a good laptop for a home business?

oxcat1

Hello,

My husband is looking to upgrade his 7-year old (!) laptop. It will be used predominantly for Microsoft Office, but also running Sibelius software, and looking at scores, so reasonably good graphics required.

Is this a good laptop? It comes to £519 after VAT. I want something relatively 'future-proof', whilst also not wanting to spend a vast amount of money at the moment!

It is a 3rd generation i3 processor, 64 bit Windows 7, 4 GB memory, and 500GB hard drive.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/vostro-3560/pd?oc=sbn35616&id=2fb5b232-5ebf-466a-bc17-f1888ad687bd&c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

InsideInsurance

Looking at the Sibelius software site it requires very low spec computer to run however recommends that you have 4gb of ram, still a low processor and a ASIO compatible soundcard

The link you provided is to an i5 processor which will be fine. You meet the minimum recommended ram but personally I'd want to exceed it. The only outstanding issue is the sound card but the software company recommend adding an external USB soundcard anyway to achieve this so not much of an issue as long as you budget for it.

oxcat1

Many thanks.

I hadn't noticed that about the external sound card. Would that be needed even with additional external speakers?

Does the laptop look like a good deal for the money? I'm assuming it is a relatively good brand but perhaps I am wrong? Any guidance much appreciated! Was hoping to spend more like £450 but struggled a little to find an i5 or i7 processor at that price and assumed, perhaps wrongly, that that would be important in providing 'longevity'?

closed

There are lots of i5's around under £500

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=price+ascending&a00035=Intel+Core+i5&cat=10&page=1

Curry's have tosh/samsung/acer from 430-500, argos have various.

second gen i5 for 378 http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e530-core-i5-2520m-4gb-500gb-dvd-writer-15-6--widescreen-win-8-pro-64-bit-8KL0.html?refs=54590000&src=3

Dell evalue code cn55130 - 15r laptop, i5, 8GB 1TB £449 including vat and delivery

keep an eye out for voucher codes and cashback http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dell/ etc to reduce further, they are usually prevalent for Dell, but nothing around atm.

---

backup and factory restore on a 7 year old laptop will make it run like new in 30 minutes.

an i5 or i3 has plenty of longevity, anything more is paying over the odds for unused power

oxcat1

Thank you.

I just find it so difficult to compare one against the other and to know what is worth spending additional money on!

The Dell you recommended looks really good, but I am fairly sure that we want Windows 7, not 8, and I shall also need to buy Office (complete with Outlook), although it certainly doesn't need to be Office 2013!

closed

http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukbsdt1/campaigns/voucher-and-discount-coupons-smb?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1&delphi:gr=true