Tesco €299 laptops 15.6" 4GB 320GB

Capt'n Midnight · 23-08-2012 11:01PM #1

A choice of two cheap n' cheerful laptops

Both have

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
4GB RAM
320GB HDD

15.6" LED screen
AMD Radeon HD 6310M

Numeric Keyboard
DVD Dual layer Read Write

Integrated card reader
vga output

Toshiba ( was €349)
AMD E300 Dual Core / 2 x USB 2

Compaq Cq57 420Sae3004/320Gb
Intel dual core / 3 x USB 2.0

So Intel vs. AMD or Compaq vs. Tosh

Digital Satellite TV · 24-08-2012 07:40AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

A choice of two cheap n' cheerful laptops

Both have

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
4GB RAM
320GB HDD

15.6" LED screen
AMD Radeon HD 6310M

Numeric Keyboard
DVD Dual layer Read Write

Integrated card reader
vga output

Toshiba ( was €349)
AMD E300 Dual Core / 2 x USB 2

Compaq Cq57 420Sae3004/320Gb
Intel dual core / 3 x USB 2.0

So Intel vs. AMD or Compaq vs. Tosh

Nice spot man. I'll check it out when I'm in doing the shopping later on. Could do with a bog standard one for the kids. Fed up of them using mine, can't get near it most of the time!!!

madmoe · 24-08-2012 08:59AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

A choice of two cheap n' cheerful laptops

Both have

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
4GB RAM
320GB HDD

15.6" LED screen
AMD Radeon HD 6310M

Numeric Keyboard
DVD Dual layer Read Write

Integrated card reader
vga output

Toshiba ( was €349)
AMD E300 Dual Core / 2 x USB 2

Compaq Cq57 420Sae3004/320Gb
Intel dual core / 3 x USB 2.0

So Intel vs. AMD or Compaq vs. Tosh

Wonder what the story will be with these and the upgrade to Windows 8 when it hits next month? Will the upgrade be free or hugely discounted?

Cheers,
M

Mimikyu · 24-08-2012 09:04AM

This post has been deleted.

Gurgle · 24-08-2012 09:06AM

madmoe wrote: »

Wonder what the story will be with these and the upgrade to Windows 8 when it hits next month? Will the upgrade be free or hugely discounted?

Why would you want to?

madmoe · 24-08-2012 09:12AM

Gurgle wrote: »

Why would you want to?

LOL...cause it's Windows 8....the latest and greatest ;-) It may have issues I guess with drivers etc. but I always want the newest OS\Office etc.

Gurgle · 24-08-2012 09:20AM

madmoe wrote: »

LOL...cause it's Windows 8....the latest and greatest ;-)

What do windows and star trek movies have in common?

every second one is muck

madmoe · 24-08-2012 09:27AM

Gurgle wrote: »

What do windows and star trek movies have in common?
every second one is muck

LOL....well have been running it for weeks now and have to say there is very little muck that I can see!! It runs well on a 3 year old machine with only 2GB of RAM.....would fly on the ones listed above!!

channelsurfer2 · 24-08-2012 10:45AM

i would be wary of the toshiba one from personal experience due to overheating issues. loads of threads if you google about overheating toshiba laptops after a few months.
the compaq one is not a bad spec for the price.

Up2NoGood · 24-08-2012 10:49AM

lads, the processor is terrible. remember you can always upgrade RAM and H/D never the processor, 1.6 Ghz. Why bother.

RedXIV · 24-08-2012 10:56AM

Up2NoGood wrote: »

lads, the processor is terrible. remember you can always upgrade RAM and H/D never the processor, 1.6 Ghz. Why bother.

Not suit for just word processing and browsing the web?

Up2NoGood · 24-08-2012 11:06AM

While any laptop will do that, You will be sacrificing speed and power. I would put more emphasis on the processor than anything else

bizz213 · 24-08-2012 11:06AM

Hey guys, just looking to get a laptop to get me through college this year, want something half decent but cheap. I've heard Toshibas have overheating issues alright. Would anyone know if the Compaq is worth gettin or would the one ive posted a link to below be worth paying the extra €50 for??

Intel® Celeron® B815 processor
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory: 6GB
Hard drive: 500GB

Can upgrade to Windows 8 for €14.99 on all of them

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/COMPAQ-Presario-CQ57480SA-156andquot-Laptop-Black/310449/301

Up2NoGood · 24-08-2012 11:09AM

do your research and look into the Celeron....remember you get what you pay for

BostonB · 24-08-2012 02:14PM

Up2NoGood wrote: »

lads, the processor is terrible. remember you can always upgrade RAM and H/D never the processor, 1.6 Ghz. Why bother.

Why not? Once the bios supports it, you can. Assuming the CPU is socketed which it is on most laptops and the heatsink is good enough. I've done it before.

Zonda999 · 24-08-2012 02:50PM

BostonB wrote: »

Why not? Once the bios supports it, you can. Assuming the CPU is socketed which it is on most laptops and the heatsink is good enough. I've done it before.

It is far less common though, in fairness. It would also cost a good bit more than upgrading RAM

Not sure what the chip is in the compaq but i wouldn't recommend a computer with that AMD E300 chip in it anyway. Having previously used a computer with an E350 chip in it

No idea what intel dual core chip is in the compaq but its probably a 2011 range pentium, in which case, it would be okay. I used a toshiba c660 laptop before too and found it to be fairly plastic'y tbh. Toshiba do generally make quite solid laptops though in fairness

I would definitely get the compaq in this case though, if it does have an intel pentium chip

BostonB · 24-08-2012 03:20PM

Whats far less common? Any laptop I've used in recent years had a socketed cpu. Perhaps low end AMD or Atom power netbooks don't.

Own a laptop for 2yrs or more and you see loads of broken ones being sold for parts and you can pick up a CPU quite cheap. You can upgrade now. But the flip side of things is usually you want a laptop to be cooler and use the least amount of power so getting a lower end CPU is often more useful in a laptop. More battery, less heat.

Personally I'd have to see the keyboard and screen before buying a laptop, hard to know if its worth buying unless it has good reviews otherwise.

bmaxi · 24-08-2012 08:27PM

The processor in the Compaq is an Intel Pentium Dual Core B960 2.2ghz., better than the AMD in the Toshiba.

kenyard · 25-08-2012 12:01AM

processor is the main thing. ram can always be upgraded, though most laptops nowadays imo dont need more than 2Gb ram but its the first thing people are told to look at... windows will use it on random crap if its available ofc... maybe windows 8 will require more also i dont know as of yet.
processor and graphics are major. you want basic graphics to have it look good and not have issues..causes serious lag in a lot of things that dont have one i find.
id go dual core processor any day.
tbh these laptops with a few tweaks are great for any thing you throw at them i reckon.
if i was buying a basic laptop id want dual core, 2gb ram, 720p screen, maybe basic graphics card, and thats kinda what these have...

Capt'n Midnight · 25-08-2012 12:35AM

bmaxi wrote: »

The processor in the Compaq is an Intel Pentium Dual Core B960 2.2ghz., better than the AMD in the Toshiba.

http://compare-processors.com/intel-pentium-b960-vs-amd-e-300/2055/

- In performance, the Intel Pentium B960 is much better, especially in the CPU area.
- The AMD E-300 is however, a low power ( 18 Watts TDP), low cost processor that has decent integrated graphics.
- If you are looking for entry level processor with good graphics that will give you good batter life and will fit in thin notebooks, the E-300 is for you. For better CPU performance B960 is better.

TerrorFirmer · 25-08-2012 06:16AM

The intel cpu is actually pretty decent- the amd one is frankly rubbish. I've one in my netbook and it's ridiculously slow using win7. Tdp is excellent though.

The_Conductor · 25-08-2012 08:42AM

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The intel cpu is actually pretty decent- the amd one is frankly rubbish. I've one in my netbook and it's ridiculously slow using win7. Tdp is excellent though.

Graphics in the AMD one- on the other hand- are a generation ahead of the Intel one (even if they are still ****e)......

If you're thinking of possibly upgrading- just save a few bob more and get a better system from the get-go, both these laptops are remarkable value for everyday computing- but throw anything out of the ordinary at them, and they'll stutter.

Re upgrading the processor- I've never had a laptop in this house that I haven't upgraded the processor on. You have to research chipsets, BIOS compatability (though you can normally get a whitewashed BIOS these days pretty handy), and of course ease of taking the machine apart (damn torque screws)- but it is a bit of a no-brainer anymore. Oh- also research the actual processor you're proposing to get- particularly steppings etc.

Personally- I'd have no issue whatsoever giving my sis one of these for use for college work. I wouldn't purchase one for myself under any circumstances though- they are cheap- and they do work- providing you're not doing anything out of the ordinary.

I'm crunching .mkv here at the moment- neither of these laptops would do it in a fit........

BostonB · 25-08-2012 09:40AM

What's tdp? For mkv encoding I think you'd need hyperyhreading i3 or a quad core. It's painful on my 2.0 core2duo

shadowcomplex · 25-08-2012 09:47AM

Would this laptop run diablo 3

kaizersoze · 25-08-2012 10:47AM

The Compaq is an excellent buy for the money and the Toshiba is fine too. I've set up 6 or 7 for people and they're a great little machine.
Forget this nonsense about processor, graphics blah blah. These are for people that want something for basic usage like Word, email and internet browsing. They're more than adequate for that.

These have been in Tesco for the last couple of weeks but are getting scarce.
PC World have the Compaq for the same price if anyone misses out.

Zonda999 · 25-08-2012 01:02PM

kaizersoze wrote: »

The Compaq is an excellent buy for the money and the Toshiba is fine too. I've set up 6 or 7 for people and they're a great little machine.
Forget this nonsense about processor, graphics blah blah. These are for people that want something for basic usage like Word, email and internet browsing. They're more than adequate for that.

These have been in Tesco for the last couple of weeks but are getting scarce.
PC World have the Compaq for the same price if anyone misses out.

I agree but the sheer amount of bloatware these laptops have on them day one, I reckon they would be slow for even basic tasks. If these were to have standard bloatware free windows, they would be fine.

The Compaq is by far the better buy because of that chip though, IMHO

Tommay · 25-08-2012 02:22PM

If buying from Tesco, make sure to double check the specs on the box. I saw one advertised with 4GB of RAM but checking the specs on the box it only had 2GB.

kaizersoze · 25-08-2012 02:25PM

Tommay wrote: »

If buying from Tesco, make sure to double check the specs on the box. I saw one advertised with 4GB of RAM but checking the specs on the box it only had 2GB.

They've been upgraded to 4 gig. There's a sticker on the underside of the laptop itself.

kaizersoze · 25-08-2012 02:26PM

Zonda999 wrote: »

I agree but the sheer amount of bloatware these laptops have on them day one, I reckon they would be slow for even basic tasks. If these were to have standard bloatware free windows, they would be fine.

The Compaq is by far the better buy because of that chip though, IMHO

Very little on the Compaq surprisingly. They're pretty quick out of the box.

Capt'n Midnight · 25-08-2012 02:48PM

Zonda999 wrote: »

I agree but the sheer amount of bloatware these laptops have on them day one, I reckon they would be slow for even basic tasks. If these were to have standard bloatware free windows, they would be fine.

The Compaq is by far the better buy because of that chip though, IMHO

1 http://pcdecrapifier.com/ - remove crap
2 http://ninite.com/ - get the essential apps - tip - use Microsoft Security Essentials for the AV for ease of updating compared to AVG etc.
3 http://filehippo.com - only if you need other apps
4 set windows update to auto
5 http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/ - to auto patch all the other applications

You now have a low maintenance system

Belle Morte · 25-08-2012 04:18PM

I was looking to get one of these for a friend, FYI there's none in stock in Tesco Galway Headford Road, Oranmore or Ballinasloe.

Sorry meant to say all the Compaq ones are OOS, lots of Toshiba's left however.

Tesco €299 laptops 15.6" 4GB 320GB

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