Need a laptop for home-worker

eamonn4321

My wife needs a laptop for working from home (she is recently and involuntarily self-employed).

As per the posting guidelines:

Budget: Willing to pay up to about 800 but preferably 600 - 700 range.

Intended use: Internet, e-mail, Word processing, Excel, NO programming, NO games. Also prob storing photos, skyping (incl video). Printing, scanning (Prob stating the obvious here).

Mobility: 99% home use on a desk, very occasional travel.

Warranty: not required.

What Operating System do you use? Windows (and MSOffice)

Minimum Requirements:
decent size screen - 15.6 min

built in webcam

decent future proofing (hoping to get 5 years or so out of it)

decent sized keyboard

prob absolute min of 2GB RAM or 3 preferably

prefer good size hard disk, maybe 250GB, but negotiable

prob need 4 to 5 USB ports

want to buy in Republic

No major graphics / gaming capability needed

Prefer a reasonably non-reflective screen

Something pretty robust in case the kids get near it and whack it (!)

Card reader for SD would be nice.


Can anyone recommend something please?

Any further information I can give?

eamonn4321

Any thoughts on this one please?

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullat.asp?productcode=MMES60VD66#

stepbar

It seems no one knows about laptops here? Considering this is the laptop forum, I'm confused

AlmightyCushion

You don't need anything too fancy. As long as it has a decent dual core and 3GBs or ram you should be ok. I would recommend getting one with an ati or nVidia card and hdmi. They usually don't cost that much more but it will mean you can play back hd videos and connect it to a tv. Not essential but handy to have. If you plan to have it for 5 years then make sure to get a decent warranty.

jimmycrackcorm

eamonn4321 wrote: »

Any thoughts on this one please?

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullat.asp?productcode=MMES60VD66#

It has a dual core processor instead of core-duo. Dual core are crap - my last work laptop had this.

For primarily work purposes, I'd suggest going for a bigger screen or even better - get a cheap secondary monitor for dual monitor use - It will make a world of difference. Excel is no fun on a small monitor. I'd budget for something like this also: http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1769148

Other recommendations:
Determine your budget
Buy maximum processor speed (core2 duo), and memory that you can get for the budget.
Don't be overly concerned about disk space as you can cheaply buy additional USB drives.
For the applications you have mentioned, I'd suggest windows 7 64bit if you have more than 3GB of RAM. Otherwise for 32bit windows don't get more than 3GB RAM. Don't get less than that - memory makes a huge difference and is cheap.

Darwin

For 600 to 700 euro I would definitely be spending my money on a laptop with the the new Intel Core processors (as in the Core i series which succeeds the Core Duo architecture). The Core i3 is available in laptops now, the Samsung R580 is a good example (Core i3, 512MB dedicated Nvidia graphics, 3GB RAM, Windows 7). Take a look here at some alternatives to the Samsung. Dabs are not located in Ireland, so you may wish to see if Elara (or some other supplier) stock something you like.