[GoldenToad]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
In all honesty it's quite hard to find a laptop in white with good specs underneath £500, because there black coloured counterparts are much cheaper.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-v...84720-pdt.html
SONY VPCEH3B1E/W.CEK 15.5" Laptop - White £450

Specs:
Intel® Core™ i3-2350M
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 4GB
Hard drive: 640GB


or for £50 more a better spec version
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-v...84770-pdt.html

SONY VPCEH3N6E/W.CEK 15.5" Laptop – White for £500

Specs:
Intel® Core™ i5-2450M processor
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 4GB
Hard drive: 640GB

I would definitely suggest going with the i5 laptop. My laptop has the same processor and it can cope very well with video rendering and gaming so it will be brilliant for what you have stated. It is more futureproof (as much as any technology can be) than the i3 and won't slow you down as quickly.

Don't worry about how much RAM it has; you can buy 8GB of it for £35, which is what I did and it's very simple. I'd never done it before and it took me more time to unscrew everything!

[Final Fantasy]

(Original post by rhstar)
Hi,do you know where I can microsoft word for about £35 ?I've been looking but not had much luck

Plenty of Microsoft student partner websites offer it.

E.g. http://www.software4students.co.uk/

http://viglen.software2.co.uk/

https://www.dreamspark.com/

And more... just check with your university/faculty or search their website. They might even be a Microsoft partner via MSDNAA in which you get free software if you're a computer science/engineering related student.

[Wahala]

(Original post by Final Fantasy)
Uh actually disregard what I said about personally favouring the first one. Looking at the specs it doesn't have a few things I would need which the others do (the HDMI port for one and a few other things). I'd probably pick the Samsung. Has HDMI, Gigabit, supports the newer version Bluetooth, better battery and looks gorgeous.

re: http://www.ebuyer.com/288874-toshiba...sc1me-01g00ken or the samsung

I was actually thinking of getting the tosh, I don't use HDMI (that is to connect to a tv right?) nor bluetooth & doubt i'd have need for them later on. The battery seems the same (4400 mAh). Is there anything pretty major the tosh is lacking? the samsung surely looks better but i'm kinda swayed by the bigger ram & basic ms word that comes with the tosh. Cheers.

[Final Fantasy]

(Original post by Wahala)
re: http://www.ebuyer.com/288874-toshiba...sc1me-01g00ken or the samsung

I was actually thinking of getting the tosh, I don't use HDMI (that is to connect to a tv right?) nor bluetooth & doubt i'd have need for them later on. The battery seems the same (4400 mAh). Is there anything pretty major the tosh is lacking? the samsung surely looks better but i'm kinda swayed by the bigger ram & basic ms word that comes with the tosh. Cheers.

That's fine then. Go for the Toshiba if it's still on sale. HDMI port is for connecting to TVs or LCDs etc. that have a HDMI port.

[Wahala]

(Original post by Final Fantasy)
That's fine then. Go for the Toshiba if it's still on sale. HDMI port is for connecting to TVs or LCDs etc. that have a HDMI port.

gonna go for the samsung, it looks better & i can get cheap msoffice anyway. But i've have since found a model with 8g of RAM (up from 4gb) for £40 extra, is it worth it? (same model, all other specs the same). hear one only ever needs 6gb tops?

[jaez121]

I would recommend

Macbook Pro 13'' (its quite small)
13-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)2

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ly/macbook_pro

[Wahala]

not quite prepared to spend macprices yet...I only intend to use it for some months and then give it to my bro.

[Final Fantasy]

(Original post by Wahala)
gonna go for the samsung, it looks better & i can get cheap msoffice anyway. But i've have since found a model with 8g of RAM (up from 4gb) for £40 extra, is it worth it? (same model, all other specs the same). hear one only ever needs 6gb tops?

Waste of money as you won't end up using that much. Even 4GB is enough. Unless you know why you need more RAM? Virtual machines, servers etc?

(Original post by jaez121)
I would recommend

Macbook Pro 13'' (its quite small)
13-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)2

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ly/macbook_pro

Way out of the OP's budget... would not recommend it at all. The Samsung is far superior when you consider the price. Pointless paying an extra £500 for a slightly better CPU.

[Deja Vu]

(Original post by jaez121)
I would recommend

Macbook Pro 13'' (its quite small)
13-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)2

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ly/macbook_pro

Which is neither white, nor below £500.

So out of only three sets of criteria, it still manages to fail in two. What a waste of a post.

[Sir Fox]

(Original post by rhstar)
Hi,do you know where I can microsoft word for about £35 ?I've been looking but not had much luck

I don't really see the point in paying for MS Office as a student - OpenOffice works perfectly fine and, well ... it's for free.