1st time LapTop buyer
Discussion
No wonder Ive avoided them for this long!!
I need:
wireless internet for IMing to relatives in Oz and Skype,
the ability to run a job scheduling database on it,
store loads of pictures (of cars - honest!),
download and store music,
and watch a DVD if I want to.
Easy to use, budget of about £400 - can buy ex VAT. Thats pretty much it.
I had a look on the Dell website, the Inspiron 1501 looked alright. The trouble I have is I dont know how relevant these unit's features are for my purposes.
I might aswell be browsing for a space shuttle.
And I dont trust the hair gelled slickmeister at PC world one bit!
Can anyone suggest a model that will fit these requirements? Or does anyone have the Dell and think it fits the bill?
PB
We have a 1301 at home, but it is one without wireless in it. We got it on Dells last £299 all in offer.
Personally i'd go for something a little better specced if the money is there, however it will quite happily do all of the things above if you asked it to. Just not a great deal of future proofing there.
One other point to make, we use Dell Latitude D6xx series laptops in the office and have seen a large number of failures.
You may also want to consider toshiba or HP laptops
Personally i'd go for something a little better specced if the money is there, however it will quite happily do all of the things above if you asked it to. Just not a great deal of future proofing there.
One other point to make, we use Dell Latitude D6xx series laptops in the office and have seen a large number of failures.
You may also want to consider toshiba or HP laptops
Dell stuff used to be pukka but now is only so so - I would no longer recommend them.
I use a Sony Vaio but they're out of your price range.
HP are ok but are exclusive to PC World, other options include Mesh or Evesham.
Don't bother with a big hard drive - big ones are expensive in laptops.
Instead go for an average size drive (80mb) and get a USB external drive from e-bay of 300mb+ (which is what I do)
I use a Sony Vaio but they're out of your price range.
HP are ok but are exclusive to PC World, other options include Mesh or Evesham.
Don't bother with a big hard drive - big ones are expensive in laptops.
Instead go for an average size drive (80mb) and get a USB external drive from e-bay of 300mb+ (which is what I do)
HP laptops are good.
Dont buy a crap name, get a brand name and pay the extra for extended warranty.
Get built in wifi for sure. Other than that you should be ok. You can always get an external monitor and keyboard/mouse for serious action.
As mentioned not much point paying over £400 you only get an expensive tft lcd and a larger harddrive (which you can always upgrade yourself later much cheaper anyway)
Dont buy a crap name, get a brand name and pay the extra for extended warranty.
Get built in wifi for sure. Other than that you should be ok. You can always get an external monitor and keyboard/mouse for serious action.
As mentioned not much point paying over £400 you only get an expensive tft lcd and a larger harddrive (which you can always upgrade yourself later much cheaper anyway)
OLYC said:
We have a 1301 at home, but it is one without wireless in it. We got it on Dells last £299 all in offer.
Personally i'd go for something a little better specced if the money is there, however it will quite happily do all of the things above if you asked it to. Just not a great deal of future proofing there.
One other point to make, we use Dell Latitude D6xx series laptops in the office and have seen a large number of failures.
You may also want to consider toshiba or HP laptops
Personally i'd go for something a little better specced if the money is there, however it will quite happily do all of the things above if you asked it to. Just not a great deal of future proofing there.
One other point to make, we use Dell Latitude D6xx series laptops in the office and have seen a large number of failures.
You may also want to consider toshiba or HP laptops
Yeh apart from only 256MB Ram! You will need at least 512MB just to run XP SP2 these days so I would go for one with at least that amount but 1GB would be better. You will probable find though, that it would be cheaper to buy one with less memory and buy an upgrade from www.crucial.com/uk or www.kingston.com/uk
Today I would probably take a hard look at Toshiba and Fujitsu/Siemens to see what they offer.
ringram said:
Dont buy a crap name, get a brand name and pay the extra for extended warranty.
NEVER buy the extended warranty for a brand name laptop unless the warranty is as cheap as chips. You get 12 months anyway, if it's a good brand it will either go wrong in that time or last for years (after which it will be out of date and run like a dog anyway). You're better off just making sure you keep proper backups.
If you feel that you need a warranty, maybe the product is inferior.
The conversation usually goes something like this:
Me: I want to buy that laptop.
Sales: Certainly sir, but you'll be needing this extended warranty.
Me: Why?
Sales: It might go wrong and be very expensive to fix.
Me: So you're telling me it's badly made, unreliable and costly to repair?
Sales: Oh, no sir!
Me: So why do I need an extended warranty then?
Sales: Oh, er, I er, um...
Me: I think I'll buy something better somewhere else.
Sales: Er, oh, um, er... [desperately tries to backtrack as I walk out of the shop]
How much does a laptop screen cost to fix if it dies?
What about mainboard?
More than the cost of the laptop!
You are however correct, hammer for a cheap extended warranty at the time, make sure its not a rip off. On £299, extend to 3 years shouldn't cost more than £50-£60. Else just save up and buy a new one when the one you buy breaks.
But you would be surprised how many brand name ones fail. I used to work for a Toshiba repair center in NZ 15 years ago and been in IT consulting for decades.
I don't have an extended warranty on my own ones by the way. Just bear in mind most people don't have the skills to recover their hard drive data or transfer data to a new PC etc. So £50 is cheap to buy those skills for 3 years! So if you are in that camp the warranty might well be worth it.
What about mainboard?
More than the cost of the laptop!
You are however correct, hammer for a cheap extended warranty at the time, make sure its not a rip off. On £299, extend to 3 years shouldn't cost more than £50-£60. Else just save up and buy a new one when the one you buy breaks.
But you would be surprised how many brand name ones fail. I used to work for a Toshiba repair center in NZ 15 years ago and been in IT consulting for decades.
I don't have an extended warranty on my own ones by the way. Just bear in mind most people don't have the skills to recover their hard drive data or transfer data to a new PC etc. So £50 is cheap to buy those skills for 3 years! So if you are in that camp the warranty might well be worth it.
Must admit I never buy warranties. Think of it like this - Everything you buy like PC, HiFi, kitchen appliances, electronic gadgets etc. Typical warranty 200 quid, times the number of units, its thousands!!! Lets say one in 10 fails before its time, just replace it or have it repaired - youve still saved Grands.
By the way, I use a Panasonic CF-18 Toughbook for workshop use etc (they are virtually indestructible) and a Sony VAIO for other stuff.
Only use the Sony cos the carbon fibre shell is cool, and the X-black screen is nothing short of stunning, but its way overpriced for what it is really!
By the way, I use a Panasonic CF-18 Toughbook for workshop use etc (they are virtually indestructible) and a Sony VAIO for other stuff.
Only use the Sony cos the carbon fibre shell is cool, and the X-black screen is nothing short of stunning, but its way overpriced for what it is really!
ringram said:
Some of you guys forget that a fridge or tv doesnt have perhaps 2 years worth of documents and files etc. Otherwise I totally agree, just buy a new one.
Good point, but for 50 quid you can buy a huge USB2 HDD and regularly back up your files and data - the rest of the machine is expendable. Lot cheaper than some rank warranty that they will probably wriggle out of anyway.
www.ebuyer.com/UK/store/45/cat/Notebooks/Laptops
Just bought some components to build a PC from the above link, very good prices & excellent service, the lot below for £620 inc VAT & delivery
1 x Ebuyer Extra Value USB2.0 High Speed Combo USB2.0 Firewire PCI Card with 4xUSB Ports and 3xports IEEE 1394
1 x Asustek M2V AM2 VIAK8T890 Sound, Gigalan And USB 2.0 2000MHz FSB SATA ATX
2 x HP DVD940i 18x SuperMulti DVD±RW/RAM Lightscribe Black Retail Box
1 x SONY DDU1615 16x48x DVD-ROM Internal IDE (Black) - OEM
1 x Microsoft OEM Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2B (Includes Vista Upgrade Coupon) - 1PK
1 x Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive / Media Drive SM/MS/MD/CF/MM/SD Ivory
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2GHz Socket AM2 L2 1MB 2 x 512KB retail Box
1 x Antec SLK3000B Black Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU
1 x Asus Nvidia 7300GS 256MB PCI-E
1 x Ebuyer 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram
1 x Sansun True 450W 20+4pin ATX PSU - 2x SATA & PCI-E - Shiny Silver Mirror Finish With 2x 80mm Blue Neon Fans
colleage at work is building it for me for £50, he builds to order if anyone is interested
Just bought some components to build a PC from the above link, very good prices & excellent service, the lot below for £620 inc VAT & delivery
1 x Ebuyer Extra Value USB2.0 High Speed Combo USB2.0 Firewire PCI Card with 4xUSB Ports and 3xports IEEE 1394
1 x Asustek M2V AM2 VIAK8T890 Sound, Gigalan And USB 2.0 2000MHz FSB SATA ATX
2 x HP DVD940i 18x SuperMulti DVD±RW/RAM Lightscribe Black Retail Box
1 x SONY DDU1615 16x48x DVD-ROM Internal IDE (Black) - OEM
1 x Microsoft OEM Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2B (Includes Vista Upgrade Coupon) - 1PK
1 x Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive / Media Drive SM/MS/MD/CF/MM/SD Ivory
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2GHz Socket AM2 L2 1MB 2 x 512KB retail Box
1 x Antec SLK3000B Black Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU
1 x Asus Nvidia 7300GS 256MB PCI-E
1 x Ebuyer 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram
1 x Sansun True 450W 20+4pin ATX PSU - 2x SATA & PCI-E - Shiny Silver Mirror Finish With 2x 80mm Blue Neon Fans
colleage at work is building it for me for £50, he builds to order if anyone is interested
he's charging you 50 quid to build it!! thought you said he was a colleague. geez we do it all the time in our place for staff and at a push will take a bottle of wine for doing it. Anyone that can work a screwdriver can build their own pc, most of the components come with fairly idiot proof instructions. The only bit thats really awkward is the software install but if you just accept the defaults even that will get you a working system. Check on the web for "best practice" install procedures.
When building the machine itself the only thing I'd warn about and suggest as good practice is to install the ram and the processor onto the board before securing it into the case. Place the board on a good flat surface on top of the antistatic bag it came in. Processor fan and ram exert some pressure on the board when being inserted which is why its better done before its secured on the pillars in the case. I'd also tend to plug the power lead into the case and a socket (switched off) to earth the case while working on building the pc, touch the bare metal of the case regularly to earth yourself and discharge any static buildup.
When building the machine itself the only thing I'd warn about and suggest as good practice is to install the ram and the processor onto the board before securing it into the case. Place the board on a good flat surface on top of the antistatic bag it came in. Processor fan and ram exert some pressure on the board when being inserted which is why its better done before its secured on the pillars in the case. I'd also tend to plug the power lead into the case and a socket (switched off) to earth the case while working on building the pc, touch the bare metal of the case regularly to earth yourself and discharge any static buildup.
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