Decent Laptop on A Budget

pokerface_me

Decent Laptop on a Budget
I'm looking for a Laptop for the other half folks for the Christmas. I'm not a computer expert by any strecth of the imagination neither is herself.

4 musts though

Must run farmville on Facebook smoothly, she's addicted and frezze's quite alot on my old machine.

Must be able to insert chips from phone and cameras to upload photo's.

Must be wireless.

Must not have Vista, i have it and wrecks my head, very slow.

After that i open to all ideas, Budget is roughly 500quid give or take a few euro's. All ideas really appreciated and hope to purchase soon enough. Nearly bought one in Power city last night but felt i'd get it all wrong and end up with something similar to my own, where farmville just doesn't work at all.

Thanks a million. Also have posted in bargain Requests

Tellox

Honestly mate, get yourself onto dell.ie and check out the vostro range - Great laptops for under €500. Should nab yourself a Windows 7 model with 2gb ram for that - which will handle all your farmville needs and then some

pokerface_me

Tellox wrote: »

Honestly mate, get yourself onto dell.ie and check out the vostro range - Great laptops for under €500. Should nab yourself a Windows 7 model with 2gb ram for that - which will handle all your farmville needs and then some

Thanks man that was super fast, silly as it sounds the farmville issue is probably the most important, i have quite a decent laptop and its hopeless on it. But my "house computer" is an absolute flyer on it.

ED E

pokerface_me wrote: »

Thanks man that was super fast, silly as it sounds the farmville issue is probably the most important, i have quite a decent laptop and its hopeless on it. But my "house computer" is an absolute flyer on it.

Facebook itslef is actually a beast of a site as pages go, but most modern machines should handle it fine.

Before you buy ensure your Java and Flash players are up to date, ld versions can sometimes run but lag. Also, are you using internet explorer? If so I'd recommend trying google chrome, its much lighter on resources and is super user friendly. A general clean could help too. If you are running Windows Sidebar then turn that off(Like towing a caravan with a micra, very slow).

What are the specs of the current machine may I ask, it might be quite possible that you dont need to change machine at all:)

pokerface_me

Hi the main laptop i use is a compaq presario v5000 is what it says underneath. It has windows xp home edition on it. It has very little stuff on it, probably 150 pictures and 100 songs in windows media player. I paid 1000euro for it 3 and a half years ago in PC world, its got quite a big screen and is great for watching DVD's on the go.

Not to sure what a windows side bar is but i run firefox my brother put it on the machine for me. I might have a look at google chrome. I defragment every 2 months and do a clean up once a month nothing more than internet clutter really. Check for virus every Saturday i run a full scan, never had any problems with the machine (touchwood) just find it slow with some websites.

The Wife has only got into computers recently and its something she wants for Chrimbo so i'm going to go ahead with a purchase in any way. But any help or tips with my own Laptop would be fantastic, i couldn't even tell you how to find out how much memory it has or how fast it is.

The Vista computer i mention is a work one and its so slow and basically brand new.

ED E

Hi the main laptop i use is a compaq presario v5000 is what it says underneath. It has windows xp home edition on it. It has very little stuff on it, probably 150 pictures and 100 songs in windows media player. I paid 1000euro for it 3 and a half years ago in PC world, its got quite a big screen and is great for watching DVD's on the go.

Our loaded Presario V5000Z test unit, priced at $1,217, came outfitted with a 2GHz Turion 64 ML-37 processor; 1GB of DDR SDRAM (1x1,024MB); an ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; a 100GB hard drive running at 4,200rpm; Windows XP Professional; a 15.4-inch BrightView wide-screen display; a DVD burner featuring HP's neat LightScribe technology; an integrated 54g 802.11a/b/g networking card with Bluetooth; and a standard 6-cell battery.

Yeah, its quite low spec, though visually nice. There's no real point putting more ram etc in it. Its obsolete:p

Not to sure what a windows side bar is but i run firefox my brother put it on the machine for me. I might have a look at google chrome. I defragment every 2 months and do a clean up once a month nothing more than internet clutter really. Check for virus every Saturday i run a full scan, never had any problems with the machine (touchwood) just find it slow with some websites.
As with above , its the spec, not the browser. Sidebar is only in vista, and 7, and is primarily a waste.
I have to commend you for keeping things clean and virus free, average joe is not nearly as diligent:)

The Wife has only got into computers recently and its something she wants for Chrimbo so i'm going to go ahead with a purchase in any way. But any help or tips with my own Laptop would be fantastic, i couldn't even tell you how to find out how much memory it has or how fast it is.
Shiny new laptops allways bring a smile, and you can get plenty within that budget. Netbooks have taken off recently, especially with women from what I've seen(they fit in handbags!). An NC20 wont be as powerful as its notebook equivelant but they are very stylish and portable and are capable of most common tasks(Atom CPUs are top when it comes to portables). Reads SD cards and is wifi enabled. Only downside is the lack of a CD drive, but you can get a USB one for 20 quid online, I got one for my dad.

If you want a fullsize, a Vostro 1500/1550 or whatever number arent stylish but good value for money. Lovely screens I find too.

The Vista computer i mention is a work one and its so slow and basically brand new.

Yeah, you can turn off junk in vista to help with speeds, and 2gbs of ram is a must. Google that for more if your interested.

Hope this helps.