Buying a Laptop

Covered End

Covered end junior - who is about to start in he 6th form - wants a laptop for school work and leisure, mainly surfing, he has no income, so is looking for a cheapish model that will do the job. I'm a bit lazy shopping wise so was thinking of just looking at Argos or Curry's. Not sure of the RAM importance ie is 1G sufficient ?

 

Any recommendations ?

randy andy

What's your budget? You want to get as much RAM as possible.

BigRedEvil

I wouldn't buy from Currys etc they are normally rip off's

Ebuyer can be good

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Laptops

Most laptops are Win 7 these days, so you really want 3gb or 4gb of RAM

randy andy

Something like this would be ok
http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo-g560e-t3500-4gb-320gb-dvd-rw-15-6--w7hp-7FQT.html

But it's not particularly portable, weighing in at 2.6Kg. Unfortunately the smaller you go the more it costs, but the advantage of these bigger laptops is a far nicer keyboard and bigger screen.

cafcfan

Check prices at somewhere like www.ebuyer.com they usually compare well with the high street and other on-line companies as well. Delivery is pretty quick and at no cost for purchases over £50.  I recently got a Compaq from them and it does what I wanted it to.   I think it's got 3gb RAM which is expandable.  But if CE Jnr is going to be gaming on it I reckon he'd need at least that.  Anyway you get fairly good specification lists on ebuyer so at your leisure you can compare specs versus what you want and what the high street is offering.

Some people say that Intel Celeron processors are not as good/quick as Intel Core but, again, I guess it depends upon what you want to use it for. Check carefully what pre-loaded OS and software is included in the price - some ebuyer stuff is for professional/business use and doesn't come with a pre-loaded operating system.  Oh, at the moment I think they are throwing in some free security software on purchases.

Covered End

Thanks guys

MuttleyCAFC

If it is for surfing the net - you might want to consider a net book (won't have a DVD/Cd drive though). You can pick these up very cheap and quality and surfing speed are good. Also more compact so easier for kids to carry around than a proper laptop. Windows Vista or 7 will require us much RAM as possible but for a netbook, look for XP to be installed where 1 gb ram would be fine. Avoid ultra cheap netbooks with linux - nothing wrong with it but windows is easier for kids.

I find Play.com to be decent.

MuttleyCAFC

They have an Asus with some excellent reviews for £158

MattD

Get no less than 3gb Ram.

And dont let him expect to be playing many games on it without spending a tonne.

eaststandmike

You want to get as much RAM as possible.

Are you Welsh ;-)

HardyAddick

Got a good cheap Acer laptop from Argos. Came as well with a 3 year Acer warranty thrown in. paid about £350 from memory.

RalphMilnesgut

The Toshiba Store at McArthur Glen in Ashford always seems good value to me with a choice of machines (as long as you want a Toshiba)

JohnBoyUK

Sorry to hijack the thread but was going to ask a similar question but more the other end of the market...max budget £1,000-1,500

Presumably I need to be looking at quad core i7 processors, 6-8gb ram?

Will be doing a lot of video editing and coding, playing some games...

Obviously then this will lead on to PC or Mac... can I play decent games on a Mac?

Robert

Johnboy, I would definatly recomend a Mac for the video editing etc and to my knowledge, most, if not all games are availiable for mac and from experience have just as good gaming quality

Saga Lout

For budget laptops, Acer are good - we have two in this household.

A lot of people knock Dell, but my older son has one and he's just had a lot of work done on it under warranty - I can't fault them on that.

Strasburger

http://www.aria.co.uk/  I use them to buy for work, they custom all our power machines and are so cheap.  
They tend to have some very good end of line laptops going.  End of line as it other electronic goods, simply has been replaced with a newer model. 

Also try Misco have used them in the past for under £300 i-5 systems.  All very good. 

EastStand

Sorry to hijack the thread but was going to ask a similar question but more the other end of the market...max budget £1,000-1,500

Presumably I need to be looking at quad core i7 processors, 6-8gb ram?

Will be doing a lot of video editing and coding, playing some games...

Obviously then this will lead on to PC or Mac... can I play decent games on a Mac?

Mac all the way. I do a lot of sound editing and a Mac just has faster processing. Faster everything really. 

If you're buying games then there is no problem, most game companies bring out Mac compatible editions. If you are getting your games a... different way then that can be a problem as the naughty sites usually only have the PC versions. Although its not impossible to get Mac ones. Check out the Apple site. 

Also, if you're going to be editing film Final Cut Pro is only for Mac I believe. And that programme is the bee's knees.  

Clem_Snide

Recently picked up a brilliant deal on a Samsung. 6gb Ram. 500gb storage. Intel iCore5 as a free upgrade. 429.00. From Samsung directly. Was end of line. May still have them.

Crusty54

Apple do discounts for students and teachers

Hex

Sorry to hijack the thread but was going to ask a similar question but more the other end of the market...max budget £1,000-1,500

Presumably I need to be looking at quad core i7 processors, 6-8gb ram?

Will be doing a lot of video editing and coding, playing some games...

Obviously then this will lead on to PC or Mac... can I play decent games on a Mac?

Get a PC not a laptop if you are serious about video editing (in HD, that is).  I've used Dell for some years now and they are good and probably the best deals around.  If you have money to waste on something that looks good then go for Apple.  Also, get yourself a good 23/24 inch screem (1920x1200 at least).

JohnBoyUK

Sorry to hijack the thread but was going to ask a similar question but more the other end of the market...max budget £1,000-1,500

Presumably I need to be looking at quad core i7 processors, 6-8gb ram?

Will be doing a lot of video editing and coding, playing some games...

Obviously then this will lead on to PC or Mac... can I play decent games on a Mac?

Get a PC not a laptop if you are serious about video editing (in HD, that is).  I've used Dell for some years now and they are good and probably the best deals around.  If you have money to waste on something that looks good then go for Apple.  Also, get yourself a good 23/24 inch screem (1920x1200 at least).

Would love too but just dont have the room in my 2 bed flat to accommodate a desktop and workstation.  My brother has just given me a fairly powerful desktop with a 28" monitor but just cant fit it in anywhere.  I'm toying with the idea of setting the desktop up in a cupboard somewhere and use it as a server / processing CPU with no monitor, only accessing it by Remote Desktop on the lappy and the iPad.

JohnBoyUK

Cheers for all the advice guys.  I'm going to have a look around a few shops today to see what is available and then compare that again what I can see online then go from there.  Am sorely tempted by the Macbook but can I draw myself away from the PC?  Not sure I can tbh.

Salad

have a look on here and ask some questions, I got good advice there before:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

Crusty54

if you go on the Apple website and look at the shop page you will see a refurbished button.

Have a look and see what is there. Changes regularly.

By the way this is being written on a Toshiba

Covered End

Ordered  Acer Aspire 5742Z 6GB RAM Pentium P6200 750 GB £348 off ebuyer. Don't bother to tell me if it's crap. It looked good value compared to Argos & I didn't have to get off my a*se !

Miserableoldgit

Had this Acer 5230E for over 2 years and had No problems......

JohnBoyUK

Ordered  Acer Aspire 5742Z 6GB RAM Pentium P6200 750 GB £348 off ebuyer. Don't bother to tell me if it's crap. It looked good value compared to Argos & I didn't have to get off my a*se !

I had an Acer a few years back and I loved it.  Actually preferred it to the replacement Sony Vaio I bought.

coltsgoalie

Sorry to hijack the thread but was going to ask a similar question but more the other end of the market...max budget £1,000-1,500

Presumably I need to be looking at quad core i7 processors, 6-8gb ram?

Will be doing a lot of video editing and coding, playing some games...

Obviously then this will lead on to PC or Mac... can I play decent games on a Mac?

I have an Alienware laptop, cant remember what specs it has got it for around 1,200 its trully unbelievable for gaming and general computinh. I remember the website saying that it had thad the fast processor around but not one the one i had its was there best one i think it cost 1,800. If your wondering about the name is a company owned by dell just type in alienware laptops if your interested in getting one!! A definite buy!!

ken from bexley

Ask Razzle, or his Mrs who runs a company that repairs and supplies Macs.

She used to be my IT mac support at the BBC and will do you a good deal as she  has her own company. 

Macs and there software are an expensive option compared to PC's so I would avoid unless it was for creative or final cut pro/music etc.

Bought a mac pro book from apple bluewater last year and  got a discount. But the software is becoming very difficult to obtain unless you run legit stuff and that can come as a shock. And you have to keep up. Adobe offer student and other discounted packages, but I would not qualify, and those offers  on Ebay and the web, well stay well clear and updates are generally not valid in the UK. Trouble is you are either legit or not, you cannot  just use a bit of dodgy software.

Mac user is a good source of contacts, but when you are investing £1500 plus I would rather have a supplier that is going to be around in a few months, but that is me?  

JohnBoyUK

I have an Alienware laptop, cant remember what specs it has got it for around 1,200 its trully unbelievable for gaming and general computinh. I remember the website saying that it had thad the fast processor around but not one the one i had its was there best one i think it cost 1,800. If your wondering about the name is a company owned by dell just type in alienware laptops if your interested in getting one!! A definite buy!!

I've very nearly bought an Alienware laptop twice in the past.  I also looked at Rock.  All have excellent reviews but seem so flippin' expensive but of course you pay for what you get.  Having done some research over the weekend, it appears a lot of the top of the range machines now come with a booting SSD along with a HDD.  That really appeals to me from the quick boot up time.

jamiebcool

I've had my mac book for nearly 5 years. I've changed my p.c twice since then! Mac are much, much better built and can do everything a p.c can-but faster.

I used final cut throughout uni and still occasionally use it now. Its as good as it ever was. They are about 250-300 quid more but they are easssssily worth the extra. Plus they look the nuts. And apple always fix for free. I don't work for apple by the way.