Laptop question

[Tom]

Many times while working abroad I've wished I had a laptop to do stuff on. Mainly surf the internet and get emails, but also to play films on the plane and also the odd game and maybe composing the odd tune.

What would I be looking at to buy a half decent laptop? Bear in mind it would just be a toy really. I know Aldi do laptops for £500 that look allright, and I'm VAT registered too so theres always that.

 

[nath]

If it's just for tinkering about, wireless net access, watching the odd movie - you don't need to spend much more than £350.

Oh holy father, forgive me for what I am about to do:

TOSHIBA L40-14I Laptops - Cheap TOSHIBA Laptops.. Buy the TOSHIBA L40-14I laptop at PC World.

Ok so it's pc world but it's a decent price and I've got a client who bought it and said she's very happy with it.

Of course there are alternatives, but given what you're planning on using the machine for - there's really no need to spend anything more than £400. Quite a bit less given that you'll be getting the VAT back.

Ooo, this looks nice too, and a couple of quid cheaper:
dabs.com - HP 530 T2600 1024MB 120GB Vista Home Basic (KP479AA#ABU)

By the by, I've had pretty good experiences with HP laptops.

 

[inactionman]

I got one of these just before new year, it's pretty good if you add an extra 1Gb of ram.

Laptop: dabs.com - Lenovo N200 Dual Core 1GB 120GB DVD±RW XPPro (TY2BLUK)

Ram: dabs.com - Crucial 1GB 200SODIMM PC2-5300 (CT12864AC667)

 

[nath]

I'd not recommend going for a Lenovo - they're good hardware as far as I know, but when I've worked with them before they've come bundled with bespoke software for almost every aspect of windows. It means you have to learn how to do things all over again, and getting rid of it/going back to windows default settings can be very tricky. edit: of course the bonus on that Lenovo is that it's running XP instead of Vista. So it'd be a choice of XP with loads of shit software that makes it more awkward to use, or Vista with it's standard load of crap software. Damned if you do, damned if you don't

To be fair, most manufacturers stuff their laptops full of crap software to run your system, some are worse than others. HP tend to have the least amount of junk pre-installed though.

 

[inactionman]

Everyone does that these days! I spent a couple of hours getting the crap off and my preferred software installed, but once I did it performed pretty well.

 

[nath]

I have experience from a couple of years back with IBM lenovo laptops, it turned out that the software caused so many problems that we had to try and remove it all, only it wouldn't go without a fight. It ended up being quicker to format and reinstall Windows. Only we had to do it from a spare OEM CD so that the software didn't come with it. Then we had to download driver's from the site for every single device on the laptop - ensuring not to select the software package, just the driver.

Absolute ruddy nightmare, thought it's entirely possible that things have gotten less shite on lenovo's since then. I've always heard good things about the hardware though.


I'm now actually really keen on that HP laptop I found - I have no real need for it, but it's so purrrdy. Damn you Tom!

 

[Embattle]

The games aspect of any laptop is interesting, the reality is that unless you are going to play some real old game most of them won't be suitable but if you are determined to play a slightly more modern game then the consider the:

ASUS X53SR @ PC World - Review at Cnet

If you don't mind giving a little on the issue of games then consider laptops like Samsung R60 Plus Blue NP-R60FY05/SUK From Laptops Direct @ Laptopsdirect.co.uk - Review

I also like the HP 530 that Nath links, a review can be found at Cnet. As I stated earlier the lastest games will murder most laptops and most around the price point your are setting a limit at, also the issue of battery life only becomes a problem if you are planning on using the laptops to watch DVDs and play games away from a mains points for over 1hr 20mins because most laptops under intensive use won't last any longer than this.

 

[inactionman]

I understand nath, when I first got into IT I was supporting Thinkpads (this was in 97, so it was the windows 95 SR2 days), and you couldn't use a standard install CD, you had to create a bootcd with the drivers slipstreamed in. These days its not so much of a problem, and I actually preferred the design of thinkpads, as they are generally pretty rugged. These days though, it's much of a muchness, get the best deal, which will probably be a dell.

And as Embattle says, modern gaming on a laptop doesn't work unless you are paying £500+ and getting a proper graphics card. Older games work fine though.

 

[nath]

Ahh, I managed to completely ignore the request for a machine able to play the odd game. Embattle is right - it's gunna drastically increase the price of the laptop, though the two he linked seem pretty solid and both come with mobile ATI Radeons. Still, you can see they're quite a bit more expensive than the non-gaming ones inactionman or myself linked.

It's all down to how big your need for games is - I'd suggest getting a bunch of old Lucasarts adventures and downloading ScummVM as that'll play on any machine at all - it worked perfectly on my 6 year old HP. If that's enough gaming for you, I'd go for one of the cheaper ones - if you really need something with a bit more grunt, Embattles links look pretty decent.

 

[Tom]

Well by the odd game I mean Audio Surf, Defcon maybe, that kind of thing. Certainly nothing like HL2 or anything like that.

Thanks for the advice, I may well buy one this year.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Tom

One more for the pot: Acer Aspire 5720. Yeah, I know it's quite ugly, but the specifications are very good for the price.

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. It's true that most laptops come with varying degrees of preinstalled rubbish, and some choose not to ship a restore CD. However, some brands are better than others, like Dell's XPS range (a clean install + anti-virus), although they're probably out of your price range for a toy. The Inspiron 1525 may be worth a gander, though.

 

[Dudley52]

Hi Tom

One more for the pot: Acer Aspire 5720. Yeah, I know it's quite ugly, but the specifications are very good for the price.

I have the aspire 5920G and i think its stunning!


Amazon.co.uk: Acer Aspire 5920G Notebook Laptop, Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, 15.4" TFT, 2048MB RAM, 250GB Hard-drive, DVD±RW, GeForce 8600 Graphics, Integ Webcam, WiFi, Vista Home Premium, HD-DVD: Electronics & Photo

though the black colour of the monitor doesn't look as good as the 5920G imo.

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback, Dudley52

Just as an aside, today Acer launched their Gemstone Blue systems. What's interesting is the use of 16:9 screens (16" and 18.4"), plus the GeForce 9650 and Blu-Ray drive combination. The styling is still 'unique', but it may be the start of some interesting. Dell (sorry, I swear I don't get paid for pimping them) also have 16:9 concepts in the works.

I'm not sure if losing the extra pixels is a big deal (16:10's 1920x1200 vs. 16:9's 1920x1080), but it is nicer for watching HD movies. I have a friend who works at AU Optronics, and they just unveiled some nice 16:9 LCD monitors, so perhaps this is the start of a new trend.

</aside>

Kind regards

 

[Milkshake]

Obviously you'll know this, but remember if your laptop is for travelling, make sure you get the lightest possible...and the big shiny screens you see are not always the best idea.

Got a fucking heffer of a Dell, and although it's awesome when I get it set up, carrying it around is a bitch sometimes :S

 

[Guest]

i have a T60 and an X60 for work, take the x60s home all the time, the T60 is just way to bulky.

 

[Yaka]

got an ACER EXTENSA 5620Z for me bro recently,

he wanted it just for browsing and feed his silly you tube addiction. and he waten it to be preety light

plays tf2 fine on lowish settings as well 15.4 screen, core duo 1.6ghz cpu
80gb hdd, 1 gb ram ram and vita home installed, tho he did not like vista much

think i paid something like £300 for it

you may also want to look at the asus eee and the upcomming 9" ver

 

[Tom]

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Is that a good deal?

 

[nath]

That seems quite decent actually. 17" though, it's a bit of a heffer.

 

[Yaka]

good deal, but its scam.

in the past when ive used them theyve sent me hdds in big none padded envelopes, cpus with legs bent, best of all was the speakers i got as a pressie for me bro preety sure some fucker punched holes in the boxes before packing em. biggest nightmare was returning all of these

 

[throdgrain]

I have one of those Toshiba Sattelite laptops, its fine for emails and web surfing watching films etc. Bit cak for games though, no video card, so basically anything that I want to play, I cant

But having said that, I'd never play games on it anyway, so its no big deal

 

[Tilda]

Or get an Eeepc!

They rock

 

[Yaka]

Or get an Eeepc!

They rock

agreed, getting 9" one for irc and genral shit am gonna mod the shit outtta it as well

 

[Tom]

Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 TY2BWUK From Laptops Direct

Think I'll buy that one if they have it in stock tomorrow.

 

[nath]

Nice hardware on that one, but aaaaaaaagh Lenovo! They bundle their laptops with sooooo much shit software, at least they did last time I worked with them.

edit: Dunno if you've used laptops direct before, but the same one is available from ebuyer at the same price.

Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 - Core 2 Duo T5450 / 1.66 GHz - Centrino Duo - RAM 1 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVD-Writer - GF Go 7300 TurboCache - WLAN : Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g - fingerprint reader - Vista Home Premium - 15.4 - Ebuyer

 

[Tom]

Well that laptops direct place is only in Huddersfield, not far from me, so I could go and get it tomorrow

All the Lenovo shit will get removed, just as soon as I've backed up Vista.

 

[nath]

I'm actually quite tempted by that. Be sure to chuck in one of these too if you get it, Tom.

 

[Kryten]

They're suprisingly nice machines. By the time I get my hands on them, it's my job to reinstall an OS (depending on the COA whether its XP or Vista) and then it's a plain image I've built myself, minus all the preinstalled crap
They're the nicest machines I know of to use on a more day to day basis; comfortable, the keyboards are responsive and the touchpads are actually useable. In fact, they're damned nice to use.

 

[Tom]

Is it possible to put a dual boot on such things, because a mate keeps telling me about how brilliant Linux is, and I'd quite like to try it out just to shut him up

 

[nath]

Ebuyer reviews claim that there's a free 1gb memory upgrade from Lenovo at the moment. Also, a number of them say Ubuntu works very well with it, though I'm not sure about the dual boot thing - I can't see it being a problem though.

 

[Yaka]

ohh

that ones tasty, should be ok for gaming aswell im tempted as well