Cheapo Notebook

Shovel

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A PC Mag review for you. I did a search for "battery life", which I think they say comes in at about an hour and a half. However, I'm led to believe that this is practically normal for pre-Centrino, non Apple notebooks.
 

Gurnox

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xane said:
My last notebook PC was a 486SX !

So, can anyone more up-to-date on notebooks let me know if this is a good bargain ?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=55696

Don't know too much about the Fujitsu notebooks, but that is a good price. Toshiba have always done a pretty good line in notebooks so you should check them out too.

I _think_ their [Toshibas'] Tecra line is due for an upgrade, so you might be able to find some bargains on them at the moment.
 

Jonty

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Hi xane

I believe Dell notebooks are also worth looking at. I love mine, and I believe Xavier also has one, which (last I heard) he had no complaints about. As far as I know they start from around £699 with delivery and VAT, and of course they're custom built.

As for battery life, I believe Shovel's spot on about Centrino notebooks being the way forward (I would say Apple too, but the cost of even their lowest model is quite prohibitive).

Of course there is one one notebook which is very cheap, lightweight and battery life isn't a problem. May be a good short term solution. Check it out (sorry, couldn't resist ;)).

Kind Regards
 

Shovel

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Arrrgh, Jonty has become sarcastic, we're all doomed!

;)
 

Sharma

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Jonty, don't suppose you could find anywhere with a cheap AMD laptop/notebook? (Whatever you want to call it)

Intel are the bane of me as each intel system i touch breaks and ceases to function. :p
 

Jonty

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lol, xane :) And sorry, didn't mean to be sarcastic :(

As for AMD notebooks, Sharma, they tend not be quite as popular as Intel-based solutions. I haven't thoroughly researched this, so forgive me if any of the below is incorrect, but I believe the following companies produce AMD notebooks:

  • Evesham (includinge an Athlon 64 notebook)
  • HP/Compaq (selected models only)
  • Acer (selected models only)
I'm not saying these are good systems, you'd have to try and find some reviews first, but in an Intel-biassed market (perhaps rightly so), there are not too many providers to choose from. You may also want to check Dealtime or Kelkoo for, say, 'amd laptop' if only to get an idea of the manufacturers out there.

Kind Regards
 

babs

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From that Fujitsu description..
You will find the floppy disk drive built-in and your of CD drive. This LIFEBOOK features you a superb 14.1-inch display.
Gotta love it ;)
 

Sharma

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Thanks a lot Jonty. :)

//Edit: Evesham student area: Buy any PC or Notebook AND GET FREE CONDOMS!
 

Jonty

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Sharma said:
//Edit: Evesham student area: Buy any PC or Notebook AND GET FREE CONDOMS!
LOL :) If they're going to stereotype students, they could at least pay off our debts ;) Good luck with finding a notebook, Sharma; if you have any more questions, just shout.

Kind Regards
 

babs

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Surely the student spending all his loan on getting the latest computer is the least likely to need condoms in the first place ;)
 

xane

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Okay, actually now seriously thinking of getting a notebook, and at a sub £650 price it is tempting.

We have from eBuyer:
Fujitsu Siemens C1020 @ £603.92
Acer Aspire 1353XV @ £615.28
Toshiba Satellite Pro A10 @ £636.85

The only thing letting down the Fujitsu is a CD-ROM instead of a DVD drive, but then again it has a 40GB HDD instead of a 20GB like the others.
 

Shovel

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Simple way to decide: What do you want the DVD for that you couldn't do over a network connection before travelling?
 

raw

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I grabbed 1 of the old ones from work, or so they thought, P3 700, 128mb ram, 56k modem, cdrom, 14 inch display etc

Works like a charm with win2k :D
 

Gurnox

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xane said:
Okay, actually now seriously thinking of getting a notebook, and at a sub £650 price it is tempting.

We have from eBuyer:
Fujitsu Siemens C1020 @ £603.92
Acer Aspire 1353XV @ £615.28
Toshiba Satellite Pro A10 @ £636.85

The only thing letting down the Fujitsu is a CD-ROM instead of a DVD drive, but then again it has a 40GB HDD instead of a 20GB like the others.

I buy in Toshies at work and they are very nice indeed. Don't know about the others.
 

Stimpy

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sibanac said:
I'dd go for the acer or Toshiba and I work for siemens

Should'nt you beable to get 25% off the Fujitsu model then? :)
 

xane

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I just now managed to order a bargain Thinkpad R40E (Mobile Celeron 2GHz) for £590, having used IBM Laptops in the past I am more confident of owning one, although I suspect that I may have to upgrade to RAM on it.
 

sibanac

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xane said:
I just now managed to order a bargain Thinkpad R40E (Mobile Celeron 2GHz) for £590, having used IBM Laptops in the past I am more confident of owning one, although I suspect that I may have to upgrade to RAM on it.

I had a thinkpad for a while and i must say they are about the nicest nootbooks out there.
 

xane

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R40E arrived today, very nice, and my gamble with the "B Grade" designation paid off, all that was wrong was the celophane had been opened, everything else was untouched and the machine had never been booted because it reconfigured Windows when I started it !
 

Clown

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Do they still have them? £545 -VAT brand new tho :eek:
Does anyone know if these laptops are noisy? My mum's VIAO is noisier than my Shuttle :eek:
 

Stimpy

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You can get them at Insight for £587.49 inc VAT - assuming it's the same one that is.
 

Jonty

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Hi Clown

I believe Stimpy's £587 inc. VAT is around the cheapest price for the Fujitsu system . As for the noise, I really don't know :(

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. For what it's worth, my Dell notebook is silent under normal operation. The only noise comes from the fan kicking in intermittently or when under load, or from the optical drive when in use.
 

Insane

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im currently abusing one of the company Toshiba Satellite Pro 4100's

maybe i should re-name it to "toaster" as under normal load the right side of the keyboard is quite warm :eek6:

thats the only problem i see with current laptop trends, they use a lot of passive cooling (the keyboard being one area) and when it cant handle it they switch on a blower which makes a hoover sound like it's been silenced, if it ran a slow rotation on the fan it may never need to crank its speed up unless your really pushing it :)

gotta stop typing, my hands getting red :eek6:
 

xane

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Stimpy said:
You can get them at Insight for £587.49 inc VAT - assuming it's the same one that is.

Didn't check Insight ! I thought they'd merged with someone, glad I got a pristine condition one then, I'd have been very annoyed to get a second hand one for the same price !

Their P&P is a bit steep though, looks like another £10 on top.

I'd recommend this laptop for that price.
 

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