4 laptops to choose from - which one?

mandarin

Hi all
Am looking to buy new laptop. Would be using it mainly for internet (up to 20 Firefox tabs could be open at one time) and Word. Occasionally might have one or two other applications running. Would also be using it to access a Mac from work. No gaming or anything like that. Would like to have for a number of years rather than upgrading in two years or so.
Have narrowed it down to 4 laptops, would appreciate if people could say which might be most suitable for my needs (Would cheapest do, or are there cons to that, etc? Is an i3 processor with 3/4 gb memory better than 6200 processor with 6gb memory, etc?)
All are from saveonlaptops.co.uk.
Ta in advance.


1 - Acer Aspire 5552

AMD Athlon II P320 Dual Core Processor, 15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Integrated Graphics, Webcam & HDMI, LX.R4402.080, was £499.97
£289

2 -MSI CR620
Core i3-380M Dual Core Processor, 15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 3GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Integrated Graphics, HDMI & Webcam, CR620-1009UK, Was £399.97
ONLY £312.12
3 - Lenovo G560


Pentium® P6200 Dual Core Processor, 15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Integrated Graphics, M27B2UK, Exclusive Upgraded to 6GB Ram!
WAS £400.00
ONLY £319.97
4 - Samsung R540


Core™ i3-380M Dual Core Processor, 15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Integrated Graphics, HDMI, Webcam, NP-R540-JA08UK (RV511,RV510), was £499.97, Offer Ends Monday July 18th 9am.
£349.97

cookie1977

Option 4 for me. Seems best bang for you buck.The i3 is better then the 6200 processor.

Jaafa

Yeah option 4.

mandarin

Took that advice and ordered the Samsung only for the order to be cancelled (paid with visa debit, some insurance quirk prevented the sale, so will have to use another card).
Anyway, price is now 359 for samsung (was 349) - it it worth paying 47stg extra for it over the MSI machine? Specs seem similar (i3 processor etc). 320gb hard drive is less than 500gb but both are well in excess of my needs anyway,so that's not an issue. MSI has 3gb memory, the samsung 4gb - how important is this? Worth paying the difference?

cookie1977

No the msi is just as good. You wont notice the difference too much. you could buy the extra ram yourself for cheap to bring it up to 4gb and I'm sure you can live with the smaller hard drive

carlcon

If you're going to get the one with less RAM with the intention of buying more ram for it, you definitely need to price how much that's going to cost you first. Certain types of ram can be expensive.

If you have the money, stick with the Samsung. It will perform better.

cookie1977

RAM is cheap:
http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/listmodule/DDR3/list.html


If you dont need 500gb and can be happy with the 320 then buy the ram separately and choose the msi

Ghost_of_ED209

The RAM could make a difference here seeing that the two machines have Integrated Graphics. That usually means the graphics will be using/sharing some of the RAM memory..

So, id go for the one with 4gb of RAM...

mandarin

Ta for the feeback guys. Tempted to go with the msi one, given that an extra 1gb memory can be bought for a tenner, if needs be. Am not on a tight budget, but no point in paying over the odds/buying more than you need either.
From my reading of external sites, the msi seemed to receive relatively favourable reviews. Keyboard was criticised somewhat, however, and I do do a fair bit of typing.
Only other reservation is the question of reliability. I want to buy a machine and forget about it - might Samsung be regarded as a safer bet in this regard?

Codpeas

mandarin wrote: »

...given that an extra 1gb memory can be bought for a tenner, if needs be...

More likely, going from 3GB to 4GB will require purchasing a 2GB stick and taking out a 1GB as the machine probably only has two slots.

mandarin

Ended up going with the Samsung. Again, ta to all for feedback.
For any would-be buyers from saveonlaptops, note that you'll more than likely be stuck with an added 1.5% credit card charge. There is supposedly no charge for debit cards - however, I wasn't able to use my TSB visa debit card (something to do with them not having insurance) while my prepaid Mastercard was not recognised as a debit card (even though it is...grrr).