Moving from a desktop to Laptop

[steve-5snwi]

Since iPads were invented we hardly ever use the desktop and it's only used for storing music, pictures and doing the home finances.

The current pc is approaching 6 years old and it's starting to do a few quirky things although Windows 7 update that removed the usb access for keyboards and mice is the biggest issue.

So we are looking at a laptop,

It Won't leave the house so weight isn't much of an issue
Heat is as it will sit on someone's lap
It will be used for

Excel
Word
Pictures
Flac/MP3 storage
Surfing the web
iTunes

Budget is around £500, ideally I would like to try before I buy so ideally currys or John Lewis although I have no problems buying from someone else (not keen on buying from Amazon though)

Screen size around 15" and it will eventually be paired With a nas.

Any recommendations?

[deckster]

Honestly? Anything. It will be quite literally impossible to buy something for your budget that won't do what you want.

Go to any of the stores you mention, have a play, and buy whatever you like best.

[Don]

If you have a screen/keyboard/mouse already you could consider NOT getting a laptop, but instead getting a mac mini. It's about your £500 budget and will work significantly better with your iPads and so on.

It comes with all the software you need,although I recommend Microsoft Office 365 Home. You would then be able to put Word, Excel, etc onto your iPads and iPhones as well. 1 TB of Onedrive per user. What do you need a NAS for with all that Cloud storage available!?

I also recommend Mac laptops but they're outside your budget.

[V8A*ndy]

If you are dead set on a Laptop invest in one with the best screen for budget.

Doesn't have to be super high res just good and bright with decent viewing angles.

Some laptops have great specs but are terrible to work on due to poor screens.

XPS would get my dosh. Not sure if in Budget though.

[Matt100HP]

As has been said, almost anything in the £450-500 price bracket will serve you just fine. Around £500 should buy you a laptop with 6th Gen i5 CPU and a 15" 1080p display, my only word of warning would be to watch out for laptops with small (~120GB) SSDs as their only storage.

[alock]

steve-5snwi said:

Heat is as it will sit on someone's lap

Some of latest generation Intel processors are designed to be cooled passively (core M I think) . This means there are no vents and fans to clog with fluff.

[Salesy]

Get a macbook pro.

I was a die hard windows fan and had 7 windows laptops over a 10 year span. Lenovo, HP, Dell and Sony. The were all a bit plastic and all either just ran slow or had a problem. I treat my kit with respect so it was not to do with misuse, I would regularly format the drive and rebuild the copy of windows but it still ran slow.

2012 i purchased a 13" macbook pro and i have not looked back. Its fast, the screen is very good and the build quality is nice and solid. It really does feel like a premium product.
I opted for the 8gb with 500gb drive and an i5 processor. I have since upgraded the Hdd to a Ssd with 960gb of storage. Boot time from cold is 14s to a fully working machine and programs open instantly.

I run MS office for Mac and i haven't come across another program that i cannot run on it.

£890 for the USA but if you are clever you can get a student discount direct from Apple. I would never go back to windows.

[steve-5snwi]

I use an iMac at work and I just don't get on with it.

Nas WA for pictures and music unless I can get AV amps to look for the cloud instead of a Nas

[AJB88]

Salesy said:

Get a macbook pro.

I was a die hard windows fan and had 7 windows laptops over a 10 year span. Lenovo, HP, Dell and Sony. The were all a bit plastic and all either just ran slow or had a problem. I treat my kit with respect so it was not to do with misuse, I would regularly format the drive and rebuild the copy of windows but it still ran slow.

2012 i purchased a 13" macbook pro and i have not looked back. Its fast, the screen is very good and the build quality is nice and solid. It really does feel like a premium product.
I opted for the 8gb with 500gb drive and an i5 processor. I have since upgraded the Hdd to a Ssd with 960gb of storage. Boot time from cold is 14s to a fully working machine and programs open instantly.

I run MS office for Mac and i haven't come across another program that i cannot run on it.

£890 for the USA but if you are clever you can get a student discount direct from Apple. I would never go back to windows.

Problem is nobody ever compares a Macbook with an equivalently priced Windows Laptop.

Its always Macbook vs £200-300 laptop.

Of course the £900-£1500 Macbook is going to be better.

[ZesPak]

I had a Dacia once and it wasn't great. Have since moved to Mercedes, much better.
Honestly, if you have a 10k budget, just up it to 20k .

In all seriousness, op, at that budget I'd be looking at Asus.

[deckster]

Salesy said:

Get a macbook pro.

There's always one joker. The OP wants a £500 replacement for a Windows box to do a little web browsing and you come up with a pro-grade machine at near double the price. All we need now is for somebody to come along and tell them to keep what they've got and install Ubuntu and we'll be done.

[anonymous-user]

I wonder if the OP has ever thought about getting rid of windows and installing Linux Mint or even Ubuntu

[deckster]

techiedave said:

I wonder if the OP has ever thought about getting rid of windows and installing Linux Mint or even Ubuntu

[Salesy]

deckster said:

There's always one joker. The OP wants a £500 replacement for a Windows box to do a little web browsing and you come up with a pro-grade machine at near double the price. All we need now is for somebody to come along and tell them to keep what they've got and install Ubuntu and we'll be done.

Haha, he did say "£500 ideally". I was merely highlighting that buying a crap windows laptop is not always cost effective, i purchased a few around £3-400 and they only lasted a little while.

MacBooks can be had for £500 if you look in the right places

[Slushbox]

You might miss your desktop screen. Get a laptop that will work with it then you can have both.

[steve-5snwi]

I do intend to keep the current monitor (Samsung 22") I'd probably go up to £600 maybe more but it just don't get on with the MacBooks.

Are ssd drives worth it even though they are smaller in capacity ?

[Don]

steve-5snwi said:

I do intend to keep the current monitor (Samsung 22") I'd probably go up to £600 maybe more but it just don't get on with the MacBooks.

Are ssd drives worth it even though they are smaller in capacity ?

Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. Lets say your old laptop boots up in about a minute. Change over the HDD to an SSD and now it takes four seconds.

It's that massive a difference.

[AJB88]

Yes an SSD can change even the oldest of machines.

[Don]

Oh. Don't bother with a NAS if you don't already have one. Whilst I loved my Synology everything that I used it for can now be done cheaper with a Cloud based service. Save your NAS budget and put it on the computer to get something faster and better. Office 365 will give you sufficient on-line storage you don't need a NAS.

Unless you have Terabytes of images for example - then indeed you might be better off with a Synology and backing up to Amazon Glacier.

[FGB]

SSD is an absolute must have.