[Wiki Guide] Laptop Buying Advice

Can you explain how you get the discount on the dell laptops? I've looked around this site and can't find out how?

Budget: £0-400

Laptops

HP 550 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164844
HP 550 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164845
HP 550 (Dabs)
HP 6735s (eBuyer)
HP 6735s (Dabs)
Compaq Presario CQ60-300 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164692
Toshiba Satellite Pro L300D-20R - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164323

Hi Mike,

Came into this forum hoping for something along these lines and this is excellent mate, I certainly appreciate the efforts here!

I am moving abroad soon and need a smaller laptop than my 17" Amilo M3438 which is basically a desktop on wheels, so I'm looking at a cheap laptop to replace it. From those above I've narrowed it down to a couple but in all honesty I don't know what specs I am looking for.

I was hoping for something light but they all seem to be the same weight (2.5kg) and 15.4" so no comparison to be made. All I need the laptop to do is Office-based stuff, Firefox, MediaMonkey but vitally Football Manager () which is pretty RAM-intensive so without really knowing what difference a processor speed makes I've been comparing the RAM of laptops more than anything.

Have you (or anyone else) got any advice of what I should be looking for and which of the links you posted would be most sensible for my needs?

Cheers!

Hi Colbert Ok, the minimum requirements for FM09 are: Source



Depending on your budget... I'm guessing < £400?

Those specs seem a little optimistic from Sega's POV! I believe (from the official FM forums) that in order to get any enjoyment from the game the specs need to be a fair bit higher than those basic requirements. My current laptop meets the required specs comfortably but it still runs quite slowly.

And yeah I'm looking £400 and below simply because the options you posted seemed more than viable. I spent £1100 on this Amilo four years ago but I want to get a cheaper laptop now then maybe get a desktop once I graduate next year and won't be moving around as much.

They are minimum requirements.

However I think this would suffice.

HP 6735s from Dabs

- AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 (2.0 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache)
- Integrated UMA graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 with maximum shared system memory using 2 GB SDRAM

The missing details can be found here.

Fabulous, thank you sir! I do feel quite special that the HP was one of the 2 I'd narrowed it down to from your selections

Well that's one job done and it's only just turned 12

Seriously though thanks for the advice.

Annoyingly I can't find it for sale from any companies I have heard of for a similar price to what dabs.com has it for

I might call them on Monday and see what the status for both laptops is.

Otherwise I may have to plump for the Compaq Presario you posted.

This one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164692

Looks decent spec for the price, no?

Oh, I've just had another look at the HP 550 and now that one looks better! More RAM for less processor.

Yeah looks good, Home Basic... well pretty self explanatory.

Note that these are all 32bit operating systems so the max they will use is ~3.5GB RAM.

Also, the Intel Core 2 Duos are more efficient than AMD Turionx2 in terms of battery life.

So there isn't much difference between them then. 550 should have better battery being an Intel but Presario will be faster due to processor.

Links updated again...

I see you removed the link to the Compaq Presario in the <£400 section, weren't a fan

Also, why do the HP 550 models differ so much?

ebuyer doesn't sell it anymore so I remove dead links.

I dunno.