Cheap Laptops

DrEvil · 27-07-2003 11:33pm #1

Any1 know where u can buy cheap laptops, preferably new. Just looking for a good deal. I was told Dell r usually the best for new ones. any help would b great

byrnenj · 28-07-2003 1:39pm

I've been looking at buying a laptop myself now. It seems to me that Acer are quite cheap for a decent system. Dabs.co.uk, elara.ie, and jaguarcompsys.ie all have them. Some are cheaper 4 diff systems

buddy · 29-07-2003 1:42pm

Try www.pcn.ie also.

Jorinn · 29-07-2003 11:31pm

Yeah, seems Acer are taking quite a bit of laptop market share from dell according to some reports. Also was on one of those sites that seraches store sites today, even after shipping from the US I was saving 900 euro or so on a acer tablet pc. Check out some us sites as well I suggest.

Eurorunner · 29-07-2003 11:51pm

even after shipping from the US I was saving 900 euro or so on a acer tablet pc. Check out some us sites as well I suggest.

How does this work as regards inport duties? Does stuff get through without duties being applied on this end?

Bannor · 30-07-2003 11:02am

It depends on the carrier used - if it gets stopped by customs you'll have to pay VAT. UPS and DHL both report to customs.

WezzyB · 30-07-2003 2:44pm

So Do FedEx....
but not always.....

Jam · 31-07-2003 7:31pm

I refer you to the Revenue Commission's FAQ on Customs & Excise, Section 6.
I think it basically says that if the stuff is under 350e and marked as a gift they can't charge you excise on it. But can I get a second opinion on that?
It has worked for me when ordering gear from amazon.com, but then, I've never ordered more than 200e worth of stuff at once.
-Jam

Jorinn · 01-08-2003 9:05am

You get them to write "sample" on the box. Or list the value as €12.

Smithers · 01-08-2003 11:57am

anything over 100 i get shipped from outside Europe i get them to list it as a gift and worth $50 ,

Fedex have started charging me for stuff for $50 inport though ,
Only think is if its lost in transit , u can only claim back $50!

Other then gift you can write Sample as below , or Returned for repair , or Faulty goods , or test product ,

beegee1234 · 01-08-2003 3:11pm

Can I just ask one question. Will they ever charge you any VAT if you ship some parcels within Europe?

ChiGung · 01-08-2003 3:15pm

Yeah you normally get charged VAT at the rate of the country it is posted from unless stated otherwise. They are normally up front about this sort of thing.

Smithers · 01-08-2003 3:26pm

from my experience u dont pay Vat for goods recieved inside europe ,

ie Komplett

beegee1234 · 04-08-2003 12:33pm

What I was thinking about is sending this brand new 21" Monitor I got from france last week back to Ireland. They wouldn't charge me any VAT would they?

Eurorunner · 04-08-2003 4:52pm

Thanks for the info lads...another one of lifes great mysteries solved by the boards:D

^whitey^ · 04-08-2003 11:10pm

You could hold on untill aldi and lidl do their laptops ... thats what i'm gonna do as long as I haven't spent my money by then.

conZ · 05-08-2003 9:22pm

www.ajp.co.uk , not exactly cheap, but you get a much better bang for your buck.

blorg · 06-08-2003 5:22pm

beegee1234,

You won't be charged VAT if you are just sending something from France to Ireland - there aren't any customs barriers within the EU (plus possibly the other EEA countries - Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein).

If you are buying something from another EU country, you are charged the VAT rate in the country of sale, e.g. from UK 17.5%, Germany 16%, France 19%... In this regard you are treated exactly as a national of that country and there are no extra duties to pay on import to Ireland.

The exception is if you are a VAT registered company - in such a case if you provide your VAT number to the foreign company you should not be charged any VAT.

beegee1234 · 07-08-2003 1:08pm

Thanks a lot blorg, that's two great mysteries solved here

deevey · 09-08-2003 12:28am

Back to the future, in Angier St are doing HP 2.4 gig P4, with 64 meg ati's (m9's im guessing cant be sure though) for 1,350 euro.

Seems cheaper than most other places i'v been looking at (after the formentioned Inport duty n all that, not to mention postage, insurance, and then if somthing goes wrong!) could be worth looking into ?

Laters

cubix · 10-08-2003 1:25pm

How long ago was this Deevey that you saw the Hp Laptops in Back-from-the-future?.I had a quick look on their site but no sign
Thks

dj_deevey · 12-08-2003 5:08am

I was onto the guy bout 2 weeks ago and he told me over the phone, give em a call i guess

car · 20-08-2003 9:47pm

i am thinking of buying a laptop, my bf told ne to stay well away from anything over 3ghzs and anything with a dvd rewriter as they are new on the market and have not been developed properly and may cause problems such as using up too much battery power and over heating problems.

IS he right?

As i want to prove a point !

If i was considering buying one, what spec should i be looking for.

tribble · 20-08-2003 10:03pm

Most people use a laptop near a power socket anyway.
The only reason they have laptops is to ensure they have the same documents and application versions no matter whether the work at home/work/college.

Sure a 3Ghz processor will hit the battery pretty hard.
But the DVD+/- RW is basically the same as a CD-RW in terms of power consumption. The only possible issue is the standard you chose + or - (or possibly DVD-RAM but that's pretty much dead as far as conusmers are concerned).
+ is almost certainly the one to go for as Dell, Phillips and Sony support it.

tribble

deevey · 20-08-2003 10:17pm

Say WHAT !!!! if you can get somthing over 3ghz go for it .... there is a reason that they are expensive though because they are fast and new. It depends if you need that kind of speed, is it mainly just office tasks - high end graphics, browsing watching a few DVD's ?

If its just basic office stuff and watching the odd DVD then you'll probably save yourself 500+ euro on a 2+ ghz laptop that will do the job just fine. you may even pick up a S/H one in the For sale section reasonable enough if your lucky

I certainly wouldnt say that they havent been developed properly yet, 3 gig desktops and laptops have been around quite a while at this stage and DVD writers are not that common in laptops anyhow yet (apart from apple). Cd writers maybe and they are a VERY safe bet, they are alot more common then they used to be in laptops. still quite pricey as an addon though, but recommended.

Did your BF mean that DVD burners havent become standardised yet by any chance? as above with the + - formats ?

Laters

Steve

sceptre · 20-08-2003 10:46pm

Originally posted by car
i am thinking of buying a laptop, my bf told ne to stay well away from anything over 3ghzs and anything with a dvd rewriter as they are new on the market and have not been developed properly and may cause problems such as using up too much battery power and over heating problems.

IS he right?

As i want to prove a point !

He is and he isn't. A 3Ghz chip will use more power than a lesser-powered chip. For a DVD writer it won't make any difference. I hope he didn't actually use the term "not been developed properly." If he did, find someone else to go computer shopping with. No idea where he got the "overheating problems" line from either. Some machines overheat, more recent chips are hotter than older slower chips and require more cooling. This is why they use more power.

I'll tell you this much though: if you can't argue the toss on whether a 3ghz procesor uses more power than a p-166 and you've no need of the extra power, stay away from anything anywhere near a 3Ghz chip as you'll be wasting your money. You won't need anywhere near that amount of processing power. Get something light above all. And would you even have any use for a DVD writer?

If i was considering buying one, what spec should i be looking for.

No-one will be able to answer that question in a way that'll be of any use to you until you mention what kind of uses you want it for. Are you a heavy games player? Media developer? Or do you just type the odd letter in Word? Come back and tell us. When you do I'll still advise you above all to get one that's as light as possible.

dj_deevey · 20-08-2003 10:54pm

One thing you didnt mention is how mobile you need it to be either ???

Do you intend bringing it round with you or just want a smaller desktop solution with the occasional trip outdoors

dj_deevey · 20-08-2003 10:54pm

BTW apologies i keep forgetting which Username to sign in with LOL

car · 20-08-2003 11:14pm

i mainly want it for college work but i know that if you want to up grade a laptop you have to change the entire mother bord, plus laptops are so expensive that buy the time i have a loan paid back i dont want it to be too out of date.

i wouldnt really need a dvd burner on the laptop as there's one on the pc at home (+ and - dvd rewriter) but it would be nice to say i have a
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.06GHz with 512Kb cache and 533MHz FSB with 60gb hard drive ect....

but i'd know that the amount of work that i would use it for that there's no way i would need a 60gb hard drive or 3.06ghz processor that a 1.8 or 2.5ghz would do me but if you know me when i put my mind to getting something i only want the best as i work dam hard to pay the item off.

the main reason i placed a post was that i wanted to prove my bf wrong about a 3.6GHz laptop using up to much power and causing over heating.

Gerry · 21-08-2003 12:05am

Sceptre is dead right. You have no need of 3.06ghz. What does college work involve? Unless its 3d rendering, you have no need for this. Microsoft Office performs perfectly on a 1ghz machine. In fact I'm typing this on a 500mhz machine..
Buying a 3ghz machine won't lead to the machine overheating, but if you put it on your lap, you will overheat. It does use a lot of power, and this all comes out as heat. You'll also have to listen to a whining fan. You will have wasted an enormous chunk of cash. If you work so hard, spend the cash on something that will be of use to you. I really doubt you need a dvd burner either, but thats up to you I suppose.
An ideal laptop for you would be a p3-m or low speed pentium m. The p3's are cheap, and the pentium-m ( centrino ) offers extremely long battery life.
Btw, I've been using a 450mhz p3 laptop as my only pc for the last 3 months, and I've had no problems. It browses the web, plays games and divx + dvd.

tribble · 21-08-2003 12:18am

Agreed, although you might want something with a little more grunt than Gerrys laptop:p

A centrino would be nice alright, ~1.5GHz, 256MB RAM, DVD/cd-rw, 40 GB HD

ooah, suits you sir

tribble

dj_deevey · 21-08-2003 11:54am

this may suit your needs, you'd have to check out the shipping and import duty though -

http://www.internetishop.com/product_detail.asp?item=LTHB1GPROD

Not quite a centrino, but they seems to get good reviews..its fast enuff for colege work and light and decent battery consumption - and its fairly reasonable...centrinos themselves seem like silly money unless you really need the battery life and weight.

They have other laptops even cheaper you'll need to browse around the site though - and bear in mind that there is no software intsalled,.

Still think for college use your probably better off going s/h there is some excellent deals on lappies in the buy and sell....

Then theres only one other thing to say .... keep your eyes on it!

car · 22-08-2003 12:51am

well thats my laptop out of the way for a while, as i was really in the mood to spend money today and really wanted a holiday so i booked a week to cyprus flying out this day fornight.

so bye bye laptop for a little while, hopefully i might get a grant when i get back to college but the chances of that are slim and none as i didnt get one last year but heres hoping.... or
may be santa will come early and bring me one or better still i will win the lotto on sat. and will be able to buy 2

therecklessone · 22-08-2003 1:28am

Originally posted by blorg

If you are buying something from another EU country, you are charged the VAT rate in the country of sale, e.g. from UK 17.5%, Germany 16%, France 19%... In this regard you are treated exactly as a national of that country and there are no extra duties to pay on import to Ireland.

Not sure how correct this is.

Taken from the amazon.co.uk webiste help section:

VAT stands for value added tax, which is charged on goods (including e-Books) sold by Amazon.co.uk within the European Union (EU). In accordance with the laws governing members of the European Union, Amazon.co.uk is obliged to charge VAT on all orders delivered to destinations in member countries of the EU. In general, VAT is charged in accordance with the local legislation in each member state.

The "Our Price" amounts displayed for goods sold by Amazon.co.uk are inclusive of UK VAT. However, your final price may differ depending on the actual VAT rate that applies to your order.

UK rate is 17.5%, but I've paid 21% before on CDs I bought.

Sorry for drifting off topic loike...

sunbeam · 22-08-2003 1:45am

Yes, I've always paid 21 percent VAT on any electronic stuff I've ordered from Amazon.co.uk. This is the only UK shop where I've encountered this though.

edzah · 25-08-2003 4:56pm

Originally posted by ^whitey^
You could hold on untill aldi and lidl do their laptops ... thats what i'm gonna do as long as I haven't spent my money by then.

whats all this about lidl and aldi selling laptops? with the prices in Ireland I recokn aldi could be quite competitive....
any idea when this will be?

ed

sceptre · 25-08-2003 7:02pm

Originally posted by therecklessone
Not sure how correct this is.

Correctly redflagged, TRO.

The position on intra-EU exports is that if more than 40 grand worth of stuff is sold to customers in a particular Eu member State, the company must be registered for VAT in that country and hence must pay the VAt rate of that country.

In other words...
Amazon UK charge 21% VAT on electrical goods sent to Ireland because they sell more than 40 grand a year to Irish citizens. There's no VAT on books here or in the UK (though there is in Germany)

dj_deevey · 25-08-2003 7:03pm

They do em every 6-12 months, you have to be quick though they usually sell out fairly quick and unsually they only get about 20 in stock in each shop.

Its hit n miss when they arrive but they give you a weeks notice in the paper and posters in the shop.

The ones they stock are usually the bomb though, last spec ones they were doing were 2.4's if i remember right with all the bells n whistles (ge force - cd burner - 40 gig HDD, usb 2 / firewire etc...)

God knows what their newer ones are like

byrnenj · 25-08-2003 7:08pm

What sort of price were they asking for last time? Ball park figure will do!

Cheers

dj_deevey · 25-08-2003 7:45pm

1499 in lidl dunno about aldi, last ones i saw there was 1 1/2 yrs ago 1.6 p4's for 999 punts (and thats still blooming fastfor a laptop)

Deu · 26-08-2003 4:50am

I was in Aldi in the states 2 weeks ago and they had a p4 2.4 laptop for $1499 plus 8.5 sales tax. It had dvd writer dual format I think. 60 gb. separate Graphics controller with 64mb own memory. 512mb.
I can't remember all the spec. But it was much better than all the compaqs hps and sonys I looked at in best buy and circuit city and the ones dell had online.
It was medion or something I think that is the same make as the ones there were selling here. So hopefully they will sell it here in the near future.

Deu

spongebob · 26-08-2003 5:58pm

Yep, still there next week

http://www.aldifoods.com/Special_Purchase/pr0818_comp.htm

$1500 or $1600 if you are hit for 8.5% sales tax (under €1500 anyway)

It has the low power Pentium 4 M processor running at 2.4Ghz

Cheap Dells use normal Pentium 4 processors so the cheapest Comparable Dell is the 8500 which is about €2,230 when you get it up to the same spec as the machine in Aldi US inluding VAT @ 21% and one year collect warranty.

M

dj_deevey · 26-08-2003 7:37pm

One thing i was suprised at is that dixons in the UK stock the cheapie medion laptops same brand ALDI do ... dont know if they have an online shop though ???

You might also check out SAVASTORE in the UK - its abit closer to home

1584 euro gets you >>>>

P4 2.4 (or 2.8 if you want to spend an extra 200 quid)
512Mb High Speed DDR RAM (upgradeable to 1Gb)
15.1" SXGA+ TFT Screen
ATI Mobility Radeon M9 64Mb DDR AGP Graphics
60Gb Ultra-ATA Fast Hard Disk
5.1 Surround Sound Support with built in Stereo Speakers and Headphone Jack
Music CD Control Panel (Play CD Music without even powering up the machine!)
DVD/CD-ReWriter ROM Drive
Email/Internet access via Hot Keys
4x USB 2.0 Ports, Parallel POrt, CRT Port, RJ-11, RJ-45, FIR, 1394A, S-Video
1x Type II PCMCIA
10/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter
56kbps Modem + FREE Internet Access
AC Adapter 75 watts (universal)
Lithium-ion Battery
Kensington Security Lock Support

332x281x39.7mm; W: 3.8Kg
Unique 3 Year Warranty (first 12 months return to base parts & labour, following 24 months return to base labour only)

These machines are the same as the ones internetishop in the USA is selling, they are made by ELITE (same guys who make the motherboards) and the reviews say they kick ass. do a search for ECS laptop review ... i dont imgine the battery would have a huge life on em

dj_deevey · 26-08-2003 7:40pm

Oh BTW i do know that these ones use standard processors not the P4 M - and standard DDR-ram (so cheap upgrades:D ) personally i'd go for raw power over a warm desk and short battery life...

Win xp home as standard but nothing else

BTW have a look at the "stadium seat" in the bargain section of ALDI usa - looks like it could be useful for long hours at LAN's

Its a bargain too y'know only 6.99

dj_deevey · 27-08-2003 11:50am

Hmmm just saw this on the dixons UK site - 1151 euro gets you

COMPAQ 2178

— 2500+ AMD Athlon XP-M Processor
— 256 Mb RAM Memory
— 30 Gb Hard Drive
— DVD ROM & CD RW Drive
— 15" TFT Display
— 64Mb ATI Mobility Radeon Graphics
— 2 x USB connections (cant figure if its 2.0 or not)
— Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Works 7
— XP Home Edition Operating system
— 1 Year FREE warranty

interesting. and enuff left over for a weekend away

edzah · 27-08-2003 12:56pm

do a search for ECS laptop review ... [/B]

hey dj_deevey,
I looked all over for reviews, found a few - mostly these 'desknotes' with no battery and different spec. Can you post the link to the right review please.
thanks,

ed:D

dj_deevey · 27-08-2003 3:54pm

heres a link to a review i found on the ECS laptop LAPTOP REVIEW

Some bad points but who wouldnt for the price and upgradeability

And twit twoo look at that screen res

1400x1050 hell yeah !

BTW Not sure if this against the rules (if it is delete it) But i see this on Ebay at the mo - i figurerd it may fit in seeing as he has 45 of em for sale

nice price

Link to his page

sceptre · 27-08-2003 8:09pm

Originally posted by dj_deevey
BTW Not sure if this against the rules (if it is delete it) But i see this on Ebay at the mo - i figurerd it may fit in seeing as he has 45 of em for sale nice price

Now sends you to "invalid link"

May have been slightly warm (or mispriced) then

sci0x · 27-08-2003 8:16pm

Acers laptops are cheap. You can get them off of Emcee Distribution.

Webmonkey · 27-08-2003 8:31pm

Originally posted by denis_o_leary
Acers laptops are cheap. You can get them off of Emcee Distribution.

They distributer for retailers afaik

Mercury_Tilt · 27-08-2003 9:40pm

This post has been deleted.

Cheap Laptops

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