Muel Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hey, I'm looking at laptops for when I go to Uni in september, but I want to get sorted sooner than that because my desktops on it's way out.I don't know a lot about laptops, I'm looking to spend about £500, and I want something thats:Small enough to fit in a normal rucksack, I don't want to have to carry a big laptop bag with meSTRONG, I've heard all sorts of horror stories about peoples laptops breaking, I want something really tough that won't break, but I don't know what makes are tough any more.It has to have XP, I can't stand vista at allI'd prefer it to have built in wireless, just in caseA big hard drive, I have a lot of videos that I'll want to watch on it.I think I'd rather have an intel processor and 2/4gb of ram, but it's more important that it doesn't break.Cheers in advance for any help, I have searched online for reviews and stuff, but I'd like some owners views of whats best. Theres just so much to read it's hard to take it all in and work out which is best for me, Ebuyer alone must have about a million to choose from.I have a spare XP license, how difficult is it to downgrade from Vista? I'm guessing there might be trouble getting drivers etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaffacakes Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I've had a vaio for 6/7ish months now, and its been good, still loads up fast as it did when It was brand new.It cost me £500 and its got a 250gb hard drive and 3gb of ram. The screens pretty nice, and the actual laptop looks awesome too. I've woken up a handfull of times, with it on the floor on its face, but its showing no signs of breakage.Has vista though, Most new laptops come with it now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 I had a vaio before, it broke when it got around 5 years old, the little switch that turns the backlight on and off got all corroded inside or dust in it or something because it won't let the backlight come on any more, I cleaned it out with switch cleaner and it worked for a few months then stopped again, but it's too slow to be of any use really.I really don't want to have to have Vista, I can't stand it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Google VBI, see what you can find.I don't know what kind of laptops they offer now but they're worth checking. In short, it's a fully customizable and upgradable platform introduced by Intel, you can choose memory, cpu, gpu, hdd, wireless - pretty much everything including the case and lcd size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 You will probably shoot me down in flames, but think about getting a second hand macbook off ebay. I have bought 2 macs off of ebay now, the first a 800mhz ibook in my second year of uni, which is still going strong 6 years later. The one I have just bought was an old style white macbook, 2 months old, 2.4 ghz, 1 gb ram and 160 hd for £450. I have upgraded it to 4 gb of ram and 320gb for another £100, and I recon it'll last for years and years and years and years...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Thanks for the advice Inur, I'll have a look for it. Cheers Elliot but I'm just not keen on Mac's, I've used them a couple of times and I'm just not keen to be honest! I'll think about it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam-Addy A3 Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Google VBI, see what you can find.I don't know what kind of laptops they offer now but they're worth checking. In short, it's a fully customizable and upgradable platform introduced by Intel, you can choose memory, cpu, gpu, hdd, wireless - pretty much everything including the case and lcd size.I can't find anything really linkage?Sorry for the thread hijack, but im in the same position as you mate Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 VBI no longer exists, as shown here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam-Addy A3 Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 VBI no longer exists, as shown hereNice one buddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Thanks for the advice Inur, I'll have a look for it. Cheers Elliot but I'm just not keen on Mac's, I've used them a couple of times and I'm just not keen to be honest! I'll think about it though.Then install XP on it (and in doing so lose every reason to own a Mac). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I don't want to have to mess about though really, and I'm not into the whole white thing. It's probably a good idea to wait for Windows 7 to come out actually, I've read somewhere it might be this October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I don't want to have to mess about though really, and I'm not into the whole white thing. It's probably a good idea to wait for Windows 7 to come out actually, I've read somewhere it might be this October.Apple aren't doing the whole white thing anymore though, they've moved onto aluminium cases for pretty much everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamness™ Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Apple aren't doing the whole white thing anymore though, they've moved onto aluminium cases for pretty much everything.I hear the new aluminium cases have made the wireless signal worse than it used to be (not that it was bad to begin with) but correct me if I'm wrong.Tam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 No idea, I've got a nearly 3 year old Rev A MacBook Pro which has been fine for me, but dunno what the unibodies are like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamness™ Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Cool, I was just wondering because I'm thinking off investing in a Macbook for when I go off to study architecture next year. Would just be interesting to see if the rumour was true.On a similar note, what at the refurbished macbooks like? Worth getting one over a shiny new one?Tam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 No idea, I've only ever bought all my macs brand new. My dad had a refurb eMac though and he loves it, still uses it now infact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 (edited) Just a random idea10" aldipersonally im looking for an SSD laptop but they are only 16gb at the moment argh Edited March 5, 2009 by Chandler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 That looks alright, but it's a bit small.I think I'm going to wait until I'm at Uni now, they should have computers there that we use, so I just want to find out how much I'll need/want one when I get there. Otherwise I'll build a new desktop and add another monitor in.Cheers for the help anyway guys, I'll considor a Mac, but I doubt I'll go for it, all the computers here are on Windows and I want Office, I think macs can use Open Office? I had it for Windows a while back and I couldn't stand it and switched back to Office 2003. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamness™ Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I do believe Microsoft office is available for macs, I use it at school.Tam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 You can get MS Office for Macs, or Open Office, or just crack use the trial copy of iLife you get with every OS X installation, and export to .doc if you need to, but why would you need to use the uni computers if you have your own laptop I never used the uni computers since I had a laptop, which was for 2 years, cos we had a wireless network and so we had wireless printing, even to the A1 printers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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