laptops

[Baz]

probably had this before but what are decent makes and spec for laptops now.

been a long time since ive bought one and am thinking of getting one for my wife soon.

I can only go from what we've had before which are toshiba...ok   and asus which I was quite impressed with.But im open to suggestions.

her latest one is on Vista   so I guess it will be an upgrade to may be 7, although she is at times not willing to 'learn' new systems etc.  She is happy with something that does what she needs for work at school, word processing, power point stuff and the like, internet, pics, music, etc but I would like to future proff it as much as possible

[gizmo71]

I bought an ASUS A53U as a stop gap after my lovely old Acer Ferrari One went pop a few weeks ago. Seems like a perfectly good machine, not too heavy to have on my lap, runs cool as a cucumber, 6GB, massive 750GB drive (now taken out and replaced with the old machine's 250GB drive - not letting all that extra space go to waste!). If I have one complaint it's that the screen, despite being a good 4 inches bigger than the Ferrari's, is still the same resolution - 1366x768.

but I would like to future proff it as much as possible

If there's one thing I've learned during my three decades of computing is that future proofing is a mug's game. Especially these days when raw CPU power just isn't increasing at the kind of rates we saw in the 80s and 90s.

[Technical Ben]

Well, depends how you future proof. On my PC I left room for expansion (memory slots etc), but rearely had the budget or need to actually use it. This system I put an extra stick of ram in. With my old HP laptop, I really got a top of the range, so it lasted me well (about 5 years IIRC). But as you said, demand for resources on a PC are not really increasing much. It's only been in HD video, and most can cope with that now on the hardware.

So I guess when it comes to future proofing, get as many cores in the CPU as you can, that's probably better than speed now, and as much ram and HDD space (drop the HDD space if you use external drives). Within your budget of cause. That and if you can have a look at a model in store (but don't take your wallet, those sales people are sneaky!), and see the build quality, or check a friends laptop if they have a make your interested in.

[Baz]

decent places to buy from


not PC World surely 

[Glenn]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/

[Baz]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/

some good deals there  thanks Glenn


which are good makes and ones to avoid.

Ive only had toshiba,sony and asus in the past. out of those I found Asus the best package for me but i'm open to ideas

[Steve]

John Lewis tend to have a good variety especially if you don't quite know what you want.

[Baz]

John Lewis tend to have a good variety especially if you don't quite know what you want.

seem expensive there.

If I didnt know quite what I wanted I could go to PC World and talk to an expert 

Im just a bit out of touch as have not bought one for a few years and just wanted other opinions of their own buys etc

[Glenn]

I bought the previous model to this http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_ProBook_4540s_1222330.html the 4530s, at the time HP were running a cashback offer of £100 + a trade in of old PC/laptop of £150, so the laptop only cost me £250, Zap and Ray also took up the offer I believe.

Once I had the laptop, I ordered and replaced the screen with a full 1080p HD panel, it took 20 mins to fit.

[pctech]

seem expensive there.

If I didnt know quite what I wanted I could go to PC World and talk to an expert 

Im just a bit out of touch as have not bought one for a few years and just wanted other opinions of their own buys etc

You do pay a bit of a premium for stuff from JL but I had to take a freesat box back as it was regularly crashing, they sent it off and a refurb one got returned, I of course complained and they allowed me to swap for a different model if it was the same price or just pay the difference, I ended up paying an extra tenner for a Samsung one (had a Humax)

Also when my Samsung monitor started to turn itself off and then emit a burning odour they got it repaired, had I gone into PC World or Currys I'd have to explain to some oik 10 times what was wrong.

[Glenn]

Toshiba Satellite Pro L850-1DV maybe of interest, Baz http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/toshiba-satellite-pro-l850-1dv-core-i5-3210m-3rd-gen-4gb-ram-500gb-7200-rpm-hdd-1326557

[Baz]

thats looks good Glenn 

seems like they're waiting for more stock.Will check on this later.
My wife is happy with familiar things so having had tosh laptops before would be ok with this.My gripe about them is all the ' junk ' software they include with it 

[pctech]

Par for the course Baz.

Manufacturers get paid to preload the stuff.

One of the things I checked with Scan when I had this machine built was that it did not include bloatware and it didn't, it arrived exactly as I'd ordered it.

[Baz]

when you say about your machine built do you mean a laptop or tower unit.

Didnt know scan did laptops if thats the case

[pctech]

No its a tower Baz but I think they cell rebadged Clevo laptops now and they do the software install.

Might be worth having a look.

[Baz]

yeah might do but never heard of them.

rebadged?  does that mean re furbished   

[Baz]

Toshiba Satellite Pro L850-1DV maybe of interest, Baz http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/toshiba-satellite-pro-l850-1dv-core-i5-3210m-3rd-gen-4gb-ram-500gb-7200-rpm-hdd-1326557

how do you use the codes on this site

[Glenn]

It will be as you go through the buying process, look for Promotional code or coupon code, or something along those lines. If you have a Quidco or Topcashback account, you maybe able to get an extra 2% off by going to Dabs through links via their respective websites.

http://www.dabs.com/articles/landingpages/landing-pages/special-offer-coupons-10385.html

[Glenn]

http://www.quidco.com/dabs-com/

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dabs/

[Baz]

many thanks Glenn


hadnt seen that coupon page before