Two laptops for work

The Black Oil

Hi,

Looking for two laptops for work. Budget isn't much, not much more than 500, I'd say. Preference is to buy in a bricks and mortar store. That pretty much leaves Currys, Argos and Harvey Norman.

Primary use is Office/Powerpoint for presentations and workshops, DVD drive, web browsing, etc. Compatible with projectors. No need for video editing or anything resource heavy in that regard. Don't need massive amounts of storage.

I don't know much about processors - not sure what to look for there. 8GB of RAM would be good, I guess.

How about these?

http://www.currys.ie/Product/hp-pavilion-15ab269sa-156-laptop-white/334894/401.0.0

http://www.harveynorman.ie/computing/laptops/hp-pavilion-15-notebook-15-ab113na.html

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5496444/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%252C%2BPCs%2Band%2Bphones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops%2Band%2Bnetbooks%7C14419039.htm

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/4139290/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%252C%2BPCs%2Band%2Bphones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops%2Band%2Bnetbooks%7C14419039.htm

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/4182797/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%252C%2BPCs%2Band%2Bphones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7Ccat_19780850%7CLaptops%2Band%2Bnetbooks%7C14419039.htm

Alanstrainor

Just for clarity, will you be claiming VAT back on these laptops? The reason I ask, is that Dell.ie often have good deals on the business portal. Although this will mean ordering online.
You linked this one above:
http://www.currys.ie/Product/hp-pavilion-15ab269sa-156-laptop-white/334894/401.0.0

It's a decent machine for the price. The rest aren't great at all. The reason this is good is that it has a reasonable Intel Core i3 processor + 8GB + 1TB of storage.

The Black Oil

Tbh, I asked about VAT before in work and can't remember the answer. I did look at Dell today too, but they might be a little over budget.

What's not so great about the others? I think you're safe enough with Core processors rather than Celerons, etc?

Alanstrainor

The Black Oil wrote: »

Tbh, I asked about VAT before in work and can't remember the answer. I did look at Dell today too, but they might be a little over budget.

What's not so great about the others? I think you're safe enough with Core processors rather than Celerons, etc?

The Core i processors are all pretty decent. They range from the low i3, to i5 and i7 with increasing performance for each. But given your usage the lowest model will be fine.

As for the others the AMD chips would have me wary, their mobile chips aren't known for their performance.

The Black Oil

Managed to pick up the Currys one for 399 in Dublin airport. Decent saving.

Didn't opt for the Mcafee they were plugging. Is Windows Defender enough? Just going through it now due to all of the settings Windows 10 has on by default.

There'll probably be some bloatware on it. Presume uninstalling it via the Control Panel is the safest bet.

Alanstrainor

The Black Oil wrote: »

Managed to pick up the Currys one for 399 in Dublin airport. Decent saving.

Didn't opt for the Mcafee they were plugging. Is Windows Defender enough? Just going through it now due to all of the settings Windows 10 has on by default.

There'll probably be some bloatware on it. Presume uninstalling it via the Control Panel is the safest bet.

Windows defender is fine, although there will always be people who disagree with that!

As for bloatware, you can go through control panel as normal, or if it is in the start menu just right clicking and clicking uninstall works too!

The Black Oil

How about the shop's add on warranty/insurance? Those things have always had a whiff of money making off them. He didn't push it, but it was an option on the sticker on the bench in the shop.

I've installed Chrome, Firefox, Adobe Reader, Java, VLC, and Office (volume license, so we're legal). Don't think there's a need for much else. Avast Secureline I've not removed yet.

Laptop has HMDI, our projector in work doesn't, so I need to track down an adapter, preferably in a bricks and mortar store. They don't seem too dear on amazon anyway.