New Laptop advice budget 500 max
Discussion
OK, I'm looking at getting a laptop ASAP (i've already sold my desktop machine).
Seen the PACKARD BELL B3605 AMD SEMPRON 3000+ PROCESSOR LAPTOP at currys (www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/574701), and it looks pretty much the kind of thing I'm after.
Anyway, just want a bit of advice really, I know very little about the reputation of these machines and I'd like to satisfy myself that I'm not going to get anything better for a similar price.
My maximum budget is 500 and if i can get anything for cheaper, then so much the better! I've found an extra discount so I can get it for 460 online, and I quite like the idea of a physical place to go and make a fuss if anything breaks.
It's going to get used for at working from home 1 or 2 days a week, so needs to be broadband enabled, and be able to run a Web server, MS SQL server, Dreamweaver and a couple of Web Browsers without too much hassle.
So any advice will be gratefully received.
Thanks, CH
Seen the PACKARD BELL B3605 AMD SEMPRON 3000+ PROCESSOR LAPTOP at currys (www.currys.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/574701), and it looks pretty much the kind of thing I'm after.
Anyway, just want a bit of advice really, I know very little about the reputation of these machines and I'd like to satisfy myself that I'm not going to get anything better for a similar price.
My maximum budget is 500 and if i can get anything for cheaper, then so much the better! I've found an extra discount so I can get it for 460 online, and I quite like the idea of a physical place to go and make a fuss if anything breaks.
It's going to get used for at working from home 1 or 2 days a week, so needs to be broadband enabled, and be able to run a Web server, MS SQL server, Dreamweaver and a couple of Web Browsers without too much hassle.
So any advice will be gratefully received.
Thanks, CH
I think the phraze "you get what you pay for" is sometimes appicable when choosing computer stuff. I'm not saying that the Packard Bell would be a bad choice, but I know that I certainly wouldn't be buying anything like that. As someone who has had about 30 laptops recently (I bought loads from a company I worked for, used them for some training classes, and them sold all but 3 of them on ebay), I've kinda learnt that cheap laptops are cheap for a reason. You may be lucky and the PB works out fine for you - it seems to be a decent spec, and should run your apps quite easily. All I will say is that its probably meant as a light use laptop at that price, so if you start using it intensively day in, day out, don't expect it too last many years (or even months).
From experience though, my money would be on something like a Sony Vaio which I'm currently using as my main laptop. Its 2.8ghz and has all the bells and whistles on it, including the best screen I have ever seen. Of course, a new one costs £1300 or so, but look for a year old one on the second hand market and savings can be had. I also have a lot of experience with Dells, and these too have always served me well.
If you really want something that will be able to withstand daily use, expecially with "power" apps like SQL, then buying the cheapest PB may not be the wisest choice. Afterall, if they were designed to be used so intensively, corporates would be ditching their IBMs/Dells/Vaios and saving themselves a lot of money.
---
Edited to add that I just looked closer at the PB spec, and there are a couple of shortfalls with that model. Firstly, the 512MB of RAM may not ideally be enough to run WinXp along side SQL too easily. The graphics card also "steals" 64MB of this, which could make this machine a little slow when running queries. My Vaio had 512MB of RAM, and just running WinXp, a firewall, antivirus, Word and MSN Messenger meant that only 85MB remained. Thats not vey much to run SQL with, so perhaps a gig of RAM would be better for you.
Also, the Sempron procssor is a cut down version of the AMD Athlon I seem to recall, which is rather like an Intel Celeron in comparasion. Again, this chip may struggle with your SQL stuff as it has very little on chip memory which is quite important for intensive processing.
My advice is to perhaps look at the Dell site, perhaps something in the slightly cheaper Inspiron range if budget is limited, but backed up with a 3 year warrenty.
>> Edited by digga951 on Wednesday 30th November 13:08
From experience though, my money would be on something like a Sony Vaio which I'm currently using as my main laptop. Its 2.8ghz and has all the bells and whistles on it, including the best screen I have ever seen. Of course, a new one costs £1300 or so, but look for a year old one on the second hand market and savings can be had. I also have a lot of experience with Dells, and these too have always served me well.
If you really want something that will be able to withstand daily use, expecially with "power" apps like SQL, then buying the cheapest PB may not be the wisest choice. Afterall, if they were designed to be used so intensively, corporates would be ditching their IBMs/Dells/Vaios and saving themselves a lot of money.
---
Edited to add that I just looked closer at the PB spec, and there are a couple of shortfalls with that model. Firstly, the 512MB of RAM may not ideally be enough to run WinXp along side SQL too easily. The graphics card also "steals" 64MB of this, which could make this machine a little slow when running queries. My Vaio had 512MB of RAM, and just running WinXp, a firewall, antivirus, Word and MSN Messenger meant that only 85MB remained. Thats not vey much to run SQL with, so perhaps a gig of RAM would be better for you.
Also, the Sempron procssor is a cut down version of the AMD Athlon I seem to recall, which is rather like an Intel Celeron in comparasion. Again, this chip may struggle with your SQL stuff as it has very little on chip memory which is quite important for intensive processing.
My advice is to perhaps look at the Dell site, perhaps something in the slightly cheaper Inspiron range if budget is limited, but backed up with a 3 year warrenty.
>> Edited by digga951 on Wednesday 30th November 13:08
Cheers Digga,
That was kind of my worry, I also have my eye on a couple of dell outlet machines on eBay - trouble is I can't sit at work and be checking auctions all day - though one benefit of the dells is that they come with XP Pro rather than XP home.
hmmm...
why can't it just be easy AND cheap?
CH
That was kind of my worry, I also have my eye on a couple of dell outlet machines on eBay - trouble is I can't sit at work and be checking auctions all day - though one benefit of the dells is that they come with XP Pro rather than XP home.
hmmm...
why can't it just be easy AND cheap?
CH
He he, I agree. I just edited my previous post to mention Dell too. Sometimes you can get a good deal on that site, and investing an extra £100 or so now could save you many hundreds when a cheaper laptops goes bottom up just a few days after the 1 year warrently runs out.
Something else to remember is that shops like Currys, PC World etc also have big mark ups on all laptops, so one that costs £500 will have been made VERY cheaply out of lesser companants to keep the manufacturing costs down. Will Dell, they sell direct so you aren't paying for all the posh stores to run etc.
I have 2 Dell laptops here, a C800 and a C810. I bought them from my old company, and they have been faultless ever since (about 4 year now). The 3 year warranties were also really good to have. We had about 45 Dell laptops at one time, and every now and then a part would fail because they are on for most of the day. Dell would be there the following day with a replacement part.
I'm sure some others will be along shortly to recommend some other brand and models too.
Something else to remember is that shops like Currys, PC World etc also have big mark ups on all laptops, so one that costs £500 will have been made VERY cheaply out of lesser companants to keep the manufacturing costs down. Will Dell, they sell direct so you aren't paying for all the posh stores to run etc.
I have 2 Dell laptops here, a C800 and a C810. I bought them from my old company, and they have been faultless ever since (about 4 year now). The 3 year warranties were also really good to have. We had about 45 Dell laptops at one time, and every now and then a part would fail because they are on for most of the day. Dell would be there the following day with a replacement part.
I'm sure some others will be along shortly to recommend some other brand and models too.
Have a look on www.laptopshop.co.uk can do a price point comparison.
You really want to try and get a centrino processor rather than sempron or celeron, makes a big difference. e.g.
Acer Travelmate 4021 Value Pack (LX.T4021.LSB PACK)
Centrino Pentium M, 1.6GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 60GB HDD, 15 inch TFT display, Dual DVD, MS WinXP Home, Built in Wireless LAN 802.11g 54Mbps, £489.00
Ex VAT
£574.58
(Inc VAT)
You really want to try and get a centrino processor rather than sempron or celeron, makes a big difference. e.g.
Acer Travelmate 4021 Value Pack (LX.T4021.LSB PACK)
Centrino Pentium M, 1.6GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 60GB HDD, 15 inch TFT display, Dual DVD, MS WinXP Home, Built in Wireless LAN 802.11g 54Mbps, £489.00
Ex VAT
£574.58
(Inc VAT)
Thanks again for working out where all the ram would get used up, it's easy enough to upgrade to 1 gig..., i guess that dells are so tried and trusted it's a bit of a no brainer.
looking at the outlet stuff on ebay it looks as though I can get something like a 1.7ghz mobile pentium latitude with 'cosmetic damage' for less than 500 with a year warranty...
...let's face it - it's a notebook, it's bound to get scratched or something within a week of me owning it anyway!
CH
looking at the outlet stuff on ebay it looks as though I can get something like a 1.7ghz mobile pentium latitude with 'cosmetic damage' for less than 500 with a year warranty...
...let's face it - it's a notebook, it's bound to get scratched or something within a week of me owning it anyway!
CH
Also, this post on this forum highlights the dangers of short warranties 
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=225448&am
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=225448&am
DrBob
I was going to send a mail but you don't recieve them.
I have a 2nd hand Toshiba Tecra M2 that i can sell to you. Its not doing much at the moment apart from storing my MP3s/pictures and its connected to an Amp. But that's it.
If you want it i'd be more than happy to discuss the specs.
Kdd
>> Edited by kneedowndeano on Thursday 1st December 14:28
I was going to send a mail but you don't recieve them.
I have a 2nd hand Toshiba Tecra M2 that i can sell to you. Its not doing much at the moment apart from storing my MP3s/pictures and its connected to an Amp. But that's it.
If you want it i'd be more than happy to discuss the specs.
Kdd
>> Edited by kneedowndeano on Thursday 1st December 14:28
Slightly leftfield, but I have just been looking for a "low end" laptop.
I find it amusing that "low end" these days comprises of a DVD/CDRW, half a gig of RAM and a CPU in the Gigahertz range......
Ended up spending a little more and buying her an iBook. Why? Because it's a beautiful bit of design, is small, is built well and does everything she wants.
I also suspect it won't date as fast.
I find it amusing that "low end" these days comprises of a DVD/CDRW, half a gig of RAM and a CPU in the Gigahertz range......
Ended up spending a little more and buying her an iBook. Why? Because it's a beautiful bit of design, is small, is built well and does everything she wants.
I also suspect it won't date as fast.
When I look for laptops I always look for a Toshiba! IMHO I think they are the best laptops, however not necessarily the cheapest. Although you can pick one up for £400 + VAT from somewhere like http://uk.insight.com
Thnaks for advice all, just bought myself a dell d510 latitude with a 1.73GHz pentium mobile processor from dell outlet store on eBay 
480 quid with case, 1 year warranty, etc, etc,
well chuffed at the mo but will wait until I have the machine to recommend (it's one with a 'cosmetic fault')
not a recommendation yet but:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ50QQsassZ
can't wait until next week!
CH
480 quid with case, 1 year warranty, etc, etc,
well chuffed at the mo but will wait until I have the machine to recommend (it's one with a 'cosmetic fault')
not a recommendation yet but:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ50QQsassZ
can't wait until next week!
CH
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