Help in choosing laptop for 11year old.

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Hi Nifty, i`ve had a very quick look at the ACER you`ve mentioned and the DELL outlet that somebody else posted and these look promising. I`ll have a look at the Toshiba later and then decide. Thanks again for all the help and recommendations you`ve given me, it really has helped me.

NiftyDigits

SAVVYMUMMY wrote: »

Hi Nifty, i`ve had a very quick look at the ACER you`ve mentioned and the DELL outlet that somebody else posted and these look promising. I`ll have a look at the Toshiba later and then decide. Thanks again for all the help and recommendations you`ve given me, it really has helped me.

There is no pressure. Take your time to find out exactly what he needs. Come back at any time and we'll advise what is the best within your price range at that time.

Strider590

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Forgedaboudit. If you've one kicking about the house or if someone is giving one away, fine. Pay good money for old and outdated stuff? No thank you.

I have an old IBM, still working and running Windows 98. Utterly useless to an eleven year old, no matter how robust.

So you think it's a good idea to spend £1600 on strong machine that will be next to worthless in a few years next to the current releases.

Fine if you need to pay extra for robustness and business quality. Perhaps I'd get an under £50 one for a five year old to get started, but that's it.

I'd rather pay £250 and get a good few years out of it and perhaps pass it on to someone else before I start using my new £250 machine.

You say that, but for most things you'll use a laptop for, you don't need some superfast up to date machine. I had a poke about inside a HP laptop not long ago a 2009 model, on paper the spec far exceeded my T41, but in practice it was painfully slow. Opening it up, I realised it was full of rubbish, poor quality parts.

Quality is just as important as spec, people get this idea that stuff has to be bigger/faster/stronger, it's like trying to measure the image quality of a digital camera based purely on megapixels, it just doesn't work.......

NiftyDigits

Strider590 wrote: »

You say that, but for most things you'll use a laptop for, you don't need some superfast up to date machine. I had a poke about inside a HP laptop not long ago a 2009 model, on paper the spec far exceeded my T41, but in practice it was painfully slow. Opening it up, I realised it was full of rubbish, poor quality parts.

Quality is just as important as spec, people get this idea that stuff has to be bigger/faster/stronger, it's like trying to measure the image quality of a digital camera based purely on megapixels, it just doesn't work.......

Whilst I appreciate your sentiment, to write that a higher spec machine was slower because of 'poor quality parts' is just nonsense. They would have to be faulty for that to occur.
So the HP was slower because it was faulty or perhaps it was not running optimally.

Stick with your old machines and get as much life out of them as you can by all means, but anecdotes like that do nothing for your credibility.

Strider590

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Whilst I appreciate your sentiment, to write that a higher spec machine was slower because of 'poor quality parts' is just nonsense. They would have to be faulty for that to occur.
So the HP was slower because it was faulty or perhaps it was not running optimally.

Stick with your old machines and get as much life out of them as you can by all means, but anecdotes like that do nothing for your credibility.

No actually it was running slower because:

It was full of manufacturer "bloatware" (which was bundled in with all the device drivers)

The RAM (despite having twice as much as my T41) was of a MUCH slower "front side bus" speed and unbranded.

The HDD was some generic unbranded bottom end junk.

NiftyDigits

Strider590 wrote: »

No actually it was running slower because:

It was full of manufacturer "bloatware" (which was bundled in with all the device drivers)

The RAM (despite having twice as much as my T41) was of a MUCH slower "front side bus" speed and unbranded.

The HDD was some generic unbranded bottom end junk.

Aaaah.... now we understand. Oh... slower RAM too.

Why not put an end to this nonsense?

Fact is, a new(2013) machine will be faster and more powerful than your T41. Who cares about a 2009 HP? No one is recommending one here.

reennaa

Ahh another scintillating thread ..........

NiftyDigits

Birds of a feather eh....