this any good? please help

magoogy

my son is after a laptop - he wanted the one at pcworld for £300 but it was out of stock

is this one any good?

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-5655.aspx

he only has £300 and wants one for dvds and cd burning and maybe playing games and chatting on....

needs to be wireless

thanks

Chippy_Minton

It's okay as an entry level machine, however with only 512 MB of RAM it'll be a bit slow for running Vista, which seems to need at least 1 GB. It will do everything you've listed above, though only board games and simple graphics games.

sarylou

Vista is VERY memory hungry, magoogy!
As Chippy_Minton said, you should have at least 1024mb (1gig) of RAM to run it. (sometimes written as 1x1024mb or 2x512mb...)
And to get the benfits of the Vista system and its 'Aero' display - the bit that shows what's on your desktop - you'd be safer getting better graphics capabilities, too.
Does he actually really need a laptop!?
What does he want to do on it?

magoogy

thanks for your replies....he has chosen a different model from pc world with better specs following your replies guys....

he doesnt actually need a laptop but wants one cos im forever moaning i can never get on my pc lol

hes decided hes got more money to spend too now .....

thanks....

A_Nice_Englishman

I think Sarylou meant does he need a laptop as opposed to a desktop. Desktops tend to have higher specs than laptops for the same price.

magoogy

righto lol - his room is too small to fit a desktop in so he wants a laptop....just deciding between these two now;-

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...l& tabIndex=1

or;-

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-27751

thanks - your help is appreciated

but, cant see if there is a cdrom on the compaq one....

sarylou

^^Cheers, for clearing up my ambiguous statement, English.

I still think the path of a 'not-so-expensive' laptop for the sake of a bit of leg (or bed) room is a dodgy one.
I don't know his age, but I'll assume he's at school - or similar.
Has he got a pile of games in there already, PS2, DS, etc? Are they dusty? :rolleyes2
You can't play games - only flash-style ones - on a cheapy laptop. And many boys and their toys will want this option.
My hubby is online far too much with his 'buddies'. :rolleyes:
And he's often giggling like a girl...? :think:

If something does go wrong with a laptop, it's (up to) twice as expensive to repair, unless you know someone who can dismantle it for you. Our PC often has its cover off, even when it's working OK!

You can always get a cheap PC base unit, with the option to upgrade?
Use a wireless mouse and keyboard so those leads don't get in the way.
And if you wall mount your screen, you save another 8".

Of course, ignore all of this if your budget is your main concern. And that fact I'm trying to cover up the fact that I know very little about laptops!
We're just about to try a Tesco (Medion 6486) PC for only £548. Needs a screen tho', but it'll go lovely in the room for TV and DVD etc., for the kids during the day. (and MSE for me!)
I wanted a laptop too, but 'we' (loosely) decided that for a few extra '£' we could get another 'proper' unit and save the hassle of trying to build one.

What d'you think? :undecided