Chosse a Laptop!

dazzday

Hey guys,

Looking for a little help in choosing a budget laptop for my GF's brother. Hes looking for one for college, and from what i know needs would be possibly CAD and Solidworks, standard college work, movies, internet browsing and possibly light gaming (no cysis or anything like that). Budget pretty much below €500.
Looking at these two at the moment:

Toshiba Satelitte Pro L3000D-22E - €420 ( After €57 cash back and inc Delivery) LAPTOPSDIRECT.IE

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_L300D-22E_Laptop_PSLC9E-016001EN/version.asp?switchc=e

Basic Specs:

• Processor - AMD Athlon X2 QL-64 / 2.1 GHz ( Dual-Core )
• RAM - 3 GB (installed) / 8 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM - 800 MHz ( 1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB )
• Hard Drive - 250 GB - Serial ATA-300 - 5400 rpm
• Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
  (Win 7 Upgrade)
• Screen - 15.4' TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - TruBrite
• Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
• Graphics - ATI Radeon 3100
• Bluetooth - No
• Notebook Camera - Integrated - 0.3 Megapixel
• Battery - 4000 mAh LI-Ion
• Warranty - 1 year warranty

Dell Inspiron 15 - €464.00 (inc delivery)
DELL.IE

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=NRS15452&l=en&m_30=136643&oc=N0054502&rbc=N0054502&s=dhs


Processor - Intel Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz)
RAM- 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
Hard Drive - 250 GB - Serial ATA-300 - 5400 rpm
Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
(Win 7 Upgrade)
Screen - 15.6" Widescreen WXGA CCFL (1366 x 768) - TruBrite
Optical Drive - DVD +/- RW Drive
Graphics - Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD
(could upgrade 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 for +€50)
Bluetooth - No
Notebook Camera - No (1.5MP for +€40)
Battery - 4 Cell 24Whr Lithium-Ion (6 cell +€20)
Wireless - Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
Warranty - 1 year warranty

Any thoughts on these? From what i see the biggest difference is that toshiba has a slightly better graphics card and the Dell more memory.

Anybody have any other possible laptops fitting in those critea/price range?

thanks guys.

Ubaroo

I would go for the Dell, have had bad experiences with laptopsdirect. But still, if a different retailer was selling the Toshiba I would still go for the dell.

How about this? It has a bigger screen (not sure if thats a good or bad thing), more memory and a larger hard drive, bit more expensive than the other two though.

dazzday

looks nice. Although will it have a win 7 upgrade?
NVidia 9100M G could be a big selling point, certainly better than Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD...any body have any experience with this for moderate gaming???

WolfForager

4 cell battery with a dell? That's just asking for trouble

shortys94

Are harvey norman generally good to buy from?

I was looking at a white sony vaio there today for 799, with 4gb ram, 2.00gz core duo processor and a 250gb hd, its white and i think the model is the cs21?

Are sony a good brand to go with? What about the 2.00ghz processor?

The dell studio 15 also seems good, just puzzled as to what to buy

BizTalker

I would go for Dell laptops,great machines and they have good bargains nowadays.

WolfForager

BizTalker wrote: »

I would go for Dell laptops,great machines and they have good bargains nowadays.

Good bargains? I picked a dell studio 15, upgraded it to 4gb ram, 512mb ATI graphics and 350gb HDD and it was 1,200 euro. I just bought a samsung for half that price and it's just as good if not better.

BizTalker

WolfForager wrote: »

Good bargains? I picked a dell studio 15, upgraded it to 4gb ram, 512mb ATI graphics and 350gb HDD and it was 1,200 euro. I just bought a samsung for half that price and it's just as good if not better.

I would not buy myself Studio laptop with your configuration!You overpaid for RAM and Graphics card. + your graphics will not take you far in gaming .Hope you really needed the 4gb RAM.
I was talking about good office laptops. If I need a gaming machine I would go for PC not laptop!

shortys94

Intel® Pentium® Processor T4200 (2.0GHz, 800MHz, 1MB cache)

This is the processor which comes with the deal, would this be a good processor or should I upgrade it to a dual core? Does it matter?

Catalyst

Hi,

I Know I'm the competition and all but just to let you know that we do that toshiba promotion as well and as far as I know, That Toshiba laptop is NOT part of the September Cash Back promo.

Would be wise to double check now before finding out you cant get Cash Back.....

These are the 4 that we are aware of with €55 cashback

http://www.elara.ie/products/resultscashback.asp?manu=TOSHIBA

and

PSLB9E-04L003EN - Satellite Pro L300-291

shortys94

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1751877

Could anyone tell me whether this would be a good buy? Seems like a good price, I don't want it for gaming so the graphics card isn't important.

mickser42

you should take a look at the lenovos on laptopsdirect.ie which are very good budget laptops and are very well specced for the price.....

of the original 2 you asked about I would say the dell is a stronger machine