buying a laptop help

Foxy

My exhubby is after buying a lap top with a dvd writer in and at least wants a 20 gig hard drive. wants a decent one and does not know what to get as does not know what would be a bargain and what wouldnt and in his infinate lack of wisdom cos i supposidly know more decided to ask me. anyone got any idea the best specs to look for or the best place to get 1. any help would be appreciated as i dont know the first thing about laptops.

cheers.

foxy

andyinlondon

if he wants a new one have a look on ebuyer

they have new laptops starting from roung the £500. mark


this one looks like it is what he is looking for

https://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=4970742469&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=79009

their service as terrible but but their prices are great.


i guess you cannot have everything

rich_jtg

Hi,

Unfortunately there isn't a simple answer to your question. I guess specifications that would be preferable (but I'm not saying essential) are something like:

Pentium 4 or Centrino or AMD chip (try to avoid Celerons)
512Mb of RAM (256 minimum)
Separate (not intergrated) Graphics of around 64MB

If you're looking for brands (which isn't always a good thing), then something like an Acer or AJP are normally popular. I would advise you against something like a Dell though as you won't get separate software discs, and would have the joys of an Indian call centre if anything goes wrong. (been there! )

The problem with laptops, as you'll find, is that they are always a trade off unless you spend alot of money. A cheap machine with good battery life and that is lightweight and compact probably doesn't exist. Try and set a budget and see what best compromise you can get for it. You could probably get a decent one for under £799.

Fifer

I have to disagree with rich_jtg slightly. Whilst the original Celeron was not a brilliant performer, the Celeron-M used in current laptops is a very different beast. It includes Centrino technology for excellent battery life and mobile wireless and performs as well or better than many desktop Pentium 4 systems. I'd suggest that a 1.5 GHz Celeron-M based machine (which can be bought for a tad over £500) would be a good buy. Expansys are offering the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2010 Cel-M 1.5 (256Mb, 40GB hard drive, DVD-R, XP-Home) for £539.95 inc. VAT. I've got the previous model (V2000) and it's an excellent machine and faster than my P4 2.4 GHz desktop machine.

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I agree with Fifer - the mobile Celeron-M is a good option as it's based on the Pentium-M and the performance difference isn't great. Desktop Celerons (Celeron-D) as also used in laptops but I wouldn't consider one of these as the equivalent AMD Semprons are cheaper and higher performance.

However it's hard to recommend anything as it depends on what it will be used for and what budget you have. If you want longer battery life, light (less than 3kg) and quieter (less whirring fans) go for a Pentium-M/Centrino or Celeron-M laptop. If you want it to play the latest games a Pentium 3ghz or more is recommended (or a fast AMD processor). You would also need a decent seperate graphics card (such as ATI Mobility Radeons. For most things it's fine to have intergrated graphics but always budget to add an additional 256mb RAM for those with only 256mb.

Personally I would avoid buying expensive items from Ebuyer because their support is unreliable. Surprisingly Comet often have decent deals especially on Acers. One advantage is that you can tell them to stuff their expensive overpriced 3 year warrenty and buy additional cover from Acer for as little as £60.

Fifer

Sorry, I meant to give the link for the Expansys deal. It's http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=FUJ_FAMV2010005
They also do the version with a DVD ROM/CD-RW for £15 less and it's in stock. I do agree with grahawk about not buying from eBuyer. I'm in the middle of a customer support horror story with them as we speak and I won't be buying from them again.

Foxy

it doesnt neccesarily have to be the cheapest even though any savings would help i think he would like to have a decent 1 for his money without paying over the odds for the system he gets. only prob is he dont relly know too much about em at all really if that makes sense