Help needed with purchasing a laptop

Lugh_Chronain

My brother is looking to get a laptop and asked me what I thought of the Acer Aspire 4315. I explained to him that I would look into this but also told him that I do not really know much about computers and was wondering if anybody on here could help. Can you please tell me what he should be looking for when buying a computer? Should he be looking at the speed, the memory or both as I haven’t a clue.

Below is a list of some of the computers I’d thought he might like. Which one would you recommend? He just wants it for surfing the net and email and he has a budget of £500 but if he can he says he’d rather only spend up to at least £300 as he can use the rest for something else. I’m not sure if he wants to download music or movies to be honest. And finally, if you can think of any equivalents can you please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help contributed.

Acer Aspire 4315 14.1" Laptop £269.00 @ Tesco Direct – unfortunately this is not available online but I think it can be purchased in store

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-3880.aspx

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
Genuine Windows Vista® Starter2


The Intel® Celeron® processor, supporting Intel® 64 architecture, delivers impressive and reliable mobile performance for remarkable value.

The Intel® GMA X3100 with up to 358 MB of shared system memory lets you maximize your movie and gaming enjoyment.

The wide-aspect 14.1" screen immerses you in a true-to-life visual experience.

Acer CrystalBrite™ TFT LCD technology improves screen clarity, contrast and color saturation.

A large Serial ATA hard disk gives you considerable storage for music, movies, games and more.

Acer Empowering Technology delivers useful management tools that improve performance and give you more control over your computer.

Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo V5535 £264.35 delivered @ Misco.co.uk

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=297426&sourceid=2009

• Processor (CPU): Intel Celeron M540 1.86 GHz
• Memory (RAM): 1GB DDR2-667MHz (Max Memory 2 GB)
• Hard Drive: 120GB S-ATA 5400RPM
• Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800) with CrystalBrite Technology
• Optical Drive: DVD±RW Dual Layer
• Graphics: SiS Mirage 3+ Graphics, 64 MB shared memory
• Wireless Networking: 802.11b/g
• Wired Networking: 10/100
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic
• Card Reader: N/A
• USB Ports: 3
• Firewire: No
• Bluetooth: No
• Camera: No
• Weight: 2.7Kg

BELINEA 3 INTEL CORE Laptop £349.99 @ asda-electricals

http://www.asda-electricals.co.uk/shop/product/belinea/o-book/white/3-intel-core.html

• Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
• Software: Microsoft® Works 8.5, Bullguard Antivirus, Power DVD-Player, Nero 7 Essentials, Microsoft® Office Professional 2007 (Office Ready Preload - 60 day trial)
• Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T5450
• Image Size: 15,4 inch
• Memory: 1024 MB
• Hard Drive: 160 GB
• Drives: DVD+/-RW Double Layer
• WLAN: 802.11 a/b/g
• Graphics System: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 358 MB
• Other features: Silent Mode / Webcam

colin79666

Well for Windows Vista avoid 1GB of RAM and Celeron Processors (even for basic internet and word processing).
Look for core 2 duo and 2GB of RAM.
The Dell Inspiron 1525 for example would fit the bill and costs about £400 from dell.co.uk.

Lugh_Chronain

30111987, (that's your birth date isn't it?) can you please explain why you’ve recommend core 2 duo and 2GB of RAM.

In the meantime I'll have a word with my brother and see if he doesn't mind spending an extra £90 on a laptop. I have a funny feeling he'll go for this though especially as it's better than the ones pointed out above.

colin79666

Windows Vista is quite a resource hog (all the fancy graphics and background processes) so you need a fairly decent processor and plenty ram to get decent performance out of it.
Celerons were fine back in the Windows 98 days when a true pentium PC would cost over a grand and a Celeron was a way of making a saving, with Vista you will end up wishing you paid the extra for a dual core processor (Athlon X2 or Core 2 Duo)

Lugh_Chronain

Thanks 30111987, I asked this as I'm sure my brother will want to know why when I inform him of this.

I understand what you’re telling me here, it would obviously be a good idea to invest that little bit more on a computer that has a dual core processor rather than regretting buying a cheapo one that doesn't, especially if he wants to do other things as well as surfing the net.

I'm going to write to him pretty soon and try and explain this to him the best I can. I'll tell him what you've already mentioned.

You've been a great help, thanks very much.

Blacksheep1979

not especially if - more a case of if he wants it usable at all and it has vista then you need 2gb ram and don't even think about getting a celeron based computer.

Lugh_Chronain

Can you explain this please?

Financial_Novice_2

I have an Advent laptop with 1GB of memory and Inter Core2 Duo processor and I run Vista home premium on it very successfully. I also run Norton internet security 2007, System Mechanic, Ad-Aware 2007 & AVG Anti-Spyware and there is no noticible drop in the processing speed.

Don't get me wrong, if I could have afforded it at the time I would have bought a laptop with 2GB just for future proofing but that said every programme I have runs smoothly, as does vista.

colin79666

Financial_Novice wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, if I could have afforded it at the time I would have bought a laptop with 2GB just for future proofing but that said every programme I have runs smoothly, as does vista.

At least you can usually (and cheaply) upgrade the ram in a laptop. Upgrading the processor in a laptop is more or less impossible.

Lugh_Chronain

Yes that's true! And as martin has pointed out you can now upgrade the RAM for as little as £20. See here for RAM upgrades for laptops & desktops.

Lugh_Chronain

Might be ordering the Inspiron 1525 this evening. This computer is actually being sold initially with IGB of RAM so will have to upgrade to 2GB meaning it will come to £378 but will purchase it through Quidco to get 5% cashback so will ask my brother for £360.

Couple of other things I’m trying to find out too is who are the couriers they use these days? Can you order for a specific date? And I guess he’ll have to be in when this arrives so he can sign for it. And also what happens if he’s not in? I’m sure this shouldn’t be a problem but thought I’d ask just incase. I'm going to phone Dell tomorrow if necessary.