PC World Laptop, £199!

Kilty_2

rogerramjet wrote:

What is wrong with some people posting in this thread? This is a grabbit forum thread which is about letting people know about items for sale which may be available for a short period of time and which may be at a lower (bargin) price than normal.

For those still stating its not worth buying because it must be rubbish at the price on offer, I've posted the minimum specification for running Windows XP

• PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended

• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

• 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*

• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor

• CD-ROM or DVD drive

Please remember Windows XP was released in October 2001, when most computers were slightly better spec than those recommended by Microsoft. The specifications of this laptop well exceeds the minimum specifications required.

You ever tried running Windows XP on those specs? Not pretty I'll tell you.

In October 2001 CPUs were getting towards the 2ghz barrier (November 2001 saw the release of the Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz, on the Williamette core) with 40gb hard drives and 512mb of ram pretty much standard, so most computers were more than "slightly better spec" than the recommended........

I would not run Windows XP on this VIA laptop if I was unfortunate enough to have one, Windows 2000 would suit it far better.

As for budget laptops' hardware being "stressed out" (whoever said that), that is utter rubbish.

My £340 "budget" laptop is used for video editing, digital image editing, etc and performs these tasks with ease.

As for comparing this to Pentium 2 etc, that's also a stupid comparison.

h4x3r

MercilessKiller wrote:

Are you kiddin me h4x3r? The hardware is NOT going to be "stressed out" by doing word processing andinternet browsing.

It will be stressed out my games and video editing, but who the hell in their right mind would buy this laptop for that?

STOP thinking inside the box and think about WHO this laptop is aimed for! Its a good price for someone who doesn't need a computer for anything, but would like one for fun (or for homework)

grrr

right common and think u think 256mb on mem is enough and ur saying the laptop is not gonna stress out?

firstly the consumer would need an anti virus so prob come with norton internet securty 2006 :mad: thats 1 thing that would slow ur pc down as hell as it is like bloatware

seondly once u install all u need such as office, msn, norton etc etc its going to be taking up alot of mem like now im using ie7, msn, wmp10 and using 478mb this is on my laptop and its not using anything else. So already ur stressing out the ram if u have 256mb

i know what ur saying think about the cosumer, ive had my cuzion brought a budget pc with and after 6 months the laptop was peice of junk.

i just like to add Serivce Pack 2 with loads and loads of updates and paths also think ahead when sp3 comes out this laptops is already dead

h4x3r

youngwilly wrote:

Sadly there are a few 'know-alls' on this thread who can't bear to face the simple truth. The £199 laptop is an absolute bargain, as noted by Melodytoon above who actually bought one. Comments comparing the VIA processor to imaginary Pentiums of 10 years ago also expose the level of ignorance at work.

No-one is claiming this laptop will compete in a 'benchmark test' against an Intel or AMD processor - but it doesnt have to. The average processor barely gets above 40% peak usage during normal use - check the performance manager if you know how. Benchmark tests are fairly useless anyway as they are not real world tests.

I have an old Pentium 2 that runs Windows XP SP2 and Office 2000 perfectly well - the only limit is the amount of RAM I can get in it means it has to page file to hard disk which slows it down everso slightly. The kids even play games on it like Worms and the SIMS.

This laptop far exceeds the power of my old Pentium 2.

Money saving is about spending as little as possible to get what you want or need. This laptop fits the bill perfectly !

Oh and I bought an 512Mb laptop memory chip on Ebay last week for £18.00 and there are several on sale right now for under £20 - cheap as chips!

read my last post and i doubt ur running a p2 machine up to now without prob

Kilty_2

My laptop came with 256mb of RAM and it only started to "stress out" as you put it when trying to do things like video editing.

Laptop RAM isn't as expensive as it used to be so could probably be easily upgraded cheaply.

To be honest the RAM isn't an issue, the crappy processor and chipset are.

I wouldn't buy this laptop and wouldn't advise anyone else to buy it either, infact I'd do quite the opposite but it can't be compared to old Pentium 2 etc machines as has been said. Pentium III yes (900mhz+) but nothing older.

mrs2fat

Kilty wrote:

PC World are useless at dealing with warranty complaints (I know someone who is taking them to the Small Claims Court over a faulty laptop).

you serious??
i had an 800 quid laptop last year from pc world that went very wonky after 13 months.
phoned them up and as soon as i mentioned 'consumer rights' and 'warranty isnt worth the piece of paper its printed on' they played ball.
i had to get an indepdent expert give it a going over listing what was wrong with it and approx cost of repair, sent this off to them and within a couple of days we had a voucher for the value of the comp to go pick a new one!!

Kilty_2

Perfectly serious, they refuse outright to admit liability and any mention of consumer rights is ignored.

Machine is < 4 months old too.

mrs2fat

that sucks.
my buddys best mates dad was the mp that wrote the consumer rights law, so they gave me a few key phrases to mention.
as it was last year i forgotten them tho, sorry

Kilty_2

Person who bought the laptop is dealing with it anyway, think he's already sent off the court summons.

There's no way they will see it go to court, just like banks don't over charges.

biglugs

If you have home insurance and have taken the legal expenses option you should have consumer disputes cover. Call up your legal expenses helpline (free) and they will contact PCW on your behalf.
Once the lawyers get involved these retailers tend to back down PDQ and all at no extra cost to you.
A friend did this with Currys over a dodgy fridge and within about 24 hours Currys had called her up and invited her to come down and choose her new fridge which they delivered free of charge and collected the broken one.

Kilty_2

Wasn't me that bought the laptop, I've more sense than to shop at PC World

Will tell my friend though, not sure what's actually happening with it.