RobK Posted August 10, 2009 Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 The screen on my laptop has died so I need to get a new one. There seems to be too much choice around so can anyone please suggest one that meets these specs? £400 or thereabouts 2GHz dual core, AMD or Intel (just not Celeron) 2GB+ RAM 100GB+ HDD decent graphics card, dedicated memory preferably 802.11n wireless Is there anything out there that fits the bill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted August 10, 2009 Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 I've always bought dell for my laptops (we currently have 3) and they have all been good. You can get some good deals online too. They are doing back to school laptops for £349, with a code. Let me know if you want it. http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/early_deals?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=EM&cid=40799&lid=1050665 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobK Posted August 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 Not a bad spec there Dave. I did look at those earlier but I must have ticked too many options because it came out at more like £500. With this spec it's £409 delivered: COLOUR CHOICE Black Colour with Matte Finish PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T4200 (2.0GHz, 800MHz, 1MB cache) OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 (64 BIT) - English OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word) HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return LCD 15.6" Widescreen WXGA WLED (1366 x 768) TFT Display with TrueLife™ MEMORY 3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x1024] HARD DRIVE 160GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive GRAPHICS CARD Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD OPTICAL DRIVE DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) PRIMARY BATTERY 4-cell 24WHr Li-Ion primary battery WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Dell Wireless 1515 Half Mini Card (802.11n) BLUETOOTH No Bluetooth Upgrade WEBCAM No Camera Included Does anyone know of anything better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GCab Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 The screen on my laptop has died Sony Vaio, by any chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 Check out the Acer and Toshiba offerings in John Lewis first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppetboy Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 Yep got my mum a Tosh from JL a few months ago and it's gone down by another £100 or so, about £300 I think. Might have been for a limited time though... Fecking avoid Dell, what a pile of sh*t. Best of all though, a second hand Mac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 Mac's are expensive - the computers I mean - even second hand. On the other hand they're the only laptops that give you access to OSX and Windows apps. Also, you're likely to get a big chunk of cost price back on sell. Really depends what you want a laptop for. My day to day carry-about when I'm not working is a Samsung NC10. Top bit of kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobK Posted August 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 (edited) Sony Vaio, by any chance? No it's an old MSI model rebadged as Evesham Micro. I think the problem is in the video card rather than the screen itself as it works ok for about 5 minutes then goes blank. Anyhoo I've ordered an Acer Aspire 6930G from Tesco. It's £499 and the spec is: Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile P7450 @ 2130 MHz, 3MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB 320GB SATA disk 16" WXGA TFT LCD 1366 x 768 16:9 4096 MB DDR2 SDRAM NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 1024MB dedicated video memory Gigabit ethernet 802.11a/b/g/n wireless SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD card reader 6 cell lithium-ion battery Great spec for the price IMO, just hope the build quality is ok. Oh, I also got 3% cashback from topcashback.co.uk and 1.5% from my Amex card so it was only £480 really :D Edited August 13, 2009 by RobK formatting went weird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Top choice. Acer are great. Many bods I know who have bought them, have been VERY happy with them. no issues whatsoever. Shame it's from Tesco scmesco sh1tesco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 1024MB dedicated video memory Hope you're not expecting much battery life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 1024MB dedicated video memoryHope you're not expecting much battery life Most bods I know with a laptop sit with the damn thing powered to the mains. Negating any long battery life and killing the battery. (ie, our HO staff with laptops!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobK Posted August 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 That's what I do! It's always plugged in so I'm not bothered about the battery life (or the weight, for that matter). Maybe I should take the battery out so as not to ruin it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 It depends on the kind of battery. Most modern ones are OK with constant charging but require some regular use (I.e. a cycle). Often that's nothing more than running it on battery for an hour. Once a month I Calibrate my Apple's battery as it's Lithium Ion type - see this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Mac - I'm looking at the (newer) 13" MacBook Pro with the faster CPU, 8GB RAM (yes - EIGHT GIGABYTES) and the 500GB HDD. Disgustingly cheap here given the "bang for buck". The great thing is with Windoze 7 you now might have a chance at addressing 4GB of RAM if not all 8 should that be the OS you run on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Be careful with the 500Gb drive - loads of people are having problems with the shipping firmware on those units. See here. It would seem an issue with the firmware in the Seagate Momentus drives they're shipping. I swapped from a 5400RPM Seagate Momentus that was having the issue to a later 7200RPM one that had the consumer edition firmware on - and it was fine. You can read about the original problems I had here. I hear you on the RAM - you can never have enough. I have 6Gb in mine now - if it wasn't for the issues around the drives & SATA performance in the 2009 models I'd have upgraded already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Incidenatlly the point about Win 7 being able to address the RAM is a mute one - OSX lies about available RAM, Windows doesn't A 32 bit system can only totally address 4Gb. There's various fudges out there including sliding window etc. that get access to more, but you've never really got 4Gb. OSX lies about the way memory allocated to MMIO devices is still reported as available, but is not used. I say lies cos I'm being playful It doesn't lie as such as report it differently. Look a Leopard 10.5.8 build running on the 9600 graphics card, you'll still have at least a 256Mb hole in your memory map even though it has it's own RAM assigned to it. See below on my 4Gb Macbook for example. 3.66Gb total.... Even though the OS reports 4Gb. Confusing hey? I know you're probably up on this but I wrote something about it yonks ago here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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