hope this is the right forum..which laptop do I need

treeze

Hi,hope I'm in the right place. I need some advice on buying a new basic laptop. I have a Windows laptop-absolutely ancient and now coming to the end of it's long life. All I need is something to surf the internet,maybe store photos but pretty basic stuff.I don't write letters on it or need anything fancy. Nothing very tiny as my eyes are not very good. I'm a complete beginner with computers and know nothing about them really-I inherited this one from my daughter,so it has to be simple. I'm on a low budget so nothing flash although I want it to last.Hope someone can help as don't want to make an expensive mistake.

samskillern

Perhaps something like this...

(Turns out i cant post links, but a google search for 'The Laptop Centre' should bring up the site Im talking about.)

Refurbished laptop - Dell Latitude D630, Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, 1Gb Ram, 80Gb Hard Drive - £149.95



Which should meet your basic needs quite well and last a good few years, there are many other options on that site of course, including sub £100 laptops.

Some things to consider might be if you will be using unplugged for any great length of time in which case battery life of each model may be worth researching. Also, do you require a DVD player to watch films on it?

If you are just surfing the net and storing a few photos then anything with a suitable screensize for you, 1+ gb of ram, and built in wifi should suffice, if you are storing lots of photos (say, if you were an amateur photographer) then hard drive size might be an important factor too. If its just the ocassional picture being added then it shouldnt be a major concern as you will be unlikely to fill the drive anytime soon.

Hope this helps

NiftyDigits

This Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop (n0035114) is just ok for £228. Spec is ok. Just haven't seen the build quality.

This Toshiba Satellite 850 is also ok for £214, but I would spend another £15 on a RAM module to take it up to 6GB RAM. There is also a similar model that is £10 cheaper that would be a swizz to downgrade to Windows 7 if you hated Windows 8.

If you want to spend more we can look at the next step up.

NiftyDigits

samskillern wrote: »

Perhaps something like this...

(Turns out i cant post links, but a google search for 'The Laptop Centre' should bring up the site Im talking about.)

Refurbished laptop - Dell Latitude D630, Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, 1Gb Ram, 80Gb Hard Drive - £149.95



Which should meet your basic needs quite well and last a good few years, there are many other options on that site of course, including sub £100 laptops.

Some things to consider might be if you will be using unplugged for any great length of time in which case battery life of each model may be worth researching. Also, do you require a DVD player to watch films on it?

If you are just surfing the net and storing a few photos then anything with a suitable screensize for you, 1+ gb of ram, and built in wifi should suffice, if you are storing lots of photos (say, if you were an amateur photographer) then hard drive size might be an important factor too. If its just the ocassional picture being added then it shouldnt be a major concern as you will be unlikely to fill the drive anytime soon.

Hope this helps

Please...are people still pushing this old stuff? The thing is already six years old! Does it even have a DVD Writer? Is it running Windows 7 or Windows 8...or an OS that will be obsolete next year. How long is it's guarantee period?
What are you thinking?

samskillern

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Please...are people still pushing this old stuff?

Yes. And the consideration of what is 'old' has to have at least some context. If the OP has a 10 year old Pentium laptop, then this 'old stuff' could represent a significant upgrade at a very reasonable outlay of £80-£150

NiftyDigits wrote: »

The thing is already six years old!

But its Dell, and refurbished, and suits its intended purpose which is to be a reasonably priced upgrade.

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Does it even have a DVD Writer?

Yes it does, although there was no requirement for a DVD drive in the OP

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Is it running Windows 7 or Windows 8...or an OS that will be obsolete next year.

Probably Windows Vista or *maybe* 7 - what relevance is that?

NiftyDigits wrote: »

How long is it's guarantee period?

Probably not as long as if you spent more, the emphasis was on a budget system here, not a high spec system with extended warranties.

NiftyDigits wrote: »

What are you thinking?

See previous post.




OP, without knowing your current spec its difficult to suggest a potential upgrade. Its the same with your budget. I went for the £100-£150 range, and Nifty went for the £200+ range. Equally there are suggestions for every price bracket.

If you want to buy new, have the latest operating systems, 12 months guarantees, hundreds of gigs of storage etc etc etc you can, and each step up costs a little more.

However, in the spirit of answering the original question - the system I suggested is more than capable of performing the things you wanted to do.

NiftyDigits

It doesn't have a DVD writer. It's not £100 to £150. It's £157.90
It has Windows XP Professional which will be dumped by Microsoft in April. Did you even check what you have been recommending to the OP? A standard 12 month warranty is not 'hi-spec' or extended.
Why are you defending this outdated kit?

Here is the spec:

LATITUDE-D630-18XP
Brand: Dell
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz
Memory: 1Gb
Hard Drive: 80Gb
Optical Drive: DVDROM
Screen Size Inches: 14.1
Networking: wifi
Operating system: XP Professional

closed

what have you got now, which operating system is installed, and what is wrong with it?

samskillern

I’m not *defending* it, I offered it as a budget solution to the problem.

Just because Microsoft wont be actively supporting it, doesnt mean that it just stops working. Windows XP is still used by almost 40% of desktop pc users. And is a perfectly valid operating system to use.

Also, its clear the OP is probably not overly tech-savvy so changing the operating system to windows 7 (or 8) may not be the best advice, its a learning curve that may be unnecessary or unwanted.

If the OP has the extra pennies then your suggestions are great. If he doesnt, they are irrelevant - so to have a cheap alternative (which is in no way meant to be the best option) would be useful surely?

NiftyDigits

samskillern wrote: »

I’m not *defending* it, I offered it as a budget solution to the problem.

Just because Microsoft wont be actively supporting it, doesnt mean that it just stops working. Windows XP is still used by almost 40% of desktop pc users. And is a perfectly valid operating system to use.

Also, its clear the OP is probably not overly tech-savvy so changing the operating system to windows 7 (or 8) may not be the best advice, its a learning curve that may be unnecessary or unwanted.

If the OP has the extra pennies then your suggestions are great. If he doesnt, they are irrelevant - so to have a cheap alternative (which is in no way meant to be the best option) would be useful surely?

No. I'm afraid that your suggestion will be the expensive mistake about which he is concerned.

If the budget is really tight, better to upgrade what he has currently.

samskillern

NiftyDigits wrote: »

No. I'm afraid that your suggestion will be the expensive mistake about which he is concerned.

If the budget is really tight, better to upgrade what he has currently.

On what grounds? Its clear only your opinion counts, so will leave you to it. Nice insult to the guy on the other thread btw :T

In fact, ive just had a good read of your post history, and it appears that if anyone deviates from your amazing opinions and suggestions they end up getting flack for it.

You clearly know more than anyone, and take great pride in telling them, and protecting people from 'terrible advice' so I will leave you to it

NiftyDigits

samskillern wrote: »

On what grounds? Its clear only your opinion counts, so will leave you to it. Nice insult to the guy on the other thread btw :T

In fact, ive just had a good read of your post history, and it appears that if anyone deviates from your amazing opinions and suggestions they end up getting flack for it.

You clearly know more than anyone, and take great pride in telling them, and protecting people from 'terrible advice' so I will leave you to it

You seem a little over sensitive. We are discussing products, not personalities.

The DELL is six years old, has a six month warranty, doesn't have a DVD writer, runs Windows XP(which will be obsolete by next year) so any upgrade to Windows 7 or 8 will cost more, as well as needing to upgrade the RAM. Then of course there will be the old battery. 4 cell? 6 cell? Who knows? How long will that last?
£158?? When you can buy an 'as new' and up to date machine with a full warranty for less than £50 more?

No way. Better to let closed loose on the old machine to maximise it's performance, than to spend that kind of money on that old stuff. It's just not value for money.