I need advice buying a Laptop

[DaveP2]

Hi
I need some help buying a laptop,it's my parents who are buying it for themselves.
All they really need it for is for the internet and office,excel spreadsheets and also to put photos on.They don't want it to be slow and need a decent size screen,something like 17.3" i think.
They went to pcworld yesterday and picked out the laptop below

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-l670-12j-04961632-pdt.html

£629.99

Now if they need to buy office aswell my instinct tells me it's abit pricey for what they actually need.Can i get some feedback and advice,is that a fair price? and could someone point me in the direction of better deals out there and better alternatives please.

 

[Abarbarian]

"Get immediate access and discover the most downloaded office suite online! Why dish out your hard earned money for software applications that don’t give you half of what we offer?
Why wait? Join the exciting Open Office experience now!"

http://openoffice.org-suite.com/

The above is a very good alternative to Windows Office. There are tons of on-line tutorials and walk throughs.

 

[DaveP2]

Interesting,is that free?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Yes, Open Office is free, I've been using it for the last few months, it's good. Takes a little bit of getting to know if you're used to MS Office but you soon get the hang of it.

You didn't give a price for MS Office, how much were your parents going to pay for it? And what you get within different versions of MS Office will influence the price.

I'd try Open Office first and see how you (your parents) get on with it. I've a feeling it'll do but if they're really not happy with it then try and get a students version of MS Office, it's a lot cheaper.

All you need to buy the student version is a Uni e-mail address or get somebody who has an e-mail Uni address and buy it through them. Details on the MS Office site.

As for the laptop, if all your folks want to do is what you've listed above, narrow your search down to screen size and budget and then compare spec with price.

I'd thoroughly recommend Toshiba and Sony and consider Dell and Samsung. I'd avoid Acer. I'd also avoid PC World, they will try and sell you a whole bunch of rubbish with it and their after sales service isn't much good.

I've bought a few laptops from These people in the past, they seem ok, have a look to make comparisons and see what you can get for your budget.

 

[Anon_F]

We used staples recently and they have some good deals on now.

 

[DaveP2]

We used staples recently and they have some good deals on now.

Just took A look at staples website and i'm pretty certain they had exactly the same computer as was in my first post for just under £600 but i clicked shopping basket and it said currently not in stock.

 

[Anon_F]

Go down to your local store and see what deals they are doing?

 

[DaveP2]

Go down to your local store and see what deals they are doing?

Yeah,they'll probably go down there next weekend,still not sure if that is the best laptop to go for at the moment and looking at other options but i've never bought a laptop before and not bought a computer for afew years either so not sure what i'm looking for,for them.

 

[DaveP2]

They ended up getting the laptop from the first post.They got it from staples for just under £580 ,so thanks to feckit for mentioning that as i probably wouldn't have thought of it,also thanks to everyone else.

One last question

It has a McAfee Internet Security 2010 cd with it.Should i install that or use some other anti virus software instead?

 

[muckshifter]

McAfee is regarded by me, and others, to be a virus in itself.

Try Microsoft Security Essentials, it's free, does a good job and doesn't slow your system to a crawl. Use windows' is own firewal. You will have to pay for McCrapee eventually.

 

[floppybootstomp]

McAfee is, er, how can I put this? Crap

 

[DaveP2]

McAfee is regarded by me, and others, to be a virus in itself.

Try Microsoft Security Essentials, it's free, does a good job and doesn't slow your system to a crawl. Use windows' is own firewal. You will have to pay for McCrapee eventually.

Thanks for that.Most helpful