FAO Chronictank and other tech heads

[Marc]

Any of you know of any cheap decent laptops say for under £400. All it will be used for is the internet and work/school projects. Basic games may be played on it, something like The sims or something. Looking at Dell at the moment as they have them for £350. Is this a viable option or should we look elsewhere?

 

[tris-]

i would say dell.
rolled out loads of their lap tops when i worked for the council and never had an issue with them.

 

[Saggy]

The £379 one with 1Gb of memory would be perfect for you.

 

[Deleted member 4013]

I have dell latitude d600. Even it don't have very powerful graphics board in it, its has been pretty good computer nonetheless. I use it as a bot computer in camelot, with 2 giga bytes of ram, I can have it in stick in mass master level raids with latest game client.

I have had sometimes some crashings with the game, but latest patch has proven they've got it fixed so game is stable. But due old graphic board in the computer, there is no new drivers for it, so I use what is available from dell's support site for the laptop.

 

[Raven]

don't Dells burst into flames?

 

[soze]

I have had my eye on this for a while now i use my laptop for downloading and watching stuff on this one is £369 inc vat and has a widescreen and crystalbrite which if its any thing like HPs version will make a huge difference.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/117840/rb/23019898266

Not great ram but big disk wireless and that screen

 

[Deleted member 4013]

don't Dells burst into flames?

Lol, not really. using tho laptop cooler. Its called coolpad. made of aluminum, has two fans and takes power from usb port. Has been able to cool down my laptop when run in very hot summer day, so can recommend it.

 

[DocWolfe]

Its sony, apple and toshiba laptops that have been bursting into flames because of the sony batteries.

 

[georgie]

Dells have been know too as well.

 

[Chronictank]

Its sony, apple and toshiba laptops that have been bursting into flames because of the sony batteries.

dell's too because almost every major manufacturer uses sony batteries which have been relabelled

As said before dell's are ok for budget laptops, but have serious overheating issues due to crappy placement of fans/vents. I usually just put something under the laptop to lift it off the table so that air can circulate and its fine after that

Sony are very expensive so will fall out of your price range.

Toshiba and fujitsu are good from experience, i also heard good things about HP's

things to look out for if you plan on playing games:
-shared memory gfx cards, avoid if you can
-get as much ram and the biggest disk you can afford i have a 30Gb disc in my Lattitude and still have to do a cleanup quite regularly when playing games but if its only a 2nd system its not really too much of a issue
-Make sure the dvd-rom is built in if you can, i had a external one previously and its not practical to use when on trains and things

-Weight & size, 21" screens are all well and good but not practical. I made this mistake and now never take my laptop around because of it.

 

[Darzil]

don't Dells burst into flames?

Looks like any with Sony batteries have been.

Dell was just the first to recall and replace them, some of the others just denied there was an issue for a few weeks. Dell have also recalled far more than most others, due to selling more.

Darzil

 

[Marc]

Thanks for the replies amigos. Been a great help Still undecided but at least you have pointed us in the right direction

 

[Deleted member 4013]

In my dell latitude this morning I experienced a little problem, when I started the game, the focus of it was always modified so that the desktop keep on popping, making the game go minimized (I play the game in fullscreen mode). Maybe some background program wanted to have focus, thus making the game go minimized to the system tray.

If you buy dell, buy some of these new models, and not to play cheap and buy used laptop. Thats what I'd do if I were you + you'd get a laptop with latest video board, instead of some ati radeon 9000 what is in my laptop.. old driver support etc. Works, but has clitches as stated above. still good computer for buff bot usage etc.

 

[Naffets]

I'd say Dell aswell.

The battery exploding thing has kinda passed now as there was a recall.

I'd not buy a 2nd hand dell laptop tho.