Reply With QuoteThe most amazing thing I've ever bought my iPad !
When anybody visits they make straight for it,even my techie sons.
OK I know there are a few computer guys on the site so can anyone help recomend a new laptop? £500 ish give or take £50, i want it for the basics internet banking, TZ UK that sort of thing, then a bit of work if i need to go away for a week end. Probably going to buy from PC world because it's just round the corner and i get to touch and feel before i buy but open to there places if you rcomend them. But what processor is best these days i see intel p600 or intel i3 what is the table of best processors and what make? i've had HP before and always been happy but i've also had Dell and that seemed ok.
So any advice welcome really, what do you think?
The most amazing thing I've ever bought my iPad !
When anybody visits they make straight for it,even my techie sons.
Oh gonna join you on the Apple bias.
I've repaired many many many laptop PC's (meaning Microsoft Windows in various brands of Hardware) including a couple of my own, however I've never had to repair an Apple, either mine or anyone else's.
Save yourself the pain and long term expense, buy an Apple new or second hand.
I'd check out pc world, write down the model you like. Buy it online cheaper.
I bought my Sony vaio from amazon, first class service and £160 cheaper than pc world
iPads also good but you need pc/mac for it to work, the lt is pretty redundant since the pad arrived..... :D
I'm guessing that rules out the iPad.Originally Posted by justin44
I recently bought a cheap Samsung laptop for similar use, and I'm very impressed with it, compared to recent Toshiba, Fujitsu and Acer laptops I've had (I get through laptops rather fast).
I'd say an i3 will do more than you need. When I looked in PC World, it seemed that the laptops either had a Celeron processor, or were £700+, so watch out for that. You will probably also see Pentium dual core / Pentium Txxxx processors are well. These are OK, but use more power than an i3 will.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to jump on the Apple band wagon too. The build quality and reliability blows all the competition out of the water. The initial investment will be long forgotten after you receive years of service from this machine.
Portability's a big thing for me. Been using an eee pc 1000H for the past two and a half years but decided to upgrade. Bought one of these yesterday (the £499 version).
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/De ... dhs1&s=dhs
I'd highly recommend the new Dell XPS 15.6. Great for home or work use. Does everything I need and the JBL speakers are fantastic for a laptop.
It's just a matter of time...
if you're a hunt-n-peck sort of person, what about an iPad? Unfortunately I prefer to make content rather than just consume it and I touch-type at about 55 wpm to save time so it's no good for me. But for browsing, a bit of text entry etc I reckon it's a suave and sophisticated device. Provided you have a second computer (your old one?) to sync it, upload all your old MP3s, videos etc.
Otherwise, do you want reliability, looks or value? I've had an Asus netbook for nearly three years, dropped it on the floor, down the stairs, turbocharged it with £30 of RAM, spilt beer on it, etc. Tough as nails and the finish is still factory after a good clean.
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
Got both a Dell XPS M1330 and a white macbook and I would recommend either very easily.
Also, I've been extremely pleased with Dell's service dept
Alex
I have had three Dell XPS laptops in recent years and they've given good service. Solid machines with good specifications.
Regarding longevity in 2003 I bought a 2001 Compaq running Win 98 from eBay. I only stopped using it last year and it's still a runner. No repairs needed and it was heavily used. Uprated to XP a few years ago.
Well, for what you want to do £500 is a lot to spend on a laptop these days, but anyway - Dell is a good brand and you could do a lot worse than stick with that. I would look for a box with a "Core 2 Duo" processor. Also consider the graphics processor - NVIDIA or ATI are good options.
I would give HP a miss personally - some of their laptop products are prone to graphics problems, see:
http://hpverticalline.com/home/
To put what you're considering spending into perspective, I bought an e-machines laptop about 18 months ago for £200 (albeit on an unusually generous special offer) at ASDA which is perfect for email / instant messaging / web surfing / watching videos and all the run of the mill functions on the move, and even has half-decent 3D graphics.
I would certainly avoid Apple personally - having worked with them as an IT specialist for a few years, I found them lamentably unreliable both in hardware and software terms. The operating system is by some distance the poorest implementation of Unix I've ever worked with and their filesystem (HFS+) is dreadful. Having said that the user interface they've slapped on top is actually quite nice.
If you really want an Apple, again for what you want to do from your post, you should certainly find it up to the task though (albeit you'll be paying over the odds for what you get, as well as what you want to do).
Hopefully not diverting the thread too much - for those of you running linux, did you get your laptop with it pre-installed (linuxemporium for example) or boot it yourself?
If you bought OS free or booted linux, I'd be interested in what laptop you're running and any issues you might have had to tackle.
Cheers
I run Linux on all my computers, laptops included. I've never bought one with Linux pre-installed - always install my distro of choice myself. That way I get my favourite distro, partitions set up the way I want them and my favourite filesystems set up on them.
One issue you might run across is driver support for things like webcams and wifi, which aren't always supported - although that's much less likely to be a problem now than it was a few years ago. There's a chance you'll have to tinker to get things working.
I run Puppy Linux on my ancient Sony laptop (purchased over ten years ago) and Ubuntu on the e-machines laptop I bought in 2009. I also installed Puppy on my wife's laptop. In each case all the necessary hardware has been recognised and the appropriate drivers installed automatically - no issues. Never tried linuxemporium but it sounds like a good way to ensure everything works with a minimum of hassle.
Thanks - that's good info mate. I suppose I should consider if I'm going to install myself - say Maverick Meerkat or like - whether to have a go first by picking up an old (i.e. cheap!) second hand machine or just brave it out on a new one. Have seen some OS free laptops which might be a solution??I run Linux on all my computers, laptops included. I've never bought one with Linux pre-installed - always install my distro of choice myself. That way I get my favourite distro, partitions set up the way I want them and my favourite filesystems set up on them.
One issue you might run across is driver support for things like webcams and wifi, which aren't always supported - although that's much less likely to be a problem now than it was a few years ago. There's a chance you'll have to tinker to get things working.
I run Puppy Linux on my ancient Sony laptop (purchased over ten years ago) and Ubuntu on the e-machines laptop I bought in 2009. I also installed Puppy on my wife's laptop. In each case all the necessary hardware has been recognised and the appropriate drivers installed automatically - no issues. Never tried linuxemporium but it sounds like a good way to ensure everything works with a minimum of hassle.
Cheers
edit: just found on e-buyer, extra value (!) os free - http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&...ilterca16=None
If you're sure Linux is going to meet your needs, an OS-free laptop is a good solution and avoids paying the 'Microsoft tax'. But you might find that you want to try some software that only runs on Windows, or you might have a peripheral like a printer that won't play nicely with Linux. For that reason I like dual-boot setups, so you have the option of running Windows if you want to. You can shrink the partition that Windows is installed on, create a new partition and install Linux on that (in that order).
Then when you boot, you'll get a menu offering Windows or Linux.
Good tip. Running a macbook at home, so it's only work that I'd use Windows apps, I think primarily I'd keep the Linux for music - as in my music library, and saving/editing recordings, and then try out one of the itunes alternatives like Amarok / Banshee / Songbird etc. I have Amadeus Pro and Soundstudio for editing tracks on the macbook so I'd be interested to see whether they'll run on Ubuntu..
Amadeus Pro will only work on OS X as far as I know - but there are Linux alternatives that are free. There is an application called Soundstudio that runs under Linux but I don't know if it's the same one.
If you want something and are not overly concerned about weight, a Dell XPS 15" is a lovely machine.
Scores 5.1 on Win 7 rating, and can be picked up for 300 to 400 now compared to over a grand when new.
Go for Dell, good value, plenty options
Don't buy a Sony Vaio, I did and just after a year the on/off and the socket for the mains plug have both broken. Rubbish, expensive rubbish.
Have to agree, love the design elements of the sony vaio laptops (had a couple in my time) but if you check their website the amount of recalls is scary.
Buy my Macbook Pro on SC!!! :lol:
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