Buying a new laptop on a budget - Approx €400 HELP!

iGenius

Hi folks,

Could really do with some advice..

I'm looking for a laptop for my mother. It will be used for a max. 10 hours a week for Quickbooks Accounts, Microsoft Office and occasional internet usage - online banking etc. That's basically it. I assume a budget priced laptop will be fine for the above, so we're looking for something in the region of €400.

If anyone can help me with any good deals out there at the moment.. Thinking of the usual suspects - Harvey Norman, Curry's, PC World etc.. or anywhere else you can recommend.

We've had numerous problems with Dell over the last few years, so want to avoid dealing with them. Other than that, we don't mind.

I would be really grateful if anyone can help me.


Thanks!

Kristopherus

Try amazon.co.uk. Euro is going to rise vs sterling.

iGenius

Thanks for the reply. We can claim VAT on buying it here (it's probably still cheaper to buy from Amazon!) but would prefer buy from a store in the south.

It's needed ASAP also.

Cheers.

*Edit - didn't want to spam..


I thought I'd be more pro-active and see what you think of whats available:

ASUS k53u
http://www.harveynorman.ie/asus-15-6-inch-laptop-k53u.html

HP 635
http://www.harveynorman.ie/hp635.html

Toshiba L755D
http://www.harveynorman.ie/psk4ye-00200hen.html

COMPAQ Presario CQ57-356SA
http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/COMPAQ-Presario-CQ57356SA-156andquot-Laptop/307910/301

Still open to recommendations!

Thanks.

rebeve

www.saveonlaptops.co.uk laptops for all budgets .

Overheal

Okay, I am going to take this opportunity to be myself and honest, as if I did it at work I would have people running out the door in tears and I'd be sent home.

Why a laptop?

Why on a budget?

Only two times I will really let myself sit easy with why a customer would ever want to buy a barrel-bottom laptop: they need it right away, emergency replacement, going to Iraq in 6 hours, etc. etc. Otherwise I secretly want to berate them for making a horrible purchasing decision before they even walked into the store. The reason being a cheap laptop is going to die quick, both because it's probably poorly constructed, AND because you aren't going to find all that decent of a spec and it will become obsolete quickly. These are the kind of customers I see regularly every other year, and everytime they come in they can't understand why their laptop died after 2 years and, in denial, they blame the brand (like....DELL?????), the person that sold it to them, basically anybody else but themselves for buying a piece of ****.

Don't buy cheap pieces of ****.

There's an even more important reason for this, and it gets into why Im asking if it has to be a laptop: Quickbooks. Depending on the version a license of Quickbooks is more expensive than most of these computers we just got done ranting about. What's more when you buy a version of quickbooks you typically want it to - you know, last. You know, so that when your computer dies in 2, 3, 4 years (if you buy a piece of ****) you won't have to upgrade quickbooks - not because the License won't let you, but because it won't be compatible with Windows 9 point jigawatt. So why not buy something that will last 6, 7 or hell even 8 years? I mean, seriously. Let's be serious here. You can do what you want, I just want you to be aware that buying the lowest common denominator, like most other shortcuts in life, does not add up to the best long term investment strategy. As in theres a good chance you would wind up spending twice as much on Hardware if you had to buy 3 successive cheap laptops over the next 8 years vs. One solid desktop now.

iGenius

OK - I typed an extremely long message and because boards automatically logged me out I lost it, so I'll keep it more brief this time..

Overheal, thanks a lot for the response.

1. It has to be a laptop because it's portable, she doesn't want to hump a PC around! Good suggestion though, thanks.

2. We have gone through 4 laptops in 4 years. None of which were terribly cheap - cheapest was €700, dearest 2 were €990 from Dell inc. Office. Both of those laptops needed a motherboard replacement within 6 months. They almost always crashed after running Microsoft updates and gave constant power supply errors! These may be Windows Vista issues, but I haven't experienced the same with other brands of laptops - I have used plenty over the years, and a number of Vista laptops since then. Hence my waryness of dealing with Dell.

3. We have come to accept that they only last a few years anyway. This is probably wrong, but we've had so many bad experiences I don't particularly want to spend another grand to find out. I have used entry level laptops in the past, and while they were slow and looked like something Del Trotter would sell they did the trick for a light user.

If I knew the laptop would last 3 years (probably being hopeful) with the above light usage, I would be happy to pay €400-450 for it. Money is tight!

Thanks again.

Anybody else, have any opinions, good or bad?

Overheal

How did your claims on the warranties go?

-Corkie-

OP you say you are vat registered, then you can buy of saveonlaptops less the vat price. All they need is your vat number..

tombom112

out of the one's you listed above i think the asus is best. asus is a good brand the e350 is more than able for general stuff and for your primary stuff like quickbooks, 6 gb of ram is probaly excessive for the job, but its always better to have more ram than be without.

some people have alot of troble with Laptops, but as long as there kept well, ie on a hard surfare and not on a bed or something so that air can get in and out then generally you should get more than 2 - 3 years but it all depends what your doin with them

iGenius

Overheal wrote: »

How did your claims on the warranties go?

They called out a number of times to repair the laptops. Once the warranty was up, they didn't want to know. Wasn't aware we had any follow up after that.

Thanks.

iGenius

-Corkie- wrote: »

OP you say you are vat registered, then you can buy of saveonlaptops less the vat price. All they need is your vat number..

OK, thanks. Sounds good.

iGenius

tombom112 wrote: »

out of the one's you listed above i think the asus is best. asus is a good brand the e350 is more than able for general stuff and for your primary stuff like quickbooks, 6 gb of ram is probaly excessive for the job, but its always better to have more ram than be without.

some people have alot of troble with Laptops, but as long as there kept well, ie on a hard surfare and not on a bed or something so that air can get in and out then generally you should get more than 2 - 3 years but it all depends what your doin with them

Thank you very much. I appreciate the information!

ned rierson

i too am looking to buy a new laptop ( 400 - 500 euro). mainly for surfing and watching films. any recommendations ?

tombom112

if its just watching movies and surfin then these will do the job, and you can just walk in a get them
http://www.harveynorman.ie/psk4ye-00200hen.html

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/TOSHIBA-Satellite-C660-156-Laptop-Grey/308021/301

the pc world would be alot better, also i think tesco have a lenovo that is 4gb ram, 320 hard drive and a dual core celeron for 370, the pc world one is still better though.

If you dont mind ordering online then http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Sat_Pro_L650-1QH_1071255.html

this is by far the best spec and has dedicated graphics, although not the best in the world with the icore 3 you be able to do light gaming with it too, however if its just movies and surfin then there all well able

m1nder

OP, In my experience, I used to buy laptops by budget, weight and screen size. But now a bit of experience is kicking I guess. Consider the following....

The latest crop of 15" laptops usually have a screen resolution of 1366x768. This is to satisfy the marketing hype of "HD" but is actually an truly terrible resolution for productivity.

I recently bought a Lenovo G570. 2 Months in, it fell asunder. The case literally fell apart. Lenovo took it away for repair and kept it for an entire month without as much as a word of an update. I wasted time calling UK phone numbers and sending them registered letters (all a waste of time and totally ignored). As soon as the laptop came back, I sold it. I just wanted out and learned my lesson.

I then realised, what the hell, I'm not that mobile. I use the laptop mostly in a stationary position at home. So why am I struggling to see a 15" screen? Then I also remembered a piece of advice I heard a few years back about laptops. Always buy a business laptop (unless you're into gaming). Business models are better built and have a better customer service.

So, I went and bought a HP ProBook 17" laptop. It's beautiful, very well built, got it for a few hundred quid secondhand. It still under warranty etc. The screen resolution is 1600x900. It works so much better. The consumer budget laptop felt cheap and plasticy. As it happened it then fell assunder. The business laptop feels very solid and looks beautiful. Screen resolution and physical size suit me and I paid the same price anyway. A much better option.

For your mother, perhaps shes not gonna want mobility. Maybe she'd appreciate the bigger screen resolution. Also 17" models are not big sellers these days so they are getting cheaper.

Just my random thoughts...

Overheal

iGenius wrote: »

They called out a number of times to repair the laptops. Once the warranty was up, they didn't want to know. Wasn't aware we had any follow up after that.

Thanks.

EU consumer laws can protect you outside the warranty period and if they sold you a lemon (ie. requiring multiple repair attempts that don't solve the problem) they're suppose to issue a complete replacement unit. Check your EU laws:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=580