Laptop for £500 Needed

PistonBroke_2

Hi

I've been asked to obtain a laptop for a friend of mine and he has a budget of £500 max all i know is he will need to network with it & general usage e.g email, internet, power point etc.

Now I've had a little look on-line and found a few possibilities but I'm not really sure whether i should go for a Turion 64 X2 or a Core2Duo Etc.

another thing is Vista OR Xp Pro ? as it will be networked as i understand it Vista Business or Ultimate are the only vista options & I've also heard that vista is best run on a minimum 2Gb of memory is this true + i do realise it will run on less but i heard it performs better if you have at least 2Gb ?

jusbea

I have been looking myself, and I am thinking about this Toshiba from currys as it has loads of memory and hard disk space and XP home premium:

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0792455787.1190727991@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfcaddmdfmkfddcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&sku=193065

PistonBroke_2

Thanks for that link i saw this one there and it looks like a nice spec ?

+ i need to re-iterate it's going to be needed for networking so Only Vista Business & ultimate are suitable i think ? unless i just stick with XP Pro

albertross_2

networking to a workgroup or domain?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

PistonBroke_2

albertross wrote: »

networking to a workgroup or domain?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

Initially it will be Workgroup only but if in time i get the chance to set them up a small domain but that might not be for a year or two yet it depends when i can lay my hands on a server

Also What are people's feelings on Core2Duo or AMD Turion X2 ? there does seem to be a significant price difference

albertross_2

Workgroup will work with home, domain won't

PistonBroke_2

thanks Albertross idf all else fails i might get Home premium then :cool:

Whats your take on the processors ? & what do you think of the that HP i found ?

+ does anyone know what the differerance is between the C2D 2000/5000/7000 series ?

john-306

bobsmith wrote: »

Go here: www.quidco.com/microwarehouse/ and you can get 5% off the laptop. There is a decent selection and competitive prices!

£351.33 - Toshiba Satellite L30-10V - Pentium Dual Core T2080 / 1.73 GHz - RAM : 512 MB - HD : 60 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - WLAN : 802.11b/g - Vista Home Basic - 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )

No quidco but ebuyer got this for £339.99 delivered and a free 512mb ram upgrade


Just seen your posts too... 11 in total and 7 of them promoting microwarehouse and you only registered yesterday.....nice

PistonBroke_2

Just a thought i noticed most of these only come with 1 Year Warranty so would it be Wiser to go for say a Dell or a Mesh ? who offer 3 year warranty's

Are Dell Laptops any good as they are on Quidco too ?

PistonBroke_2

I just Spoke to Dell & a complete Numpty of a salesman who was Desperately trying to sell me an inspiron 1501 but when i pointed out that the Vostro was a more Network ready model & had much better Specs for Less money too ? he tried to tell me that the Vostro's were Poor Build Quality & Overheat when you try to use them properly? I questioned him on this several times but he then shied away from his comments and wouldn't repeat it.

Basically the Specs were
inspiron 1501 :
AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 TK53
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]
Windows Vista® Home Premium
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

The Vostro 1000 :
AMD® Turion 64 X2 TL60
2048MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Windows Vista® Business or Windows® XP Professional
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory (integrated)
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display

I eventually told him i agreed to recommending the inspiron (which was a lie) and said i would need to add the 4 years Support package & then he completely changed his tune and plumped for the Vostro 1000 ?

Needless to say i was very confused as to what was going on but the final price was the Vostro 1000 with add ons of 4yr Support & upgrade to wifi N(£40)
£570 inc Vat & Delivery which for the spec and support i thought was a top deal and probably the one i'd recomend

Does anyone know of any Voucher Deals for Dell ?

I'm_With_Stupid

No (just checked out Hot UK Deals and there's only one Dell deal for 10% off a different laptop), but I would try to use the fact that you're willing to buy 4 years warranty to get a discount, or get your wifi thrown in for free. Sales people love to sell longer warranties, so don't mention it until they do, and get them to "convince" you to buy it. You might get nothing, but it's worth a shot.

Oh and just from personal experience, getting a Home version of Windows XP to try and work with the rest of the network was an absolute nightmare when I tried it. I dunno if Vista is any better, but I doubt it. It might've just been me being useless, but nothing was where it was on the Pro version. Can't even remember what I did now, but it was a waste of a day. I hate home versions of Windows, so I would definitely agree with you on the Vostro.