PC World / buying A Laptop Tips

busenbust

blaque*angel wrote: »

the laptop is an advent 9415. just a basic laptop really..

Ah, I think the Advent range are indeed PCW themselves.

macman

Advent is a cheap and nasty PCW own brand. Avoid PCW-but if you can't, then buy any brand but Advent. That way at least you know who the manufacturer is long after PCW have ceased to have any interest in the product.
However, looking at your list of 4 problems, I have to say that even PCW can't be blamed for the last one!

isofa

blaque*angel wrote: »

what are dells after sales policies like?

PC World told me Dells laptops just look good, But are shoddy inside.

PC World (part of the Dixon's Store Group "DSG") staff, in general, know little to nothing about computers. They also treat customers with contempt, as a recent news story highlights:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6142816/Currys-and-PC-World-staff-to-be-investigated-after-abusing-customers-on-Facebook.html

The best advice is to avoid their: shops, staff and overpriced systems, at all costs

Dell are one of the largest PC manufacturers in the World, their business machines and laptops (Vostro, Latitude etc.) are built to a very high quality, not quite as good as Lenovo or Apple, but pretty good. Infinitely better than any PC World own brand tat. Their consumer range is still pretty good (Dimension, Inspiron, Studio etc), if you want the ultimate piece of mind upgrade to 3 years on-site warranty. I've never had a Dell system fail in the past 7 years at least.

The Dell Studio laptops have also won many recent awards.

Best Dell deals are here: www.dmxdimension.com

Also have a look at the recommended laptops in various price categories here, along with detailed test reviews: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/alist

The Acer Aspire 5536 is around £350 and considered to be a very good budget machine.

diable

What are the details of the after care service you purchased?

You should not be buying a new laptop until PCW have sorted your one out or refunded you your money as your laptop is not ft for purpose.

I would go with Dell and buy direct over the phone as you can haggle for a better deal/upgrade.

Donnie

blaque*angel wrote: »

No, I said £500 max.

I would like for the laptop to be a gaming machine, thats my only requirement really.

Tesco's and John Lewis? what are their policies like?

Tescos will just take the thing back and give you another one. John Lewis are customer oriented. PCW? :rolleyes:

Gaming machine? That's a taller order.

The specs on this Medion are good for the money, but I have no idea as to it's reliability. If you are nervous about buying a return, a new Acer will generally give you the most for your money. Reliable? I don't know. I have one bought abroad which is, but I don't know about the ones bought here.

The lower priced Dells do look cheap and nasty to me, but those are the ones I have seen on the shelves at Currys/PC World.

Via the Dell website, the price quoted above does not include a built in webcam(£29) and you may prefer/require a better graphics solution if you wish to play games.

Hopefully, someone will come up with suitable suggestions.

Useful websites for comparison: DmxDimension, Ebuyer , Notebookcheck

This Samsung looks ok. Toshiba will smaller screen.

At least they will give you an idea of what you need.

The Acer as indicated by isofa looks good value with a 500GB HDD.

BillScarab

If it stays on your desk constantly and you want a gaming machine get a desktop.

Laptops are a compromise as they need to be portable. If you don't need to move it around a desktop will be better. In my experience they tend to be more reliable too.

PC World have a terrible reputation. As others have said look at Dell. Or the Zoostorm range are supposed to be pretty decent.

almillar

Dell just look good and are crap on the inside? But PC World sell them!
diable is right, you've probably paid through the nose for your after-care - use it! Get PC World to repair, replace or refund, as this laptop doesn't sound like it's fit for purpose if you treat it as nicely as you describe.
£500 laptop. Your 'only' requirement is for games - that's about the toughest requirement for a computer. I assume you're talking about modern, purchased games, and not cards or anything.
This, combined with the laptop being deskbound (a waste of money if it never gets moved) would mean that a desktop PC would be a better purchase, as BillScarab says. You'll get a faster machine for less.
And of course, as Leopard says, if you do end up buying another PC, don't go to PC World!

JasX

Donnie wrote: »

Gaming machine? That's a taller order.

ouch yes missed that line, the dell i pointed to earlier is fine for all general tasks but does not have a graphics card and won;t cope with modern/recent 3d games at all!

pointed a friend who wanted a laptop for games towards Rock Direct and managed to get one with a 512MB graphics card for £1000 which 'coped' with games at the time on medium settings, trade off was a basic plastic case and huge heat issues (had to get a separate aluminum cooling stand for it in the end)

in short gaming laptops are generally always
1-expensive
2-suffer heat problems
3-don't last long as they generally can't be upgraded, have a shorter component life due to running hot as per point 2 and are difficult to repair.

going for a desktop however offers much better value, is much easier to upgrade/fix by replacing parts cheaply if it ever goes wrong, deals mich better with heat and is generally a better bet all round for serious gaming.

what type of games were you hoping to play? if they are high end demanding ones do you need to play them on the go? much better value bet is a cheap low spec laptop like that dell for on the go non-gaming stuff (eg email, surfing, watching DVDs -could you stretch a bit more life out of your existing laptop for basic tasks?) and higher end PC at home for gaming.

closed

4. And when It fell off the desk and stopped powering up.

now today, the casing thing has fell off again..*sighs*

Are these 2 incidents linked?

robredz

You would have to spend roughly double on a laptop than you would for a desktop to get half decent gaming performance. jasx is right, and anything with onboard Intel graphics is going to be upset if asked to play anything much beyond Unreal Tournament 1