[Wiki Guide] Laptop Buying Advice

Ok, how about this one -

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173591

Acer Aspire 7535G Laptop, Turion ZM-82, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 17.3" WXGA,ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570, DVDRW,Webcam, Vista Home Premium

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167375

Acer Aspire 7735Z Laptop, Pentium Dual Core T4200 2.0GHz, 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 17.3" TFT, DVD±RW, Webcam, Vista Home Premium

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173882/show_product_reviews
, 4GB RAM, 25


Ebuyer Extra Value Laptop, Intel T3000 Dual Core0GB HDD, 15.4" TFT, DVDRW, GL40, No Operating System

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174473/show_product_reviews

and finally

MSI CR700 Laptop,Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 17.3" TFT, WLAN bgn, Webcam, Vista Home Premium *FREE UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 7*

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168748/show_product_reviews

The ebuyer ones has no operating system and you'll have to buy an operating systen and install everything including drivers yourself.

The advantage with the Dell over all the ones you have just chosen, is that the Dell has a 64bit OS. All standard laptops have 32bit OS. With a 32bit OS, the max RAM the system can used is around 3.2GB. On a 64bit OS the system can use above 4GB RAM.

What are you going to be using the laptop for? You've chosen such a wide range of specs.

Edit:
If you're playing Sims, then the Intel Pentium laptops are out.

Just fwiw, the link for the 13inch macbook pro is wrong. It links to the 2006 (first Intel) 15 inch Macbook Pro review, which is totally different to what they're offering now.

How much are they charging you for Office? Specs are great.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/?gclid=COeHr4G1nJ0CFWAB4wodAEaI1g

What are they like to buy from? I was going to use the student offer from the microsoft site to get the student edition but they have an enterprise one which seems good. Is it worth getting the enterprise edition over the home/student ones?

http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_Enterprise_2007-details.aspx

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a laptop.

Price around £450 - £550.

I will be using it for Itunes, Spotify, watching DVDs, web browsing with a lot of tabs and obviously some word documents etc, but nothing more demanding than this - i.e. no gaming.

I was wondering if anyone could advise on what sort of spec I should be looking for for that amount of money, in order not to get ripped off?

I was thinking a screen size of around 16" but they do seem to be slightly above or below this from what I have seen.

It would be nice to have a battery life that could handle things like watching a 2 hour film on a train or something like that. I have no idea if this is realistic or not for the budget, but I know my old one would never be able to handle that.

It would great if anyone could even suggest something that sounds like a good deal?

I don't think huge amounts of storage space will be an issue, but it would nice if it was powerful enough not to become very sluggish with music on, a few tabs open, while loading a youtube video (like my current one!), for example.

Thanks for any help.

P.S. Sorry for posting this in the wrong place originally.

Toshiba Satellite Pro A300-2C5 Laptop, Core 2 Duo T5870 2.0GHz, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 15.4" WXGA, DVD SuperMulti, ATI Radeon, 802.11AGN WLAN, Webcam, Vista Home Premium

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165964

...

Acer Aspire 6530 Laptop, AMD Athlon X2 dual-core QL-64 2.1GHz, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 16" WXGA, DVD-Super Multi DL, Webcam, 6 Cell, Radeon HD 3200, Card Reader, Vista Home Premium

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166281

...

Could anyone say whether either of these any good?

Thanks for any reply.

Yo Gents,

What do you think of this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169936

Compaq CQ60 Laptop, AMD Athlon QL65 4GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 15.6" TFT, DVD±RW, GeForce 8200M G,

Basically, it's for work (basic stuff like Office and web browsing) - hence, fairly cheap. But will have some entertainment demands placed on it - music, film-watching etc. The extent of my gaming is playing Simcity 4. Specifications don't seem very thorough though, which is quite annoying - if anyone knows how to find out things like whether there is a monitor-out socket or suchlike, then I'd be grateful.

Equally, any alternatives around the same price (basically under 400 quid) would be considered.

Thanks guys, it's a great service you run in the Tech forum!

1. Toshiba laptops tend to have a below par battery life <3hrs.
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/toshiba-satellite-pro-a300-2c5-622464/review

2. I hate Acers, they suck. Again below par battery life.
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030092,49303292,00.htm

Other than that both specs are good. Notice I haven't suggested Toshiba/Acer laptops in my first post.

Think I'm going to go with the HP Pavilion DV6-1216SA Entertainment Laptop.

Thanks for this thread!

(This one: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=HP_Pavilion_DV6-1216SA_Entertainment_Laptop_VF360EA&pagetype=version&page=)

Hey guys, I'm looking for a laptop, ideally at least a Pentium Dual core with a dedicated graphics card. I'm going to be playing World of Warcraft as well as the usual word-processing/web browsing etc.

budget?