Laptop Help

[Bushcraftsman]

As we all know, christmas is around the corner I'm after a laptop for it so I dont have to keep borrowing my mums. Is there anyone on here that knows their stuff when it comes to computers? I would like a laptop that is fast, not likely to crash etc all the time, a good amount of memory and then dont know what the whole ram and all the other things are. It will only be used for doing school work, watching videos, playing music etc just day to day stuff so doesn't need to be fully kitted out. Just a good laptop also for a good price! can anyone recommend a suitable latop? perhaps link me to it? I was thinking maybe the new inspiron? but im not sure.

Thanks in advance

 

[hiho]

been looking for a new computer for about 18 months on and off.
so will watch this thread with interest, as i'm after a laptop

 

[Shewie]

Have you got a budget in mind ?

I'd say Dell all day long, been using them for about 13 years now. Currently running Vista on a Latitude E6400 with no probs.

 

[Bushcraftsman]

errrr id say about no more than £400-£450 thats got to be the max

 

[Bushcraftsman]

and whats a good ram, hard drive size and memory size etc?

 

[hiho]

i can see us ending up with the same here...

 

[lostplanet]

I do a bit of Computer hunting for people on a budget, I would recommend Dell too for not necessarily the cheapest deal but good alround package and you do get good support if things go wrong ie Hardware.

I've just bought a Dell inspiron 17 and installed windows 7 on it recently, one of the reasons I bought a 17 inch was a full sized keyboard including number pad.
I am well pleased with it so far but I can see where dell have started to save money on less quality, so far it has been faultless.

I have been down the road of spending big money on PC's so I would say to keep the budget to below £500 unless you have need for a powerful computer for Gaming or advanced film, photgraphy or design use as laptops seem to be more and more disposable as technology races on.

So unless you need a 17 inch screen for DVD watching as I Do go for a 15 Inch widescreen with quality (resolution) to suit your budget.

Video card is fine with the stock item, pick an upgrade if you want to game but you will really need to upgrade the other bits and the price will rocket.

If it's running Windows 7 then 3GB (3000 MB) or more RAM is plenty.
Hardrive space is up to you but more than 160GB will be Huge for light use.

Processor is up to you again, a Dual core pentium is the most likely choice although if you are a light user a single core celeron will do, I went for a dual core pentium only because the upgrade was to cheap to resist.
Dual core doesn't mean twice as fast but your PC will find it easier to multi task and therefore save you some time.

Most laptops come with wireless built in for internet access through your broadband router. Stick with the standard offering.

Warranty I would go for a the cheapest package available, if you do find you want a warranty ring Dell after purchase for a sometimes considerably cheaper deal.

I wouldn't buy software from Dell directly and you can priotect yourself for free with programs like AVG, spybot, spywareblaster and Malwarebytes.

Blu ray, webcams, battery upgrade are all down to your budget really.

Office software can be bought cheaper if you shop around and also free from Open Office.

and the other thing is timing. If you can wait until after christmas when the shelves are full of unsold stock you will most likely get a lot more for your money.

And have a go at ringing a sale sperson for a bit of a haggle like free delivery if it's not offered or add a webcam.

I would stay away form the netbooks and mini as what you save in space you will lose in performance and tiny keyboard.

heres a couple:
on the left £449 top end for the budget buy as stock, this will be plenty for a light user.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/hom...aspx?refid=laptop-inspiron-17&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

and a 15 inch £349
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/hom...laptop-inspiron-1545&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&ref=lthp

something else I would highly recommend is a USB powered external Hardrive such as the one below, keep all the things you really dont want to lose on it and then the worry of a virus or Hardware fault will be less painful when it happnens.........its as easy as drag and drop and nice and portable.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260217427&sr=8-3

Delivery from Dell is pretty painless too, they will ring you with a delivery date and will deliver after 6pm and took me about 6 working days to recieve a non standard package.

lastly download the service manual from Dell website, something I am finding is the Fans and heatsinks get blocked pretty quickly(very easy to do yourself) so being able to clear these out once in a while will keep your laptop happy and quiet.

HTH

 

[Bushcraftsman]

wow thanks that really helped! the inspiron 17 dual core really caught my eye. I think that will be the one I ask for

thanks a lot

 

[lostplanet]

Yea I think you will be pleased with that, that's already a better deal than I got !

 

[Draven]

Are you dead set on a laptop? Desktop PCs are cheaper, and if mobility is not essential, the way to go. I got a mac, thinking I'd be dragging it everywhere; and unsurprisingly, it never moves and I seriously regret it.

Even better would be a mac, IMO, running smoother, faster and more reliably than any PC I've ever used.

If you're not ready for a mac, just don't get something with vista. It is, in my opinion, without a doubt, the very worst operating system in existence. I'd rather leave PC World £500 poorer without anything to show for it than with a Vista laptop or PC.

 

[father jack]

Try

www.ebuyer.com igot the mrs her lappy from there some good ones at reasnable prices

 

[Tadpole]

Ebuyer is ok for brand new but reasonable prices, but their after sales suck and blow both at the same time.
If you are not a gamer, you’re better off getting a less than top spec refurbished laptop, for a whole lot less cash. I’ve just bought an IBM t42 1.7Ghz 2gb ram 80gb hard drive with wifi, came with XPsp3 operating system and licence, windows office 2007 and licence for just over £150. It does all that you ask of it, and if it gets nicked or broken when at collage/school. It’s not such a kick in the nads to replace.

Ebay "ibm t42" there is a couple of good ones for sale now

 

[apj1974]

Best way to have your computer fast and not crash is to replace windows with linux. www.linuxmint.com

I'd agree with the desktop PC thing, if you really don't need a laptop get a desktop one, more power for less money, easier to upgrade / replace bits and often a longer lifespan (no batteries to die.)

 

[Tadpole]

Best way to have your computer fast and not crash is to replace windows with linux. www.linuxmint.com

I'd agree with the desktop PC thing, if you really don't need a laptop get a desktop one, more power for less money, easier to upgrade / replace bits and often a longer lifespan (no batteries to die.)

However if you want to use your computer, without having to take a degree, avoid linux all together

 

[lostplanet]

If you want an easy life In my opinion I wouldn't go for Linux or a Mac unless you know why you are buying it and have a large budget(Mac).
I'd wouldn't prefer a desktop because with more and more streaming content such a iplayer and various other TV channels I wouldn't want to be stuck in an uncomfortable chair for too long.

beauty of the laptop is exactly that, you can sit in your comfy chair in any room with your headphones undisturbed.

Again my opinion, Ultimately it's your budget.

 

[apj1974]

The way I see it is this:

Windoze = matches, available everywhere, everyone got them and know how to use them, but potentially unreliable and you have to keep spending more and more money buying box after box.

OS X (Mac) = firesteel, a bit more pricey, more flashy, but reliable and will last ages

Linux = Flint and steel, free, takes a little bit of getting used to, but incredibly reliable, fast and a great sense of pride in using

Either of the second two, you feel like a bushcrafter, special, one of the in the know crowd.

ha ha I'm enjoying this!

 

[TeeGeeBee]

Same sort of question with similar needs, came up on SOTP recently. Try here for the results.

TGB

 

[squantrill]

If your just doing a bit of browsing and home work then there is no need for a super duper machine. The eepc line is quite good for the price i think around 200 quid (I think dell has a mini line now as well), it is a netbook and runs windows and linux giving you the choice.

I used to use dell then went off them for years and never went back but I hear nothing but good things from them.

Things to remember when you look at Operating systems and applications:

1. Laptop 400-500 Windows + Office can set you back almost 1,000 pounds!!
2. Laptop 900 - 1500 Mac Osx + Iworks 60 pounds
3. Laptop 0-1000 Linux + Openoffice 0 pounds

Linux doesnt need as much resource as windows so you get a slow machine it makes no differnece you could look for a much cheaper laptop secondhand then install linux! it will be as fast as a brand spanker with windows (generally)

Apple Mac unless second hand is probably out of your price range for hardware

Windows and office is a ridiculas price but you can probably get a academic license!

The learning curve is not that great with either mac or Linux not anymore than windows to be honest!! Although, there is a learning curve much like the learning curve most people had to do with windows

Currently at home my wife has a laptop with windows XP and office 2007 she needed this for her job

I have a old Sun Sparc station running Debian (linux) and a apple note book running Mac OSX.

My wife's machine has been re-installed 4 times in 2 years because of slowness and crashes.

The mac has never been reinstalled in 1 year.

The sparc station hasn't been touched in hummm 6.5 years

but..

The whole world is split between mainly Mac users and Windows Users (remember that apple mac is now Unix!!!! similar to linux just uses BSD and a differing front end! hense the stability)

Linux has a very small group of users which is a shame..I like Linux and have used it for work however for desktop use I find it a pain in the backside sometimes because applications don't work with each other sometimes and productivity goes down. I love the mac productivity goes up and its nice to travel with.

The windows machine my wife uses and I never use it


mmm I realiased after reading back that im going of topic and not asnwering your question

To summerise:

For a small useable and cheap with no ongoing costs laptop download linux buy a second hand laptop pentium 4 and above 1Gb mem or above. Or a newer eepc. Comes with a slight learning curve and some incompatibilities but can be fixed searching the net (for free)

For a compatible with the rest of the world laptop with ongoing upgrading costs plaus costs of office applications you can do the same only get a slighty higher spec more memory fast hardisk laptop and downgrade to windows XP; windows vista really sucks!

Hope this wasn't to confusing

 

[Seth.Karlo]

The more RAM or Processing power you have on your PC, the faster it can do stuff. The larger the Hard Drive (Or HDD, for Hard Disk Drive), the more things like Photos and files you can have on your PC.

Desktop computers are usually at least a few years ahead of laptops, merely because they have more space, so this is something to think about.

My experience with Dell computers is that they may not be the best quality products out there, but I have never had customer service like it from ANY company I have ever dealt with (Computer or not).

A good size RAM? You want at least 2 gigs these days, depends on what your looking to do with it. A high spec gaming rig needs 4 gigs of RAM, a 4 gigahertz Processor and a high rate Graphics card. Hard Drives increase in size on the market so rapidly it's pointless to worry about it, 250 gigs is usually plenty. For browsing the internet and doing typing, you could halve all of those stats and be fine.

Windows and Linux are both the same thing: Operating systems. Difference between Linux and Windows is that one is open source (I myself have written some of a Ubuntu release) but for you lot, go for Windows 7, it's the easiest at the moment

Hope that helps, if anyone has any questions feel free to PM me! I'm a total geek

Your friendly neighbourhood teenaged geek who will swap computer info for bushcraft info,

-Seth

 

[Draven]

The way I see it is this:

Windoze = matches, available everywhere, everyone got them and know how to use them, but potentially unreliable and you have to keep spending more and more money buying box after box.

OS X (Mac) = firesteel, a bit more pricey, more flashy, but reliable and will last ages

Linux = Flint and steel, free, takes a little bit of getting used to, but incredibly reliable, fast and a great sense of pride in using

That's a brilliant way of putting it.

OSX and Linux are much more user friendly these days. We used to run a UNIX system, and XWindows with TWM (Tom's Window Manager ) and you really did have to know the system well to do much. Mac is UNIX based, but the frontend is much more developed than what we used to have! I still absolutely love that I get to use Xterm again. I missed xterm so very much.

Linux is getting better though I'd still rather use Mac. That said, I've always been bigger on UNIX than Linux so I guess that's bias for ya. Something like FreeBSD (UNIX-like) or Ubuntu (Linux) have the advantage that they're free and a bloody joy to use once you know how.

No UNIX or Linux system I have ever encountered has been as plainly simple and bog-standard as Windows, as far as messing around with stuff goes. However, no Windows OS I have ever encountered has been as powerful, reliable or fast as a UNIX or Linux system. And when I started up my mac for the first time it searched for LANs automatically, I selected it, entered the password and it worked Networking has been, up to and including Windows Vista, been an enormous PITA.

As stated above though, a new or recent used mac is pretty expensive.

Pete