Is this £728 laptop a good deal?

[java13690]

This laptop (specifications below) I looked at on PC Specialist seems to have very high specs considering the price... is this a good deal or is there something amiss?

For £728 including VAT and delivery.

2 GB RAM (2 x 1 GB, DDR2, 667 MHz)
2 x 2.4 GHz processor (Intel Core 2 Duo T8300, 800 MHz, 3 MB L2 cache)
250 GB hard drive (8 MB cache, 5400 rpm)
512 MB graphics (GeForce 8600 GT)
15.4" screen (1440 x 900)
8x DVD±R/RW, 24x CD-RW
Vista Home Premium (including CD and licence)
etc.

 

[muckshifter]

Yes, it does seem over-priced to me, by at least £200 if not £300.


Have a look in Tesco, no really, I've seen better for £399 ...

 

[Electronics & Photo Fan]

muckshifter - You are joking, right?

The original poster is commenting that it seems UNDERPRICED:

"seems to have very high specs considering the price"

And to me it does too... that laptop has a 'proper' graphics card, an 8600GT, to see any laptop with a card that good is rare, in my experience, and it has a 2.4GHz C2D! I bought my laptop from Tesco, and I've never seen anything as good as the laptop in that post in Tesco!

To compare, 12 months ago my Core Duo 1.73GHz, 120GB HDD, 1GB RAM, and integrated GFX, was £700 (not that I paid that as I work there)

!

 

[floppybootstomp]

It is slightly overpriced, no doubt about it.

8600GT graphics is no big deal, it's not a very good video card at all and grafix are cheap right now (see my video card thread).

12 months ago doesn't count, 3 months is an eternity in computer component pricing.

 

[Adywebb]

It is indeed a good spec, and as far as laptop graphics cards go its pretty good.......but I just specced up a Dell XPS the same which comes out at £689 inc VAT/Del so it is probably a tad overpriced.

 

[java13690]

Yes, I was saying that it appeared to be underpriced to me.

Adywebb, I have just priced up an XPS with as similar specs as possible and got £859 (for a laptop with slightly lower specs as a 512 MB graphics card wasn't available, only a 256 MB GeForce Go 8600M GT). How did you get one for £689?

I should probably post the full specifications of the one from PC Specialist as this could be why the quote you got was so much cheaper...

2 GB RAM (2 x 1 GB, DDR2, 667 MHz)
2 x 2.4 GHz processor (Intel Core 2 Duo T8300, 800 MHz, 3 MB L2 cache)
250 GB hard drive (8 MB cache, 5400 rpm)
512 MB graphics (GeForce 8600 GT)
15.4" screen (1440 x 900)
8x DVD±R/RW, 24x CD-RW
Vista Home Premium (including CD and licence)
4 x USB 2.0 ports
Realtek ALC268 2 channel high-definition audio + S/PDIF out
Onboard gigabit LAN & wireless 802.11G network card
1 x 1394a FireWire port
Integrated 2 megapixel webcam
9-cell lithium ion battery
Biometric fingertip reader & 1 x ExpressCard slot

 

[Adywebb]

£689 (including £100 off offer) by upgrading the base spec of the XPS M1530 from the Dell Europe site - but as you say it has 256MB Graphics rather than 512.


BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - Englishedit

HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)edit

COLOUR CHOICE2.0 mega pixel Camera & Tuxedo Black for CCFL Displayedit

LCD15.4" Widescreen™ WXGA (1280x800) TFT Display (220nits) with TrueLife™edit

BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION Biometric Fingerprint Reader with BLACK accentedit

MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]edit

HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Driveedit

GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB dedicated graphic memoryedit

OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SWedit

PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)edit



BLUETOOTHDell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Euredit

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processorsedit

MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9.0 - Englishedit

Price

£789.00
You Save

£100.00

Total

£689.00

Includes VAT & Shipping

 

[Waynos_Face]

I wouldn't buy it simply because of the graphics card, last august i purchased a Cyberpower X7-700, it came with

C2D 2.4Ghz (2,33 OC to 2.4), 160Gb HDD, Vista HP, 4Gb 667 RAM, 17 inch WXSGA screen, Nvidia 8600M GT 512mb, this cost me £1400 nine months the ago.

The card gets very very hot and Nvidia don't make drivers for mobile graphics cards, it is very hard to find updated drivers and forget about playing decent games at decent resolutions or speeds.

Sold it last month for £600.