Title: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: mike(liverpool boys) on December 15, 2009, 10:43:21 pm
I am looking for a new laptop computer with a max budget of £500
As I am a complete amateur with computers I have no idea how big my hard drive needs to be or any of that crap. I just want it to do what I tell it to and not take an age to do it.
Can anyone advise me on the best computers to look at???
It will be used for some business work,book keeping and the like,wireless internet and some word processing and printing. I may download the odd song from time to time aswell.
Mike
As I am a complete amateur with computers I have no idea how big my hard drive needs to be or any of that crap. I just want it to do what I tell it to and not take an age to do it.
Can anyone advise me on the best computers to look at???
It will be used for some business work,book keeping and the like,wireless internet and some word processing and printing. I may download the odd song from time to time aswell.
Mike
Title: Re: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: dukla on December 16, 2009, 10:47:06 am
With that kind of budget you can get a very nice machine.
Which? magazine January edition recommends the Acer Aspire 7735Z from ebuyer (http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/laptops/acer-aspire-7735z/review). As a PC freak I am usually bemused by Which? articles on the subject but appreciate they tend to write for the average man in the street - ebuyer typically is very highly rated as an e-tailer. Another option I usually mention is Dell: not that their machines are the greatest but you do get as much support as you are prepared to pay for.
Going back to that Acer - a spec of 4Gb RAM is spot on. 2Gb may suffice if you are really penny pinching and 4 is more than sufficient for most stuff in 2009 and 2010 and likely 2011. Also a 320Gb hard drive is pretty much the sweet spot - 250Gb is penny pinching and probably OK, unlikely you will fill 500Gb in 3 years unless you start storing loads of video (typically 1Gb/hour). On CPUs - you pretty much get what you pay for. Everything at that kind of price point should be dual core, 64 bit - dont settle for anything less. I have a personal prejudice for AMD solely because I see Intel as the big ogre who will run riot unless there is some competitor and AMD is the only viable competitor at the moment, so I would look at stuff like the Acer Aspire 7535G. (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173591) For Operating System you almost definitely want Windows 7 - (nearly) all laptops will come with some flavour of Windoze and I cant see any logic in going for anything else. Then again my poison is Linux so others here may be more specific.
As you start comparing deals you will go nuts with model numbers - as you can already see in the para above the 7735Z has subtly different specs to the 7735G. You will run into the same issue with any manufacturer where apparently the same machine has different specs at different shops! Take your time - if it looks like an exceptionally good deal you are probably missing something!
(In the highly unlikely event you are willing to go for Linux then novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/) are the only guys I know who sell laptops without a 'free' copy of Windoze, which results in about a £70 saving! Let alone saving another £50/80 on 'essential' security suites for virus/firewall/spyware etc!)
For sure I would advise against the current 'darlings', Netbooks, as the only PC in the house. They have undersized keyboards, small screens, underpowered CPUs, small disk capacity and small memory size so despite the fact they are 'cute' I seriously doubt their suitability for general purpose/household computing that will still be able to do what you want in 2011.
Which? magazine January edition recommends the Acer Aspire 7735Z from ebuyer (http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/laptops/acer-aspire-7735z/review). As a PC freak I am usually bemused by Which? articles on the subject but appreciate they tend to write for the average man in the street - ebuyer typically is very highly rated as an e-tailer. Another option I usually mention is Dell: not that their machines are the greatest but you do get as much support as you are prepared to pay for.
Going back to that Acer - a spec of 4Gb RAM is spot on. 2Gb may suffice if you are really penny pinching and 4 is more than sufficient for most stuff in 2009 and 2010 and likely 2011. Also a 320Gb hard drive is pretty much the sweet spot - 250Gb is penny pinching and probably OK, unlikely you will fill 500Gb in 3 years unless you start storing loads of video (typically 1Gb/hour). On CPUs - you pretty much get what you pay for. Everything at that kind of price point should be dual core, 64 bit - dont settle for anything less. I have a personal prejudice for AMD solely because I see Intel as the big ogre who will run riot unless there is some competitor and AMD is the only viable competitor at the moment, so I would look at stuff like the Acer Aspire 7535G. (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173591) For Operating System you almost definitely want Windows 7 - (nearly) all laptops will come with some flavour of Windoze and I cant see any logic in going for anything else. Then again my poison is Linux so others here may be more specific.
As you start comparing deals you will go nuts with model numbers - as you can already see in the para above the 7735Z has subtly different specs to the 7735G. You will run into the same issue with any manufacturer where apparently the same machine has different specs at different shops! Take your time - if it looks like an exceptionally good deal you are probably missing something!
(In the highly unlikely event you are willing to go for Linux then novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/) are the only guys I know who sell laptops without a 'free' copy of Windoze, which results in about a £70 saving! Let alone saving another £50/80 on 'essential' security suites for virus/firewall/spyware etc!)
For sure I would advise against the current 'darlings', Netbooks, as the only PC in the house. They have undersized keyboards, small screens, underpowered CPUs, small disk capacity and small memory size so despite the fact they are 'cute' I seriously doubt their suitability for general purpose/household computing that will still be able to do what you want in 2011.
Title: Re: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: Lorry on December 16, 2009, 08:24:45 pm
What are you going to use it for? For a bit of email/wordprocessing/internet browsing you don't need fantastic horsepower, unless you're going for video editing. But think about what you might be doing with it in three years.
A large screen is a good idea, not just for watching dvds, but once you're the wrong side of fifty, you appreciate the big print.
Wait for the January sales
A large screen is a good idea, not just for watching dvds, but once you're the wrong side of fifty, you appreciate the big print.
Wait for the January sales
Title: Re: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: mike(liverpool boys) on December 16, 2009, 09:12:39 pm
Ideally I would like it to be a bit future proof so the more memory it has and the faster it is the better.
My girlfriend likes to mess around with pictures on it and she is going to be using ith for uni work from next september.
Thanks for the advise,I am clueless with this stuff.
Mike
My girlfriend likes to mess around with pictures on it and she is going to be using ith for uni work from next september.
Thanks for the advise,I am clueless with this stuff.
Mike
Title: Re: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: mike(liverpool boys) on December 30, 2009, 02:11:29 pm
Just want to say a huge thanks to Chris (aka Dukla) for helping me out with the laptop info.
Its just another example of how good the CA community is and once again it has come to the rescue.
Cheers Chris.
All the best for 2010 ;D
Mike
Its just another example of how good the CA community is and once again it has come to the rescue.
Cheers Chris.
All the best for 2010 ;D
Mike
Title: Re: Anyone in the know about laptops???
Post by: nopanic - neil on December 30, 2009, 09:23:50 pm
Just want to say a huge thanks to Chris (aka Dukla) for helping me out with the laptop info.
Its just another example of how good the CA community is and once again it has come to the rescue.
Cheers Chris.
All the best for 2010 ;D
Mike
Its just another example of how good the CA community is and once again it has come to the rescue.
Cheers Chris.
All the best for 2010 ;D
Mike
OK - with my anorak and nerdy glasses on,
what you buy? - eh eh eh eh eh? ;D
