I wanna buy a laptop

Kirsty262

I am after a laptop for my daughter but she only has £150 to spend

Need something that can be connected to wireless broadband and have at least a DVD drive

Not sure if there are any about for this budget

Any help would be great

Thanks

Rachel_Justme

Cheapest I could find was at:

http://www.itfactory.co.uk/categories/Refurbished-Laptops/Dell-Latitude-CPT-Celeron-400

For internet: from other photos of the same model, it looks like it has a PCMCIA card, so you could buy an additional wireless PC card, and get wireless broadband that way. That's probably cheaper than restricting yourself to laptops that have wireless internet built-in (mine doesn't - I've been very happy using a wireless PC Card when I'm at home).

But it doesn't have a DVD... I think you'd be doing good to get a laptop with a DVD drive for less than £300 (Best I could find was:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=40PC&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11105
and
http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?ProductID=2060&CategoryID=11&SubCategoryID=239)

Also, try looking for factory refurbished laptops. Sometimes you can get a good deal on these, but they tend to be one-off, or small stock orders, so grab the bargain if you find it.

Hope this helps,

Rachel

Nile

Hello Rachel Justme

Welcome to the MSE site.:wave:

I'll move this thread for Kirsty. It should get more views and responses from the 'Techie Stuff' board experts.;)

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

Kirsty262

Thanks for moving the post for me Nile

anley1

Kirsty

It can't be done, well it can but you'd be buying something so old and slow that it wouldn't be worth using. Maybe it's ok if you daughter wants to write the odd letter here and there but I think she'll be using it for internet and games etc most of the time.

Have you thought about applying for say a Sainsbury's credit card with 12 months interest free on purchases. Then spend a far more realistic £500 and pay it off at £40 a month.

If you do buy a PC or laptop then really make sure you know what you'e buying, spend 20 mins in WH Smith reading the reviews because they're an excellent place to get guidance, of course this site is not bad as well

Little_John

As said before I think you will be very lucky to get anything for £150 that is anywhere near worth owning and being useable that is more powerfull than a calculator.

I would offer you my old laptop for free but the mainboard battery is knackered and if the main battery runs out I have probelms getting it back on. it only has a cdrom but it does have 2 PCMCIA slots so it could be made wireless.

You best chances are the 2nd hand online sellers laptops direct and the others that advertise on the sides of the motorways or try ebay maybe you will be lucky.

Kirsty262

Little_John wrote:

As said before I think you will be very lucky to get anything for £150 that is anywhere near worth owning and being useable that is more powerfull than a calculator.

I would offer you my old laptop for free but the mainboard battery is knackered and if the main battery runs out I have probelms getting it back on. it only has a cdrom but it does have 2 PCMCIA slots so it could be made wireless.

You best chances are the 2nd hand online sellers laptops direct and the others that advertise on the sides of the motorways or try ebay maybe you will be lucky.

I think we are going to get my daughter to save up a bit longer. To be honest I don't have a clue about them so wouldn't know what was good or bad (which is why I asked on here). If anyone sees a good offer or one going cheap please let me know

Thank you

Little_John

If ll you want is basic use, office, internet and a dvdrom / cd writer your cheapest option I think is the dell inspiron 1300 currently at £349. it will do the job but some people prefer more memory and faster processors. Dell are always changing their offers and this laptop constantly features in their special offers. Ocasionaly savatore.com dabs.com even PCworld have a really well spec'ed laptop for a good price, they are ususally around the £500 or just a bit less you can even get P4m (centrino) processors with 512mb of memory from Toshiba some times.

I think your daughter would really benifit from saving some more money unfortunatly is quite a lot compaired to what she already has but It would save her some embrasment turning up with a semi respectable laptop and not a calculator, I know things shouldnt matter but as you proberbly know you can spend thousands on a laptop and there will be people there that can afford to do that even if she doesnt get the latest and greatest the fact it will be new will make up for it. Also if she has to work for the new laptop she will respect it more because of the sacrifices she has had to make.

If I find anything I will let you know, I am always being asked to find laptops for people.

newleaf

I got my laptop about 8 months ago from https://www.ebuyer.com for about £350, that was the best deal around. OH is a techie and looked for the best buy for me, if there was anything cheaper he'd have found it. Mine's a Toshiba, and it's great. It didn't come wireless ready, had to buy a wireless card for about £12 but that was no big deal. I don't use my PC anymore, the lappy is so convenient!

Kirsty262

Thank you both for your help I appreciate it. If you do find anything please let me know

Like I said it is mainly for games "The Sims" and wireless and if poss a DVD player or writer on it

Thanks

Edinburghlass_2

Kirsty262 wrote:

Thank you both for your help I appreciate it. If you do find anything please let me know

Like I said it is mainly for games "The Sims" and wireless and if poss a DVD player or writer on it

Thanks

If you want to use the newer Sims games on the laptop you will need a good graphics card and not shared graphics (?) as I had to update the graphics on the pc for my daughter with Sims 2.