Opinions on this laptop please.

enviro

Thinking of buying this laptop :
Hewlett Packard - HP 550, Celeron P550 1.86GHz, Vista Home Basic, 15.4" WXGA BV, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, DVD+/-RW, Wifi b/g, 1Yr Warranty, Office Ready

Would be mainly used for browsing and mostly at home, so battery wouldnt be terrible important. Although 2 hrs would be expected. Any common problem with this model, what is this brand like in general, Ive had a fujitsu siemens for years so bit rusty on specs and the current available options. Thanks in advance for any info.

Alanstrainor

It's a very poor spec to be honest. What price is that going for? It would struggle straight out of the box.

waraf

Alanstrainor wrote: »

It's a very poor spec to be honest. What price is that going for? It would struggle straight out of the box.

1GB of RAM in this day and age!!:eek: Vista would take up most of that just idling.....;)

Seriously though, it would want to be VERY cheap with that sort of spec...

edit: have a look on dabs.ie they usually have some good deals

Alanstrainor

waraf wrote: »

1GB of RAM in this day and age!!:eek: Vista would take up most of that just idling.....;)

Seriously though, it would want to be VERY cheap with that sort of spec...

Indeed it would want to be very cheap;)

Voodu Child

Yeah, it's completely rubbish, you don't want to be putting Vista on a slow single-core with only 1GB ram.

It would want to be fierce cheap, I have seem some decent laptops for €500 and under recently, with dual cores and plenty of ram.

Vic Vinegar

Agreed, it's not a good spec at all. Have a look here, some decent ones down the page (not that i'm recommending Pixmania!)

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/computing/laptop/2179/9/categorie.html

enviro

Thanks for the replies, I see the point about the spec, pretty poor indeed.
I was looking for something cheap as I have a desktop which I will be using most of the time. Maybe a decent spec laptop can be picked up second hand. Nothing really on adverts or donedeal and the like. Budget of about 300 - 400. Any ideas? Oh and the laptop I mentioned in the first post, they wanted 350 for it.

waraf

Plenty of used Toshibas on dabs. Check this link: http://www.dabs.ie/ProductList.aspx?&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11105,15,46400000&ProductList1RecordOffset=10#Paging

Click on the laptop you want (one of the "in stock used" ones) and then scroll down to see how many they have in stock, what was repaired on them and how much they're looking for them now.

enviro

waraf wrote: »

Plenty of used Toshibas on dabs. Check this link: http://www.dabs.ie/ProductList.aspx?&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11105,15,46400000&ProductList1RecordOffset=10#Paging

Click on the laptop you want (one of the "in stock used" ones) and then scroll down to see how many they have in stock, what was repaired on them and how much they're looking for them now.

Thanks I'll check that link out and I'll be back with my findings:D

Alanstrainor

enviro wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I see the point about the spec, pretty poor indeed.
I was looking for something cheap as I have a desktop which I will be using most of the time. Maybe a decent spec laptop can be picked up second hand. Nothing really on adverts or donedeal and the like. Budget of about 300 - 400. Any ideas? Oh and the laptop I mentioned in the first post, they wanted 350 for it.

If you want a laptop for basic stuff, and you already have a desktop. Why not buy a netbook like the samsung n10?

enviro

I have decided to get a higher spec laptop after all, as I can't see myself buying another till 3 to 4 years min down the road.

I have two options at the moment.


Toshiba L3001DN, Intel dual core t3400(2.16ghz), 3gb of RAM, 250gb hard drive, intel gma 4500m graphics, vista home premium.
529euro

I was happy with the above choice untill I came across this other one which is over my budget of around 500euro but it seems to have a serious spec and is good value for money imo. Seeing as any others I have found with near this spec have been 1000euro+
The brand name is what is making me doubt it.

Medion akoya p6618, Intel centrino core 2 duo t6600(2.2ghz), 4gb of RAM, 500gb hard drive, Nvidia geforce 9600m gs directx10 (512mb) graphics, Vista home premium, Also burns dvds/cds, 3yr warranty.
699.99euro

denat

enviro wrote: »

I have decided to get a higher spec laptop after all, as I can't see myself buying another till 3 to 4 years min down the road.

I have two options at the moment.


Toshiba L3001DN, Intel dual core t3400(2.16ghz), 3gb of RAM, 250gb hard drive, intel gma 4500m graphics, vista home premium.
529euro

I was happy with the above choice untill I came across this other one which is over my budget of around 500euro but it seems to have a serious spec and is good value for money imo. Seeing as any others I have found with near this spec have been 1000euro+
The brand name is what is making me doubt it.

Medion akoya p6618, Intel centrino core 2 duo t6600(2.2ghz), 4gb of RAM, 500gb hard drive, Nvidia geforce 9600m gs directx10 (512mb) graphics, Vista home premium, Also burns dvds/cds, 3yr warranty.
699.99euro

The latter appears to be the one on the Aldi catalogue for sale on 30.04.09. I don't think it's appeared on their website yet.

This seems like a desktop replacement to me - 16 screen, 500 harddrive. I don't think they quote the weight but, I'm sure, not light.

I won't comment on the specs / value for money because I don't have the expertise.

I bought a desktop pc and many household electrical devices from Aldi without problem. PC has given no trouble in 5 years. It's got XP so I'm hoping to run it for a long time yet! I exchanged any other electrical stuff with which I had problems without quibble.

waraf

enviro wrote: »

Toshiba L3001DN, Intel dual core t3400(2.16ghz), 3gb of RAM, 250gb hard drive, intel gma 4500m graphics, vista home premium.
529euro

Medion akoya p6618, Intel centrino core 2 duo t6600(2.2ghz), 4gb of RAM, 500gb hard drive, Nvidia geforce 9600m gs directx10 (512mb) graphics, Vista home premium, Also burns dvds/cds, 3yr warranty.
699.99euro

Ok here is my two cents worth...

1. The Toshiba is a good spec but a little expensive for what you're getting. Check out this Lenovo (used to be called IBM thinkpads they've just been rebranded). It's basically the same spec as the Toshiba but 60 euro cheaper: http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=5GKR&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11105,46400000,15

2. Yes the Medion Akoya is cheap for the spec it's offering but there is no info on the web about them (which is worrying) and also, what do you do if something goes wrong with it? I very much doubt there's a Medion office you could bring it to in Dublin whereas both Toshiba and an IBM have offices in Dublin.

enviro

In the advert for the Medion, it states that they are: Winner of the PC Pro service and reliability award 07 and highly commended in the PC Pro service and reliability award 08. I think the Mediion is over spec'd for my needs anyhow so I will give it a miss.