I'm thinking of buying a laptop...
I've never had a lap top before and I've been toying with the idea of buying one for a while now. I don't fancy a second hand one (they are very easy to find around here though). I've been looking around a little and saw that Argos had one on offer for ?399. I've just looked it up online and it looks crap (slow, single core processor) But, I did see this one and I wondered what people on here thought about it.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5082432.htm
Is it good value etc?
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5082432.htm
Is it good value etc?
Post edited by Bermondsey Bob on
Comments
I'm not sure I'd recommend getting a laptop from Argos though. somewhere that has a specific connection to computers in general would probably be better IMO
We don't have a PC world near me or I'd go there. We have a Comet etc, but getting any kind of help in there is next to imposible and even when you do, I get more info on the "up sell" than I do about the item in question.
I brought my current desktop PC from a dedicated indi computer place and it's crap if I'm honest. Not very well pit together (it's had to go back half a dozen times), but my first PC that I got from Argos never had to go back once!
I've still got one or two places to look in town before I make a choice...
But it's your choice.
S
Please dont tell me youre like my dad and dont like ordering online in case some nigerian gets hold of your credit card number ;)
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compaq-presario-cq61-416sa-04127275-pdt.html
Mine was cheaper as they were selling them off.
Whe
n i was looking foe mine i also noticed a lot of them were quite expensive but had crappy processors and 1g of ram.
Do like my mini gadgets, sold my recent one so i'm looking for a new laptop/UMPC soon
The mini Dell's have had decent reviews
Writes Sir Clive of London.
It seems to be very good choice except the screen size. I have 17inch compaq pressario cq70 that is the least acceptable screen size for me, although I have problems reading the text on the screen on it.
Unlike back in the day when we bought computers from newsagents and chemists (WH Smiths and Boots)
I have recently bought a acer aspire 5740 from tesco, which was good.. I mean it's a fast cpu.. but no pcmcia or firewire.. but i use USB for audio.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-1518.aspx
only bought it there as they were cheapest + all the clubcard points ;-)
I would look at ebuyer also, reviews..
It's funny the i3 intel on their site cost more than the i5 intel .. (which is a faster cpu)
anyone who buys a laptop for gaming is a grade A mug.. might as well buy a desktop for far less with far more power.
anyway, list what you want it for.. also graphics cards on lappy's.. mine is an intel chipset.. which is no good for gaming really.
things also that are an issue.. memory.. yer it quotes 1-3 whatever gb
BUT how much is taken by onboard gfx card. Don't just rush into it.. I wouldn't advise a celeron or budget cpu.. but thats up to you.
1 golden rule.. keep drink away from lappy's.. the companies make their money from screen / keyboard repairs. screen is prolly the most expensive bit.
most lappys come with bloatware.. utter **** that I won't use.. ccleaner is helpful for me on that front.
take ya time.. do ya research.. and well if your clumsy like me, be more wary of damaging it :)
I would say generally try to justify buying one.. we all know folks who buy top spec machines... that are used for word processing.hehe
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
might be of assistance also.. i used it as a reference point
also, look for 'discreet' graphics
other than that, you're good to go
I'm managing just fine here on a 4+ year old acer aspire 5100, plays games, dual core Athlon x2 processor - only 1300mhz x 2
I only buy online from Ebay because I use PayPal and no, I don't trust other sites :razz: Also, I'm going to use some money from my savings account anyway and I have no other way of taking money out of that one than good old fashioned popping into the bank and going to thecounter as it stops me from spending it too fast ;-)
Thanks for the advice though chaps. I'd forgotten about Tesco, so I'll have a look at our larger store later on!
yeah supermarkets are great for cheap electronics. not always a great choice in store, but some suprising deals.
i only use my lappy for surfing and word processing, single core, does the job fine. its not happy runnig photoshop or anything like that.
seems to me though that laptops are more for casual users thats why you get all the crap on them.
now, I'm not sure if a laptop or a notebook is the best for me.Basically, I want one for general internet use, playing emulators (it must run MAME well, or I'm not interested), mabey converting .flv files into MPEGII files (not the best file, but at least the work on my DVD player) and mabey recording some of my own music.
I don't need a big HDD as I can buy an external one cheap these days anyway and external cd drives are cheap enough too (I can always use memory sticks to transfre my files onto my desktop to burn to disc anyway).
So, what would you recomend? A proper laptop, a mini laptop (no cd drive etc) or a netbook?
as for 3 years warrenty , the devil is in the detail as they say .. prolly covers sod all (mainly the screen.. which is normally the most expensive bit)
as for AVG? just the AV? hhmm . I was tempted to buy panda for 3 machines.. for 3 years.. firewall / av etc.. worked out ?10 a machine per year (?90)
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5082487/Trail/searchtext%3EMSI.htm
It's not a brand name that I've heard of before, but it looks ok?
I only buy laptops as the build quality is good. I prefer Dell which come in at around ?400.
My keyboard recently had an accident with a glass of liquid and it really looked like curtains.
The pointer wouldn't work and USB mice and keyboards failed and acted as if a shift key was stuck.
I took it to PC World and they quoted ?70 and three weeks.
I found a HowTo video on YouTube about keyboard replacement. So bought a new keyboard from eBay for ?12. Removed battery and two screws, prised off bezel using screwdriver in slot at top right, Two more screws and the keyboard eases out with ribbon cable. The gripper for the ribbon is superb design.
So loads of HowTos for Dell/Toshiba and most tasks are within the capabilities of a Spectrum owner. :-)
I'm sure all laptops are similar but will eBay have parts for obscure models in years to come? Worth considering.
MSI are one of the three biggest motherboard and graphics card manufactures in the world as for the quality of there laptops I have no idea.
You should check out dell laptops on the dell site all the ones I've used seem pretty well made.
From my experience:
Acer - good for netbooks, their laptops are unreliable and break quickly
HP - the laptops look flash and are good value, but may break quickly and tend to use low quality parts (mass Nvidia failures and battery recalls being recent issues)
Toshiba - good quality components, poor quality cases that can crack. Average pricing.
Sony - generally high quality but 10-25% more expensive than other makes. Sony's laptops tend to last.
Dell - highly spec'd laptops, great components (including extras like HDMI esata, virtual surround with built in laptop bass speaker(!!) etc not mentioned) and great build quality.
Ebuyer are one of the best, and best value, online retailers around. Even if you don't trust online payment methods, this list will give you an idea of what you can get for your money.
Only downside that I've found is that the bugger came with Norton pre-installed. It's kind of anoying is that because I wanted to use AVG or McAffe and Norton is a git to get rid of. Having said that, I've not opened it up yet so there's a chance I can get it to uninstall if I don't agree to anything that it may ask ;-)
a lot do or mcafee.. norton have a Norton Removal tool..or did
you have ccleaner? get it off filehippo.com
and the rego cleaner in that will get rid of entries left behind with un-installed things.
http://service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
Once you've uninstalled it, you may want to install MS Security Essentials. It's free and it's probably better than some of the paid anti-virus softwares.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
I also have a HP elitebook 2730p convertible tablet PC. Shite sound, restricted screen resolution, but other than that a very nice to use, nice feeling and small device (but not too small, in fact just right) with a great battery life. The battery lasts 4 hours on one charge, but if you have the extra slice battery like me, you apparently get 19 hours out of it (obviously that's a best case scenario). However, due to its small form factor the CD/DVD player and recorder is not integrated into the device, you'll need an extra docking station.
PS: If you bank with Barclay's you are entitled to a free copy of Kaspersky anti virus so a colleague was telling me.