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[Wiki Guide] Laptop Buying Advice

Looking for a new laptop for the 2014/2015 academic year? Check out the Official TSR Back to School Laptop and Tablet guide!

:hi:

Laptop Guide (old thread here) :hi:

For advice on the following:

•

Laptop requirement and suggestions

•

Other Sites To Get Laptops / Laptop Review Sites / Student Software

•

Technical jargon

Please click here.

I am no longer suggesting laptops for each price bracket due to other commitments, but you may quote for any general advice.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

spikeymike

OP

12

Budget: £800+ :gah:

Google Shopping is the best place to find best prices.

Ultraportable: 11"-14"

•

Apple MacBook Air [£849+, various configurations]

•

Apple MacBook Pro [£999+, various configurations]

•

(Dell) Alienware M11-r3x [~£699+, various configurations]

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(Dell) Alienware M14x [~£899+, various configurations]

Laptop: 15"

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Apple MacBook Pro [£1549+, various configurations]

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Dell XPZ 15z [£809+, various configurations]

Entertainment/Gaming: 16"+

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Official Asus Outlet [Various laptops]

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Apple MacBook Pro [£2099+, various configurations]

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Dell XPS 17 [~£600-900+, various configurations]

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(Dell) Alienware M17x [~£1299+, various configurations]

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(Dell) Alienware M17x-r3 [~£1149+, various configurations]

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(Dell) Alienware M18x [~£1499+, various configurations]

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Reply 3

spikeymike

OP

12

GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Well don't buy from them then, It's just easier for me to choose the ones I would recommend. You can google these models and buy from elsewhere, upto you.

I personally have no problems with them.

Reply 4

alexsheppard11

3

GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

any reason....

Reply 5

Akkuz

17

GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Cheap, easy and fast delivery.

:facepalm2:

Reply 6

alenax

14

GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Eek why? I was going to buy an external hard drive from them...

Reply 7

gafaw

alenax

Eek why? I was going to buy an external hard drive from them...

Ignore him, he didn't back it up with any evidence. I've bought from them lots and they've always delivered on time and it's been in perfect condition.

Reply 8

alenax

14

gafaw

Ignore him, he didn't back it up with any evidence. I've bought from them lots and they've always delivered on time and it's been in perfect condition.

Ah ok, didn't want to waste 80 quid just to find out there was something wrong with them. All good :smile:

Reply 9

cornford4

The new Dell 15 studio is really good value for the money.

Mr Snips

CRAB MOTH APPLES.

Reply 12

butthead7

which is the best netbook out there?

Reply 13

alexsheppard11

3

butthead7

which is the best netbook out there?

depends what your intended use is :smile:

Reply 14

Mr Snips

17

gafaw

CRAB MOTH APPLES.

The same kind of moth one might enjoy in a sandwich?

Reply 15

spikeymike

OP

12

Mr Snips

...

Cheers for rep Mr Snips :smile:

--------------

I wouldn't list ebuyer links if they were **** would I? :rolleyes:

I'll continue this tonight, but should more than enough to get people ideas.

The best netbook is probably the Samsung range NC10/NC20 etc. But totally depends on budget.

Reply 16

TI-84

18

spikeymike

Laptop Guide

Budget: £0-400
Budget: £400-800
Budget: £800-1200

Netbooks

Subnotebook/Ultra Portables

Mainstream Systems

Oparating System (OS)

The standard operating system (OS) is now Windows Vista, Windows XP is not in production now so it will be very hard to find one nowadays (but you can get second hand ones off eBay), however some Netbooks come with XP as the OS is lighter than Vista.

Note: The standard OS is 32bit, which means the OS will not use up the full 4GB RAM as you have to consider that there is other hardware memory like the graphics card. As far as I’m aware only Dell allows you to upgrade to a 64bit OS.

To get the best performance with Windows Vista I suggest:

• AMD Turion x2 / Intel Core 2 Duo / Intel Pentium Dual Core, ~1.8GHz
• 2GB DDR2 RAM

I personally wouldn’t suggest getting a single core processor i.e. AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium.

PieMaster’s Vista FAQ

I know you've already suggested you're preferred choices of laptops here, but instead of making a new thread I thought I'd just use this one to put forward my question.
I'll be buying my laptop in the U.S. and have a budget of around $1100. I'll be an engineering student, therefore will be using design programmes on the laptop, as well as casual gaming, nothing too stressful on the laptop (FM 10 and the like). I will also expect it to last for the next ~5 years. Taking that into account, and my basic knowledge of what to look for in laptops, I've narrowed my options down to these three:

HP Pavillion Laptop

Gateway FX Edition Laptop

Dell Studio XPS Laptop

For me the most important things are:
- Processor speed
- RAM
- Hardrive
- Graphics

I dont care about a laptops weight, battrey life, how big the screen is, etc not bothered about how it looks either.

What I wanted to know was, what is the difference between the graphics card in the three laptops mentioned above?

ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT: Dell
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS: Gateway
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: HP

cheers.
Also if you can recommend any other laptops that you think would be as good (or better) than the ones mentioned for <$1100 that would be great!

Reply 17

spikeymike

OP

12

TI-84

What I wanted to know was, what is the difference between the graphics card in the three laptops mentioned above?

ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT: Dell
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS: Gateway
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: HP

cheers.
Also if you can recommend any other laptops that you think would be as good (or better) than the ones mentioned for <$1100 that would be great!