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Laptop advice


chester copperpot

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chester copperpot

Looking for some of you techy's to give me some advice.

 

I'm buying a new laptop tonight, and am wondering what I should go for.

 

I'm not technical at all, so in simpleton terms if at all possible. My requirements are that it has the capability to store DVD's on it, then burn them onto blank DVD disks. Also that the quality of picture is good and that it can store a fair amount of photo's and music. Wireless connection and WiFi enabled would also be a bonus, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Prices given too would be helpful, I have about 800 quid to spend but would prefer not to. As my requirements are fairly basic, I probably do not need to spend as much as that on it.

 

Thanks.

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I would go for the Sony Vaio range - Can pick up a decent on for around ?650. This may even be over what you need but a decent machine

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chester copperpot
I would go for the Sony Vaio range - Can pick up a decent on for around ?650. This may even be over what you need but a decent machine

 

 

 

Yeah my mate suggested them too, but thought they were a bit pricey, however will have a spy at them when I head out to look tonight.

 

Ta very muchly

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Also, if you have any student friends, they can get apple computers directly from apple free of VAT. Is that 17.5% or something?

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chester copperpot
Also, if you have any student friends, they can get apple computers directly from apple free of VAT. Is that 17.5% or something?

 

 

 

Dont have any greasy tax dodging weasel's I'm afraid :P

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Brian Whittaker's Tache

I got my mate a Mac Book this morning from here

 

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=AA9C1547&nclm=Certified

 

Its a refurb but still comes with a full guarantee

 

It should have been ?899 but I paid ?679

 

120Gb hard disk, 1Gb Ram, Superdrive (to burn DVD's)

 

Its being delivered on Friday

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Andy as i said to you earlier the Advent 9517 from P world @ ?479.99 is as good a buy as you can get its got intel core 2 duo processor 2 gb memory and 160 gb hard drive for what you want it for its a good deal only down side is it has vista on it lol (dont like Vista)

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chester copperpot
Andy as i said to you earlier the Advent 9517 from P world @ ?479.99 is as good a buy as you can get its got intel core 2 duo processor 2 gb memory and 160 gb hard drive for what you want it for its a good deal only down side is it has vista on it lol (dont like Vista)

 

 

 

We'll mibbees go tomorrow then. I believe I have an appointment this evening with a jar or 2 of Mr Bulmer's finest.

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Dont touch an ACER.

 

Id go with previous recommendations for Vaio.

 

Have one myself and had no issues.

 

Whereas my preivous works ACER was a dug. (and cost ?900 more than my Vaio)

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Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC

It's all about the Mac mate.

 

Won't have to worry about another virus ever again!

 

Superb for photos, films etc.

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Brian Whittaker's Tache
It's all about the Mac mate.

 

Won't have to worry about another virus ever again!

 

Superb for photos, films etc.

 

 

I hear you brother

 

9 years constant on Macs (its my job) Never had a single virus!

 

*waits for a bolt from the blue*

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chester copperpot
I hear you brother

 

9 years constant on Macs (its my job) Never had a single virus!

 

*waits for a bolt from the blue*

 

 

 

Ach I can only dream of having a Mac mate. They're far too pricey for what I want to use the computer for.

 

I'm a KB tart who occassionally uses the laptop for work and the occassional DVD.

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Miller Jambo 60
Looking for some of you techy's to give me some advice.

 

I'm buying a new laptop tonight, and am wondering what I should go for.

 

I'm not technical at all, so in simpleton terms if at all possible. My requirements are that it has the capability to store DVD's on it, then burn them onto blank DVD disks. Also that the quality of picture is good and that it can store a fair amount of photo's and music. Wireless connection and WiFi enabled would also be a bonus, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Prices given too would be helpful, I have about 800 quid to spend but would prefer not to. As my requirements are fairly basic, I probably do not need to spend as much as that on it.

Andy got a Toshiba 60 GD hard drive 512 memory enough for a note book and pics great for kickback:) DOUGSTAR

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Sure I heard from the technology guy James Whale/Ian Collins has on talkSport that Acer/Toshiba were good options.

 

Sony you'll pay more due to the bran unfortunately.

 

My sister just bought a Gateway one from Tesco.com which seems not bad. ?400 approx.

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Apple schmapple. "I don't get viruses"....well that's cos nobody can be arsed writing a virus for 5% of the world's computers. Write for Windows, hit more people.

 

And the new Apple is the Apple MacBook Air. Very nice, very pricey, no optical drive (unless you buy external) though there is software embedded allowing you to wirelessly access someone elses DVDRW, which is neat (but simple to set up manually so nowt amazing). Scarily thin though, 4mm at it's thinnest, in fact it's the thinnest laptop in the world now. Looks good too.

 

Oh, and got an iPhone? New software just released for free download from Apple, updates how the phone works.

 

Sony VAIO. Great, all my machines are Sony. However if you want Sony (or Apple) build quality, cheaper price, better worldwide warranty, free case and mouse, then buy ASUS. They make all the VAIO and all the Sony in the same factory.

 

Here's some deals...

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/january-laptop-sale/page.asp

 

...much cheapness.

 

Make sure you get Core 2, stay away from older "M" types (Pentium M / Celeron M), I quite like the price of this one, it's Acer and they win a lot of awards for their product.

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_9423WSMi_LX.AWZ0X.109/version.asp?refsource=ldeshot

 

?320 off. 17" CrystalBrite (think X-Black in VAIO) display, decent all round specs. 1GB DDR2 memory these days, less than ?20. So make sure you double up :thumb:

 

The Gemstone range are the new ones from Acer, while the Samsung Q45 Red just got put on the "A List" of PC Pro magazine....

 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/161/light-laptops/products.html

 

That's a link to the most recent lab, quite a few on there worth looking at, just went live on their site today.

 

Me though, I'd look at one of the deal laptops, good savings to be had at the moment!!

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Brian Whittaker's Tache
Apple schmapple. "I don't get viruses"....well that's cos nobody can be arsed writing a virus for 5% of the world's computers. Write for Windows, hit more people.

 

Perfect!!

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Ive had a gateway for 18 months and its excellent

 

 

Gateway pulled out of Europe quite a while back. Went back to the USA. Nobody liked their cowprint designs :D

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Gateway pulled out of Europe quite a while back. Went back to the USA. Nobody liked their cowprint designs :D

 

 

Not a cow in site

 

Mines has the box cube logo

 

Your reason is probably why I got it so cheap though as the spec was about ?300 more on any other manufacturer including the crap ones

 

The battery in mines is excellent too

 

Thats one of the main things to watch out for as the PC world cheapies normally last about 30 minutes

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Not a cow in site

 

Mines has the box cube logo

 

Your reason is probably why I got it so cheap though as the spec was about ?300 more on any other manufacturer including the crap ones

 

The battery in mines is excellent too

 

Thats one of the main things to watch out for as the PC world cheapies normally last about 30 minutes

 

 

 

Batterylife depends mainly on size of screen as the backlight uses around 33% of the battery, reduce the brightness, get more juice :thumb:

 

Most batteries now are Li-ion, possibly even Li-polymer, soon though fuel cell technology will increase the capacity of batteries while OLED (originally LEP) displays will reduce the % of battery time used as they don't require a backlight, are far thinner and therefore battery length with this type screen gets 6-8hrs, maybe even more. The VAIO TX range uses OLED, and look out for collapsible screened DVD players, phones etc etc in the next 5yrs....ie you just pull the screen out and watch....nearest I can think off are the comminication devices used in "Earth: Final Conflict".

 

And don't get me started on the new Nokia Holographic Phone.....woo hoo, that's a real beaut :D

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The nerd, sorry IT guy at work, recommended either a IBM thinkpad or a Toshiba for me.

 

I got this Toshiba from PC World although i got it for ?399 (reduced from ?499) and with a little skullduggery, i managed to get a bluetooth dongle and DVD writing software package thrown in.

 

Nothing on the PC World site so they might have sold out at the cheaper price.

 

Edit: There was also a spare battery offer which you had to send of for, very handy.

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The nerd, sorry IT guy at work, recommended either a IBM thinkpad or a Toshiba for me.

 

I got this Toshiba from PC World although i got it for ?399 (reduced from ?499) and with a little skullduggery, i managed to get a bluetooth dongle and DVD writing software package thrown in.

 

Nothing on the PC World site so they might have sold out at the cheaper price.

 

Edit: There was also a spare battery offer which you had to send of for, very handy.

 

 

 

Not much of a nerd, everyone knows that IBM sold their laptop business to the chinese ages ago. Now called Lenovo.

 

:P

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Not much of a nerd, everyone knows that IBM sold their laptop business to the chinese ages ago. Now called Lenovo.

 

:P

 

I'll be bringing that up with him!

 

I've got an old Thinkpad sitting in a cupboard. Will it be a collectors item yet?

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Nah. Probably still work though. May be ugly, but work for years.

 

Yeah it still works, the amount of times it was dropped i think it must be indestructable.

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Have a look on the Dell website. They have some good machines at pretty reasonable prices, especially if you knock off the extra warranties.

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I P Knightley
Batterylife depends mainly on size of screen as the backlight uses around 33% of the battery, reduce the brightness, get more juice :thumb:

 

Most batteries now are Li-ion, possibly even Li-polymer, soon though fuel cell technology will increase the capacity of batteries while OLED (originally LEP) displays will reduce the % of battery time used as they don't require a backlight, are far thinner and therefore battery length with this type screen gets 6-8hrs, maybe even more. The VAIO TX range uses OLED, and look out for collapsible screened DVD players, phones etc etc in the next 5yrs....ie you just pull the screen out and watch....nearest I can think off are the comminication devices used in "Earth: Final Conflict".

 

And don't get me started on the new Nokia Holographic Phone.....woo hoo, that's a real beaut :D

 

I didn't ask the original question but am also in the market for a laptop and clueless. Your advice & links are most helpful - thanks. This stuff, though, is wa-ay-hay over my head. Holographic phones??

 

 

I particularly like the bit:

Not much of a nerd, everyone knows that IBM sold their laptop business to the chinese ages ago. Now called Lenovo.

where you out-nerd a nerd.

 

You take this stuff really seriously, don't you?;)

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It's all in the name mate, but only nerds would understand that one too!!

 

Geeks rule!! :thumb:

 

For the phone.....an R&D from Nokia, the phone itself creates the holographic image of a PC / laptop, allowing you to type, view, do the things you'd do on a physical machine but it's made entirely of holographic light. 5-10yrs away for that.

 

Then bring on the warp drive :D

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I would go for the Sony Vaio range - Can pick up a decent on for around ?650. This may even be over what you need but a decent machine

 

Vaio's are pish. My harddrive packed in after about 10 months.

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IMHO you don't need a fancy-dan laptop to do the things you are after and definitely not a ?600+ one.

 

My recommendation is this...

 

Asus X50RL-AP999 Laptop ?419.96

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134523

 

  • It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which (as said above) is pretty much a prerequisite. It'll be fast and cool (temperature wise).
  • 120GB of hard disk will let you store a lot of pics, music and movies.
  • 1024MB RAM (=1Gb) means it'll run nice and quick.
  • 15.4" screen about the biggest you can get for laptops.
  • DVD-RW for DVD writing.
  • WLAN. Wireless enabled.
  • Graphics card(ATI XPRESS X1100 128M) will be fine unless you want to play the newest games. If you do then a laptop would be a bad recommendation anyway.
  • Windows XP Pro. Lots of support and most things are compatible with it. Vista doesn't give any benefits at the moment.
  • 2 years Warranty. Peace of mind if it does explode in a fireball.

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I P Knightley
It's all in the name mate, but only nerds would understand that one too!!

 

Geeks rule!! :thumb:

 

For the phone.....an R&D from Nokia, the phone itself creates the holographic image of a PC / laptop, allowing you to type, view, do the things you'd do on a physical machine but it's made entirely of holographic light. 5-10yrs away for that.

 

Then bring on the warp drive :D

 

"Whoosh" :tumbleweed: for the name reference and "whoooooosh" :tumbleweed: for the holographic light stuff (makes 'way over my head' gesture and sits cross-eyed before exiting stage left)

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IMHO you don't need a fancy-dan laptop to do the things you are after and definitely not a ?600+ one.

 

My recommendation is this...

 

Asus X50RL-AP999 Laptop ?419.96

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134523

  • It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which (as said above) is pretty much a prerequisite. It'll be fast and cool (temperature wise).
  • 120GB of hard disk will let you store a lot of pics, music and movies.
  • 1024MB RAM (=1Gb) means it'll run nice and quick.
  • 15.4" screen about the biggest you can get for laptops.
  • DVD-RW for DVD writing.
  • WLAN. Wireless enabled.
  • Graphics card(ATI XPRESS X1100 128M) will be fine unless you want to play the newest games. If you do then a laptop would be a bad recommendation anyway.
  • Windows XP Pro. Lots of support and most things are compatible with it. Vista doesn't give any benefits at the moment.
  • 2 years Warranty. Peace of mind if it does explode in a fireball.

 

 

 

20" screens are the largest on the market, Samsung had a nice 19" model that could split from the keyboard and act as a PC.....model name M19, now discontinued.

 

Rock, DELL and Alienware do gaming laptops, as do other manufacturers. Come with fast CPU, fast graphics and display with super fast refresh rate....do cost ??? though.

 

As said, 2GB is better, cheap to upgrade, just make sure the laptop comes with a single 1GB SODIMM module and not 2 x 512MB. ?20 for single 1GB DDR2 module most places, http://www.crucial.com/uk do get quality, free delivery.

 

Vista is good, and I'd recommend anybody buying a laptop now to ensure they have Vista. XP will stop being supplied with updates and patches end of 2008 / 2009 as Vista is now the new standard from Microsoft.

 

Warranties don't cover fireballs.....unless you're DELL :D

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2006/06/21/dell-laptop-explodes-at-japanese-conference

 

Recommend Asus though, good kit, here's that model above with ?20 less in the price.

 

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=292410&sourceid=2004

 

Overall though, I'd go for a laptop around the same price with money off than the one above (especially with the savings found in sale at moment), specs are general on that one and older model CPU (one of the slowest from the C2D range). CPU with speed of 1.66GHz would be my minimum if buying now, not 1.5GHz.

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Vaio's are pish. My harddrive packed in after about 10 months.

 

 

Had a VAIO C1F for 5yrs, no problems, currently got an FS model and S model going on 3yrs a piece. Upgrading in spring with new range :thumb:

 

Think it depends though, you can just get dodgy components and it's how the company deals with the problem that matters.....even a Ferrari can have engine trouble, still a quality car.

 

Anyway, that's me on this thread, like ferking PC World so I am.

 

Good luck with what yer all buying, I'm off on holiday :D

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