Advice; New laptop

salad dodger

Long time reader, first time poster. I am a bit of a novice when it comes to laptops so i hope some1 out there can point me in the right direction.

Price range: €850-1000

Intended use:Saving my music collection(approx 400 albums) for future download to mp3, saving some movies to watch on the long journeys i have to undertake and surfing the interweb

Mobility: Not that important

At the moment i'm looking at the following from dell:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&oc=N01606&rbc=N01606&s=dhs&sbc=iedhsrsinspn_6000_2

But i've heard that dells customer service and delivery perfomance leave a bit to be desired. I am wondering what other peoples experiences with them have been.

I appreciate any helpful advice

sd

irlrobins

Nothing wrong with their service imho.

Local call rate, low waiting time. I've had to contact them on a number of occassions for different machines and I've had no problems with them. Very helpful and they're one of the few places to recognise that I know what I'm talking about so when I say X isn't working they take my word for it and don't delay me by running thru tests I've already done.

Dell laptops are grand. Reasonable build quality. I'd buy them. Espec for what you want to do. you don't need bells and whistles.

As regards delivery, get it delivered to your workplace that way you don't waste time waiting at home for them etc.

As regards that laptop you linked to: Change the memory to 1x512 instead of 2x256 and then buy an extra 512Mb from shop4memory.com. Cheaper than dell price. Also maybe a larger HD if you plan on storing a lot of media on it.

salad dodger

Thanks for that much.

Unfortunately they only deliver to the billing address on the credit card so i'd have to go through some hassle getting my bank to change my address to my work address and back again, a bit too much hassle for my liking I've emailed them to see if whats the latest that they could deliver so i know i'd be home for it.

Flukey

Stretch that budget a little bit and you'd get a good Sony Vaio. I got a new one recently, a FS315E, and it is good. If you trawl through the threads here you'll see lots of good things about Sony and some not so good about Dell. You could get a Dell with no problems of course, but the Sony is worth it for the few extra euro.

salad dodger

I'd love to get a sony, i think they're class. Any sony products i have ever bought, from walkmans(men??) to minidisc players to stereos and tvs have never let me down. It's just that my budget is stretched about as far as it'll go at a grand. As i have only 1500 to spend and i also have to try to pick up an mp3 player(possibly the 20g creative zen) and a camcorder(a sony as it happens) with that!