Half Price Dunnes Laptop

squibs

Just saw a HP laptop in local Dunnes for about €250 - it's a half price deal. From memory: Intel dual core, 160Gb, 1Gb, Vista Ultimate. Sorry I can't be more accurate with specs.

It may be a second prize for those of us who didn't get the littlewoods €69 PC, if the deal is nationwide.

donmeister

squibs wrote: »

Just saw a HP laptop in local Dunnes for about €250 - it's a half price deal. From memory: Intel dual core, 160Gb, 1Gb, Vista Ultimate. Sorry I can't be more accurate with specs.

Vista Ultimate with 1gb ram? Although, with a cheap 30e upgrade on ram this could be a very nice laptop for the price,good find OP!

Alanstrainor

I hate to cast doubt over those specs, but surely a laptop like that wouldn't come with Vista Ultimate preloaded? Home premium sounds more likely.

aloevera

wow, thats fantastic.

if anyone finds out more info please let me know,id be interested.

squibs

I reiterate, I'm working from memory. Thought it was Vista Ultimate - could be wrong. Deffo dual core, deffo 1Gb RAM, price was about €250. I figured it was better to post hazy detail than to post nothing.

If I had a biro I'd have taken down the details. There's no guarantee that it is nationwide - there was one display box in my local Dunnes (Mallow). Hopefully somebody with better memory can check another branch of Dunnes shortly and report back.

superfly

squibs wrote: »

I reiterate, I'm working from memory..

this is why god put cameras on phones

squibs

this is why god put cameras on phones

My ancient phone makes phone calls, and if I'm feeling adventurous I can do texts - no camera (shock horror), but you may pry that phone from my cold dead Luddite hands

polyfusion

I hears ya squibs - I've had 2 or 3 phones over the past few years, and I've always had to go back to my trusty 3510i, as the others have either broke, stopped working completely, or just annoyed the hell out of me with their fiddly keys or having to wait ages for a response as it lumbers into sub-menus!

Thanks for the heads-up on the laptop though, I'm in the market for a cheapo lappy or netbook. Might be a grand consolation after the Littlewoods fiasco!

jayteecork

If it's a dual core and not a Core 2 duo it's probably a pile of ****.
OneGB RAM is crap too, and I'm guessing the graphics are intel 3100.

Not back I guess but you're better off spending the extra 100 or so and getting something a it better.

Ghost Train

jayteecork wrote: »

If it's a dual core and not a Core 2 duo it's probably a pile of ****.
OneGB RAM is crap too, and I'm guessing the graphics are intel 3100.

Not back I guess but you're better off spending the extra 100 or so and getting something a it better.

price sounds good for the spec to me, and 100 more won't get you too much extra

Top Dog

After reading this thread last night I went to Dunnes in Mallow today to check it out.

Its a Fujitsu Siemens laptop (Amilo Pi 2512)
Price is €275 (apparently now half original price)

Specs;
Display 15.4" WXGA BrilliantView
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 (1.6GHz)
Memory 2x512MB RAM DDR2/667
HDD 120GB SATA/5400rpm
ODD Supermulti-format DVD burner

Hardware Configuration
Graphics Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100 up to 245MB shared memopry
Comm Modem 56k, LAN 10/100
WLAN Liteon WN6302A-F4 LITEON LR V03
ExpressCard 34/54, Cardreader 4 in 1
VGA, 3xUSB2.0
Mic/Line in, Headphone/SPDiF
Audio 2 speakers, 7.1 sound via SPDiF

They don't have any left in Mallow, dummy box on the shelf was removed by the manager after I enquired about availability. They should be nationwide though.

There's also another laptop offer - Esprimo V5535 2GB for €339. None there though, and no empty box about either to check the specs on it

budhabob

Is this a decent deal? maybe upgrade the ram etc, but would it be a decent enough laptop?

Top Dog

I honestly don't know - thats why I got the specs - so someone could tell me if its a good deal or not

x43r0

The specs are poor.

Any laptop with vista and 1GB of RAM is doomed to fail. I would never recommend anyone to buy a laptop like this.

This is because in order to run idle, vista requires 1GB of RAM. In lay-man's terms, the term "Run Idle" means to be turned on and doing nothing. Essentially when you hit the power button, logon and just leave it then. That is 'running idle'.

So if that laptop's RAM is used on running the OS alone, imagine what would happen if you went online while listening to itunes and burning a cd all at the same time. CRASH

Shops push machines with specs like these at low prices because its a quick buck and they know that after a few months of annoyance with the slow laptop people will inevitably return to upgrade(€€€)

quarryman

€32 for 2GB RAM:
http://shop4memory.com/products/ddr2.asp#4200

2GB Transcend Jetram DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 (CL5) Dual Channel memory kit
2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 memory upgrade kit, consisting of 2x 1GB 667MHz modules. 240 pins, non-ECC, matched kit for DDR2 based systems. Retail packed and backed by lifetime warranty. View picture
Part Number: JM2GDDR2-6K
Manufacturer: Transcend
In stock € 32

Top Dog

Cheers for that.

Forgot to mention that its Vista Home Premium too

carbsy

x43r0 wrote: »

Shops push machines with specs like these at low prices because its a quick buck and they know that after a few months of annoyance with the slow laptop people will inevitably return to upgrade(€€€)

Dunnes don't sell memory or any upgrades for that matter so it rules that point out but you have a valid point for 'proper' places like PC World etc

x43r0

quarryman wrote: »

€32 for 2GB RAM:
http://shop4memory.com/products/ddr2.asp#4200

2GB Transcend Jetram DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 (CL5) Dual Channel memory kit
2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 memory upgrade kit, consisting of 2x 1GB 667MHz modules. 240 pins, non-ECC, matched kit for DDR2 based systems. Retail packed and backed by lifetime warranty. View picture
Part Number: JM2GDDR2-6K
Manufacturer: Transcend
In stock € 32

That's not a bad price but i don't think the target market for budget laptops would have the know-how to open said laptops and upgrade the memory (without doing damage anyway).

I'd be wary of doing it myself even with 3 years of a computer science degree under my belt. Opening a laptop is just risky my book but I know lads who do it no problem so its very doable and there are vids and such online if one was determined to do it

squibs

Thanks for filling in the blanks Top Dog. Should be a great machine for general use with memory upgrade.

bazwaldo

x43r0 wrote: »

So if that laptop's RAM is used on running the OS alone, imagine what would happen if you went online while listening to itunes and burning a cd all at the same time. CRASH

OS's shouldn't crash (even Vista) just because they are short of memory. It just means that there'll be loads of swapping from memory to harddisk which will make it dog slow.

€250 isn't bad. I'd prefer this to a netbook of similar pricing.

Keano

x43r0 wrote: »

That's not a bad price but i don't think the target market for budget laptops would have the know-how to open said laptops and upgrade the memory (without doing damage anyway).

I'd be wary of doing it myself even with 3 years of a computer science degree under my belt. Opening a laptop is just risky my book but I know lads who do it no problem so its very doable and there are vids and such online if one was determined to do it

Its not that hard to change the ram on most machines.

Must check out my local Dunnes

nowuckenfurries

http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/listparts.aspx?model=Amilo%20Pi%202512&pl=Fujitsu-Siemens&cat=RAM

EUR 30.84 via ups or EUR 24.77 via royal mail with crucial for 2 gig upgrade of memory..

Do-more

I just checked online and on this model there is one RAM slot on the bottom of the laptop and the second is under the keyboard. I've done it before on Dells and it can be a bit tricky to get the plactic bits off around the keyboard to get at the RAM slot but having two left hands, I'd say if I can do it most people can!

Just found out that Fujitsu and Siemens ended their joint venture earlier this year so I guess they are selling out all existing stock, in future they will be just Fujitsu computers.

karlyk1

Has anyone seen these in any branches of Dunnes on Dublin's northside? Ringing around and I'm not having any joy. Was looking for a netbook for herself, but this would obviously be better. (I'm a Mac man myself... not looking forward to working with a PC again!)

MisterAnarchy

x43r0 wrote: »

I'd be wary of doing it myself even with 3 years of a computer science degree under my belt. Opening a laptop is just risky my book but I know lads who do it no problem so its very doable and there are vids and such online if one was determined to do it

A computer science degree doesn't really teach much about hardware and to be honest putting new Ram into a laptop is a piece of cake,anyone can do it.

Its a decent deal ,an extra 2Gb of ram is cheap but I'd be worried about the max Ram capacity (2Gb or 4Gb) but for under 300 euro its a great bargain.
Dual core Pentiums generally start around the 400 euro mark.

Ghost Train

Igb of ram will run vista fine. If you want better multitasking performance or to play some games more memory would help. Its a basic laptop fine for most tasks

TerrorFirmer

jayteecork wrote: »

If it's a dual core and not a Core 2 duo it's probably a pile of ****.
OneGB RAM is crap too, and I'm guessing the graphics are intel 3100.

Not back I guess but you're better off spending the extra 100 or so and getting something a it better.

Nothing wrong with Pentium dual core, 1gb ram could be picked up for an extremely low price and Intel X3100 is as powerful as Nvidia 6100 or Radeon X200 class, i.e perfect for day to day use, older games and the like. I've played Warhammer 40K Dawn of War, Call of Duty United Offensive, Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry and similar games on the X3100 fine. Don''t see a problem - or were you expecting a powerhouse for 250 euro.

Factor in the ram and you'd have a machine with dual core, 2gb ram for 280 euro brand new - can't argue much with that to be honest. Netbook of the same price with Intel Atom is actually much slower.

stephendm

Hmmm..

It's an ok price I suppose for that spec but the spec is rubbish. It'd be running antivirus, maybe MS Office 2007, IE7/8 or Firefox with a few tabs open, not to mention Vista itself ... it would completly **** itself! Even with extra ram. The processor is cack the integrated graphics ...double-cack! It's already obsolete. Anyone who buys that will no doubt regret it in 2 months I reckon.
Thanks op for the post all the same. I likes potential bargains regardless

melekalikimaka

thats a good deal for 250

1gb of ram is grand as long as ou dont go to town with apps

Rsaeire

The price is very good for a laptop of that spec, especially considering that the X3100 is far better than the GMA950 graphics core in practically all netbooks.

Does anybody know if the laptop is available in any of the south side Dublin stores?

Top Dog

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how it would cope with running Outlook Express, IE, Firefox, Photoshop, notepad and an ftp program all at the same time?

bazwaldo

Theres a whole lot of talk about spec/value and so on. The real question is "Is it for sale anywhere?". All we have as evidence is an empty box in Mallow with no stock.

parsi

x43r0 wrote: »

I'd be wary of doing it myself even with 3 years of a computer science degree under my belt. Opening a laptop is just risky my book but I know lads who do it no problem so its very doable and there are vids and such online if one was determined to do it

Flamin' nora.

Replacing ram on a laptop isn't exactly rocket science ..

karlyk1

bazwaldo wrote: »

Theres a whole lot of talk about spec/value and so on. The real question is "Is it for sale anywhere?". All we have as evidence is an empty box in Mallow with no stock.

Agreed. Seems to be a bit of a phantom bargain, as I rang the head office and they said no store that they are aware of is doing this deal, and that possibly a local store sold a shop soiled one off. Thanks anyway OP, you weren't to know that.

MisterAnarchy

stephendm wrote: »

It's an ok price I suppose for that spec but the spec is rubbish. It'd be running antivirus, maybe MS Office 2007, IE7/8 or Firefox with a few tabs open, not to mention Vista itself ... it would completly **** itself! Even with extra ram. The processor is cack the integrated graphics ...double-cack! It's already obsolete. Anyone who buys that will no doubt regret it in 2 months I reckon.
Thanks op for the post all the same. I likes potential bargains regardless

The typical response we see on any budget laptop thread.
If you only spend a few hundred more you will get a better spec,blah blah blah.
Running antivirus,Office and Firefox wouldnt even tax a 5 year old machine for crying out loud.
Not every person is looking to play cutting edge games or edit video on their laptop.
Most people just want to surf the web,listen to music,play videos ,use Office etc.
They dont need top of the range hardware.

Why would you buy a Ford car ,arent they a rubbish spec,better to spend a few thousand more and get a Ferrari,lol

Rsaeire

parsi wrote: »

Flamin' nora.

Replacing ram on a laptop isn't exactly rocket science ..

That is, if the laptop has easily accessible ram slots. A ram slot that is only accessible under the keyboard wouldn't exactly be classed as easily accessible and since this laptop supposedly has one underneath the laptop, which would be easily accessible, and another under the keyboard, which is not, then it will prove tricky for those who are not either aware of how to change the ram and/or do not feel confident in doing so.

Onikage

Rsaeire wrote: »

That is, if the laptop has easily accessible ram slots. A ram slot that is only accessible under the keyboard wouldn't exactly be classed as easily accessible and since this laptop supposedly has one underneath the laptop, which would be easily accessible, and another under the keyboard, which is not, then it will prove tricky for those who are not either aware of how to change the ram and/or do not feel confident in doing so.

Are you saying that people who find it hard to do are going to find it hard to do? I'm afraid I'll have to agree with parsi's blunt but accurate assessment. They can always ask friends for a favour

Top Dog

bazwaldo wrote: »

Theres a whole lot of talk about spec/value and so on. The real question is "Is it for sale anywhere?". All we have as evidence is an empty box in Mallow with no stock.

Manager in Mallow seemed to think that all their stores had the offer - suggested I try Blackpool in Cork city to see if they had any in. Obviously thats not gospel though.

Ghost Train

replacing ram is easy on most laptops

heres how its done on this particualar laptop (Amilo Pi 2512)



memory.gif

Basq

Ghost Train wrote:

Slow down..!

Challenging RAM upgrades? Well, I'm going to upgrade the RAM on my Mac Mini.. not easy!

http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/macmini-ram/index.shtml

Rsaeire

Onikage wrote: »

Are you saying that people who find it hard to do are going to find it hard to do? I'm afraid I'll have to agree with parsi's blunt but accurate assessment. They can always ask friends for a favour

I was simply saying that it's harder for people in general to replace ram when the ram slot is under the keyboard and even harder for the people who don't feel confident in doing so.

Thankfully Ghost Train has showed that the ram slot is actually on the underside, so people don't have to worry too much.

stephendm

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

The typical response we see on any budget laptop thread.
If you only spend a few hundred more you will get a better spec,blah blah blah.
Running antivirus,Office and Firefox wouldnt even tax a 5 year old machine for crying out loud.
Not every person is looking to play cutting edge games or edit video on their laptop.
Most people just want to surf the web,listen to music,play videos ,use Office etc.
They dont need top of the range hardware.

Why would you buy a Ford car ,arent they a rubbish spec,better to spend a few thousand more and get a Ferrari,lol

OK! A very useful comment there! Well done!

First off, I said "It's an ok price I suppose for that spec" so yeah, a relatively good bargain (as the forum goes) compared to another of the same spec but I thought I'd also try to help and warn people so they don't waste their money. Bargain or not (in relation to other laptops of the same spec), it's NOT a good purchase.

If anything, your response is 'typical'.. full of ignorant assumptions.
I never said to "spend a few hundred more.." blah blah. I just said whoever buys one would regret it soon after..so not to buy it.


Why would you just assume I'm talking about video editing and gaming. I don't do either. I'm not talking about either.
I have a similar spec laptop and I just use it to "surf the web,listen to music,play videos ,use Office etc" and it is annoying as hell it's so slow / hangs a lot. (and no, there is nothing 'wrong' with it. It just has sucky hardware like the one mentioned here.)

On average I might have media player going, 5 or 6 tabs in IE7, Word, Access, cuteftp.. and then there's the O/S itself, antivirus (avast, which is actually great on resources compared to some of the other a/v softwares), I might open Photoshop every now and again on it but wouldn't be doing much other than touching up a photo or two. Fairly basic stuff.. (I believe that should answer someone's question above too)
You might do alright for a bit longer if XP was put on it but it's 250 euro. Don't know about anyone else but I haven't got that to waste on a laptop that's going to be seriously annoying cos it's just not good enough in a few months time.

Sure whatever anyway - If you want to take my advice, do. Glad to help. If not, (in a couple of months time), I told you so!

Let me simplify - if you want a good bargain on a sucky laptop, go buy this.

justsomebloke

Ghost Train wrote: »

replacing ram is easy on most laptops

heres how its done on this particualar laptop (Amilo Pi 2512)

But that is only the first RAM slot with the second one under the keyboard most people will probably be a bit too worried about having to remove the keyboard and putting it back on with out cocking up their new machine. Yes it can be relativily pain free but generally if you are use to doing it, if your not you may not feel comfortable doing it and generally the type of people these budget laptops are aimed at aren't the ones would would be in the category to want to take a part a machine.

As for would it be fine if it was upgraded to say 4gb of RAM, course it would and you wouldn't be regretting in 2 months once you are doing general stuff on it as some are implying

That said the fact that you can't get in anywhere sort of makes all arguments null and void as it doesn't matter

Amalgam

stephendm, if the buyer is happy browsing the web and using Microsoft Office, then the laptop's 'worth' has been fulfilled to the buyer, it's the laptop for them. It doesn't have to run Crysis...

Top Dog

Joe the Santa wrote: »

That said the fact that you can't get in anywhere sort of makes all arguments null and void as it doesn't matter

Think I'll try a few Dunnes Stores in Cork city when I'm down there tomorrow. Not gonna waste the diesel today in case its a fruitless effort.

Basq

Amalgam wrote: »

stephendm, if the buyer is happy browsing the web and using Microsoft Office, then the laptop's 'worth' has been fulfilled to the buyer, it's the laptop for them. It doesn't have to run Crysis...

Spot on sir..

The laptop is not clearly not meant for a heavy user out of the box.. but for casual usage, it'd be more than acceptable for browsing the web, using it for Office - especially using an anti-virus with low memory usage (e.g NOD 32).

stephendm

Amalgam wrote: »

stephendm, if the buyer is happy browsing the web and using Microsoft Office, then the laptop's 'worth' has been fulfilled to the buyer, it's the laptop for them. It doesn't have to run Crysis...

Again, Amalgam - I never mentioned running games on it.
Running Office alone is fine. Of course.
Running that and a pile of other 'everyday' software all at once - not so fine.

Ghost Train

Joe the Santa wrote: »

But that is only the first RAM slot with the second one under the keyboard most people will probably be a bit too worried about having to remove the keyboard and putting it back on with out cocking up their new machine. Yes it can be relativily pain free but generally if you are use to doing it, if your not you may not feel comfortable doing it and generally the type of people these budget laptops are aimed at aren't the ones would would be in the category to want to take a part a machine.

As for would it be fine if it was upgraded to say 4gb of RAM, course it would and you wouldn't be regretting in 2 months once you are doing general stuff on it as some are implying

That said the fact that you can't get in anywhere sort of makes all arguments null and void as it doesn't matter

Okay maybe your right, the manual doesn't mention that... kind of bad.
Under keyboard is a bit harder but have done it on a few laptops and never had an issue.

this thread mentions the 2515, a similar model.
http://www.amilo-forum.com/topic,264,-how-to-install-ram-into-a-x600-2nd-slot-under-the-keyboard.html

nowuckenfurries

Right I have personally called to 3 Dunnes Stores in the Colp / Drogheda area:

Dunnes Colp: Do not have this laptop, they only have a "business spec" Fujitsu
Dunnes Scotch Hall: have the Pi 2727 for EUR 399.00

Dunnes Laurence Street: do not sell laptops.

Anyone other than the OP manage to get their hands on one of these ??

Amalgam

A lot of people would settle for this laptop. Seemingly, the only downside is the RAM, but as anyone knows, that is easy to replace, apart from *cough* the Mac Mini, mentioned in the thread.

It's only a few years back a very very very average laptop would have been starting at 700 euro odd, I'm always amazed at how technology bottoms out pricewise.

Ghost Train

basquille wrote: »

Slow down..!

Challenging RAM upgrades? Well, I'm going to upgrade the RAM on my Mac Mini.. not easy!

http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/macmini-ram/index.shtml

well I said most
Macs are always a bit special