Laptop for €1,300

cormie

Hi,
I'm going to be returning my faulty laptop to Aldi and will hopefully get a refund of €1,300. I'm going to need a replacement straight away. Where is the best place to get a new laptop for a maximum of €1,300?

If I can get one of better quality, so be it, but I'll be happy with one of equal quality for the same price.

Here are the specs of my current laptop which I'll be returning:

Intel® Pentium® M processor 735(1.7Ghz)
Multi Format DVD Burner DVD-+ R/RW
Intel PRO/WIRELESS LAN 2200 b/g
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128MB
High resolution 15.1" SXGA+ Display
80 GB Hard disk
512 MB DDR RAM 333MHz
4 in 1 Card Reader
Soundsystem
2 internal speakers, internal
microphone connection
3x USB 2.0,
Firewire IEEE1394
VGA-Out, Mic-In, Line-Out,
TV-Out (s-video)
56k Modem V.90 and fast ethernet 10/100Mbit LAN (includes telephone cable)
Battery: Smart Li-Ion battery (8 cells) *Proved with the "mobile Mark" battery test.
Says 6 hours.

I remember seeing a thread about the laptop shop in Stephens Green and that he would compete with prices. Did he also mention a discount for boards users or am I imagining things?

If somebody could recommend a laptop which matches this spec and where to get it for €1,300 or less I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

EDIT: I just noticed on the gericom site that without XP Pro and Office you get about €300 off :eek: I already have a copy of XP Pro and OpenOffice will do me fine for documents etc. So if you're recommending a laptop, please just price the bare bones, I don't need any software at all.

cormie

Hi, does anyone have any views on this (the acer one at the top) laptop?

Stephen

Try the laptops forum?

ghost26ie

lidl have a new laptop for sale for €1499

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/index.nsf/pages/c.o.oow.20050808.p.Notebook

cormie

Thanks for the tips.

I can't stretch to €1,500 I'm afraid, €1,300 is the absolute MAX I can go.

I just got off the phone with The Laptop Shop and he said come in and have a talk with him. I wonder if I had €1,300 in my hand would he match/beat the spec for me? As long as I can get a machine with the same spec I'm happy.

Does anyone have any experience with the Laptop Shop? What brands do they stock? Are these brands any good? Do they build machines like Dell would or do they just have pre made ones available?

Is €1,300 still a great price for a laptop with such spec?

Chalk

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5014WLMi_LX.A6005.024/version-2.asp

get an acer online,
i would, if i was buying a laptop.

ghost26ie

the make of laptop in lidl is a Targa. i think they have links to the laptop shop.

savemejebus

I have one of the LIDL machines, they're good but heavy and as the battery isn't great would class them as desktop replacements.

How about a dell precision from the outlet. 3 years guarantee and this spec:
M20 Notebook (System Identifier. Z2VGZRMT)
Dell Precision M20, Pentium M 730 1.60GHz
English - Win XP SP2 Pro (Backup Media)
System Price EUR 1388 (incl vat and 3 year next day business guarantee)

Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Operating System: English - Win XP SP2 Pro (Backup Media)
Memory: 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
Hard Disk Drive: 60GB (7, 200 rpm) Hard Drive
Modem: 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem
DVD Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW with Decoder Software
MISC: Intel Pro WLAN 2200 802.11b Mbps
D-Series 65W AC adpater
Latitude D610 Keyboard IRE / UK
6 Cell Primary Battery for extended battery life
Latitude D610 Keyboard IRE / UK

cormie

Thanks again.

Chalk, is that ACER one better than the one I posted in my 2nd post? It's cheaper and is a 5014 compared to the other one which is a 5021 from microaid.

Is the 5014/5021 better than the one I currently own? I know they both have dual layer DVDRW which is handy but how about the rest of the machine? Would it be better to buy from micro aid considering they are based in Swords? Which would you go for between the two? I'm allowing myself €1,300 as that's what I'll be getting back, hopefully, off Aldi.

galwaydude18

Cormie do you want to buy my laptop? It's a 17" widescreen. You can have it for 1300 euro. here's the link to my thread!

Chalk

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5021WLMi_LX.A4605.055/version-2.asp

just checked on the acer site,

theyre almost identical except for the processor [turion v athlon]
turion is more mobile and athlon is more workhorse i gather,
im not an expert so a bit of goolgling for reviews may help you out more.

that 5021 is cheaper on the acer site,
id buy from acer tbh, as microaid will be returning it to acer for warranty repairs etc,
not fixing it for you

cormie

Galwaydude, thanks but I'd prefer to buy a brand new one just in case I run into more trouble so I'd have the warranty and all that.

Chalk, It's €100 cheaper from the acer site alright. Would it not be cheaper to go with Micro Aid if in fact there was a problem with it? Maybe they could replace it straight away, maybe they would cover the costs of sending it back to Acer? Do you reckon these are the best two machines I can get for that price? Are they better or worse than my current laptop?

I use my laptop mostly at home, what exactly do you mean by Turion being more mobile? Better battery life etc would it be? For a home user would you suggest Athlon? Why is the Athlon cheaper then? What other advantages has the 5021 over the other do you know? Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Sorry, the Turion is cheaper, but it had a Gigabit Lan (whatever that is) and 20GB extra Hard drive. Is the Athlon that much better that these are worthy sacrifices and I'll have to pay about €20 more for?

Wertz

http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?target=SpecPage&serviceTag=EWR4D852&sessionID=CvhVzMLR!1455311340!742477034!1123015317878
Seems like it meets all your requirements and specs...better in some cases.
Comes in at just over a grand inc VAT/del

Trouble with this is that someone else is gonna snap it up before Aldi give you your cash
i6000 is a good lappy though...

cormie

Thanks for the link, I'm not too fond of dell to be honest, yes, I'm an ex employee of them;)

I can't see where that one beats the Gericom though? How is it better? Which parts of it? Is it better than the Acer ones? I like the idea of a dual layer burner and the extra 20 or 40gb hard drive with the Acer. Who knows how long it will take to deliver aswell!!

RicardoSmith

The Laptop shop seemed extremely expensive in my opinion. They definately don't make/build laptops.

Wertz

cormie wrote:

Thanks for the link, I'm not too fond of dell to be honest, yes, I'm an ex employee of them;)

I can't see where that one beats the Gericom though? How is it better? Which parts of it? Is it better than the Acer ones? I like the idea of a dual layer burner and the extra 20 or 40gb hard drive with the Acer. Who knows how long it will take to deliver aswell!!

I don't know...the extra 512mb RAM? PCI-e card? Slightly faster CPU? €300 under budget? The only thing you take a hit on is 20gb storage... 4 dvd-rw cost a tenner.
That WSXGA is a great screen too.

I can't comment on Dell; you know them better than I do if you worked there, but I've never had any problem with them and that's a great price for what it is...
Given the choice between Dell and Aldi, I know where I'd be spending my hard earned...


[edit] Oh and on Athlon V Turion; it's the same as Pentium 4 V Pentium M....all about the lkow power and longer battery life...if that's important to you, don't get a desktop CPU.

Paddy20

Cormie,

Why not simply get a new replacement from Aldi, as you are entitled to one under the sale of good's act's. ?...

P.

cormie

Paddy, my current one is a replacement of the first one I got I doubt they have laptops in stock at the moment anyway. I need a replacement as soon as I give this away.

Ricardo, are you talking about The Laptop Shop or one of the above laptops?

Wertz, Is the Athlon the Desktop CPU then? Is it much more powerful than the Turion or only a little bit?

I don't know about the Dell to be honest, I've a bad feeling about Dell and don't want to be waiting around for days to get it and weeks if they screw up. The double Ram and better CPU is tempting. What's a PCI-E card? Sorry, what did you mean about the 4 DVDRW being a tenner? Where? Also, there is no link on the Dell link to buy or customise, could you tell me where you found that one please:)

Thanks for all the help everyone.

chump

Cormie just go for the Dell... take the advice off the lads here and get the best one you can for your monies... bad experiences aside, yall get good bang for your buck and usually they're reliable (and ireland based)

jesus_thats_gre

Dell 9300... Outlet Store.. Bargins to be had...

Wertz

That was on outlet and prolly gone by now.
http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?target=InventoryPage&action=page&pageNo=2&lob=INSP
Athlon's the desktop...both chips have roughly the same processing power, one is just more efficient and can do things with less power due to how it's designed. I don't know enough about AMD to tell you more.
PCI-e card just works a bit differently from an AGP...offers higher bandwidth and more connections to the cpu or something. That ones only an x300; not sure how that would compare to your 9700...
...and I meant four DVD-RWs are about a tenner; for the 20gb you miss out on the hdd size.

cormie

Ah I get you about the DVD discs now;)

In another thread I was told that the Athlon is much more powerful than the turion and only to go for the turion if I was going to be mobile with it more (longer battery life, lighter machine) but not as powerful all round.

Chump, "usually they are reliable" hehe, I dunno, I just have an urge in me not to go with Dell.

I don't really know what the best for me is so I don't want to see a good offer, or what I think is a good offer, in the outlet store only to find out it's really not for me.

Jesus, whats the 9300 about

Wertz

yeah they have *&%^ed up pricing...that's good and bad. I had to laugh at their 1150 for €1250
Your AMD question needs a thread of it's own to get the answers you want...I'm intel only.

cormie

I've already started a Athlon VS Turion thread;)

Ok, is 1150 a price or a machine? Hehe. I bet after all this Mr. Aldi Manager will tell me to take a hike.

RicardoSmith

cormie wrote:

Ricardo, are you talking about The Laptop Shop or one of the above laptops?
...

Shop.

cormie

Ah ok thanks. I'll try MicroAid when they open anyway!