HP Compaq Laptop -- Is this good value???

Twiggy69

http://www.harveynorman.ie/cq57-301sa-17315.html


Hi folks, my son is looking at this for college work, word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, gaming, viewing movies & social networking etc.

I don't think it has a HDMI port? Is this suitable, or would you recommend something else???


Any advice appreciated,

T

Friel

Wouldn't be great for gaming, but could do the rest effortlessly. It'd only need a HDMI port if he's gonna connect it to a HD tele.

Twiggy69

Thanks Friel.

As you can gather, I have little knowledge in this area...is there anything comparable/superior out there for similar money???

is buying extended warranty from HN a rip-off or value for money???

downwithpeace

It will do most of the things you want fine, gaming will be on the lower end of the scale.
Not sure if Harvey Normans still allow haggling but a while back they had some ad for it so try getting the sales rep to knock of a few extra €€.

Twiggy69

Appreciate the advice downwithpeace. Should I look at trying to get a few € off or try to extend warranty or is there any extra that's worth looking for?

Jaafa

It wont do any gaming at tbh. That processor is more netbook spec than anything. Try find him a decent 2nd generation i3 processor at least.

What kind of games does he play?

Look online, its much cheaper than any brick and mortar store. Check sites like Komplett,savonlaptops,hardwareversand and computeruniverse.

Twiggy69

Will do Jaafa, not sure what games he plays, TBH. We'll have a look at those sites before we part with our cash.

Many thanks,

T

downwithpeace

Twiggy69 wrote: »

Appreciate the advice downwithpeace. Should I look at trying to get a few € off or try to extend warranty or is there any extra that's worth looking for?

It's your call really, I'm not sure what Harvey Norman offers warranty wise but if the cost is low then you could attempt to haggle it in to the laptop price.

It will do gaming but as I said already light gaming, if your son wants new games with graphical options enabled then as Jaafa pointed out an i3 might be better. Should ask you son what games he plays and go from there.

Twiggy69

Thanks downwithpeace, I'm hoping this is going to be used for more than gaming, but we might as well get as much bang for our buck as possible. Still when I saw the 6Gb of ram, I thought it would be reasonably futureproofed.....

downwithpeace

Ram is reasonably inexpensive so it can be added later on if needed, laptop wise three/four gig would be fine as long as you know there's room for a future upgrade, your son would be able to add it himself in a few minutes and using Google for a tutorial.

aperture_nuig

a little OT, but just make sure that it actually does have 6g of ram if you're going for the harvey normans one, as the spec sheet does say 6gb of ram but says it's configured as 1x2gb on the very next line:







which doesn't make any sense.

edit: sorry for the small img, can't get it any bigger

skinny90

I think if you budget between 400-480 ul get a far better spec and better choice

Davy

Moved to requests

Joni23

For the price that looks like a good laptop. More than capable of everything you've mentioned bar gaming, but some of the best laptops can fall short in gaming requirements so don't let that put you off.


Personally I'd try to up the specs a little if possible. Littlewoods offer medium priced laptops, which using the discount code from the bargain request forum which will give you 20% off. Taking a better spec machine close to your price range. For example this has 750 gig hard drive and an i3 processor. With the discount code its 60e more than yours at 440e. I dont know about after sales service or warranty's from littlewoods so obviously you'll have to take these into account before you decide.

http://www.littlewoodsireland.ie/hp-g6-1262sa-core-i3-4gb-ram-750gb-hard-drive-156-inch-laptop---charcoal/926715600.prd?browseToken=%2fb%2f4873%2fs%2fprice%2c1%2fo%2f3&trail=4739-4873