Help a novice....good laptop deal max 300 euro budget

irishvamp90

Hey guys
can anyone help with a laptop/netbook i hav 300 euro to spend and want to buy this week.Just want it for email,facebook,youtube,storing a little music and photos but i can always add a external hardrive im told

whizgremlin

Hi irishvamp,

Personally speaking I think you're going to need a bit more than 300euro to buy any kind of decent laptop - if ur not deadset on purchasing a laptop I would suggest maybe looking at a desktop computer instead, then you can pick up something good in that price range.

irishvamp90

300 is my max i know its not alot i saw some mini laptops and netbooks around.xtra vision are doing an acer aspire for 299?

whizgremlin

irishvamp90 wrote: »

300 is my max i know its not alot i saw some mini laptops and netbooks around.xtra vision are doing an acer aspire for 299?

Ive seen those aswell, they only offer 1Gig of ram and its not much at all especially with vista installed its going to be verrrrry slow for you - u need atleast 2gigs ideally if your going to get any type of laptop and with just those little extras such as the 2gig RAM it can be the difference between playing music while surfing on the net to crashing and hanging your laptop on just a mere 1gig! Personally I think they are just gimmicks and in the long run your going to end up binning it and still looking for a better deal but 300 euro down the drain

irishvamp90

Ok can you give me a few basic pointers and terms to look out for please?like ram.gig etc

actually my friend in college got tosbia laptop for around 400 with vista and its very slow any tips on that?

whizgremlin

Ok, i know what its like to be excited about getting a laptop and wanting one straight away, but if you keep ur 300 and save a little bit extra and wait a little longer prices will come down and you will be able to get a good deal soon!

Look out for the following:
RAM - 2GB RAM ok..this will help applications and surfing the internet work more smoothly and quicker
Processor Speed - Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz x 2 (you might see AMD Athlon, this is an alternative to Intel, sometimes they are cheaper, ive had them before on a desktop computer and i found that they overheated on me, but i did have the pc on 24-7 but again they are an option for you)
hard drive sizes can vary starting with an 40/80gig will be fine, you can always add on extra external hard drive/usb etc
wireless LAN/Ethernet port - ability to use broadband
card readers - for your digital cams, mobiles etc
atleast 2 usb ports
dvdrw - ability to watch dvds! load cdroms etc..
bluetooth enabled - again for wireless connectivity with mobiles, etc..
the laptop model can vary, ive always liked HP products and i do have a HP laptop for the last few years and ive had no problems, so from a personal point of view i recommend HP/Compaq.

thats basically the gist of it, but having that information in mind now you will be able to see through the gimmicks and what really is value for money... hope this helps you out...

as for ur friend im assuming they also fell into the false sense of value with their laptop, i would recommend removing vista and installing xp, but this can be tricky unless u know someone who knows what they are doing! Otherwise u can always get a memory upgrade if that is the problem, its just hard to tell it could be something simple either with alot of programs running on start up or in the background...could be anything that is slowing down ur friends laptop...would need abit more information on that one...

TerrorFirmer

Minimum:

Processor - not important as long as its a full sized laptop, even the slowest dual cores/Celeron/Sempron based CPU's are much faster then their budget counterparts of years past.

Ram - 2GB for Vista.

Hard Drive - not overly important either, minimum tends to be 80-120gb or so these days, plenty for day to day use and storage.

Wireless - comes as standard everywhere, no need to worry.

Bluetooth - completely unnecessary. A tiny adapter would cost about 5 euro if it becomes urgent but it's very much a luxury. This also applies to card reader. I have bluetooth and a reader in my laptop, both of which are used incredibly rarely, and are extras not commonly found in bargain bin laptops.

Optical - every laptop has a DVD-RW as standard now, even the cheapest ones I've seen. You'd really have to go out of your way to find one without (note that netbooks have no drive whatsoever.)

I would advise against a netbook, they're slow, have no optical drive and can be somewhat frustrating to type on - though ones like the MSI Wind with decent keyboards are actually quite good. Some have poor batteries also.

whizgremlin

yikes @ the processor comment terrorfirmer

bluetooth a luxury? goodluck finding a decent bluetooth dongle for a 5er! :rolleyes:

Alanstrainor

Here's one for about €1.50 Deal Extreme Bluetooth

I have it, it works a treat.

whizgremlin

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Here's one for about €1.50 Deal Extreme Bluetooth

I have it, it works a treat.

not bad, not bad - i stand corrected! :cool:

AlmightyCushion

whizgremlin wrote: »

yikes @ the processor comment terrorfirmer

In fairness he is right. I really wish intel would rebrand their celeron chips just to ditch the horrible name attached to them. They're nowhere near as rubbish as people make them out to be.

whizgremlin

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

In fairness he is right. I really wish intel would rebrand their celeron chips just to ditch the horrible name attached to them. They're nowhere near as rubbish as people make them out to be.

i know the newest isnt always the best and if its not broken dont try and fix it, but for me processor speed would be 1 of the main factors I would be considering when investing money in a laptop/pc especially when I would depend on a high amount of resource power...as for the original poster their demands arent as strict...so yes they are correct...but I dont see the point in being so flippant about not bothering about the processor especially when your on a budget - every penny counts and id never spend money on something that would "just do"...would you?

AdMMM

id never spend money on something that would "just do"...would you?

Do you drive a Ferrari? You're pretty much suggesting that the OP buys a Ferrari instead of the Ford Fiesta that would do the job nicely. Pretty much any laptop on the market will their needs and why waste money on features that they don't need?

whizgremlin

AdMMM wrote: »

Do you drive a Ferrari? You're pretty much suggesting that the OP buys a Ferrari instead of the Ford Fiesta that would do the job nicely. Pretty much any laptop on the market will their needs and why waste money on features that they don't need?

well its not a ferrari but its a 20k jeep but thats neither here nor there....all im saying is that i dont compromise on something im going to be using alot, and thats what my point was with regards to the laptop checklist, if ur going to spend whatever amount of money on something u might aswell save that little bit extra to get something that ur not going to need to update or addon to...and whats more is im speaking from experience..when i first started in IT i spent god knows how much on making my own computer and when i wanted a laptop i got the best and 3 years later its still as fantastic as the day i bought it...

and to be honest, who would really settle for a fiesta when they could save a lil extra and get that ferrari :rolleyes: you?

Alanstrainor

whizgremlin wrote: »

well its not a ferrari but its a 20k jeep but thats neither here nor there....all im saying is that i dont compromise on something im going to be using alot, and thats what my point was with regards to the laptop checklist, if ur going to spend whatever amount of money on something u might aswell save that little bit extra to get something that ur not going to need to update or addon to...and whats more is im speaking from experience..when i first started in IT i spent god knows how much on making my own computer and when i wanted a laptop i got the best and 3 years later its still as fantastic as the day i bought it...

and to be honest, who would really settle for a fiesta when they could save a lil extra and get that ferrari :rolleyes: you?

The OP has a very definite budget in mind. Basically what you're saying is "Spend more". 300 would buy a fine netbook, that would suit the OP's needs.
Here's a few:
EEE PC 1005HA
Samsung N130
Acer aspire one D150b

This ones 30 over budget but it's got the best reputation around these parts.
Samsung NC10

whizgremlin

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The OP has a very definite budget in mind. Basically what you're saying is "Spend more". 300 would buy a fine netbook, that would suit the OP's needs.
Here's a few:
EEE PC 1005HA
Samsung N130
Acer aspire one D150b

This ones 30 over budget but it's got the best reputation around these parts.
Samsung NC10

i guess im just too "die hard" when it comes to buying anything computer/IT related, I would never settle for anything just because it was within a certain price range, I just have to have the best no matter what the cost, but I do have realistic expectations of course.

Goodluck to the OP, hope you find what you want at a great deal :cool: