Laptop to replace Laptop & Tower

donny-gal

I originally added this to the <£350 Laptop thread, but to be honest it is more than the subject covered there, so I have started a new one.

Currently I am debating upgrading my current laptop & desktop which are both 3 years old, still reasonable spec., though the laptop is 100gb HDD, which is restricting and 1GB memory neither of which can be increased, and they are OK at the moment, though just had to re-install desktop. I am thinking that a well spec'd laptop would do the job of both, using the lappy with screen, keyboard and mouse when doing much keyboard work as a trained typist so find a keyboard better. I have had a look round and blown their minds in PCW with a old female who understands more than they do. Was very pleased to see though that most of the laptops these days include a numeric pad building into the keyboard without using the letter keys.

Currently I have a Dell Laptop and a Medion Desktop. While Dell are OK, I have not been "excited" by what have seen, and the old saying that break just out of warranty would have been true had I not had a 3 year warranty with them which was on special when I bought it. Medion the same I have had several Medion desktops and they have been good, but seem to think their Laptops are a bit "clunky" and while the Aldi specials are very well spec'd they don't always have just what you want, and have what you don't need. I looked at Acer, and they seemed very slim and light, but how is their reliabity these days?, I see I can get 3 year warranty with international cover (I travel a lot now retired) for £82, how is their support? The one which really drew me was a HP, and I have not read anything really derogatory about their laptops recently, but have to admit do not read as much pc literature as I used to, so what is the feeling on their support and stability?

The two which I have been considering are these
HP
Acer

It is the dedicated graphics memory which I think swings the HP, together with 4 usb ports (thinking when attached keyboard and mouse) a HDMI connection for my monitor is a must too. My "dear" son has pointed out (quite rightly) that I probably do not need an i5 these days and an i3 would do, but I prefer power, nothing is more frustrated than an under powered PC.

There is 10% off at the moment at Dixons (over PCW & Currys) and also another 3% Quidco, which makes the difference from £150 to under £70.

There was one i-3 which did catch my eye which was this one, in a way dearer than the i-5 but does give 6 hours battery life, which does appeal.

Could I please have your honest opinions, Oh I had better mention what it will be used to do, currently digitising the family photos, LP's, Cassettes, and some Videos, Microsoft Office Suite (2003) which I know backwards, and does all I need these days. Web Browsing and bargain chasing of course, Family History research and building, gaming - no, unless you consider Solitaire and Freecell , Oh if anyone has found a program that does the boring things like housework, point me in the direction of those. Another question is connection of Video and Stereo, I have a usb turntable for the LP's, and I feel sure I can use the microphone socket with an adapter for audio cables for the cassettes, but what about the video, my desktop has composite and scart connections, so maybe they need to come higher in the pecking order to get those done while the desktop is OK.

One last thought, which is the best screen for viewing in the sun?
Thanks
DG

Hammyman

donny-gal wrote: »

though the laptop is 100gb HDD, which is restricting and 1GB memory neither of which can be increased

Rubbish. You could put a 500GB or even a 1 Terabyte HDD in that laptop and at least 2GB of RAM which will be more than enough for 99% of the computing population.

I've been selling Dell laptops two years older than yours with 2GB in and I can go buy 250GB hard drives for them (IDE - old type - yours is SATA and current type).


Anyhow...assuming like pretty much everyone you're wanting some justification to buy new a new shiny...;):D:D

HP build quality has been dire over the last few years and its not improving in consumer grade laptops. Personally I think all consumer grade laptops are fairly dire sub £800.

All your software will work. In regards to the audio inputting from cassette and vinyl, you could buy an external USB soundcard with phono inputs such as the Creative X-Fi HD

For the video, there are plenty of USB devices or something like the Hauppauge HD-PVR

The best screen for viewing in the sun is a matte finish one. All gloss ones reflect.

closed

Which one of those requirements can't your existing laptop do?

It would be simpler if you stuck to one thread on the subject, so people can see all the relevant information

Warranties are a waste of money

Hp and acer don't tend to come near the top of reliability charts

No screens work well in the sun, but a matte screen is better

donny-gal

Thanks Hammy

I checked out with Dell about the HDD, and they said that 125gb was the max, and that was not enough to warrant changing. As for memory a Crucial memory check does say it can be 2gb, but again not the 3-4gb now on laptops, though I do wonder if that is really necessary. The laptop is running Vista Business. It is an Inspiron 1501, so can the HDD be increased. To be honest it is the weight, keyboard layout, and HDD which are the main issues to me, plus confidence in its reliabity.

Warranty wise, well though some may feel a waste of money I have had two HDD failures, as well as 2 motherboards, so in this case it has proved rather useful.

DG

closed

Sale of goods act gives you protection if a motherboard or disk fails early on in it's life (after the 1st yr warranty runs out), and £82 would buy 2 new hard disks.

Most of the ram on these 3-4GB machines currently on sale won't be used for anything other than disk cacheing.

Unless there is a design fault, you have to be pretty unlucky to have 4 failures in one machine in the first 3 years, many of the malfunctions of late can be attributed to nvidia graphics overheating problem which affected many brands. Hard disk faults also affect many brands, most manufacturers buy them in from the same companies.

donny-gal

So based on that, this would be the more reliable buy? DG

Hammyman

donny-gal wrote: »

Thanks Hammy

I checked out with Dell about the HDD, and they said that 125gb was the max,

Sounds like you got a moron without a clue especially as they actually sold your laptop with 250GB drives in.....

They'll run anything you can buy today.

As for memory a Crucial memory check does say it can be 2gb, but again not the 3-4gb now on laptops, though I do wonder if that is really necessary.

It isn't. Up until recently, business grade laptops costing three times what consumer grade ones do came with 2GB. And again I would question the 2GB limit especially as the Intel chipset in it supports more. I had a Compaq C500 which was only supposed to be able to support 2x1GB yet seemed just as happy with 2x2GB in.

The laptop is running Vista Business. It is an Inspiron 1501, so can the HDD be increased. To be honest it is the weight, keyboard layout, and HDD which are the main issues to me, plus confidence in its reliabity.

Yes you can put a 1 terabyte HDD in that if you can find one. Reliability wise, clean the fan out periodically and it'll run forever and your problems may have been caused by a blocked fan - ALL laptops will suffer from this. The main problem to watch out for on those is the screen hinges.

They are, however, a big heavy lump but then again any laptop which has longevity and decent build quality is. You'll find on yours, for example, a thick metal plate under the plastic screen lid protecting the LCD panel. Won't find that on your £300 Acer. You can get lightweight and strong if you go for something like the Thinkpad x200 series ultraportables but they're £1500.

donny-gal

Any suggestions for the source of a hdd? And would I notice the difference between a 7200 and 5400? DG

Hammyman

donny-gal wrote: »

Any suggestions for the source of a hdd? And would I notice the difference between a 7200 and 5400? DG

https://www.scan.co.uk is as good as any. You'd MAYBE notice a slight difference in speed but would notice a reduction in battery life. The one I bought was a Western Digital Scorpio Black which is £49.98+del as I type.

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/hard-drives-int/sata-i-sata-ii-sata-iii-400gb-1tb