Buying a good Laptop - Advice Gratefully Received!

[Tinderstick]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help me identify a decent laptop to replace my dinosaur desktop pc. I want to replace my 500mhz PIII desktop with as good a laptop as I can get for 500 notes or as little over as poss. Guess could stretch to 700 at a push. My requirements would be for surfing, downloading (particularly music) and general use. I'm not a gamer so that's not an issue. I was looking to pick up a bargain on e-bay.

Thanks

 

[Quadophile]

Just to give you an idea of pricing of laptops, you must keep in mind that a laptop is generally twice the price of a comparable desktop, that does not mean that you cannot go for a laptop within your budget but it simply means that you can get a much higher spec desktop.

Now coming to your problem, the laptops normally are not designed for gaming, since your criteria is a laptop not for gaming but general use, you will not have any problem selecting one from the many models and brands available out there.

My personal opinion is to buy a higher speed processor and less ram now and add ram later. Since Ram is possible to add, the processor will remain same and is not really upgradable. If you go for a lot of ram you will have to compromise on other things initially. Since you needs are basically for general purpose useage you will be able to manage with 256MB Ram and when funds allow you can add another stick of 256/512 and get your machine to perform much better.

I will see what is available in your budget and also expect someone else to chip in with their proposed model for you in the given budget, once a few models are listed you can short list them and make the final decision.

IBM's are extemely rugged and reliable business machines I will see if one is available in your budget.

I personally would go for a new machine with warranty if I were you rather than buying off e-bay just because it is cheaper or appears to be a bargain.

 

[Quadophile]

Here is a link to some of the good laptops offered by IBM.

IBM R50 models

 

[KGB-911]

I agree with Quads "i would go for a machine with warrenty" - This is vital!

Unfortunutally, i cannot help in here, because £500 it too cheap for a powerful laptop (those are the only ones i use) I know you are not looking for a powerful one, but that is all i know about!

I ONLY use laptops (unless i need to use a desktop urgently) this is mainly because i own a laptop (this is my seccond) they are MUCH better that PC's (please, Chris, lets not ague about this!)

Sorry that i cannot help,

KGB

If you had a bout £1000, i could find you a lovely, powerful one!

 

[Tinderstick]

Many thanks for your help chaps (or chapesses).

I would really prefer a Laptop because I have little space and spend little time at home. Although I wouldn't need it for work purposes or gaming, I would like to use it for Multimedia purposes - downloading Mp3's, using Web Design and Digital Imag software etc... In this case I may need to stretch to something a bit more powerful? I would be grateful if you or anyone else can expand on the Laptop vs Desktop issue.

 

[Quadophile]

The convenience of a laptop cannot be had in a Desktop, mainly portability. The Desktop on the other hand is very versatile in the sense that almost every component can be upgraded and configured to your exact needs. Both have pro's and con's and it really boils down to what the persons needs are.

As for the IBM model R50 that I suggested, you will not have any problem selecting the one which comes in your budget, it is a rugged and reliable machine with good specs, ideally you should go for the Pentium M processor which is a bit more expansive but will give you good speed and facilities. If you can afford to go for 512 MB ram for you photo editing needs as 256 may be slightly on the slower side if you handle larger images and bigger files.

The R50 is basically a full featured model from IBM, the T series is their top of the line and similar to R50 albait thinner and lighter. If you do not carry around your laptop too much the R series is a good package to go for.

Take a look at the models in the link provided, if you need any assistance let us know.

 

[StevieC]

Hi

I would not be doing my duty unless I warned you DO NOT BUY AN ACER LAPTOP.
I made that mistake last year.
I bought an Acer travelmate 660 centrino laptop for about £1000.
It worked perfectly for about 9 months then started strangely powering off when running on Batteries.
I called Acer (who I had a 2 year RTB warrannty with) and after almost 25 minutes listening to mind numbing hold music asking me to 'be a little patient' I spoke to someone whoc duly logged the call and gave me another number to arrange a pick up with a courior.
2 weeks after I sent the laptop in back it came apparently fixed.
After 1 week of using it the damn thing started powering off at random again despite the battery being over 90% charged. So I called them again, spent another 1/2 hour on hold and went through the whole thing again.
1 week later the laptop was back. You guessed it. Same fault still happening.
In addition - the wireless didnt work anymore.
Furious I called them again - duly spent another 30 minutes on hold, and sent the laptop back again. This time they asked me to include the power adaptor too. I also included a sheet of A4 paper listing in intricate detail the fault, how to replicate it, and my contact details - just incase the call centre were not actually passing on all the info to the engineers.
Recieved the laptop back yesterday. The internal antenna was apparently disconnected (probably during so called fix#2) and they could not replicate the power issue. Infact the laptop would not even turn on when I got it back!
Also on the engineers sheet was a comment 'Suggest customer sends in power supply'
I DID SEND IT IN - BUT NOW THEY HAVENT RETURNED IT!

Obviously I can now not use the laptop at all as the battery is flat and I cant charge it
I hope my experience is enough to put everyone of you off buying an Acer laptop. The hardware is very poor quality, the keyboard layout is not standard (the backslash key'\' is located next to the forward slash key '/' which is surprising difficult to get used toi if you use other PCs aswell)!!!?, and the customer support is absolutely atrocious.
Shame on you Acer.

 

[Quadophile]

Take a look at this thread also which has some useful information

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