Rate these laptops

joepenguin

Hi guys and gals.

I am looking for a laptop for college use and have a max budget of 500 euro (studying in the uk so call it 450 pound)

I have came across this laptop with a good spec:
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0984817459.1254239666@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgcadeihedgfgicflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=026406&category_oid=-31797#productInformationSection
The only issue i have with it is that it is not a known brand. Went into currys the other day and yer man said it was pc world brand and with other brands its just the shell u paying for. Inside it all the same. You get a 500gb hard drive with 3gb ram for 339 pound. about 380euro.

I can get the dell inspiron 15 with the same spec (320 hard drive intsead of 500) for around 439 gbp with a little customising.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Laptops/laptop-inspiron-1545/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-inspiron-1545&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&~ck=mn


Here is a sony one for equivalent of 450 euro: http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0104973106.1254246446@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgcadeihelmjjmcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&fm=2&sm=1&tm=0&sku=301908&category_oid= has 250gb hard drive. 3gb ram.

packard bell: 3gb memory, 320gb hard drive http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0104973106.1254246446@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgcadeihelmjjmcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&fm=2&sm=1&tm=0&sku=476409&category_oid=

ill post a toshiba one as by the looks of things its recommended:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0161627946.1254246356@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfkadeihedgfedcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=191588&category_oid= only thing is though its web only price.

Main uses:

Usual net stuff, boards, facebook etc.
College work.. some virtual lab type stuff but doubt its too demanding.
Live streams for boxing etc.
Storing and downloading music.
Storing photos, pdfs etc.

If you could recommend one from the list or something else you know of would be a great help.

Also what all in one printer/photocopier/scanner would be best for ink usage etc

Cheers

brownbinman

1st vote!!!

have HP for over a year and excellent,i do exactly what your looking for a laptop and its perfect for it

joepenguin

Cheers for that.

dazzday

Big selling point of the Packard Bell model is the HDMI...something quite rare to find for a laptop under 500 quid. Ideal if you plan to connect up to a TV.
The Toshiba and Dell however have slighty better proccessors, while the sony is meh. The Dell can be as good as you want due to the high level of customisation.

Best bet is to google some reviews, comments and any known problems of each machine.

none

Had 5 laptops (well, just got 6th, Samsung NC10, in fact!) since 2001: 2 Gateways, 1 Acer, 1 Toshiba and 1 Sony. Most hesitant about Sony which I currently use (AW11Z), still don't know if I can recommend it. I know it's not your budget but we're talking brands here. So can't say anything about Sony as it doesn't work as well as others but I'm not sure if it's because of ****ty OS (XP) or ****ty hardware. Don't use Toshiba much, it's my wife's machine, but for the price it's OK, despite even worse OS (Vista). You may consider it, it's Satellite Pro A200. Acer is a hero so recommended with both hands. It's been in use since 2003 and started to show age only this year. It did have a motherboard glitch in the first year but after a free local (despite being bought in Germany) repair under Acer warranty, it continued to serve me up until now. It is used rather rarely now but this is the best machine I had (Aspire 1700). Again, it might not be your budget but I do trust Acer after such a long lasting relationship. Two Gateways are a separate story because you can't really get them here anymore. One is more than 8 years old and is still quite brisk when used (very seldom). The other is half that age and is still used actively. No probs with either, never. So brand-wise, my list would start from Gateway, then Acer, then, well, Toshiba and Sony. Bottom of my list is HP closely followed by Dell (I hope I'll never own any computer from them). Based on my experience (~20 years), these two are the total nightmare in the PC division (not so sure about laptops though). Paradox here is that Compaq was my long time favourite before swallowed by HP which is my all time outsider. By the way, both Gateway and eMachines belong to Acer now.

Overheal

2 years into an HP - dont. Tech support is a joke. I was owed a motherboard swap fro mthat nvidia fiasco - it took me 2 weeks and several hours of chat sessions to get them to agree to it at all.

Of course the laptop might not have overheated in the first place if they would finally design a removable panel for the heatsink so we can actually get dust out of the machine. Oh, and if youre getting a built-in mic, make sure it features noise cancellation: nobody can hear me over the vibration from the CPU fan.

weird

since there was no Apple choice I voted emachines

joepenguin

none wrote: »

By the way, both Gateway and eMachines belong to Acer now.

So emachines is basically an acer machine with a different name? Its just that its so cheap Im thinking maybe the components wont be great quality and should go with something trusted like a toshiba? sony ones are too pricey.

none

joepenguin wrote: »

So emachines is basically an acer machine with a different name? Its just that its so cheap Im thinking maybe the components wont be great quality and should go with something trusted like a toshiba? sony ones are too pricey.

To some extent, it is. I mean, eMachines as a company belongs to Acer as a company but they may retain some specifics despite being aligned towards Acer corporate standards. Sorry, can't say more as never had any experience with this brand. This is Acer so shouldn't be crap (otherwise they wouldn't have bought it) but this is the low end model (so don't expect its performance or reliability to be as in more expensive models).

joepenguin

Cheers for all the replies. One more I want to put up is the dell inspiron 15.

Its £349.

Intel celeron processor
3g ram
500g hard drive

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-1545?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&ref=lthp

This is the last one Im looking at so any info / advice you would have be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.