Advice and suggeestions on laptop

tmboy95

Hello all. Gonna get straight to point, girlfriend is staying away doing psychiatric nursing 1st year in college. She needs a laptop and im kind of looking after it for her.
I called to Currys and PC world over the weekend and this is the story:

*Acer - 15.6" widescreen,windows 8, intel i5 processor, 4GB memory, 750GB hard drive, intel HD graphics = €519.99

*Lenovo- 15.6" widescreen, intel premium b960 dual core processor, 4GB memory, 1TB hard drive, intel HD graphics. was €519.99 now €419.

*Acer- 11.6" widescreen, 4GB memory, 5000GB hard drive, windows 8, forget what processor twas but either way it was €550 now €379.

*Lenovo- 15.6" widescreen, i3 processor, 4GB memory, 1TB hard drive , intel HD graphics. Was 500 and something now €469.

Now with all these both shops are offering security software anti virus stuff and microsoft word etc for around €200. Im waiting to get to homestore as i bought a toshiba there 2 years ago and it was a brilliant buy hasnt let me down once and i can work and store plenty on it. Also the budget isnt very strong but dont want to buy a bad spec one.
She will be using it to do up notes, general use of internet, store pictures music etc. But she still wants a good strong one, in my terms lets just say "a few extra horsepower there incase i ever need it".
So men and women what do ye think? Are the models listed reliable and suitable? Any faults? Also what toshiba around this price range and spec? All opinions appreciated. Thanks. :)
Also i will need to have my mind made up in the next 10days / 2 weeks.

Bepolite

Stay away for Curry's/PC World. They actually started to repair their reputation a bit but since Declan left they showed a remarkably quick return to form.

Komplett or somewhere you trust (you seem to metion one retailer). In all honesty Amazon would be my first choice.

OH I forgot to mention most of the free software causes more problems than it fixes. Uninstall as much of it as possible. Windows with securities essentials (free) and windows update will do the job nicely.

tmboy95

Thanks bepolite for the reply. Why what sort of reputation did they have previously? And who's Declan do you mind me asking? Yes I dealt with home store there before with mine and I havnt had a problem since.
I think I might call them up. Also I must try maplin. They are about the nearest to me as I'm around 50min from cork city and 40min from limerick city.

Bepolite

tmboy95 wrote: »

Thanks bepolite for the reply. Why what sort of reputation did they have previously? And who's Declan do you mind me asking? Yes I dealt with home store there before with mine and I havnt had a problem since.
I think I might call them up. Also I must try maplin. They are about the nearest to me as I'm around 50min from cork city and 40min from limerick city.

DSG (Dixon's Stores Group AKA Curry's/PC World) have always had a poor reputation. They tend to ignore consumer rights, that's usually easily overcome with the small claims court. Maplin are a complete joke in relation to price, I don't mean that in the vernacular sense, I really mean that they are considered funny with what they try and charge, how thye are still in business is beyond me. Frankly I will give DSG their due, they're not that bad on price. I'd actually try Argos though also along with Tesco and Aldi/Lidl who've had some amazing machines.

Declan was the Irish MD of DSG.

tmboy95

Thanks for that I wasn't aware of it. Ya god she really can't afford to be paying crazy prices either. Il give them a try to they are all with in reasonable distance.

Spec wise out of what I've listed, do you thinking I'm on the right track? Or what do you think would be best? Also bear in mind that I think the laptop priced for 519.99 might be abit outside price range.

Bepolite

tmboy95 wrote: »

Thanks for that I wasn't aware of it. Ya god she really can't afford to be paying crazy prices either. Il give them a try to they are all with in reasonable distance.

Spec wise out of what I've listed, do you thinking I'm on the right track? Or what do you think would be best? Also bear in mind that I think the laptop priced for 519.99 might be abit outside price range.

I'm not great on laptop specs. I prefer the Intel models with HD4000 graphics, IMO they're normally pretty good. Personally when I'm buying this stuff I get the model numbers and google reviews of the product. The problem with Intel HD4000 is that it can be average - poor depending on the processor. That said that only really matters for games.

tmboy95

I see. On top of enquiring on boards and in shops I must do some googling myself about them! Thanks again

Bepolite

tmboy95 wrote: »

I see. On top of enquiring on boards and in shops I must do some googling myself about them! Thanks again

TBH googling product reviews would be my starting point. Having worked in tech retail for many years very few sales people have product knowledge. They will be selling you what is on spiv (commission) or more likely whats in stock. Retail channel will also likely be six months behind the online market.

Also I talking about independent reviews, not Amazon reviews - if someone bought it they're unlikely (not always but mush less likely) to give it a bad review. Doing so is just like saying 'look at me I did a stupid!'.