SubJeff on 18/11/2008 at 09:27
Once again I call upon the personal experiences of my fellow forumites to grant me sage advice.
I need a new laptop that is expressly not for games. My old one is a 15incher so I definitely want a 17inch screen, probably wide. The old one only has an 80GB HD and that has never been anywhere near good enough. I need 200GB really.
But the most important thing is that it is fast. I don't need gfx power, although I'd like to be able to watch DVDs. I need speed. I want something I can have Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Firefox/Chrome with multiple tabs open and a music manager like MediaMonkey or iTunes open on. And I need to be able to handle all that easily.
Oh yeah, I'm looking for a Vista machine but I cannot stand all the preloaded guff that comes on most laptops. The old ThinkPad has hella stuff on start-up (and will be wiped and turned into an Ubuntu experiment).
Atm I'm looking at the Toshiba Satellites, the HP Pavillions and the Dell Studios or Inspirons. I just don't know guys. Can anyone help.
bikerdude on 18/11/2008 at 13:18
Ok
As I am a Dell person I am gonna suggest the "Vostro 1710 - £379"
* Core2 Duo T5670 (1.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
* Vista® Home Premium SP1
* 17" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440 x 900)w/Anti-Glare Coating
* 3GB 667MHz DDR2 (I would reduce it to 2Gb so you get 128bit dual channel speed)
* 160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
* Integrated X3100 gfx (will play thief 2, and maybe even t3)
* Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load
* Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery (youll get 2.5 hrs from this)
(
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/minicat/uk/en/services_vostro1710_2?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=expbuy3)
I would get the Vista + Xp option for £40, that way you can choose which OS to have on the leptop.. Do not add the TPM module (this causes no end of grief)
biker
jay pettitt on 18/11/2008 at 14:01
The glossy screens that Toshiba use, at least as of 18months ago, are quite slick for movies but utter, utter pants if you have cause to do some photo editing. I'm no fan of wide-screen when it comes to pretty much anything where having a bit of space is a good idea.
SubJeff on 18/11/2008 at 15:46
That Dell looks too good to be true. Good power, good screen, good price. I'll never use XP so no point in that extra Biker.
Shame it's so pig ugly.
jay pettitt on 18/11/2008 at 16:15
Cover it in stickers...
bikerdude on 18/11/2008 at 16:29
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
That Dell looks too good to be true. Good power, good screen, good price. I'll never use XP so no point in that extra Biker.
Shame it's so pig ugly.
I think its quite nice actually, all black, nice lines - I didnt even see that it has "N"(300mbps) wireless, awesome.
A mate has one and in the flesh its actually not that bad, and does it really matter what it looks like considering what your getting and the price..?
biker
SubJeff on 19/11/2008 at 09:44
It doesn't reaaally matter, but the Toshiba ones are yum.
Edit: The Dell is £533 including VAT. That's with all basic options except the slightly better CPU I added. The Toshibas add up pretty well against it after all.
Aja on 19/11/2008 at 10:13
Go for the Toshiba. If you aren't playing games, aesthetics are important (they're important anyway! You're spending a lot of money on an computer vastly inferior to a desktop!).
You want to feel excited to open up that laptop, tenderly, caress its sensuous keys and delight in its vivid colours, delicately textured surfaces, and its perfect proportions. Oh yeah... that's how I feel about mine and the honeymoon will never end.
bikerdude on 19/11/2008 at 10:40
you could also look at Acer laptops, same specs as the Dell but cheaper..
EvaUnit02 on 19/11/2008 at 11:18
Having good after-sales service and support is very important to consider when buying laptops. Be sure to research your local suppliers, because it can and does vary from country to country.
Non-specific example, but anyway:- XFX (a manufacturer of Nvidia products) reportedly a have reputation for having excellent support in North America, some of the best in the GPU market. Apparently it's the exact opposite with their UK/Europe division.
