512mb stick?

depends what you plan to use it for.
not sure exactly what post you're referring to as regards the "not worth it under 2ghz", but that's only true if you are talking about a P4. An amd64 or Core duo around the 2ghz mark will of course benifit from having a gig of ram as opposed to 512mb, so long as you're using mem hungry games or apps that require it

niceguyrichy

Arzon wrote:

firefox uses up to a quarter gig of ram itself, think i will get 1gb after all

sounds like a good reason to migrate to Opera

(and having just read the posts you were reffering to, think I'll stear clear of that)

dominus99

Hello Subscribers I'm asking for a bit of help if anyone thinks they can point me in the right direction.

A friend of mine wants to buy a laptop for himself. He's can spend up to £600 but i think he can get what he wants for cheaper than that. He wants the laptop for ms office, internet use, and playing black and white, the requirements of which are quite low. Now, i know playing black and white requires very little from a modern laptop, but can anyone suggest a laptop that could provide the following for around £500 as i think it would give him more for his money...

Any 1.5 ghz processor or upwards (so xp doesn't run like a heifer)
512mb of Ram or more
WiFi
at least 2 usb ports
Possibly a dedicated graphics card of 64mb or or maybe a little more... :shocked: !!!

I don't know if you can get glossy finish on a tft screen for this price, i'm guessing not. Acer's in general are preferable as they a) look smart and b) tend not to cost a packet??

Thought all this was a bit challenging, but i'm throwing it into the ring anyway

Thanks for any help

dominus99

Thank you Arzon, very kind of you to offer your help.

I'm open to any further suggestions if anybody would like to try their hand?

Lord_Chris

@ dominus99

Sony Vaios are far better in my experience than Acers... i mean Acers are okay.. but that all.

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10286329&pid=45&tid=2

thats the newer model of what i have (ive got fs315b, thats the fs415e)

My laptop is great for games, and im telling you, forget dedicated graphics cards, becuase in laptops at the moment, they are all crap. Im sure you can find the 415e cheaper if you look around too.

dominus99

Thank you Chris for your help. I agree that sony's are in general the better laptop as they usually look better and have a better build and probably sport a better quality of component.

Money is a factor though and thats what leads me to Acer as they tend to be cheaper and they still have a great build quality from what i've seen & heard. I saw this http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?product_id=10286769&catalog_name=Savastore&page=productspecification&pid=45
and thought that it was a comparable product. If you can be bothered (and thank you in advance if you do) could you tell me how they compare in your eyes?

As an aside, i take it that you'd favour a laptop with a decent processor and a gig of ram over one with an ever so slightly slower processor, 512 of ram, and 64-128mb of dedicated graphics?

Lord_Chris

dont get me wrong, Acer laptops are good, they are solidly built, however sony provide an extremely good warantee repair service. My dvd drive broke on december 23rd last year, they collected it christmas eve, and i had it back on the 27th or 28th.

the acer (as you posted) looks pretty good to me, if price is that much of a constraint then certainly go for that rather than a sony. The only thing that i would mention, is that the acer has a rather limited battery life at only 2 hours. having said that, the sony standard tends to be only around 3 and a half (on the FS series).

Most laptops in the given price range are around 1.7 ghz, and despite what espresso has said in previous posts, a gig of ram, is NOT worth the extra money (if its included then fine) but your ram is only as good as the speed of the processor. With a 1.7 ghz processor, your processor cannot utilize the extra ram (if that makes sense?). This Acer is almost identical to my Vaio, so if this meets your needs get it, it works great; however if you can afford the Vaio, do it, if only for the excellent warantee service and the fact that they look cool

and dedicated graphics, again, not really worth it, they use up battery life, and to be honest in this price range, you will not get a good graphics card. Unless this laptop is intended for high end programs for photo editing/CAD in which case this price range will simply not do, you do not have any need for a dedicated graphics card.

espresso

Lord_Chris wrote:

Most laptops in the given price range are around 1.7 ghz, and despite what espresso has said in previous posts, a gig of ram, is NOT worth the extra money (if its included then fine) but your ram is only as good as the speed of the processor. With a 1.7 ghz processor, your processor cannot utilize the extra ram (if that makes sense?)

:mad:

No it does not make any sense!

You have previously said that Photoshop works fine with 512Mb RAM. Photoshop will run fine with 512Mb RAM but try editing a large high resolution image and you will see the difference! Lots of laptops now come with 1GB RAM as standard and can usually take at least 2GB with expansion.

I had decided not to reply to your previous remarks but you keep talking the same old bo!!ocks.

dominus99 had specifically asked for your comments on an Acer machine (if you could be bothered) but you just went on about Sony warranty and your usual comments about processor speed and RAM, without any explanation yet again! Taking a GCSE in ITC does not make you an expert and you do not know what these PC's will be used for and what applications or how many applications will be run by the user.

:rolleyes:

belfastgal

Is the Dell Inspiron 6400 a good buy ? intel centrino 1.86ghz , 512mb ram , 60gb hard drive 15.4 screen shared graphics memory up to 128mb ( whatever that is ) and integrated 24xcdrw/8x dvd combo drive at £449 + vat and about £50 delivery. think this is the link
https://www.dell.co.uk/b2b
got a leaflet in the post today at work
think it works out £580 all in ( work says they can claim me the vat )
what do you think ?