Laptop recommendations? £500/ £600 ish

me0000

criboo wrote: »

This is true, but it depends if OP is looking to move the PC/laptop around.

I kind of regret buying a laptop, for the money I could have had a vastly superior PC, but at the time, I thought a laptop would be better, I'm at university and I go to the library a lot, however, my laptop just sits on my desk and I can't remember the last time I unplugged it.

Perhaps make some suggestions to OP if he is looking for a desktop. In the case of a desktop, I'd definitely look at DinoPC, you can pick each part and they have a forum with helpful and knowledgeable users too that might be worth consulting over the MSE forum.

thanks dinopc seems expensive?

GunJack

TTC40 wrote: »

It's slow though, hence ready for a new one.

reinstall and tweak windows and it won't be slow, start with a clean sheet, if you've not kept on top of it there'll be 5 years-worth of clutter slowing it down..use SIW to extract your product keys for windows and office before you start

Jivesinger

TTC40 wrote: »

The advisor then said we could buy Office for £110 or their 'special offer' package for c£160 which was Office, security, cloud & set up.

It would be worth checking which versions of Office are included there, and whether they're the same.

This version is £110 (£100 on the web) and is a permanent licence for one PC.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/software-gaming-books/software/business-home-office/office-software/microsoft-office-home-student-2013-20333784-pdt.html

The version in this bundle (although it's not the £160 price which you mentioned, so perhaps a different bundle) is Office 365, which has a licence that only lasts 1 year:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/software-gaming-books/software/business-home-office/office-software/microsoft-office-365-home-premium-with-mcafee-livesafe-knowhow-cloud-storage-essentials-laptop-bundle-21802446-pdt.html

Generally "Office 2013" (or 2010 or earlier) licences are permanent, but for "Office 365" you have to pay every year.

You can also try something like LibreOffice - this hasn't got all of the techie features of Microsoft Office, and there are some compatibility issues, but it has the advantage that it's free.

You could always give that a go and see how it suits you, and then buy MS Office later if you decide you need it.