my grandad wants a laptop for his 93rd b'day

positivenote

HiGuys,
yes hes 93 and he want a laptop. He wants it to use for the internet and email and thats really it. Although, i think he'll enjoy using it to watch dvds also.
I was looking at spending under 400euro on it but he'll need to use in his bedroom and downstairs so he'll proberbly need one of those portible modems that plug into the back of the laptop itself.

I was looking and came across this one at teh carphone warehouse and dunnes websites:

http://www.carphonewarehouse.ie/product.php/464/73/fujitsu_siemens_esprimo_v5535/be2d65f2bfc286d2b24c84007f3c09e4

http://www.dunnesstores.ie/page.php?pid=8&section_id=32&sub_section_id=80&range_id=89&product_id=417

i need to get it for before friday, so if anyone can help with some advice on this one, whether its a good deal or not or where else there may be a good deal going please lett me know...
thanks a bunch

brianthebard

Has he experience with computer's already? If so he probably knows xp better than vista so maybe you could look into getting a second hand one?

kinkstr

Fair play to him, a wireless router would be just as handy for him, would work through out the house. Seen as you only have a few days and probably wouldnt have one from on online store by friday id say go in to somewhere like pc world, id imagine at 93 his eyesight isnt 20/20 so maybe take the size of the keys into consideration aswell.

positivenote

no he hasnt much at all. hes been using an old wordprocessor for years typing up his letters etc.... so hes not 'used' to any os

ambman

Got one of these in power city for my aul dear in power city for 400 euro and she is 72 and never been in front of a pc and she is managing it fine.

http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/search/business/2.8kg/N=3+2257+304095&Ne=303991/

positivenote

as far as i know hes got NTL in the house. He'll get hooked up to the net with them as it would be the handiest having just one bill for the tv and the net. What price are they talking for a wireless router so he could use the laptop throughout the house...
and yes you have to tip your hat to him, i think the fact that hes always keeping his mind busy (hes always using his ds lite) is the key to his longevity

AlmightyCushion

A wireless router would set you back €40/€50. Make sure it's a cable router and doesn't have a dsl modem built in.

Umiq88

Personally i would go for those big silver dell laptops that everyone has firstly they're cheap but the keyboards and touchpad and everything really is very well laid out and easy to use and go for a 15" or 17" screen.

Dell 1501 or 6400 i think should be able to get one cheap enough.

the_syco

Yo,
Go into Waterstones in the Jervis Shopping Centre in Dublin, 2nd floor, and there's a book in there for the elderly people. It's a small book, biggish writing, esp for old people that have never used a computer before. Maybe worth your while including it with the laptop.

iMax

Another lemon party fan!!

positivenote

thanks for the advice so far guys. Regarding the two ive linked at the start of the thread, are they any use for him just to browse the net and write letters etc....
THanks

MunsterCycling

positivenote wrote: »

thanks for the advice so far guys. Regarding the two ive linked at the start of the thread, are they any use for him just to browse the net and write letters etc....
THanks

Both are perfectly capable for what you describe.


MC

RichyX

positivenote wrote: »

http://www.dunnesstores.ie/page.php?pid=8&section_id=32&sub_section_id=80&range_id=89&product_id=417

They still make 20GB hard drives!?

MunsterCycling

RichyX wrote: »

They still make 20GB hard drives!?

120 been a typo for ages, they to lazy to change it.

MC

positivenote

hi guys, i was in pc world and they have an ei systems laptop with 80g memory, 1g ram and a 1.72 ghz processor. its a return that had to be fixed but it comes with a one year warrenty. its going for 250euro... it seems like a good deal for what he'll be using it for and it has wireless ports on it.
what do yis reckon?

partyatmygaff

positivenote wrote: »

hi guys, i was in pc world and they have an ei systems laptop with 80g memory, 1g ram and a 1.72 ghz processor. its a return that had to be fixed but it comes with a one year warrenty. its going for 250euro... it seems like a good deal for what he'll be using it for and it has wireless ports on it.
what do yis reckon?

sounds like a great deal minus the fact that a brand like Ei Systems are bound to have sh1te support (Not that dell is any better, but atleast you can FIND dell)




For 250 though you cannot go wrong;)

the_syco

positivenote wrote: »

hi guys, i was in pc world

Avoid.

positivenote wrote: »

its a return that had to be fixed

Avoid like it's the plague.

=-=

The one from carphonewarehouse: you'd need to upgrade it, as Vista running on 1GB is slow (running only the internet).

I'm not sure if DVD's are watchable on Vista with 1GB.

=-=

Saying that, memory is cheap enough. For example, if you got this, 2GB of RAM would cost you about €45.

2GB's or RAM for the carphonewarehouse laptop would cost about €45 as well.

Prices were gotten here.

Squeeonline

If you are going to get a Vista machine (hard to get anything else new these days :-( ) you will need ATLEAST 2Gb ram to not be really frustrated with it. I have 2Gb and it still doesnt run as fast as it should.

I would suggest Ubuntu, but then again Im bias having used it for the last 4 years. I've had a few problems but find me a vista fan who hasnt. User support is very helpful. Even Dell sell some Ubuntu machines. Well worth looking into especially for a "budget" machine (i.e. laptop less than 600€).

positivenote

im looking at the one in carphone warehouse or another one with similiar spec in currys. They both have vista... can i uninstall vista and just install a copy og xp on the machine from a back up disk that i may have at home?

sorry 'bout the ignorance

The_Conductor

positivenote wrote: »

im looking at the one in carphone warehouse or another one with similiar spec in currys. They both have vista... can i uninstall vista and just install a copy og xp on the machine from a back up disk that i may have at home?

sorry 'bout the ignorance

No.
First of all a lot of the XP backup disks check the BIOS to make sure that its a computer from the same manufacturer- secondly you are breaking the licensing terms from Microsoft- its only supposed to be installed on 1 PC at a time (irrespective of the fact that you a Vista licence on the new laptop).

S.

getz

i am 68 and the laptop i have is a EVESHAM and it is far better than any other pc i have had just the thing for the internet

session savage

Do everything you can to avoid vista. Its the work of the devil... IMHO

RichyX

session savage wrote: »

Do everything you can to avoid vista. Its the work of the devil... IMHO

A lot of people I've spoken to think it's become a half decent operating system.
XP isn't exactly a flawless work of art.

The_Conductor

RichyX wrote: »

XP isn't exactly a flawless work of art.

It runs a lot more smoothly on lower spec hardware, and is less likely to suffer from random crashes (though Vista has improved post SP1).

S.

Soundman

session savage wrote: »

Do everything you can to avoid vista. Its the work of the devil... IMHO

What facts are you basing this on?

Hearsay from people who haven't got a clue or have never used Vista?

session savage

Ok, first off its not from hearsay. I use vista at work and I use XP at home.
Vista is a freakin nightmare. First off, every day.. and I mean EVERY DAY, vista spends the first few minutes after boot up, updating. Thats just plain annoying.
Secondly, all the interfaces for windows programs and the settings etc are changed. Why did they do that? It was perfect the way it was. Why fix it if it aint broke.

And dont get me started on the new forms of DRM. :mad:



But as I said, its just my honest opinion.

RichyX

session savage wrote: »

First off, every day.. and I mean EVERY DAY, vista spends the first few minutes after boot up, updating. Thats just plain annoying.

I'm assuming you can turn off automatic updates in Vista, as you could with XP.

session savage wrote: »

Secondly, all the interfaces for windows programs and the settings etc are changed. Why did they do that? It was perfect the way it was. Why fix it if it aint broke.

From the few times I've played around with Vista I quite like the new interface. I'd heard awful things from people, many of whom had never used Vista, and was expecting it to be rubbish.
Now I'm quite happy to have Vista on my new laptop.

I think the OP's grandad just needs to try out both and see what he prefers.

session savage

Aye you can turn off the updates but I wouldnt dare. Even now the system is constantly bombarding me with neverending possible system threats. "warning this" and "warning that". Its non stop.

Soundman

Strange. I have been running Vista Business for over a year now and am not bombarded in the slightest. I get an update once a week maybe. UI is fine for me. Haven't noticed a huge change.

What sort of warnings and system threats are you receiving? That doesn't sound right.

positivenote

hi guys, i started a previous thread about getting a ;aptop for my gand dad but when i went to get it yeaterday nieither pc world or currys had the model they were advertising in stock. His b'day was yesterday and i told him that it did arrive in time. I know have the time to get one online, so im asking whats the best deal i can get for a laptop online for under 400euro. Thanks for all the previous advice

Mr Tim Buktoo

how about this puter?

http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/sku%2Fbusiness%2FMedion-T5250/pr=QDH&id=WTM2140/

giggsy664

Mr Tim Buktoo wrote: »

how about this puter?

http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/sku%2Fbusiness%2FMedion-T5250/pr=QDH&id=WTM2140/

Yeah, Good Choice.

Make Sure You Set It Up For Him Though.

Bright Background, Hugely Contrasting Colours,Large Text

Capt'n Midnight

smccarrick wrote: »

No.
First of all a lot of the XP backup disks check the BIOS to make sure that its a computer from the same manufacturer- secondly you are breaking the licensing terms from Microsoft- its only supposed to be installed on 1 PC at a time (irrespective of the fact that you a Vista licence on the new laptop).

S.

a cheap laptop will have vista home so it [edit]it's license[/edit] won't allow an XP install

if you have a Vista BUSINESS license then you could replace it with XP , make sure you have any vista media/recovery disks first, and yes you will need either a generic XP disk or one that matches the brand of laptop

The_Conductor

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

a cheap laptop will have vista home so it won't allow an XP install

Unless you format the hard-drive and start from afresh......

Soundman

smccarrick wrote: »

Unless you format the hard-drive and start from afresh......

First making sure that you can get XP drivers for the laptop's hardware.

The_Conductor

Soundman wrote: »

First making sure that you can get XP drivers for the laptop's hardware.

Lol....
Been there, done that, so often......
Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......

Soundman

smccarrick wrote: »

Lol....
Been there, done that, so often......
Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......

Ouch. Plain and simple. Ouch!

RichyX

smccarrick wrote: »

Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......

Windows update?

The_Conductor

RichyX wrote: »

Windows update?

I know its o/t but there is some really strange hardware out there that some people might consider proprietory, and drivers are not necessarily readily available for (think the original EEEPC with its weird LAN chipset or some of the older Toshibas with their optimised graphics chipsets etc).

Capt'n Midnight

not forgetting the problems of getting XP drivers for some brand new SONY laptops

in theory driver update should be easily able to ID the device from PnP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/pnp/pnpid.mspx
but I'm pleasntly suprised when it pickups up all the HW in fairly common stuff like DELL latitudes because in a lot cases it don't

I'd nearly go to the trouble of noting the names of the devices in device manager as well

RichyX

smccarrick wrote: »

I know its o/t but there is some really strange hardware out there that some people might consider proprietory, and drivers are not necessarily readily available for (think the original EEEPC with its weird LAN chipset or some of the older Toshibas with their optimised graphics chipsets etc).

In the case of Dell all of the drivers for their specific computers are available on their website.
I would have thought all manufacturers would do something similar.

The_Conductor

RichyX wrote: »

In the case of Dell all of the drivers for their specific computers are available on their website.
I would have thought all manufacturers would do something similar.

However- even with Dell- they make you run some of the older drivers, depending on the configuration of the machine, even when there are newer drivers available (think Intel G945/GM950 graphics chipset drivers). So- if you take Windows Download advice and choose the updated graphics drivers- you could potentially wreck intercompatability with Media Direct and other applications........

Its messy.

eamon234

Mr Tim Buktoo wrote: »

how about this puter?

http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/sku%2Fbusiness%2FMedion-T5250/pr=QDH&id=WTM2140/

That price is ex vat which puts it well over his €400 budget

The cheapest I can find at the moment is the Dell Vostro A860 at €367 delivered but the spec is fairly low - would be fine for basic home use, surfing the net etc.