Wanna help me pick a laptop?

PaddyofNine

I'm a med student in need of a laptop. My knowledge of computing is limited at best, so maybe you guys can better help me settle on a laptop according to my needs.

My budget is €1,000, MAX! I'm leaning more towards a DELL or maybe a Sony VAIO notebook - currently DELL is in the lead. There's a nice standard system that suits my budget on sale until Wednesday: the Inspiron 1150, at €920. It won't win any awards, but it has a good battery life and might suit me. I'm also thinking about buying the lighter, stylish Inspiron 700m off ebay for under €900 in America. I'll ship it to my friends in New York, who will in turn ship it to me. Apart from the power cord should there be any problems with this?

Anyone like to reccomend a laptop for me? Widescreen and light would be nice, battery is important, plus it has to do me for 4 years! Gaming isn't a big deal, but would be nice.

Any ideas/suggestions?

zod

The Aldi Laptop is now on special for €999 and is well rated :

See here : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=212757

joePC

Heres one for €850 from US just get it sent over

Lappy

carbsy

zod wrote:

The Aldi Laptop is now on special for €999 and is well rated :

See here : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=212757

Actually it was €1299 reduced from €1499.

Wertz

Widescreen and light would be nice, battery is important, plus it has to do me for 4 years! Gaming isn't a big deal, but would be nice.

Widescreen and light is a pretty tough combo. Screens tend to be heavy thus wider ones heavier. Also a widescreen will be slightly tougher on battery life.
The toughest on the battery is the CPU though, so you should try and go for a mobile processor like the Pentium-M.
Likewise a slower spinning HDD will save power.
As for gaming, thin and light don't usually have a very good (if any) graphics card which you'd need to play 3d games.
RAM should be at least 256 and preferably 512+ and to future proof it you might want to consider wireless options too.

If you're looking at Dell then try their Outlet; usually some nice deals to be had on there.
IMO buying off ebay is dodgy especially in the US, since if something goes wrong you're f***ed...

zod

carbsy wrote:

Actually it was €1299 reduced from €1499.

I was in there this morning (Clane) and I saw it advertised for €999, mind you I didn't spend any time looking over the specs so maybe it's a different one ???

PaddyofNine

joePC wrote:

Heres one for €850 from US just get it sent over

Lappy

Thanks, that's a good site! You ever dealt with it before: is it reliable? There seems to be a few good deals on it... I like this one

, and it seems to get a middlin' good review : ...

the_syco

Ring around to see if any of them to student offers.

Wertz

PaddyofNine wrote:

Thanks, that's a good site! You ever dealt with it before: is it reliable? There seems to be a few good deals on it... I like this one

, and it seems to get a middlin' good review : ...

Every time I get linked to newegg it makes me cry. Even if you can get a relative to ship that to you it's 99% likely you'll get stung for the VAT and duty when it arrives here. You may still save on what you'd pay here but then again you may not.

Just having a look at Dell's outlet stock and found this Latitude No gaming capability but has 1.6 gig cpu, wireless LAN, DVD, XP Pro and all for about €840 delivered.

Dell Outlet Ireland

zod

If you can buy off of any US website why not buy off of Walmart - they are usually the cheapest for the same spec ..

look at this one : http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3163949&cat=134298&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A4070%3A134298%3A134298

PaddyofNine

Wertz wrote:

Even if you can get a relative to ship that to you it's 99% likely you'll get stung for the VAT and duty when it arrives here. You may still save on what you'd pay here but then again you may not.

****, never thought of that. Does this happen a lot? What would VAT and duty be on say a $1000 computer? My freind bought an ipod of US ebay last week and didn't get done!

Wertz

PaddyofNine wrote:

****, never thought of that. Does this happen a lot? What would VAT and duty be on say a $1000 computer? My freind bought an ipod of US ebay last week and didn't get done!

Take a look round the forums here to see how often it does happen.

Something expensive like a laptop obviously has to be sent insured from the US; that means they need to put an insured cash value on the customs label.
Certain courier companies will pay the fees themselves and then bill you for it (including handling fees and other crap).

VAT in ireland is charged at 21% and then there is import duty which seems to be dependant on what it is you're importing.
A $1000 comp could quickly end up costing $1250+
Now with €1 = $1.35 you can still save, but stuff like warranty and RTB can end up being a huge problem with non-EU goods.
Only way round all of this is fly over and bring the laptop back in your hand luggage. May as well take a holiday when you're there...

PaddyofNine

Wertz wrote:

Take a look round the forums here to see how often it does happen.

Something expensive like a laptop obviously has to be sent insured from the US; that means they need to put an insured cash value on the customs label.
Certain courier companies will pay the fees themselves and then bill you for it (including handling fees and other crap).

VAT in ireland is charged at 21% and then there is import duty which seems to be dependant on what it is you're importing.
A $1000 comp could quickly end up costing $1250+
Now with €1 = $1.35 you can still save, but stuff like warranty and RTB can end up being a huge problem with non-EU goods.
Only way round all of this is fly over and bring the laptop back in your hand luggage. May as well take a holiday when you're there...

Hmmm. I've got friends coming over here in March. If I got the laptop shipped to them, and got them to take it out of the box and carry it over in it's carrying case as hand luggage - would that work?

PaddyofNine

From what I've read, I'm guessing so!