New lappy for GF

zuroph

hi guys,
GF is starting a postgrad in teaching next week and has been told she will need a laptop with MSpowerpoint.

I figure she'll use it a small bit for internet too, so wifi is handy. other than that she doesnt need much spec.


Budget: up to €800 id say, but ideally less
Intended use: College use, microsoft office, internet. maybe saving photos.
Mobility: would need to be fairly mobile for student
Warranty: nah, warranties are for people who dont have IT folk for mates.

Ideally we could do with longest battery life possible, and something that isnt gonna take ages to start up. she's not very technically minded, so i dont want it loaded with all sorts of confising programs.

The cheaper the better really, but need to be reliable too. I will make sure she backs up all work though.

We're in Limerick.


bargains?!


Many thanks

brianthebard

I got an acer aspire 5920 in PC world last week, 549. Its pretty good imo, quick enough start up, 15 inch screen (widescreen I think) though, so maybe not the most portable, but not terrible either. About three hours battery life atm, maybe more if I bothered to change the settings.

Clare Bear

Got an E System 1201 in Curries last week for €380.
13.3" Widescreen TFT
1 GB Memory
Hard Disk - 120 GB
Optical Drive - DVD+/-RW
Microsoft Windows
Vista Home Premium
4xUSB 2.0
VGA-Out
10/100 Mbit LAN
Wireless LAN


I don't have a clue what half of that means but it does everything I need it to do. Nothing amazing but for €380 I'm very pleased with it. Very easy to use and simple to start up.

AlmightyCushion

Clare Bear wrote: »

Got an E System 1201 in Curries last week for €380.
13.3" Widescreen TFT
1 GB Memory
Hard Disk - 120 GB
Optical Drive - DVD+/-RW
Microsoft Windows
Vista Home Premium
4xUSB 2.0
VGA-Out
10/100 Mbit LAN
Wireless LAN


I don't have a clue what half of that means but it does everything I need it to do. Nothing amazing but for €380 I'm very pleased with it. Very easy to use and simple to start up.

Make sure not to get the more expensive version of this. It's the 1211, it's €450 but the spec is worse. It only has 512MB ram, 80GB hard drive and a celeron processor. The one clarebear got should have a pentium dual core if I remember correctly. It's a better processor.

zuroph

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Make sure not to get the more expensive version of this. It's the 1211, it's €450 but the spec is worse. It only has 512MB ram, 80GB hard drive and a celeron processor. The one clarebear got should have a pentium dual core if I remember correctly. It's a better processor.

lol, how is that possible?! why is it more expensive?

kmick

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1525?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Add the Office Student package and its about 600 with a one year warranty.

Plus any colour you like - i.e. if she likes pink Might not be the best if she wants to be taken seriously I suppose. Alpine White would lend a certain gravitas I would say.

Clare Bear

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Make sure not to get the more expensive version of this. It's the 1211, it's €450 but the spec is worse. It only has 512MB ram, 80GB hard drive and a celeron processor. The one clarebear got should have a pentium dual core if I remember correctly. It's a better processor.

Yeah Pentium Dual Core T2370 1.73GHz (again, I've no idea what that means!)

Strange that one is more expensive but not as good?

Umiq88

I bought a dell vostro 1310 for 660 ex vat with the following specs

Intel core duo 8100 2.1ghz
3gb Ram
250gig Harddrive
Webcam
Fingerprint reader
slot loading dvd rewriter drive
firewire
6-cell battery 3hrs
13.3 trulife screen 1200*1800 res

Theres some very good value studio 15's on offer at the moment with custom face plates which look well.

AlmightyCushion

zuroph wrote: »

lol, how is that possible?! why is it more expensive?

I can only assume it's down to stupidity that the lesser specced model is more expensive.

zuroph

went looking today and saw a few, she wasnt mad keen on the look (:rolleyes:) of the e1201

theres a compaq for 429, but its AMD sempron proccessor, does this make much difference?

theres also a neon pink advent with;
pentium dual core 1.73ghz, 533mhz FSB, 1mb cache
vista premium,
2gb mem
160gb HD
13.3 widescreen

is that one good?

also noticed new samsung in today on special, at €650, with 4 gb ram..

bealbocht

anything with vista really should have 2gig of ram or more.

recently got a

dell 1525 for €530
1.7 dual core processor 160 gig hard drive and
coughed up an extra 30 for another gig of ram to make 3 gig and runs fine.


bought a laptop for my mum in Feb, with only 512mb of ram and vista was a nightmare.

nhughes100

DID had some good offers in the paper last week on Sony Vaios. Saw a decent Dell online for 750, keep an eye on the Dell outlet but be prepared to move fast if you see one you like. Laptopsdirect.ie can be a bit hit and miss but is a useful comparison site.

zuroph

how long is dells delivery time usually?

AlmightyCushion

Usually a few days to a week but it appears most of their range are suffering from stock shortages so they have a warning saying that it make take longer than usual.

zuroph

zuroph wrote: »

theres also a neon pink advent with;
pentium dual core 1.73ghz, 533mhz FSB, 1mb cache
vista premium,
2gb mem
160gb HD
13.3 widescreen

what u think of this almighty?

nhughes100

Dell's delivery time is dreadful at the moment - 3-6 weeks depending on what model you order, no surprise to hear they're thinking of selling up.

AlmightyCushion

zuroph wrote: »

what u think of this almighty?

Depends on the price but spec wise it's good. Pink isn't my colour though.

zuroph

499.

got a dell today instead anyway, many thanks!