Laptop, netbook for 12 year old daughter

pavb2

My daughter was looking for laptops that she can use for the internet, saving pictures and videos, webcam, to watch DVDs with. Her budget would be around €600. What would you recommend??

Alanstrainor

It's worth baring in mind that netbooks do not have cd/dvd drives so watching dvds is a no go. Unless of course you buy an external drive, but that's getting a bit messy tbh. Pretty much any €400/500 laptop would cover your daughter's needs, no need to spend even 600 on it.

spartacus93

This would be more than ample for your daughters needs

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=NRS15454&l=en&m_30=136643&oc=N0554502&rbc=N0554502&s=dhs

she can even have it in pink for an extra €40

For all them tasks any modern processor will be up to the job fine. The graphics card will make very little difference. Make sure she gets at least 2Gb of RAM, this will probably have the biggest effect on overall performance.

Depending on her collection of music and videos the hard drive size might be an issue. As a guide laptop hard drives are usually 120 / 160 / 250 / 320 etc Gigabytes. Setting aside 20Gb for programs etc she will have the rest to store her personal files.

An average film is 700Mb
An album of music is ~70Mb
A picture from a digital camera would be 1-2Mb (depends on the camera)

You should get an idea from the above what size hard drive she will need. 160Gb is probably plenty.

Effluo

Believe it or not but Dunnes Stores are doin a great deal on a fine machine!

It was originally 499, it was then 399 and supposedly if you bring it to the till it's only 339!

Nice stats for the price too!

it's a fujitsu
Dual core processor(can't remember which but it's intel and not the core 2's)
2 gigs of ram
and a 160 hardrive

It comes with vista home premium and vista business downgrade

VVVgood for the price

Nothingcompares

I think the biggest draw back to the netbook is the lack of a CD/DVD drive.

Other than that, my other consideration would be sourcing from somewhere with a no hassle return policy. I believe the dell policy is ok if you pay for a few add ons.

gamer

Make sure and download,chid protection software eg noami free prog,download firefox 3,and internet explorer 8.OR ElSE buy net nanny program.
naomi has password protection ,blocks adult sites.USE password ie asd678.cant be guessed by anyone smart.see http://www.safefamilies.org/download.php or http://www.naomifilter.org/oldindex.html, safefamiies program doesnt seem to be compatibe with vista os. or try begone program,here http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=bgone ,be sure and put in a password when setting it up.

Overheal

Heres why you dont give kids laptops.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055562799

gamer

OR you could say heres why you don,t give them mobile phones,SETUP child protection filter prog on the laptop.it might be better NOT to give her a webcam. Go to menu,TOOLS, internet options ,content,content adviser, in internet exporer,move slider to left side , Click content adviser,general tab,,set up password in this zone,eg zxc456.this will stop adult,or violent sites from loading up,,but you still need a fitering program,eg netnanny.DONT setup any browser apart from interner exporer 8.AND maybe you might say you can ony use laptop, downstairs ,not in your room, if theres a wireless internet connnection on the laptop.
you can aso set up icra ,website ratings,in ie 6,7,or 8,see here, http://www.icra.org/support/contentadvisor/setupv02/
OR JUST have the net acessed downstairs thru ethernet cable
PERHAPS there shod be a sticky post on this forum, HOW to setup child protection software on a laptop,recommended programs to install.
HOW to set up content filters on IE8,and other browsers.

I Dont think anyone under 17 years old should be given a laptop ,with unfiltered acess to the web.