Half Price Dunnes Laptop

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

parsi

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.

Under the keyboard ram is a bit more fiddly but unlike what was suggested a 3-year degree in computer science isn't needed.

maidhc

basquille wrote: »

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).

Jeez I dunno. I still use my 1.2 Ghz Dell x300 with a 60Gb HD and 640mb ram.

It runs everything I need perfect. I will even run Photoshop CS should i want to.

What do people do these days?

Effluo

This is a fantastic deal and would suit over 90% of consumers needs!

I got my mom a laptop vsimilar to this and it's great! Does everything she could ever want it to and this for €275 is outstanding value for money....

Vista may on your systems appear to need a lot of ram but in fact vista(like firefox) only uses a lot of ram when there is a lot of ram available. For instance on my pc with 4g's of ram it uses 1.5g's on my moms laptop which has 1.5gigs of ram it only uses 700mbs!

You will not find better specs for that price! (guarantee it)

karlyk1

Eh, discussing the merits and otherwise of this offer is pretty redundant, as it doesn't seem to exist anywhere! If anyone can tell us if they have actually SEEN this offer in the flesh anywhere (other than the OP's store) please tell us... So far it seems to be as elusive as the Loch Ness monster.

Gulliver

The fact it's a Fujitsu Siemens bothers me more than the spec. They're just not sturdy enough for the "casual" user. I've seen loads of these things in for repair. The plastic is weak, the power supply just gives up sometimes it just plain dies (system board).

I also saw a bunch of them get together on the repair bench and try to summon Satan when they thought no-one was looking.

pjproby

its not available in The Mill Clondalkin anyway-specs or no specs-has anyone else seen them.

IrishHomer

I purchased a half price acer laptop last year in Dunes and i recall they were not on the shelf and i had to ask, staff then went tpo store and got me one.

They explained ot me that Dunnes dont show all their stock on shelves for security reasons and laptops are mainly behind in stores. I also noticed that time that staff vary in diffferent stores as some will be very helpfull and find the laptops where other staff may not give a toss and just say there are none because they just could not be bothered with the hassle of searching.

squibs

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

Even the OP didn't get his hands on one - I was just passing on the info of what I saw. As Top Dog mentioned, the box I saw was just a box - no stock available in the Mallow store, and still no confirmed reports of it available in other stores. Apologies if it turns out to be just one unit that was available in Mallow.

RLJ

What is the speed of the FSB?

The_Conductor

Top Dog wrote: »

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?

Take Photoshop out of the list above, and its fine.