BONGO Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 I know about using computers, and i understand numbers when it comes to memory, etc etc etc, but when it comes to picking a laptop, i get a bit lost...I need to help my cousin choose a laptop, but i'm not sure myself. I've looked on the dell website, but realised i'm not sure how to choose...They are after the basics. Internet, downloading music etc, and a general computer. They don't need specific programs really, for editing or whatever. Probably XP, but only becasue i don't really know anything about this vista thing!If people know any links of good ones, rather than just general advice, it'd be much appreciated.They don't want to go over 450 - 500, but if they can get what they want for less, they'd like that! Bigger the better when it comes to the screen...Thanks, Bongo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogre Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 pc world-free one when you subscribe to orange? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONGO Posted July 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 yeah i saw an advert on that. But as you read, i need help picking a laptop, so just becasue it's free, it doesn't really help the fact that i don't know if it would be right lol...Ta though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom jersey Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 I am on my laptop now, i have an acer, go on google and go on an acer dealer they are great some cheap and they look bloody nice too. Nice wide screens and comes with xp or can just buy upgrade and the will install it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RicH_87 Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127706I don't really know a lot about laptops either but i bought that (on impulse) a month or so ago and it's been fine so far. I upgraded the memory to 2gb becasue i'm a tart but 1gb was fine. Vista is alright, pretty to look at and very capable, but doesn't really have any advantages over XP as far as i'm concerned.Battery life is a bit poor, I usually get like 4 hours out of it, but i have it plugged in most of the time anyway. I think key things to look for in budget laptops would be: *Processors no faster than 1.8ghz (due to battery life)*Battery Life*Ram (don't go any lower than 1gb imo)*Screen Size/Type. Mine has a sorta glossy finish to it, unlike my TFT monitor, so it can be hard to see when outside sometimes, and personally i would always want a widescreen.don't worry about Hard drive space, i don't think you'll find one with less than 80gb nowadays which should be alright unless it's gonna be used for a lot of photos/videos.Oh, and i would definitely be looking at ACER or ASUS, i wouldn't get a dell, and the cheap HP laptops usually die after 12 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 (edited) My mum just got one similar to this. We went into tesco's and they had them on offer with a faster processor and a larger hard drive for the same price as this one. The build quality is fantastic and it has been absolutely problem free. The screen is lovely and crisp with bright vivid colours and its fast enough for everything we've thrown at it. Dual core processors help with multi-tasking so you can encode videos/music/etc while the laptop performs quickly as you watch a movie or browse the net.If your getting a new laptop get one with vista, the networking options are much better and far easier for novice users to setup and maintain... ideal for a laptop.Don't go lower than 1gb of ram, as rich said. Especially with vista, though you can always buy a small flash card and stick it in the card reader and vista uses "readyboost" to format the card for use as extra ram, which actually does make a noticeable difference.Hard drive space should be around 80-120gb for your budget.Screen just needs to be big enough and crisp.Obviously the laptop needs to be well built.Good cover support is a must with a laptop, warranties that cover accidental breakage/theft are very much needed for soemthing so portable and appealing in the eyes of a thief. Edited July 28, 2007 by Krisboats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadChikken Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Dell Inspiron 1501 (Click Best Buy Deals and then the one with "Bigger memory & hard drive")My sister's just got one of those so she can do work etc at home, and am sat having a play on it at the moment. Seems pretty nice, and bloody good value for money! only downside is the memory is shared with the graphics card, but if you arent going to be playing games etc then its a pretty perfect little bundle! Its on offer at the moment aswell, hence why she brought it. As with all dell's, good rtb warranty etc so all should be good.Just a thought M@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy d Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 I'm not a super computer expert but here's my advice anyway:Don't go for top of the range as the same laptop will be loads cheaper a few months down the line and you'll feel silly. Your budget sounds fine.I bought an Acer, it's been pretty good.If it's just for normal computery internetty stuff then I'd stick with XP, Vista is just a bit too new. XP should still be supported for quite a while (I hope) and Vista just sucks up your computer power I believe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Battery life is a bit poor, I usually get like 4 hours out of it, but i have it plugged in most of the time anyway.chill out, that's not poor at all! i get an hour tops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONGO Posted July 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 OK we've found a laptop that we're gonna get IF orange broadband is any good....Anyone know?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egg Fried Rice Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 (edited) OK we've found a laptop that we're gonna get IF orange broadband is any good....Anyone know??Im am on orange and previous on Wanadoo (which is now owned by orange). I was paying 17.99 for 1mb and because the company had been taken over i just kept paying that price and left it as it was on contract. As broadband is getting faster for cheaper i decided i should change so i rung up "wanadoo" or orange as it is now to terminate my contract but they pulled me back in by giving me 6 months free broadband and then £12.99 there after so i thought i might aswell just carry on but with a faster boradband speed of up top 8mb. I also got a free 'Livebox' (also acts as Wifi, so your laptop would benefit/be ideal from this) which is really cool and i can make phone calls off it simply by plugging another normal house phone into it, this gives me another number and free calls to any landline in the UK. As for broadband quality, its excellent. I am consistantly recieving on average 7mb of downloads with no disconnections or trouble. At first i did have a bit of trouble setting up but i rung up orange technical support and they got me sorted out within minutes even if the guy on the other end was a bit hard to understand But overall it's good, reliable and fast. No problems with me...yet JK Edited July 28, 2007 by J-KAY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walleee Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 I with them, no problems, but nothing to rave about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 I'm not a super computer expert but here's my advice anyway:Don't go for top of the range as the same laptop will be loads cheaper a few months down the line and you'll feel silly. Your budget sounds fine.I bought an Acer, it's been pretty good.If it's just for normal computery internetty stuff then I'd stick with XP, Vista is just a bit too new. XP should still be supported for quite a while (I hope) and Vista just sucks up your computer power I believe...Lies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocktrials Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 I just got a really nice one from mesh computers for £500, 1gb ram, 80gb hdd, decent processor, free bag/mouse etc, vista premium, and 2 years worldwide warrenty, as im taking it to oz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONGO Posted July 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Lies.Really helpful... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broomer Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 (edited) Dell Inspiron 1501 (Click Best Buy Deals and then the one with "Bigger memory & hard drive")My sister's just got one of those so she can do work etc at home, and am sat having a play on it at the moment. Seems pretty nice, and bloody good value for money! only downside is the memory is shared with the graphics card, but if you arent going to be playing games etc then its a pretty perfect little bundle! Its on offer at the moment aswell, hence why she brought it. As with all dell's, good rtb warranty etc so all should be good.Just a thought M@Thats what i have, got it for 300 pounds about 7 months ago i guess. only one problem but it was sorted out by the amazing people on their customer support line.spot on ide say. my mum also has a dell inspirion 6400 or something the likes of and thats very nice but at 700ish pounds.i found that vista gave poor battery life on my laptop, would get a 1h30mins compared to about 4 h on windows xp. Edited July 29, 2007 by Broomer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Really helpful...Okay, hows this? "That statement was incorrect."Fact is, it doesn't "suck up your computer power". That statement in itself is incorrect as vista doesn't use any more "power" (reffering to battery life) than XP. Operating systems in general do very little with regards to power consumption when compared to running programs, having the screen on, using the speakers etc. The thing vista does is appears to use more RAM, but people get confused with this by comparing it to how XP used RAM and thinking they are both using it in the same way. Vista allocates the RAM more efficiently than in XP and when the RAM is needed by another program it gets assigned straight away, reducing the amount used by vista. The reason the RAM requirements are higher for vista is because it uses more a complex graphical interface than XP and requires the RAM for caching, as it caches far more stuff than XP does. The main culprit of the expendature of RAM is the "superfetch" feature of vista. Superfetch loads previously accessed files and programs or programs it "thinks" you might be liekly to run next in order to load them up quicker should you use them. XP never did this, which is why you could find XP ran slower at startup and even after having just left it on its own for a while. Superfetch can even prioritize what programs your likely to use at different tmies of the day and cache them accordingly, for example game .exe files in the evening and weekends and word, publisher, excel .exe files during business days. The real fact of it is not how shocking it is that vista uses up so much memory, but how previous versions of windows shockingly left it empty despite the RAM still drawing roughly the same amount of power as if it were being used as a cache.I thought i'd already been more than helpful further on in the thread and that writing something of an essay like that was a bit unneccessary when a simple answer would have sufficed for the majority of people who will read this thread. I figured if you were really concerned as to why they may be lies you'd go and look into it yourself or that the only type of people who'd want to know would be the type that already do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Kris I don't think he was talking about battery power... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Kris I don't think he was talking about battery power...Thats why i went onto explain its use of system resources in case he meant to say "vistas a system hog" or something to that effect . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONGO Posted July 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Okay, hows this? "That statement was incorrect."Fact is, it doesn't "suck up your computer power". That statement in itself is incorrect as vista doesn't use any more "power" (reffering to battery life) than XP. Operating systems in general do very little with regards to power consumption when compared to running programs, having the screen on, using the speakers etc. The thing vista does is appears to use more RAM, but people get confused with this by comparing it to how XP used RAM and thinking they are both using it in the same way. Vista allocates the RAM more efficiently than in XP and when the RAM is needed by another program it gets assigned straight away, reducing the amount used by vista. The reason the RAM requirements are higher for vista is because it uses more a complex graphical interface than XP and requires the RAM for caching, as it caches far more stuff than XP does. The main culprit of the expendature of RAM is the "superfetch" feature of vista. Superfetch loads previously accessed files and programs or programs it "thinks" you might be liekly to run next in order to load them up quicker should you use them. XP never did this, which is why you could find XP ran slower at startup and even after having just left it on its own for a while. Superfetch can even prioritize what programs your likely to use at different tmies of the day and cache them accordingly, for example game .exe files in the evening and weekends and word, publisher, excel .exe files during business days. The real fact of it is not how shocking it is that vista uses up so much memory, but how previous versions of windows shockingly left it empty despite the RAM still drawing roughly the same amount of power as if it were being used as a cache.I thought i'd already been more than helpful further on in the thread and that writing something of an essay like that was a bit unneccessary when a simple answer would have sufficed for the majority of people who will read this thread. I figured if you were really concerned as to why they may be lies you'd go and look into it yourself or that the only type of people who'd want to know would be the type that already do.Cheers.Jus that when i'm asking for advice, and someone says something, only for someone else to disagree, it doesn't help in the slightest if you don't know why they disagree! But now i do know why you disagree, which is very helpful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Cheers.Jus that when i'm asking for advice, and someone says something, only for someone else to disagree, it doesn't help in the slightest if you don't know why they disagree! But now i do know why you disagree, which is very helpful Yeah, i see where your coming from... and if i'm being totally honest it didn't occur to me at all before you mentioned it then. Sorry dude :$ . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Harrison Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 I haven't read all of this thread as others know more about laptop specs than me, but I'll say this: avoid PC World. Also, if you do go there, don't buy the extortionate service plan / extended warranty scheme. It's a total nightmare.Personally if I was buying a new laptop, I'd buy direct from Dell. I have a Dell Latitude and it's been really good, despite much abuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swize Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Would be what i went for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocktrials Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 mesh laptopsi have a mesh desktop and laptopowned desktop for over 2 years, still going well. Only problem i had was within 4-5 months of owning it, the gx card burnt out, must have been faulty, so i sent it back and they swapped it cos was undr warrenty, was good service though.laptop had it for few months, came with 2 yrs worldwide warrenty, perfect for oz, doing everything right so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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