laptop advice please

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Discussion

ROB_GTR

Original Poster:

1,818 posts

226 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
can anyone advise me on a good laptop for home use which will be good for general internet surfing (wired or wireless), low amounts of data input and storing photos.

I'm after one which will be as fast as possible for surfing the net and of good quality for my parents to use (not great on computers)

it doesn't need to have loads of pointless software, just the basics

I don't want to go over £400 ideally but i think i should get something fairly good for that price

also if you know of any deals around at the moment that would be great

cheers

TheD

3,133 posts

200 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
Just had a browse in the new Argos catalogue that was lying around and I see they have an HP, Lenovo and Toshiba in there all under 400.

paddyhasneeds

51,916 posts

211 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
For that kind of usage pretty much any.

We've had a new Lenovo and HP at work to try out and one thing I would say it try a few in person as despite really wanting to like the Lenovo the trackpad is just weird to use.

Look at support too, by definition laptops are trickier to fix than desktops and you may want to take into account things like "Will they fix it onsite or send it away" when choosing.

ROB_GTR

Original Poster:

1,818 posts

226 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
cheers

need it to be fast for internet use, and basic really

they are using my old laptop at the mo, its a "Tiny" (bit like Dell) but its bab putting it mildly.
It takes 10 mins from pressing ON before it will let you attempt to do anything! then it takes the wee wee and goes slower than a snail on a treadmill. so after messing about like trying factory restore, removing EVERYTHING etc its still crap

mattley

3,025 posts

223 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
If it used to be OK just do a clean reinstall, if it's running XP add as much RAM as possible as 1st Gen XP ran quite happily in 512 Meg of RAM but subsequent service packs have bloated this requirement somewhat.

ROB_GTR

Original Poster:

1,818 posts

226 months

Thursday 30th September 2010
quotequote all
is there any processor type (celeron athlon etc) i should avoid?

heard intel pentium & athlon are the better ones?

Fletch79

1,642 posts

198 months

Friday 1st October 2010
quotequote all
If you can find one in budget - Core iX processors

i3 being the lowest, i5 next and i7 being the best

I think you may just scrape an i5 for your £400