Student laptop. Help with decision please.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Im going to college and need a laptop. Ive been interested in a dell xps (799), the new macbook (891-student discount) and a sony vaio for around 500-700. What i want to know is which is the best buy and is there any better out there for 600-1000 euro?

Alanstrainor

What do you want it for? Just basic web and office apps? Gaming? What Operating System have you used before? Windows?

leninbenjamin

decide what's important to you. weight, performance, screen size being the main factors. Assuming normal college use (i.e. internet and some Office apps) you don't need anything in the way of performance.

if you're going to be lugging it around everywhere you go have a look at the netbooks as well, and save yourself some money at the same time. an NC10 with an extended battery wouldn't be too bad. It'll be light, wont take up too much desk space when you're in the library, and battery life on those netbooks is pretty good (something like 6 hours?) meaning you wont need to fight over socket space in cramped college spaces.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Yeah ill basically just be using it for youtube, downloading music, Bebo, facebook, writing assignments and stuff like that. I wont really be using it for gaming. Id be more into funky snooker than the serious stuff! :-) ive used macs and windows before

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Yeah good battery life would be very handy. I really like that macbook. But is it worth the price or will i just be paying for the label?

Alanstrainor

You could significantly cut your budget if those are your requirements, not much point spending 800+ when you'd be just as happy with a machine that cost 4/500.

fintonie

id strike the dell out I have had a couple of them and plenty of trouble, not major things but its still hassel there sound cards give probs to

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

fintonie wrote: »

id strike the dell out I have had a couple of them and plenty of trouble, not major things but its still hassel there sound cards give probs to

Ok thanks, i want something that will last a few years so that wouldnt work.

leninbenjamin

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

Yeah good battery life would be very handy. I really like that macbook. But is it worth the price or will i just be paying for the label?

you could get a better specced windows notebook for much less. For example 750 will get you a Dell Studio 15 with a P8600 (2.4Ghz), 4GB DDR2 and a 4570 (512MB dedicated graphics memory). But by the sounds of it that would be overkill for you.

Mr. Razzcocks

I'm using an Advent 4211-B, small and does the job.. battery life isn't great although there has been newer versions of it made and with larger HD and Ram

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

The dell studio sounds good. Exept i dont understand that pc talk. Is that alot of memory? Ill be downloading alot of songs. Would it be quick to download? Whats the battery like? Thanks again.

fintonie

Mr. Razzcocks wrote: »

I'm using an Advent 4211-B, small and does the job.. battery life isn't great although there has been newer versions of it made and with larger HD and Ram

yes the advent i think is underrated I know user who have had them and gave good reports plus they seem to last for the 4/5 yrs your looking for no problem

mazzano4

I am selling mine if your interested
HP Compaq 6510b Laptop Computer. Intel Centrino Duo (Dual Core Processor) 2 Gig Memory, 80 Gig Hard drive, Dual Layer DVD/CD Re Writer, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, Finger Print Biometric Security Scanner, HP Drive Guard,Embedded Security and TMP Chip Security, 14.1" WXGA Widescreen Display, 4 USB Ports, 1 Firewire Port, External Monitor Port,Ethernet Port, Also has Sensor Bar which controls Volume up-down, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi on off and also programmable for you to Quickstart 2 Applications of your choice with HP QuickLaunch. This really is a great laptop and a bargain

Price: €350

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Mazzano, id be iffy about buying a second hand pc. How old is it? Does it have a virus? What did u pay for it new? Could you post a pic of it? How fast is it? Cheers

fintonie

mazzano4 wrote: »

I am selling mine if your interested
HP Compaq 6510b Laptop Computer. Intel Centrino Duo (Dual Core Processor) 2 Gig Memory, 80 Gig Hard drive, Dual Layer DVD/CD Re Writer, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, Finger Print Biometric Security Scanner, HP Drive Guard,Embedded Security and TMP Chip Security, 14.1" WXGA Widescreen Display, 4 USB Ports, 1 Firewire Port, External Monitor Port,Ethernet Port, Also has Sensor Bar which controls Volume up-down, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi on off and also programmable for you to Quickstart 2 Applications of your choice with HP QuickLaunch. This really is a great laptop and a bargain

Price: €350

yep you will have to travel a bit to beat that something he should seriously consider

Voodu Child

fintonie wrote: »

yep you will have to travel a bit to beat that

No you won't. You'd be mad to buy a low-spec used machine for that kind of money.

You'll get a good Dual-Core laptop these days for €500. And it'll have more ram and a bigger hard-drive than an old machine, a fresh battery, plus some kind of warranty.

yupyup7up

Ive sold them for 4 years, Ive a Bsc. in software development and im a web developer so please take my advice.

Do NOT buy advent, packard bell, HP, compaq or any other small brands.

advent are currys and pcworlds own brand and are terrible.
HPs and compaq frequently overheat, give blue screens and have a lot of troublesome S/W pre installed.

Sonys are decent but not worth their extortionate cost.
Samsungs & ACER are also decent.

My personal choice is DELL, (I have a DELL vostro laptop, inspiron desktop and many of my friends and family also have them)

They are extremely reliable, well built, and are value for money.

Specification -wise, for what you said you are going to do, you can get a DELL inspiron with,
2ghz intel core 2 proccessor,
3/4gb RAM,
160gb hard drive,
WiFi,
CD/DVDRW

and all the other crap you might want for around €500 or less.
my sister recently got one with a really hi-spec in currys for aound 550€

but trust me here, get a dell and get a core 2 proccessor!

Fol20

Stick with dell,their suitable for you for a number of reasons.
1.Their support service for people unfamiliar with pcs is second to none.
2.When you have hardware problems,they are very helpful and send you out parts or get the pc fixed with ease,unlike other brands such as toshiba(i currently have a qosmio and when that gave trouble i had to send it to them for about a month while when i had dell they came out to me to fix it)
3.Their cheap and affordable and will be fine for your needs.

I highly recommend this guy..hes a ebay business seller that has sold of 20k stuff so hes safe.
More importantly you say you want to keep it for a few years,well with this seller you get a 3 YEAR DELL WARRANTY.This means you deal directly with dell if you have any problems so it will be perfect for you.

I had a quick search through his items and these 2 pcs should be ok for your needs

Dell mini 12
http://cgi.ebay.ie/DELL-MINI-12-Net-Book-1-33ghz-60GB-1GB-Black-LID-e251_W0QQitemZ350227604358QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item518b312386&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Although dell mini range arent the best in the market,for the price and guarantee,its not bad.Plus with the 12inch range your not sacrificing keyboard typing either.


Dell studio
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Dell-Studio-15-1555-Laptop-2-0-2GB-250HD-3YR-e486_W0QQitemZ300335072793QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item45ed5d8619&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Although the ram could be better,this mid range computer could be for and again it has the 3 year guarantee.

mazzano4

What drugs are you on mate, I have had HP and HP Compaq hardware the majority of my computing life and i am 41 and have never had a problem with any of it, i certainly would not have a Dell system of any kind through bad experiences of people i know have had with their kit, so dont right off systems you clearly know nothing about, And before you give out asking what
i know i work in R & D in Surface Mount Tech so i have a little bit of an idea!!

fintonie

yupyup7up wrote: »

Ive sold them for 4 years, Ive a Bsc. in software development and im a web developer so please take my advice.

Do NOT buy advent, packard bell, HP, compaq or any other small brands.

advent are currys and pcworlds own brand and are terrible.
HPs and compaq frequently overheat, give blue screens and have a lot of troublesome S/W pre installed.

Sonys are decent but not worth their extortionate cost.
Samsungs & ACER are also decent.

My personal choice is DELL, (I have a DELL vostro laptop, inspiron desktop and many of my friends and family also have them)

They are extremely reliable, well built, and are value for money.

Specification -wise, for what you said you are going to do, you can get a DELL inspiron with,
2ghz intel core 2 proccessor,
3/4gb RAM,
160gb hard drive,
WiFi,
CD/DVDRW

and all the other crap you might want for around €500 or less.
my sister recently got one with a really hi-spec in currys for aound 550€

but trust me here, get a dell and get a core 2 proccessor!

I had 2 dell inspiron 1720s both were crap giving probs from day 1

mazzano4

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

Mazzano, id be iffy about buying a second hand pc. How old is it? Does it have a virus? What did u pay for it new? Could you post a pic of it? How fast is it? Cheers

Hi, I paid 900euros for it a year and few months maybe, no viruses, has Norton and Spybot S&D on it and its a 2 gig Dual Core

Hope that helps

And i would give a quarantee with it as well

yupyup7up

the HP and compaq desktops are fine but the laptops are are horrible! Ive a vostro 1500 2 years now and its never given me any trouble. plus you can get XP with it.:D

When I used to sell computers(which was up until very recently) the majority of faulty machines(HW based problems) were HP and compaq laptops. im speaking from my experience with them, and Ive dealt with quite a large number of machines. from what Ive seen, DELL have been consistently the best. Ill also make a case for Asus but they are more expensive again. Id happily buy another DELL machine if I were to replace my own

yupyup7up

fintonie wrote: »

I had 2 dell inspiron 1720s both were crap giving probs from day 1

what problems did u have with them? what O/S?

mazzano4

yupyup7up wrote: »

the HP and compaq desktops are fine but the laptops are are horrible! Ive a vostro 1500 2 years now and its never given me any trouble. plus you can get XP with it.:D

When I used to sell computers(which was up until very recently) the majority of faulty machines(HW based problems) were HP and compaq laptops. im speaking from my experience with them, and Ive dealt with quite a large number of machines. from what Ive seen, DELL have been consistently the best. Ill also make a case for Asus but they are more expensive again. Id happily buy another DELL machine if I were to replace my own

Well i also have a interest in buying and selling of hardware and still do,so im definatly qualified to say to you everyone is entitiled to an opinion but yours is wrong on the HP Compaq Laptops, and i cannot believe you are cheering for Dell machinery its crap,but like i said we are all entitiled to our opinion

mazzano4

Voodu Child wrote: »

No you won't. You'd be mad to buy a low-spec used machine for that kind of money.

You'll get a good Dual-Core laptop these days for €500. And it'll have more ram and a bigger hard-drive than an old machine, a fresh battery, plus some kind of warranty.

Mine is Dual Core, read the post

yupyup7up

mazzano4 wrote: »

Well i also have a interest in buying and selling of hardware and still do,so im definatly qualified to say to you everyone is entitiled to an opinion but yours is wrong on the HP Compaq Laptops, and i cannot believe you are cheering for Dell machinery its crap,but like i said we are all entitiled to our opinion

oh no lad. Its not an opinion. Its a fact based on what Ive seen from working in the industry. If I didnt have as much experience with the machines as I did I wouldn't have even bothered to recommend anything. But the reality is that I've sold and repaired(SW problems) on laptops and desktops for 4 years and thats been my conclusion. Don't get me wrong, all manufacturers are going to have units that fail no matter what brand, but HPs and Advents(Even though HPs are savage machines) tend to be unreliable

mazzano4

Also as i said i am 41 and not a Lad, and if 4 years is all the experience you have you definatly are not qualified to be handing out the advice you are doing, your advice is built on your experience alone, but carry on, and to the man looking at the dell Good Luck with that!!!

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Could somebody point me in the right direction for a really good, reliable, high quality, user friendly laptop around the 500-1000 euro range. Preferably for about 700 or 800. Basically, within that pricerange, what is the best laptop out there. Thanks.

yupyup7up

fair enough. How is 4 years experience of sales etc. not enough to recommend a machine for a student? What makes you qualified to state that Dell machines are crap? Even if you worked for Dell, you still wouldn't know the reliability of other brands based on those sold in the irish domestic market. I actually couldn't possibly have much more experience in the knowledge of PC reliability. 4 years of sales of tons of a different brands and diagnosis of any SW problems is still going to give a far better indications than lets say a SW engineer with 40 years experience, where only a few machines have been dealt with for work. Ive used, repaired and sold more than enough computers to know what Im talking about.

yupyup7up

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

Could somebody point me in the right direction for a really good, reliable, high quality, user friendly laptop around the 500-1000 euro range. Preferably for about 700 or 800. Basically, within that pricerange, what is the best laptop out there. Thanks.

youd get a really high spec DELL inspiron 1545 for around 500-550 with 2Ghz core 2 processor, 3/4 Gb ram and 160-250Gb hard disc in currys or pc world. It is more than enough for a good few years for what you want

Voodu Child

There's an Inspiron 15 there on Dells website (link) for €499. Its a 2GHz Dual-Core, 4GB ram, 320GB hard-drive. Thats a good machine for the money. Actually they've a decent model for €430 also, slightly lower spec but would still be fine for a basic user.

Then, if you're looking at spending more, i'd have a look at the Studio 15 (15.6") link. They've a nice one for €599, has a nice LED screen and a good graphics card, and you could go and upgrade a few components if you really wanted to spend your budget.

hblock21

Can someone point me in the direction of the ladies lounge....

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Thanks yupyup7up and v. Child. I think i might get a dell. But do these come with microsoft office and word and all that? Cause the xps doesnt? And what anti-virus software would you all recommend, as i will more than likely be using limewire.

fintonie

yupyup7up wrote: »

what problems did u have with them? what O/S?

I have one sitting in the corner when i start it up once it loads and i try to do stuff it freezes i have to start from safe mode with networks so i have no sound but at least it let me on the internet

Voodu Child

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

Thanks yupyup7up and v. Child. I think i might get a dell. But do these come with microsoft office and word and all that? Cause the xps doesnt? And what anti-virus software would you all recommend, as i will more than likely be using limewire.

They come with Microsoft Works as standard, which is a stripped-down, less powerful suite of apps. When you are a speccing a Dell laptop, you can purchase the full Office suite at a cost, something like €70 or €100 (various versions at different costs). To be honest, no laptop will come with MS Office 'for free', it will always add extra cost to the laptop if it is included. Many people just use Open Office (free) these days.

AVG Free, Avast, or Avira are 3 popular free security suites.

fintonie

I have just been in here exact saame problem as mine

Problems with Dell laptop (1 2)

username4321

hi yaba.. sorry for hijacking your thread- I'm in the same predicament and have a few questions (seeing as we're on the subject!)
I need a laptop for college.
I haven't a clue about computers so when window shopping I don't understand a thing. Even on this thread I'm lost.

Basically need something small, with a usb port, something i can put my camera memory card into (think its an xd or sd).
Internet (that can conect 2 wireless). Little slots on the laptop that sound comes out of.
Windows (as in the system ).
A cd/dvd drive. something iTunes will be able to run on.
Thats pretty much it! I dont need a lot of memory, I will be writing up assignments on it but will probably buy a little memory usb stick too.
The internet I just need for boards,facebook,news etc. Nothing fancy.
Im on a budget though need something cheap as poss. I dont mind buying 2nd hand but don't want something big and clunky as I'l probably be carrying the laptop into college in a handbag or small rucksack.

Any ideas? what about acer? would that be suitable?

itsallaboutme!!

just read through this thread and had to post be wary of Dell in my opinion. I am in the middle of trying to get an inspiron fix atm. it was only bought back in october last year so its almost 10 months old and it now needs its hard drive replaced!!!
i have to pay dell 34e to have a technician come to repair it as it is impossible for me to send it back to them for repair.I also had to pay 89e for a suspected software problem as software is not covered in their warranty. i did get my 89e back after a week of phone calls being on hold and trying to explain the problems to various different people. they eventually realised its the hard drive that needs replacing!!!

I actually have a medion laptop that I bought nearly three years ago from aldi when they had them in one of their monday or thursday specials and it has never given me any problems. my boyf has a targa laptop that he bought in lidl about 5 years ago and the same thing it has never given him any problems either!!like the op was saying my boyf uses his for internet and mainly itunes he is big into music and would have thousands of songs on it and never had any problems!!

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

So the general consensis is the dell studio?

thelittleone

Hi! ive have a macbook and I love it! I find it much easier to use than a normal pc, its def well worth the money! however remember u will have 2 buy word etc for mac (I got it on softwareforstudents.com) if you want it to be compatable with other college computers!

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

thelittleone, how much did it set u back altogether? I really want one but if its over a grand no thanks

thelittleone

I was lucky, i have a contact in apple and therefore got a discount I think it was about 850e over all. think they start at about 900e on the website. and the software was approx 50/60.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

thelittleone wrote: »

think they start at about 900e on the website. and the software was approx 50/60.

Ill have a serious think bout that! Ive heard macbooks are second to none in their quality.. How is it for u?

Alanstrainor

Right everybody, let's keep this on topic and reply to the OP's post. Any more off topic posts and there'll be more infractions handed out.

thelittleone

Its brillient. very easy to use. i do all my assignments on it, use the internet everyday... facebook, boards, youtube etc, watch dvd's!! never had a problem with it. its much faster then a dell i used to have! the charger stopped working after a few months but there aftersales service was great. I went into an apple store, they replaced it within a matter af minutes with no hassle at all. i def recomend them.

gurf33

Hi in my opinion as you are only interested in word processing and internet usage I dont see the point in going out and paying big money for a laptop. Especially as you are a student. In my opinion, and it is an opinion only I would purchase a Dell from tesco.

I understand there will be people who disagree with me on this but I have purchased ones from them before and they have been fantastic.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-3557.aspx

is a perfect example at the minute and only £399 apologies for not being in euros.

This laptop has an ideal spec for what you need it and that frees up some money to put towards other stuff.

Furthermore if you require more space as i am not sure how much you would download I suggest an external hard drive. I believe play.com are selling 1 tera bytes for approx 70 pounds which is plenty of space.

for microsoft office legit copy i suggest

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Thanks gurf, however i may only NEED word and the internet, i want more than that. I want to buy a pc and not have to worry about upgrading it every few months with extra bits to keep up with the times. Its either the dell studio or macbook for me i think

denat

gurf33 wrote: »

Hi in my opinion as you are only interested in word processing and internet usage I dont see the point in going out and paying big money for a laptop. Especially as you are a student. In my opinion, and it is an opinion only I would purchase a Dell from tesco.

I understand there will be people who disagree with me on this but I have purchased ones from them before and they have been fantastic.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-3557.aspx

is a perfect example at the minute and only £399 apologies for not being in euros.

This laptop has an ideal spec for what you need it and that frees up some money to put towards other stuff.

Furthermore if you require more space as i am not sure how much you would download I suggest an external hard drive. I believe play.com are selling 1 tera bytes for approx 70 pounds which is plenty of space.

for microsoft office legit copy i suggest

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

Don't think this is available from Tesco Ireland anyway. Link seems to be from a foreign website.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

Sorry for all the questions but is it true that mac computers cannot get viruses?

fintonie

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

Sorry for all the questions but is it true that mac computers cannot get viruses?

id say no or we would just by mac me thinks

gurf33

No problem. Then if I were you it would be dell all the way.