€900 to spend on Laptop....

Cucullan

Any ideas what would be a good buy for around €900?

Smoggy

why not save urself 350 and get the dell 1300 with a 256 memory upgrade totalling 550.

1300 = 500
256 Mem = 50

It means you will have to have an idea or a friend with an idea about opening up laptops , but for the price you cant go wrong.

RichyX

Dell Inspiron 630M is worth a look.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/inspn_630m?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Quite mobile and good for the price.

Makes me sick compared to what we could get in the US for the same money.
Saw a 14 inch screen Toshiba with Pentium M750, Gig of RAM and 120GB hard disk for 800€.

Prezatch

I'm going to buy this acer aspire at the weekend.

950 Euro with delivery for:

1.7 ghz pentium M
1 gig ddr2
80 gig HD
Ati X700 graphics
14 inch screen and weighs 2.38Kgs so its really portable

RichyX

That's a lovely laptop for the money.
Might point the girlfriend in that direction.

JackKelly

JoeyD wrote:

I'm going to buy this acer aspire at the weekend.

950 Euro with delivery for:

1.7 ghz pentium M
1 gig ddr2
80 gig HD
Ati X700 graphics
14 inch screen and weighs 2.38Kgs so its really portable

One on the way for me too!
It's the next model up. Only difference is a faster clock and 100gb drive. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Prezatch

The only complaint I have about the specs/price is that Acer seem to be determind to have 5200 rpm hard drives in most of their products as opposed to 7200 rpm

One on the way for me too!
It's the next model up. Only difference is a faster clock and 100gb drive. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Let me know how you find your new purchase when it arrives

chern0byl

Dunnes do this for €900 except they use a Turion 1.8ghz processor.

Dizzyblabla

I got this in Harvy Normans two weeks ago for €999 : http://www.microanvika.com/product.asp?TXT=INFO&PNO=BDL00008

Satellite M50-130 with FREE case - WXH PM 740 512MB 60GB DVDDL 14" 56k LAN 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless LAN ATI Mobility Radeon X600SE 64MB +64MB HyperMemory Pentium M 740 1.7GHz Processor (2MB Cache) 512MB DDR SDRAM Memory (1x512MB 1.5GB Max) 60GB Hard Disk Drive (5400RPM) 8x DVD+-RW/+-R Dual Layer Writer Drive (8x DVD+-R) 14" WXGA 1280x768 Toshiba TruBrite TFT Display Li-Ion Battery (Up to 2h 50m) Weight 2.4Kg 1 Year International Warranty (Carry In/CC&R) Microsoft Works 8 OneNote 2003

it's a good machine, nice n' fast too, and the TruBrite Screen is great!

JackKelly

JoeyD wrote:

Let me know how you find your new purchase when it arrives

New laptop just arrived. First impressions are wow! really nice screen and very compact. Havnt tested it hardware wise yet as windows is just installing so more to come!

Specs btw:


Intel Pentium-M Centrino 760 Processor 2GHz
1GB DDRII SDRAM PC4200
100GB Hard Drive
DVD Dual Layer Drive
14.1" XGA Widescreen CrystalBrite TFT Screen
ATI Mobility X700 PCI-E 64MB dedicated graphics
Integrated gigabit LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem
Integrated wireless 802.11g
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrated 5-in-1 card reader – reads Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card and XD Picture Card
3 USB 2.0 Sockets
4-pin Firewire (IEEE 1394) Port
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded
3-hour Battery Life
Weight 2.38kg

andrew163

TimAy wrote:

New laptop just arrived. First impressions are wow! really nice screen and very compact. Havnt tested it hardware wise yet as windows is just installing so more to come!

Specs btw:


Intel Pentium-M Centrino 760 Processor 2GHz
1GB DDRII SDRAM PC4200
100GB Hard Drive
DVD Dual Layer Drive
14.1" XGA Widescreen CrystalBrite TFT Screen
ATI Mobility X700 PCI-E 64MB dedicated graphics
Integrated gigabit LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem
Integrated wireless 802.11g
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrated 5-in-1 card reader – reads Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card and XD Picture Card
3 USB 2.0 Sockets
4-pin Firewire (IEEE 1394) Port
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre Loaded
3-hour Battery Life
Weight 2.38kg

Noice...:eek:

I'm looking at the one below that... (the one with the PM740 and the smaller HD)... just wondering.. how much exactly was delivery? Take long to get there?

Thanks,
-Andrew

Prezatch

That model just dropped in price by a substantial amount to £700!

How much did you end up paying for it?

andrew163

JoeyD wrote:

I'm going to buy this acer aspire at the weekend.

950 Euro with delivery for:

1.7 ghz pentium M
1 gig ddr2
80 gig HD
Ati X700 graphics
14 inch screen and weighs 2.38Kgs so its really portable

Just got one today Very quick delivery (despatched Tuesday and got here today (Thursday of the same week)).

Based on what I've seen of it so far I'd recommend it to everyone. Beautiful computer.

Prezatch

Yep I'm the proud owner of an Aspire 5502 as of this week too. Love it so far, very fast, beautiful screen and very quiet.

It does however have one fault that I'v noticed. To get the @ symbol you have to hold the keys shift and 2. Holding shift and ' gives me "

Basically it should be the other way around if you get my drift. Holding shift and 2 should give "


The output jack for headphones or speakers is also at the front instead of the side. Yes this is where it's supposed to be in the design but I would have expected it to be at the side. It can be annoying when typing because my wrist practically blocks access to the hole

Other than those two minor complaints, I would highly reccommend it and the site www.acernotebooks.co.uk
I'll post some 3D Mark information next week

tq

thats just cause you have your keyboard set up as an american keyboard, you'll have to change the settings to make it european

JackKelly

JoeyD wrote:

The output jack for headphones or speakers is also at the front instead of the side. Yes this is where it's supposed to be in the design but I would have expected it to be at the side. It can be annoying when typing because my wrist practically blocks access to the hole

lol, thats one of the things that annoys me about it. It can be a bit annoying if you have it on your lap. Also (i have the 5504 which i imagine is the same) , the CPU fan is on the right side of the laptop, facing out which means if you are using it on a table, it blows right onto your hand. Great if you have cold hands, annoying otherwise.There are a few other little things, like a stiff keyboard and tinny speakers (really not great, you need a good set of headphones), but nothing at all that would take away from its overall quality. An absolute bargain for such a powerful machine.

I'll also try a few bechmarks. The only one i've done is with "superpi" which just which calculates pi up to 32million decimal places! It did 2M in 1min 44sec if anyone is interested-quicker than my Athlon 3200 desktop. I'll try 3dMark and PCMark later

andrew163

After a few (since last Thursday) days of using an Aspire 5502....

I love this computer. I don't seem to have the problem with the " and @... but... that sounds like just a windows setting anyway - not a show-stopper. Headphone port thingy is a tiny bit annoying.

I like the CPU vent being on the right hand side because my hands regularly become freezing while using the mouse....

Scored 43022 in Aquamark3 for me (somewhat destroying my Athlon 2000 desktop which scored about 4300 ). The X700 graphics card in it seems to give it huge graphics power..

Aquamark settings:
1024x768x32
AA off
4xAF
Very high detail

The wifi antenna in it... whatever it's called.. Acer SignalUp or something.. seems to give it huge wireless range. In the computer labs in college I'm picking up wireless networks from other buildings which according to the computer services department I shouldn't be able to see. Have a bit of trouble with the network at home (disconnections, etc) but that's probably because it's running off a €50 belkin WAP which for some reason is positioned between a radiator and a TV...

Very light and mobile. Alot of other laptops look/feel like bricks next to it. Screen is very nice too. Battery typically lasts from 2 to 3 hours for office work (browsing over wifi, word processing, etc).

Me is happy. Highly recommend it to anyone.

jimmycrackcorm

Do the Aspires support dual screen (lcd - tv output) whereby the tv out can be set a ta different resolution to the lcd?